2013 German GP: Qualifying Thread

[Senna4Ever]

LOL yeah the Fernando bashing is rife on here, out of control so it is.

Glad that you're mentioning it ...

[Greig]

good that you're mentioning it ...

Wait are you actually being serious? LOL

Feel free to use the report post button for all this Fernando bashing and we will certainly deal with it, immediately.

[Suzie]

anyway maybe it is only meant ironic to the memebers here whom asking for that Felipe HAS to give way ...

Give that boy a gold star

[Rob]

I know Ferrari wont go LMP as Audi will crush them there,they are the best car team there.

I know Ferrari did'nt won for 21 years in the 80's as I was already supporting them from 79 and will always they must just start to get there act together but they lost out to other teams in this simulation era of F1.

Ferrari must use Kobayashi and an older car to test 24/7 to sort there tire issues and mechanical grip problems they have and learn from that.

Nothing to do with Audi, its fact that while Ferrari has F1 team, LMP1 isnt on the cards. As Ferrari couldnt do both, if did 1 would suffer over the other. Plus the 458s do alright racing and for marketing.

Pedro would get testing over Kobi, as he has ALOT more experience in that (no offense Kobi )

[wacc]

Yesterday someone asked why was Felipe so slow. Well today me thinks he would rather see Felipe being even slower.

As for the strategy... Fernando had a good point. It depends on the race pace of the cars. I just hope the race is going to be interesting and there won't be any accident involving red cars.

[Rob]

First Greig now Suzie ... who is next of Mods here with same message? Some bashing from high level on Alonso with this "Felipe needs to get out of way"?

btw

... this "if we have" ....

Its called sarcasm, as by now or few laps into the race Fernando fans will be calling for the team to tell Felipe to let Fernando by.

[Senna4Ever]

Give that boy a gold star

thiiiis isssss rrrrrrridiculous
Hope this answers also Greig's question above regarding 'being serious'

Glad that I found a place here where merit is honourt
latest person who called me boy was a friend of my grandmother ... so thank you for that too, some grey hair turned into colour again ...

Back to serious:
weather seems to be same like today ... even a little bit less clouds ... wind between 11 and 13 km/h
Will be enjoyable to see how this race will develope ...

Please correct me if wrong .....
- Softer Tire: HAM, VET, WEB, RAI, GRO, RIC
- Harder Tire: Felipe, Alonso
- free too choose BUT, HUL: the rest ....

right?

will be intersting which tire they will choose then right at the start ... hmmmm

[wacc]

Edit: Picture of Webbo's bum looking for the secrets of Mercedes one lap pace removed on request

[Suzie]

I have no desire to see Webbo's bum, please remove.

[Paulo Goncalves]

Finished to watch the Q3 and that fart face of bieber make my day. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL.
Finnaly, hope a good start and quickly tyres warm.
Then, R. Brawn in 10 min loose and won everything.
We need to run the most laps than the 1st 6 places in front of us with the mediums. After this, believe as always in "fox" instinct of Alonso.
More, Mark will make hard the race for bieber.
Weather, so, asfalt temperature will help us a lot a degrad the others, like merc and heidis´s.
Last but not the least, interesting race tomorrow.

[shamim179]

I think the team went for a risky strategy. It would have been safer to split the strategy I would elect Massa for the softs he is a fast starter and a decent qualifier in the dry and keep Alonso on the mediums just taking it easy to make the tyres last as long as possible. Let's hope it works out.

[wisepie]

Well that strategy for Q3 horrified me when it looked like we had a chance of a better grid slot than usual. Just hope it doesn't backfire and that we get a clean start and first lap, but it's risky and if it works, we'll love it, if not, well that doesn't bear thinking about. Great to see Felipe top of Q1/2 and a pity he's out of the running for WDC already, so sadly he'll have to give way to Fernando if it comes to it. Feel much more confident than a week ago, but we also need things to work according to the planned strategy, and that's a real gamble. Best of luck, ragazzi!

[Kyss4k]

The sooner they pit the better for us. If hamster pits on lap 8 he will be 1,3*8=10,4 sec ahead when pitting. 21sec pit time will put him 10,6sec behind when exiting in heavy trafic!! He will overtake many cars which will impact his tires vis-a-vis our run in clean air. He might not compensate all the 10 sec after our tire change. Repeating that will not change much so the two cars will be within 1-2 sec from each other. However, after second pit stops we are on virgin softs with very little fuel and the softs may be even 2sec faster against his driven meds.

1,3 * 8 is wrong. The softs will degrade much quicker than mediums and even at the start they won't be in 100% shape. Their advantage will be smaller lap by lap and at the end of the stint, the mediums could be actually faster. The drop we saw in PF2 was from high 1:35s in first lap to 1:39s in lap 8 or so. With the mediums times were constantly in 1:36s.

[bonzo]

1,3 * 8 is wrong. The softs will degrade much quicker than mediums and even at the start they won't be in 100% shape. Their advantage will be smaller lap by lap and at the end of the stint, the mediums could be actually faster. The drop we saw in PF2 was from high 1:35s in first lap to 1:39s in lap 8 or so. With the mediums times were constantly in 1:36s.

God bless you!

[Kristof_F40]

Going out on softs would have got us maybe 4th & 6th, so not too much lost but will gain advantage by going long

We weren't faster than Lotus

[Kristof_F40]

Look guys, we weren't faster than RBR and Merc, the real deal for us for qualy was to defeat Lotus for 3rd row. The team didn't think this would happen, and I think they were, for ones, correct. So they decided to put our guys on a different strategy than Lotus. We were looking good on softs, but indeed conditions can change, but if we are on softs behind traffic in the beginning we can't benefit to much, perhaps at the end of the stint. If we can get these mediums working good at the start of the race, perhaps we can do something, but ofcourse do'nt expect to much, but if we can gain let's say 2 positions, I think we are ok, than we can go longer in clear are. The most important thing for us is that Lotus will probably be able to push RBR and Merc in the first stint, so perhaps they need to pit early before having a good gap, definitly to us. If we get clean air we can get the times we want and take care of the tyres. Than indeed, it will be very important for us to use the softs on the correct moment, don't forget, we have fresh softs and we are good on them, so... If you look at what Mark did in silverstone with the mediums compared to the hards.. Strategy will be important, nevertheless, we have good race pace so, strategy can help or hurt us.. good thing Seb hasn't pole..
BTW, what was really surprising for me, the Ferrari's came out and did a good lap (for our pace), the RBR and Mercs didn't, their times were relativly speaking not good, so perhaps conditions were better for us.. We gained a lot of time compared to Practice 3, RBR not..
But, one thing, I think Felipe could be struggling, if he's racing someone he's quite agressive on the rear tyres so he could perhaps not benefit as much as Fernando, just like Bahrain.

[Alessandra]

[QUOTE=wisepie;793190]Well that strategy for Q3 horrified me when it looked like we had a chance of a better grid slot than usual. Just hope it doesn't backfire and that we get a clean start and first lap, but it's risky and if it works, we'll love it, if not, well that doesn't bear thinking about. ]


Agreed

[Dino]

We weren't faster than Lotus

Why do you think so?

Kimi Räikkönen......Lotus-Renault......1:30.676......1:29.852......1:29.892
Felipe Massa..........Ferrari................1:30.547.... ..1:29.825......1:31.126[ON MEDIUM]

[raylinds]

I think this strategy could work for us. I think we will have good race pace and the soft tires will not last long when heavy with fuel. Forza Ferrari!

[Dino]

I think this strategy could work for us. I think we will have good race pace and the soft tires will not last long when heavy with fuel. Forza Ferrari!

It will work for us if Lewis manages to hold all the 6 soft tyred cars behind him for the first few laps.
They will all have to pit around lap 8 and come out in traffic while the Ferrari cars will then have around 12 laps of running in clean air.
This all depends on our drivers heating up the tyres quickly during the warm up lap and the first couple of laps.
We will see a thriller in the last ten laps if it goes to plan.

[Suzie]

We will make a great start and the first lap nutcase will help out. Wee buns!

*awaits disaster*

[stefa]

Softs are 1,3 sec faster than meds and last for 10-12 laps, so they can build a gap of abt. 14 sec. The pit stop time at N-ring is 21 sec, may be longer if 60kph rule is active already. Means we can have some 6-7 sec lead when they change to meds. Moreover, the front runners will be in trafic after their first stop. We will be somewhat lighter at this time and make some good laps to save the 6 sec lead before pitting for a change. Put on the brand new softs and catch them. Last stint we put on the virgin meds... Strategy might work.

So many if....

[Sonic Feathers]

I am quietly enjoying the anticipation of the outcome of Ferraris' strategy. lotus are perhaps going to be the big challenge as they are kindest on their tyres but ... let it all play out as it may & ... Forza Ferrari!
Ps. Great chortles today with the comments. Can you imagine the head scratching at Merc, RB & Lotus on how to 'damage control' this if Ferrari pull a family of bunnies out of the hat? Enjoy your race tomorrow everyone.

[Ferris]

1,3 * 8 is wrong. The softs will degrade much quicker than mediums and even at the start they won't be in 100% shape. Their advantage will be smaller lap by lap and at the end of the stint, the mediums could be actually faster. The drop we saw in PF2 was from high 1:35s in first lap to 1:39s in lap 8 or so. With the mediums times were constantly in 1:36s.

Yes, 100% correct.

I cant see them pushing for more than 5 laps to be honest and they have an issue here as well.
The problem is do they keep going on the soft's even though there is no pace advantage over the mediums after say 3-4 laps in order to not have to stay on the mediums for too long or do they pit so they don't lose time to the back markers and get caught in traffic because they left it too late?

I think it will all depend on the clear air target. They will sacrifice some pace and lose time to the medium runners in order to spend a few less laps on the mediums so they can push them harder so long as they come out of the pit stop in clear air.

I have never before wanted Button and co to have great pace. Whether the top soft tyre runners can carve through the field or not after their stop of get enough of a margin so as to get into clean air after their stop just behind the Ferrari's will dictate this race.

in any event i think Massa needs to be sacrificed and used as a defensive strategy to back them up for a few laps.
I know many wont like me saying that but we do not have the out and out pace to beat Vettel without being inventive.

This is something that would have been done in the Todt era I assure you. Just look at Malaysia 1999, and in that case the best number 2 driver was actually the best number 1 driver as stated by irvine!

[Nova]

Yesterday Webber did something like 22 laps on the med tire, while a lot of cars were graining on the softs after 5 or so laps.
If we can stay w/the leaders until they all pit, then hopefully the meds will come on and we can do some good laps.
How far up or ahead that idea puts us is the gamble.
If it works, theyre genius', if not, theyre dummies. At least Ferrari is the only one trying something a bit different.
Could be watching the other teams on the softs told them something. BUT, if Ferrari goes softs on 1st stop it could backfire.
I think they will go med then softs on the last stop to go all out at end.
GO FERRARI!!!!!!!!

[aroutis]

Nova, for once again, has it right.
We need to do with what we have, and as tyres are what make the difference here , what we should and we 're doing is playing around them.

So , if this works, we'll be the heroes, if it does not, people will have something new to write in the "Sack'm all thread". Big deal ;)

I have a good feeling about this :)

Roll on the race!

[Ferris]

It will really depend on the traffic Nova.
But an option is definitely to use the softs in the middle stint if there is a chance they can leap frog enough cars after their second stop and if they can see that their medium tyre pace is competitive with the front runner during their first stint.

If these two things are unlikely then they are better off going MMS so as to put less load on the soft tyres and use them better than the rest who are at the end of their medium tyre life.

I can tell that this is a race where I will be looking at the F1 timing app a lot more than the tv screen! Looking forward to this one.

[Umbria]

We need to worry about Rosberg if he starts on the medium tire!

[Ferris]

We need to worry about Rosberg if he starts on the medium tire!

No I think RB need to worry about Rosberg. He could be that mobile chicane we need Vettel to encounter after his first stop!
Fingers crossed Rosberg has a clean start and remains about 6 seconds behind us in the first stint.

[Ferris]

The more I think about it the more it becomes clear that we need to get a great stint 1 and stint 2 together in order to build that pit stop gap over the soft compound starters.
We can't spend the last stint trying to catch up to the leaders, we need to come out of the pits right on the gearbox of the lead cars in order to have a chance for the win.