United States GP - Free Practice Thread

[Sianellen]

Edd Straw ‏@eddstrawF1
Vettel had a first gear problem at the practice start. Told to stop using it. Team say it's a sensor issue and not a gearbox problem. (They also said they didn't fuel the car too low )

[Rob]

Nope, this strategy doesn't work at all, it was plain to see. And I hope Ferrari never tries something like that again. This waiting till the last minute strategy is a self-imposed trap.

Not much point going out in colder temps to do race sims and quali sims when it going to be much hotter for race and quali. Id do same thing.

[Kingdom Hearts]

P6 and P7, anything better is like a christmas present. Tyres like a rock, difficult too overtake and only one pit stop, the american dream.

[fronaldo]

2nd and 3rd sector killing us..

[tifosi_kaka]

We WERE NOT sitting in the pits. We were doing slower laps and always before finnishing the second lap went to change tyres (pratcite pitstops). So we were doing something. And if there were not the yellow flags, it would be good strategy actually, because at that time the track was pretty rubbered on.

To be honest those weren't really practice pit-stops, just practising stop-and-go in the pits without even changing the tyres. The only thing I see was Fernando doing practice starts at the end of the pitlane.

Originally I would want to say that we lost valuable time to evaluate how long it takes to heat the tyres up to the optimal range, but on second thoughts qualifying and the race would be in the afternoon which means track temperature would be much higher. So that would not be such a big problem. But the yellow flag did affect our programme. Maybe they should consider starting the programme a bit earlier? Clearly we don't need so much time for those 'practice stops'.

[Rob]

Metin Mete ‏@metinmete
Red Bull are 8 kph slower than Ferrari on top speed and slowest of all on straight but they have downforce which is God here.

If we can get close to them on start and race we can do them.

[Nova]

Man, what the heck they got in Vettels car...theres no way he is that much faster
than his teammate in the exact same car...
AND he's not that much better of a race car driver either..

[Kyss4k]

To be honest those weren't really practice pit-stops, just practising stop-and-go in the pits without even changing the tyres. The only thing I see was Fernando doing practice starts at the end of the pitlane.

Originally I would want to say that we lost valuable time to evaluate how long it takes to heat the tyres up to the optimal range, but on second thoughts qualifying and the race would be in the afternoon which means track temperature would be much higher. So that would not be such a big problem. But the yellow flag did affect our programme. Maybe they should consider starting the programme a bit earlier? Clearly we don't need so much time for those 'practice stops'.

Ted said they were changing tyres. Based on what he said they were doing Medium - Hard changes.

[Hornet]

Not much point going out in colder temps to do race sims and quali sims when it going to be much hotter for race and quali. Id do same thing.

Same for everyone but the rest are doing it, which shows that there is something to be learn

Besides going out earlier doesn't mean we can't do any runs later on. We can still do them regardless. But by doing some runs earlier, it gives us a cushion should something happen later on.

[tifosi_kaka]

Ted said they were changing tyres. Based on what he said they were doing Medium - Hard changes.

Sorry my bad I only saw the latter part (around 30 mins into the session) where they didn't change the tyres.

[Rob]

Same for everyone but the rest are doing it, which shows that there is something to be learn

Besides going out earlier doesn't mean we can't do any runs later on. We can still do them regardless. But by doing some runs earlier, it gives us a cushion should something happen later on.

Team got their own programme they following, so let them and they know what they doing.

[Tifoso84]

Not much point going out in colder temps to do race sims and quali sims when it going to be much hotter for race and quali. Id do same thing.

Well everybody else is doing it. Why do we have to put ourselves in this nervous position of trying to do our laps with only 20 minutes left? It's always a huge risk. We need these practice laps more than any other top team, so we should be out on the track sooner.

[Rob]

Well everybody else is doing it. Why do we have to put ourselves in this nervous position of trying to do our laps with only 20 minutes left? It's always a huge risk. We need these practice laps more than any other top team, so we should be out on the track sooner.

Still done alright didnt we?

[Tifoso84]

Still done alright didnt we?

Well yea we sure did, but still that moment when Vergne parked his car and yellow flags came out just when our guys were starting their fast laps was a very frustrating moment, as was being stuck in the traffic later on. Hopefully we got all the necessary data we needed to make the right set-up choices for quali.

[bluesilhouettes]

Done !