2018 Bahrain GP Free Practice and Qualifying

[IulianFerrari]

Hoping Ferrari did not put pen to paper yet with Ricciardo. Lets see how Kimi goes until the summer brake, the pressure put on him by Marchionne seems to be working

[bondilad]

What do you mean Ferrari did bring a new floor with better stability for this race and is working well. What I day for us, a 1-2 for us, we beat Mercedes on pure pace on a power track remember. But the race is tomorrow, all is possible. Couldnt see the qualy, because I was not home, I will watch it now.
In China we might still have another updates.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...-pole-1023082/

At the end seb says it is the same car...but maybe we had a new floor I'm not sure.

[DelMar]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...-pole-1023082/

At the end seb says it is the same car...but maybe we had a new floor I'm not sure.

I have read somewhere that those packages which arrived yesterday were just spares. But of course you never know...

[bondilad]

I have read somewhere that those packages which arrived yesterday were just spares. But of course you never know...

If true, then even better. More new parts for China I guess.

[SilverSpeed]

And big ones in Spain to pull a bigger gap to the taxis .

[mwk360]

Bottas was a 1:28:9 in Q2 and 1:28:1 in Q3, that party mode gave around 0.7 ~ 0.8 not taking into account the cooling of temps

Which is around the sametime Hamilton gained in Q3 at melbourne.

I have a feeling Hamilton used party mode in Q2 and got to 1:28:4 on the softs and softer tyre advantage gave him 1:28:2 in Q3. He locked up a little if i remember so 0.2~0.3 from softs to supersoft on party mode. Mercs party mode is insane but that 0.7 ~ 0.8 could be a 0.5~0.6 difference since in Q2 they preserve tyres for race lol just thinking.

Ferrari have done a great job so far with their engine, they might be behind but its not far away and we can challenge on real race tracks now.(with the temp probs merc have)

[Rob]

Bahrain Grand Prix - “We’ve built a very strong car”

Seb and Kimi secure front row lock-out: “The team deserves this result”

Sakhir, April 7 – At the end of a tense qualifying session, Seb Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen flashed through the finish line of the Bahrain International Circuit to take first and second spot on tomorrow’s starting grid. It is the 214th pole position for Scuderia Ferrari and the 59th front row lock-out since 1950, while Sebastian claimed his sixth pole for the Cavallino squad and 51st overall. On a track that calls for power, traction and tire management, the two SF71Hs proved their worth and the whole team gave their best.

“I think we have a good base and the car is working”, Seb commented. “We have improved in our work on the car. In the beginning it’s always a bit difficult, but now everything is getting better. So, it was nice to keep the car alive. I felt quite good from the start and made some progress during the session. I am very happy with the last laps I did, and also obviously with the result I got. I was really glad to see how the car was responding today. We worked on the setup and tried different things. In Australia the track is tricky and bumpy, so it was difficult to change too much and draw any conclusions. But after the race and with the mileage we did, I think we understood the car better. It’s nice to see that we have built a very strong car and that today we are able to put it on the front row, beating everybody else. It’s been a great result that the whole team deserves. However, the ‘big day’ is tomorrow”.

Kimi’s last qualifying attempt was slightly hampered by traffic, but nonetheless was good enough for second: “My last run was far from perfect; there was traffic and we couldn’t improve. We did not give ourselves a proper chance to do the best we could. The car had a lot of speed, but we did not take full advantage of that. I’m sure there was a lot more to come. Anyway, we start the race in a good position, so I’m a bit disappointed today but that’s how it goes.. Tomorrow is another day and we should have a good car; we hope for a better result. The key point will be tire management; it will be tricky for everybody. We’ll try to make the best of it, and I’ll go as fast as I can”.

[Stormy]

I think whatever problems Merc have at the moment will manage to overcome, just like they did the previous year. They are not to be underestimated. Nevertheless, we are looking pretty good. By the way, did Merc bring new parts here like we did?

Speaking of something else, McLaren's performance was a debacle. TR Honda on the other hand managed P5! That Honda sure has some power. On par with Renault?

[Christopher]

I think whatever problems Merc have at the moment will manage to overcome, just like they did the previous year. They are not to be underestimated. Nevertheless, we are looking pretty good. By the way, did Merc bring new parts here like we did?

No i read somewhere they are waiting until Spain before bringing big upgrades

[ScuderiaBuckeye]

I think whatever problems Merc have at the moment will manage to overcome, just like they did the previous year. They are not to be underestimated. Nevertheless, we are looking pretty good. By the way, did Merc bring new parts here like we did?

Speaking of something else, McLaren's performance was a debacle. TR Honda on the other hand managed P5! That Honda sure has some power. On par with Renault?

Yeah Renault is on the hot seat to deliver a major performance upgrade with engine #2 for their teams.

[mardyrt]

Our car is a great car. It has good aero efficiency, we have less drag, and our engine is not as powerful as mercedes, but our engine very driveable, and I think they improved the fuel consumption a bit. Most of all, because our car is efficient and has less drag, the power deficit is no problem. Our car is fast on the straights because our unique sidepod design, they are much smaller and so much less drag.

[Rob]

[Vettel165]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/v...-pole-1023082/

At the end seb says it is the same car...but maybe we had a new floor I'm not sure.

Looks like you were right.

Yesterday an italian article told that the only changes Ferrari did from Australia were the central channel in the diffuser and the front wing the car was presented with.
It seems, the floor delivered was not a new spec, just a spare. This would correlate with the rumors about a new floor coming in China.

[Tifoso]

Ferrari look ecstatic
I like our chances

[alfaromeo]

Marchioni for president of Italy

[paolo lalli]

Poor alonso he said mclaren would challenge the big three at this avent simply because in his head he concluded that mclaren were better than hass no way hass botched there race in aussie gp other wise macdonalds would have been way down nothing has changed macdonalds have lots of work to do and alonso needs to stop being dillosional.

[mwk360]

Does anyone know what went wrong with Kimi's pitstop with the tyres during free practice? has ferrari said they found the issue and it won't happen again or something? two weekends and 3 cars have similar issues, all ferrari cars, i hope its not a ferrari part thats overheating and failing during the tyre change

[Rishu]

That was a mega lap by Seb, really keeping fingers crossed for rest of the season

[jragona]

Does anyone know what went wrong with Kimi's pitstop with the tyres during free practice? has ferrari said they found the issue and it won't happen again or something? two weekends and 3 cars have similar issues, all ferrari cars, i hope its not a ferrari part thats overheating and failing during the tyre change

Apparently it was the same issue that affected Haas in Australia. Haas buy their equipment from Ferrari. Hopefully Ferrari will fix it before it happens during a race (like with Haas).

[mwk360]

Apparently it was the same issue that affected Haas in Australia. Haas buy their equipment from Ferrari. Hopefully Ferrari will fix it before it happens during a race (like with Haas).

that's not good. yes im praying it doesnt happen to ferrari in the race

[mwk360]

[mizf1]

So looking at the above, Hamilton has no new SS left.He has to go Very long on the softs as he will start on that tyrw. as the

The Mercs are not liking the SS, Or will he use the white medium?

[Vettel165]

In Melbourne the Mercedes had seemed unapproachable, in Bahrain the Ferrari was clearly the fastest since yesterday's free practice. On a track where the power of the Power Unit is very important, Ferrari managed to bring two cars in the front row. That the Maranello Power Unit was very powerful, it was also seen in Australia where, the SF71H, earned precious tenths on straight lines against Mercedes and Red Bull.

If at the power unit level the work done by Maranello's men has been truly remarkable we await confirmation regarding the fuel consumption in the race. Tomorrow, all the teams will embark 105 kg of gasoline since, consumption on this circuit is quite high. We must pay close attention to the "Live Timing" to understand if, the two riders dressed in Red, will be forced to save fuel as we saw during the race simulation made during the Barcelona test.

Returning to talk about maximum power, the Ferrari SF71H, has been confirmed to be very fast on the straights so much that we find it at the top of every top speed chart made by the FIA, on the finish Line and the speed ​​trap. The big improvement, however, compared to the first race of the season, took place in the cornering speeds and, the SF71H, has improved a lot in stability under braking.

According to GPS data, compared to Australia, the SF71H has recovered a lot of speed even in the slow average corners that had been a big problem in Melbourne. The same Vettel admitted that, thanks to some setup, the car is much more precise when cornering and does not seem to suffer from the understeer we had seen in Melbourne and during the winter tests. Problem that we had pointed out in Melbourne because of the use of a rather low front wing to balance the lack of load at the rear. Rear that, on this track, seems to be much more stable also for the use of a greater rake trim that has recovered aerodynamic load at the rear.

At a technical level, the SF71H has remained unchanged compared to that seen in Melbourne and this shows that, substantial work has been done at the setup of the car. Ferrari has radically changed the project compared to last year and it is logical that engineers and pilots need time to extract the potential of this car.

http://www.f1analisitecnica.com/2018...rari-vola.html

[Ferrarichamp]

If Seb or Kimi win today, i believe it would be the first time since 2004 that Ferrari win the first two rounds of the season. Interesting times

[icedeepan]

So Seb's Q3 lap was 1.3 secs quicker than his Q3 lap in 2017. Bottas' lap was 0.8 quicker and Ham's was 0.6 quicker.

Our PU has improved big time!

[mwk360]

So looking at the above, Hamilton has no new SS left.He has to go Very long on the softs as he will start on that tyrw. as the

The Mercs are not liking the SS, Or will he use the white medium?

Ham and Bottas both did installation/rubbered lap with SS so they both got new SS tyres just rubbered to their preference

[mwk360]

So Seb's Q3 lap was 1.3 secs quicker than his Q3 lap in 2017. Bottas' lap was 0.8 quicker and Ham's was 0.6 quicker.

Our PU has improved big time!

Yes ^_^

[SilverSpeed]

Yeah and if your faster on the straights you burn less fuel, so less time in max rev zone which is nice overall :).

So Mercedes told us last year and now we are faster on the straights eheh.

[mwk360]

So looking at the above, Hamilton has no new SS left.He has to go Very long on the softs as he will start on that tyrw. as the

The Mercs are not liking the SS, Or will he use the white medium?

Hamilton said yesterday he is hoping to go as long as possible on softs(most likely hoping for vsc/sc like what helped seb) and then attack at the end (so i predict 1 stopper for Ham, 1 stint loooong with softs waiting for vsc/sc and then attack at the end)
0
Pirelli said fastest option with no safety car or vsc is a two stopper (15 stint SuperSoft +* 21stint soft +* 21 stint soft) laps
or
1 stopper (35laps softs and the rest on SS or M) - most likely hamilton and Max strategy

[mwk360]

https://twitter.com/Gianludale27/sta...91961769177088

Bottas vs Seb fastest laps onboard comparison , very very very close , but in the hot temps Ferrari matches and is quicker on some straights, mercs catch up quick on most corners and breaking zones