2015 Spanish GP race thread

**superwonderboy** · 10th May 2015, 15:12

Im afraid i get the feeling for every gp race weekend, the mercs are managing their sandbagging from p1 to race. They are simply toying with everybody else. Im afraid they still have more in the bag, but they are hiding it. Scary....

**darkchild** · 10th May 2015, 15:13

Look guys, Merc is depresingly fast, nowhere more so then here, but it is what it is. 3rd and 5th are solid results but as we praised Ferrari strategy plenty of time this year, this time they just tried to be too smart for their own good. Clearly Merc was much faster then us here, and thats EXACTLY the reason why you should never give them track position in clear air. Raikkonen was MUCH faster then Bottas on medium tires yet when he got under 1 second he simply couldn't pass him. So no matter how fast Merc was in first two stints they just couldnt pass because of dirty air and Barcelona being almost impossible to pass on.

So...bad call from our strategy guys no matter what anyone says here, but 3rd place is realistically the best we can achieve with this car. Still got a loooots of work to do, Merc guys are just too fast.

**zike** · 10th May 2015, 15:14

Originally Posted by NenoX

We can argue on and on what would happen if Seb pitted the next lap after Ham pitted and it's effects. But it won't change anything, it's pretty much the same as with the Merc boys in a sense in what would have happened if Ham didn't have a poor start. It is what it is, breaks of the race didn't totally go our way. A lot of work for the boys to maximize and analyze all the upgrades they brought. 20+ish laps from two practice sessions aren't enough to fully optimize all those upgrades.

The updates looks like in the past few years, like nothing

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:16

Had vettel not jumped ham on first lap and if the two merc had a fight and screwed up by some chance...

nice eh?

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:17

updates.....never made a difference at all last year..they are just for name sake...

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:19

but still we manged to chip away hams 7 point...thats good.. provided the so called engine updates makes a difference from canada

**darkchild** · 10th May 2015, 15:20

Never seen such a big update package as one in Barcelona but they just didn't work out. Or they did but some didn't and we didn't have enough time to optimize the thing. Oh well...on to the testing.

**tifosi1993** · 10th May 2015, 15:20

The updates clearly worked. Vettel was faster than the Williams and Raikkonen (old configuration)

**512 TR** · 10th May 2015, 15:22

Just as I suspected, the two stop strategy was the better strategy as shown by Nico compared to Lewis. I really thought we would be closer to the 2nd Merc with Seb and maybe even challenge with Kimi on a long 2nd stint. My calculations were that Lewis should have come out behind Seb at his last stop. He didn't, he was 2-3 seconds in front. After that they all just turned down the engines. What angers me is that Bottas again was allowed to steal WCC point from us. IF the Scuderia get some great updates in the summer, all points will count and the lost 4th place again may come back and bite us. All in all it was a very somber race weekend.

**Sriharsha** · 10th May 2015, 15:25

Guys just calm down, we all know Mercs are faster. We are working on it. Its the bedding year for us. We are still getting on Podiums and Points enough for P2. Unlike the past the car updates are working we need to finetune them alot now.

**wickedf1** · 10th May 2015, 15:25

The Mercs were ridiculusly fast. Good fun to watch Seb keeping Hamilton behind for two stint, but they are so fast it was hopeless! For the race, good Sebastian!

Kimi also is on a good race to P5. It was impossible to pass with only a little faster car on worse tire, but good job.

Very scary for Alonso to almost hit the man at the front of the car. Then maybe Jenson had no drinks - bad shape the Macca today. The redbull cars all fighting was fun to watch also.

Good race.

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:26

But i stil have my hopes high for monaco....what about you guys

**darkchild** · 10th May 2015, 15:29

Originally Posted by 512 TR

Just as I suspected, the two stop strategy was the better strategy as shown by Nico compared to Lewis. I really thought we would be closer to the 2nd Merc with Seb and maybe even challenge with Kimi on a long 2nd stint. My calculations were that Lewis should have come out behind Seb at his last stop. He didn't, he was 2-3 seconds in front. After that they all just turned down the engines. What angers me is that Bottas again was allowed to steal WCC point from us. IF the Scuderia get some great updates in the summer, all points will count and the lost 4th place again may come back and bite us. All in all it was a very somber race weekend.

It showed nothing, Lewis was stuck behind Vettel and couldn't do a thing. Had he been 2nd on first corner both would be on 3 stops.

**stefa** · 10th May 2015, 15:29

Such an anticlimax this race was....

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:29

correction ham 2o pt ahead nico..and vet now 31 down on ham and 11 on nico

**Kristof_F40** · 10th May 2015, 15:32

Originally Posted by f412

But i stil have my hopes high for monaco....what about you guys

Monaco will be bad, not playing into our strengths, and other cars will be stronger there.. + qualy is only thing that matters in Monaco..

**darkchild** · 10th May 2015, 15:32

This was great Barcelona race actually as it is usually even bigger borefest. What I'm looking forward to is Testing on 12 and 13th of May.

**mark p** · 10th May 2015, 15:36

Ferrari were said to be behind with this years car and so maybe updates all built up and came in one go. There is a test this week so worth the risk to try now can work out to what extent they help and fine tune it all. Going forward I bet we will see smaller updates added here and there and not all at once. Monaco is a strange race but after that will be interesting.

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:37

i believe we will be testing the aero upgrades that we brought to barcelona...and im quite positive they can gain enough downforce to race at monaco and most probably we will get a second row lockout...good enough to cookup a good strategy...whatever mercs do if can get track position for one lap,i beliven thats enough..

**wacc** · 10th May 2015, 15:37

Originally Posted by tifosi1993

The updates clearly worked. Vettel was faster than the Williams and Raikkonen (old configuration)

There are some facts that indicates otherwise.
1 Ferrari were even thinking about the championship battle before this weekend - they believed the car would be much better relative to the Merc than it was.
2 Kimi did not think the update worked

3 Williams was closer to Ferrari than in the last races despite bringing just minor updates to Barcelona.

There is a possibility that the update has some good potential but they did not have enough time to play with the setup. Horner said the same about their big package.

At last this was the most disapointing race of this season because of the high expectations.
Good job by the drivers, good job by the pit crew.

**JiruMaranello** · 10th May 2015, 15:38

I caught myself yesterday at the Q being unthankful for that we "only" got a minimum 3rd place on the grid as best. I remember the podium in Australia, the 2nd place on the grid and then the victory. It is quickly done to start demanding more and more subconsciously.

We still have a 100% podium this season. Things are going great and we are holding Williams off. The problem that we finished behind them with one car is the same as the overtaking problem but we still gained 5 points on them. Catching Mercedes is another thing, that needs time.

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:45

Anyone Remember 2011 monaco?vettel continued on same tyre for over forty laps but didnt give up the position

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:47

and offcourse 1992 monaco ...mansell vs senna..if something like that could happen...whoa...that wd be awesome

**f412** · 10th May 2015, 15:48

have mercs used up their engine tokens for barcelona?anybody have any idea about the tokens left for all the teams

**wacc** · 10th May 2015, 16:01

As they do have so big advantage the best would be to let themselves more time for developement and to bring the PU developements at the end of the season.

**REDARMYSOJA** · 10th May 2015, 16:06

They still have the engine upgrade in Canada, don't they?

**darkchild** · 10th May 2015, 16:14

Vettel said 2nd was possible and that he is in championship fighting car. Said even though gap was big he is sure car is going into right direction.

We will see...

**Infi24r** · 10th May 2015, 16:34

Originally Posted by f412

have mercs used up their engine tokens for barcelona?anybody have any idea about the tokens left for all the teams

Mercedes didn't use any engine tokens for Spain. They are still on their first engines too, so when they upgrade their PU for Canada it will only be the 2nd they have taken, while we'll be on our 3rd.