Whatever the reason for a hugely disappointing race, I am sick of reading about tyres but I do believe it had a lot to do with Merc's domination today. Our strategy for the VSC pit-stop was justified by Seb in his post-race interview and he still seemed fairly upbeat despite only getting P4. Kimi's engine issue is a worry and once again it just wasn't our day, and we seem to be suffering in a similar way to the end of last season. We also seem to have made some questionable decisions about what tyre allocations we take to races. At least we still have time this year to try to regain our mojo, and it had better be quick. I switched off before the flag, couldn't bear to watch any more, but great for Leclerc to grab another point. On to Monaco, and God help us there!
Last edited by wisepie; 13th May 2018 at 17:43.
I couldn't watch the race today, but the biggest disappointment for me was Kimi's DNF.
Some bullet points from the race:
Vettel
Vettel: "Yeah.. Because there was no option to stay out. We were going through the tyres quicker then others."
Vettel: "I think they can shave the other side off. We just did not have enough pace. Not quick enough."
Vettel on tyre if structure not change: "Its hard to say how it would be with the others but it affected us more. We need to have a look."
Raikkonen
Raikkonen: "I don't know. We lost some drive or power but I was able to drive around but not full speed."
Raikkonen: "For sure, its not ideal but for now. We don't know."
-Everyone up until Ricciardo was lapped today! WOW
-Valid point from Sky. Scuderia Ferrari have definitely made massive strategic mistakes and tactical mistakes which will loose them the WCC.
South Africa
- LADIES and GENTLEMENT... @SuperSportTV @DSTvCare has ONCE AGAIN cut-off F1 coverage in South Africa!
- People in South Africa watching F1 need to take a stand to voice there disappoint with Supersport. A weekend of cutting off coverage!
Kravitz
-Kravitz reports that Ocon's pitstop issue was caused due to tape coming off the cake tin (brake cover) and dislodging causing the wheel not to go on properly. His DNF was a result of oil pressure loss.
-Kravitz reports that Vettel's slow pitstop was as a result of a slow rear wheel going on and he overshot the pitbox.
-Ted Kravitz says Thomas was disappointed by Kimi's retirement but "no, crying this time"
Performance
Max speeds (speed trap, finish line, and sectors)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdFz1lgWsAACdDi.jpg
Race pit stop summary
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdF0KyDXkAESaMK.jpg
Fastest Laps
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdF0fPfW4AAHoVK.jpg
Best sector times
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdF0w1DX0AEQNi5.jpg
From Scuderia Ferrari
#Seb5 P4 and #Kimi7‘s car retirement for a loss of power to be investigated is the outcome of the #SpanishGP, far from what we expected.
FIA
The FIA have handed Romain Grosjean a 3 place grid drop at Monaco for causing the first lap collision. In addition, 3 penalty points on his license.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdF6PUaWsAIvXqG.jpg
Pirelli
Mario Isola, Pirelli: "Tyre-wise, we encountered no issues at all and no signs of blistering, with lap records and fastest laps set even when drivers were running on older medium compound tyres. This applied to the whole field, which was very evenly matched in terms of pace."
Embarasing performance by Ferrari today. Gave Kimi a brand new but broken engine and robbed Vettel of a 2nd place with ridiculous strategy.
Official and confirmed WDC current standings
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdGA_GhWkAI2GsS.jpg
and WCC current standings
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DdGBUuAXUAAEhiM.jpg
Pirelli
Mario Isola, Pirelli: "Tyre-wise, we encountered no issues at all and no signs of blistering, with lap records and fastest laps set even when drivers were running on older medium compound tyres. This applied to the whole field, which was very evenly matched in terms of pace.
"Matched in terms of pace"
What
As it was the case last year, the Cavallino Rampante has great power and energy off the gate but tires easily after just a few races. The other teams have better stamina throughout the championship.
Honestly, it's unacceptable. They are giving their tyre deltas that medium is 0.7s slower than soft, which is 0.4s slower than super-soft etc and they happily say they are well matched. I don't know but I have got an impression that if "the greatest F1 ambassador" Lewis Hamilton was losing out then they would scramble to find a solution and media would put one conspiracy theory after another.
And at the end of the day Ferrari will be said to be favoured by everyone and it's only the genius of Hamilton (hampered by car problems when not great) that overcomes this. Meh.
Do you get the impression that we have become isolated in recent years? On one hand Ecclestone/FOM is trying to influence the rules to favour Horner and Red Bull, while on the other hand FIA is giving in to Mercedes' demands - no serious penalty for testing, engine formula, big reliability push, oil ban, mirrors ban, hard tyres suiting Mercedes, now tyre changes.
Maurizio Arrivabene: “In many ways, this is a weekend in which nothing went right. Now, calmly and with accuracy, we need to analyse the reasons, and they are various, which prevented us from exploiting the potential we demonstrated in the previous races. Then we will prepare for the upcoming Monaco Grand Prix, in a professional, determined and confident manner.”
Sebastian Vettel: “Our tires didn’t last as long as for the others, so we couldn’t follow the same strategy. We had to stop again and we obviously lost two positions, and also a bit of time during the pit-stop itself. But staying out was not an option today. We had problems finding the right balance of the car and we were struggling with the front tires. Maybe the changes for this weekend had a bad impact on us, worse than the one the others had. So, I am happy to go back to ‘normal’ tires in Monaco as we seemed to struggle a little bit more than the others. Today we just didn’t have the right pace, Mercedes was faster than us and we hadn’t many chances. We tried our best, but something was missing and we need to improve on this. During the whole weekend it has been tough to find the right balance on these new tires. But I see no reason for not being optimistic for the next race.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “My race was going pretty ok today, I was in a decent position and the speed was good. I was running smoothly and saving the tires. Everything could have been alright, but unfortunately it did not happen. At one point I started losing power; I managed to drive around but obviously not at full speed anymore, so I drove back to the garage. We don’t know more than that about the issue we had, we need to take the car back to the factory and check what happened. Looking at the Championship, this result is far from ideal, and I’m pretty disappointed. There is nothing we could have done differently today, but we need to try and keep pushing.”
CAVALLINO RAMPANTE PER SEMPRE
We could make excuses about the tire's width and everything in between but the cold fact remains that Merc has us beat. A good car should do well with any tire and in any circuit.
Well I will move on to Monaco now. After looking back it was the right call to pit Seb again, because the tyres wont lasted until the end. We had high deg as Seb said. Dont worry guys things can quickly change to our favour, its a long year. Its not over. Really hope for a better race next time.
2021 rules talk is going on, curious how Ferrari's bosses are going to play this out as well.
Ferrari now eats its tyres big problem we had the advantage with this car design and tyres but the changes made have effected us more than others now there is home work and study needed ferrari need to stay calm and focus failure to do so will only cause more pain its in there hands.
3 disappointments in a row is tough to take. Another win in Monaco would be nice.
Ferrari will have the last laugh in the end as it is the most recognized brand out there. When they break away and start their own series it will be the greatest. V10 or V8 which ever the sounds of power will be back. Unlimited testing or at least double the amount and one type of tire besides wet, also add back refueling it will be nail biting again. I hope this dream will come true. I was right into it this season and thought we had a shot but looking at today even if it was a one off bad race i think the gap is to great with the tire change.
LH was to calm up till now!! I guess he knew the tires were coming back that suited them. I guess he will sign for one or maybe two years now.
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