F1 - General discussion and 2017

[Agent_Smith]

All eyes on Lance Stroll today IMO. Massa showed yesterday that the car is fast and reliable so there's no excuse not to put the miles up again.

 

[caroper]

CLOUDS / SUN
AIR TEMPERATURE: 11℃
TRACK TEMPERATURE: 13℃

Air and track temperature is just over 10C at the moment. Yesterday the ambient temperature rose into the mid-teens while the track hit around 20C by the end of the day.

 

[caroper]

Green Flag:
No immediate takers...

 

[caroper]

The McLaren-Honda driver, Alonso, trundles down the pitlane and onto the track to kick off the morning's running.Bottas, Verstappen and Wehrlein join Alonso on track. That's right, Wehrlein – so we've been fooled by the Sauber entry on the driver line-up list again.

 

[caroper]

Alonso returns to the pits immediately after his outlap. Bottas and Verstappen continue onto a second lap.
Bottas gets the first time on the board: 1:22.474 - Verstappen comes through 3.5s slower.

 

[Agent_Smith]

The McLaren-Honda driver, Alonso, trundles down the pitlane and onto the track to kick off the morning's running.Bottas, Verstappen and Wehrlein join Alonso on track. That's right, Wehrlein – so we've been fooled by the Sauber entry on the driver line-up list again.

So foot flat then...?

/runs from Polish

 

[caroper]

Bottas improves again next time by, down to a 1m21.327s. Verstappen pits in his Red Bull.

 

[caroper]

We've seen Massa and Grosjean join the track now – Wehrlein came in and out again in his Sauber a moment ago, and he's just rolled down the pitlane past our vantage point again.

 

[caroper]

BOTTAS QUICKER AGAIN
Bottas' times are falling, with his latest quickest time a 1:21.229.

 

[caroper]

SHARK FIN ON THE W08
Mercedes are running the W08 today with the shark fin. The original design of the car didn't feature one, but the Brackley based squad will be getting info from it today.

 

[caroper]

Intriguingly, it's the ultrasoft tyres on the Mercedes for these opening laps. Six laps up for Bottas already, who is back in the pit lane now.

Raikkonen, with rear wing apparatus that looks like he's spun half-way round that lap and crashed backwards into some scaffolding, is out on soft tyres. Raikkonen stayed out to start a lap but he doesn't Finnish it, instead bringing the Ferrari back into the pits after what, with that sort of gear on the back, was an early data-collection run.

Confirmation that Lance Stroll will hop into the FW40 in the afternoon. In the meantime, Massa will continue the team's programmes.

 

[caroper]

It's quiet out there...too quiet. Almost 20 minutes on the clock. Did everyone have a late night?

Only two lap times on the board, and we're yet to see Sainz or Hulkenberg at all. The Hulk stopped on track yesterday on a troubled day for Renault.

 

[caroper]

A fast start from Mercedes and one which it could be said that they needed: Lewis Hamilton admitted he couldn't get to grips with the W08 yesterday with the car suffering a handling inbalance.

Lewis will be back in the car this afternoon and is rather requires a trouble-free session. An electrical fault on the car meant he missed all of Friday and he only managed a relatively modest 50 or so laps yesterday.

 

[caroper]

...Hulkenberg leaves the pits. That shows us! Good to see Bumblebee from Transformers on track. To be fair, that Renault's a nice-looking car.

Hulkenberg's sharing driving duties with team-mate Palmer again today.

"Last week we didn't do it but actually I was in favour to run the day like this," said Hulkenberg yesterday.

"If the car lasts you have really just four hours of quality work. You get it done and then you have a bit more resting time and probably when you get back in the car you’re in better shape and everybody is a bit fresher, so I think that works quite well."

Hulkenberg's back in the pits now after that installation lap. Fear not, though, because we've got Verstappen and Perez back on track – the action's picking up!

ICEMAN LEAVES THE GARAGE
Raikkonen hits the track with a large aero rake attached to the back of the car.

 

[caroper]

The other matter to report is that, as opposed to much of the last two weeks, the weather isn't exactly inviting.

There is a nip in the air and a few drops of rain spitting from the grey skies above.

 

[caroper]

Perez is back in after just an outlap on super-softs. Verstappen has continued in the Red Bull, which is fitted with soft tyres.
Verstappen's first lap is a 1m22.847s, and he shaves a little bit of time off that next time through with a 1m22.761s.

 

[caroper]

 

[caroper]

Good News for Polish - Alonso's back out in the McLaren on what looked like super-soft tyres as the MCL32 flashed past. We'll take a closer look next time by.

 

[caroper]

Four consecutive personal bests from Verstappen, who shaves another couple of tenths off with a 1m22.290s.

 

[Agent_Smith]

Those devices puzzle me (from a safety perspective). I mean, if one of the support struts tethering it to the car snaps at 200mph, that thing could go flying anywhere. Just think it's weird that in a sport obsessed with safety, those are allowed...