2018 Japanese GP: Practices and Qualifying

[tifosi1993]

Kimi's left rear blistering...

Which means tyres are getting way too hot.

[IulianFerrari]

Great race engineers for vettel.
His engineer on radio “tyre saving in sector 1 turn8 & turn 13.”
Vettel replying “ turn8 & turn 13 are not in sector 1”..!!!

It's been like that all season

[WRX202]

Not really. Seb is faster/matching Bottas, it's Hamilton who seems untouchable.

I don't think so. Ferrari is behind both Mercs. This track suits Ferrari so we will not do well this year as now that's the new trend. Tracks that suited us in the past are now our weakest point. I guess it comes with copying other team's longer wheelbase.

BTW all those who keep saying "4 wheel steering is banned in F1 lol and what's it" no one mentioned Mercedes HAS 4 wheel steering but rather that Mercedes is "REPLICATING/SIMULATING" 4 wheel steering but everyone seems to miss those 2 words. Think of a Panzer tank on belts. To turn it does not have wheels or a steering but rather the turn movement is achieved via regulating rotation and speed of the belts accordingly. Mercedes is apparently managing to simulate the effect via suspension/gearbox/braking technology. The concept can regulate the spinning of the rear wheels in a curve. It's borderline permissable as it is almost the equivalent of traction control.

No one noticed how stable the Mercedes was in Sochi and the Ferrari seemed very nervous? It was the opposite up to 3 gp's ago so it makes sense that they have finally sorted out their stability and corner speed.

[mwk360]

Great race engineers for vettel.
His engineer on radio “tyre saving in sector 1 turn8 & turn 13.”
Vettel replying “ turn8 & turn 13 are not in sector 1”..!!!

Its a miracle he won a race with these guys on pitwall. Even bahrain ferrari screwed up and he had to save tyres till the end

[mwk360]

I don't think so. Ferrari is behind both Mercs. This track suits Ferrari so we will not do well this year as now that's the new trend. Tracks that suited us in the past are now our weakest point. I guess it comes with copying other team's longer wheelbase.

BTW all those who keep saying "4 wheel steering is banned in F1 lol and what's it" no one mentioned Mercedes HAS 4 wheel steering but rather that Mercedes is "REPLICATING/SIMULATING" 4 wheel steering but everyone seems to miss those 2 words. Think of a Panzer tank on belts. To turn it does not have wheels or a steering but rather the turn movement is achieved via regulating rotation and speed of the belts accordingly. Mercedes is apparently managing to simulate the effect via suspension/gearbox/braking technology. The concept can regulate the spinning of the rear wheels in a curve. It's borderline permissable as it is almost the equivalent of traction control.

No one noticed how stable the Mercedes was in Sochi and the Ferrari seemed very nervous? It was the opposite up to 3 gp's ago so it makes sense that they have finally sorted out their stability and corner speed.

Yup mercs are now dominating all street circuit twisty sectors

[mwk360]

I think it’s down to suspension issue..!! Ferrari updated its suspension from 2nd half of the season at Spa.

Probably gained 0.1s and threw away 10 extra race laps

[tifosi1993]

Pace is looking good on softs. Seb and Hamliton evenly matched.

[LordPhoenix]

Year is over guys, Lets face it, it was really good though. Enjoyed most of it. We probably went in the wrong direction development wise and lost time and our tire advantage. It happens.

[Ferrarichamp]

I think after Monza we knew our goose was cooked. To me at least that was the turning point.

[angeljr]

How come our pace has gone so badly, I am now led to believe that our development direction has gone wrong! OR is it like the same case like what happened in Barcelona after introducing a new rear suspension then suddenly we could not bring the purple tyres into working range?

We've got a very good car in Spa with great traction out of the corner and then suddenly gone

[tifosi1993]

I don't think so. Ferrari is behind both Mercs. This track suits Ferrari so we will not do well this year as now that's the new trend. Tracks that suited us in the past are now our weakest point. I guess it comes with copying other team's longer wheelbase.

BTW all those who keep saying "4 wheel steering is banned in F1 lol and what's it" no one mentioned Mercedes HAS 4 wheel steering but rather that Mercedes is "REPLICATING/SIMULATING" 4 wheel steering but everyone seems to miss those 2 words. Think of a Panzer tank on belts. To turn it does not have wheels or a steering but rather the turn movement is achieved via regulating rotation and speed of the belts accordingly. Mercedes is apparently managing to simulate the effect via suspension/gearbox/braking technology. The concept can regulate the spinning of the rear wheels in a curve. It's borderline permissable as it is almost the equivalent of traction control.

No one noticed how stable the Mercedes was in Sochi and the Ferrari seemed very nervous? It was the opposite up to 3 gp's ago so it makes sense that they have finally sorted out their stability and corner speed.

And we are busy painting cigarette packets all over the car.

[Noquarter]

Ferrari very quickly destroys tires and has problems when getting out of slow corners. All this appeared after the race at Spa.

[angeljr]

Vettel's team Radio

Adami: Start tyre saving sector 1, turn 8 turn 13
Vettel: Turn 8 and turn 13 are not in sector 1
Adami: Sector 1 + turn 8 and turn 13
Vettel: Ok got it, sorry my fault

[alfaromeo]

Ferrari's advantage of the twin battery triumph is no longer, they have a problem with the suspension. Mercedes, on the other hand, has solved problems with engine quality and overheating tires new suspension and is a difference of 0.5 s. How Ferrari would use Aldo Costa in these conditions. The championship is decided.

[angeljr]

https://youtu.be/8Q1gGmU40zA

[stefa]

I've been watching this for more than 35 years, and I know not to jump fast to conclusions, on top of it is is still a Friday, but it does not look good...

[wisepie]

Only FP1/2 but not looking positive, even if we had the speed and stability, we'd still suffer with blisters, so whatever quali performance we might have becomes irrelevant against Mercs steering trickery, surely that's as suspect as our battery issue may have been, but the FIA will of course only monitor Ferrari. As for the OTT stickers, just too much. Depressing.

[angeljr]

I've been watching this for more than 35 years, and I know not to jump fast to conclusions, on top of it is is still a Friday, but it does not look good...

Ferrari are mostly hiding their true pace on Friday for most of the races this season. Usually they are down from 1 lap pace but their race simulation pace always looks good until today that even the race pace doesn't look good either.

[WRX202]

Ferrari are mostly hiding their true pace on Friday for most of the races this season. Usually they are down from 1 lap pace but their race simulation pace always looks good until today that even the race pace doesn't look good either.

Yeah there is only so far one can be optimistic. It's time to accept it: points and performance gap is now too big to recover. 0.2/0.3 per lap would have been ok but this 0.6/0.8 gap is way too much to catch up with 5 races to go. Even Ferrari wouldn't be willing to invest so much money seeing that both Championships have gone from their sight.

It's over. Reminds me of 4 years ago when Mercedes were giving everyone 2.0/1.5sec a lap to everyone. They are simply running away.

[angeljr]

Just in: Confirmed there was a second sensor in placed to monitor the battery according to Arrivabene!

https://twitter.com/Vetteleclerc/sta...20921201020928

[WRX202]

The only reason I might watch Sundays race at this point is coz I would already have been awake following the McGregor/Khabib fight on UFC lol. Still I will probably only last 3 laps till I get a clear picture of the gaps between Merc and Ferrari.

[zike]

Just in: Confirmed there was a second sensor in placed to monitor the battery according to Arrivabene!

https://twitter.com/Vetteleclerc/sta...20921201020928

to me it looks like he is lying

[jgonzalesm6]

Ferrari's tires after FP2

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoubfP2V4AACNLD.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DoubiA3UcAIh9bZ.jpg

[jgonzalesm6]

Ferrari very quickly destroys tires and has problems when getting out of slow corners. All this appeared after the race at Spa.

Interesting. The SF71-H MISSION WINNOW car was great with tires and as of late, the car is blistering them.....

[Ferrarichamp]

so the weather forecasts were wrong once again it seems.

[jgonzalesm6]

NEW GEARBOXES for Valtteri Bottas, Marcus Ericsson, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo and Stoffel Vandoorne - NO PENALTIES

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dou9LPlXoAAS6ge.jpg

[tifosi1993]

Just in: Confirmed there was a second sensor in placed to monitor the battery according to Arrivabene!

https://twitter.com/Vetteleclerc/sta...20921201020928

And he also confirmed Ferrari didn't lose any straight-line speed. The 2nd sensor was supposed to be secret, but it got out and he is angry about it. The double battery is Ferrari's property and it's a serious matter if someone from FIA feeding information to the media.

[WRX202]

And he also confirmed Ferrari didn't lose any straight-line speed. The 2nd sensor was supposed to be secret, but it got out and he is angry about it. The double battery is Ferrari's property and it's a serious matter if someone from FIA feeding information to the media.

ehm...... James Allison........Sassi.......

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...43038/3106054/

[tifosi1993]

Long run average:

SS:

Ham: 1:34.744 (11 laps)
Bot: 1:34.978 (10 laps)
Vet: 1:35.194 (13 laps)
Kimi: 1:35.224 (3 laps)

Softs:

Ham: 1:34.081 (9 laps)
Bot: 1:34.281 (8 laps)
Vet: 1:34.437 (10 laps)
Kim: 1:34.571 (18 laps)

[tifosi1993]

ehm...... James Allison........Sassi.......

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/m...43038/3106054/

And it has been confirmed multiple times that our car is legal. Time for some legal actions I guess.