Lewis Hamilton Larbalestier

[Metalfreaky]

Don't forget that we don't know the amount of fuel they carried and that this years pirellis are all softer than last years.

 

[Andrew Ford]

Don't forget that we don't know the amount of fuel they carried and that this years pirellis are all softer than last years.

i don't see the relevance of fuel in this case. last years pole was on low - no fuel. literally no fuel at the end lol

this run in mercedes is clearly low fuel too - it was a short run. if the fuel had been higher it would have been "More impressive". the fuel will have been similar to the mclaren.

regarding the temperature...the cold has been hindering the cars like markus said. the cold is a nightmare for tyres. regarding rubbering track in...i take the point it may have helped a bit although..have they done 6 days on the trot? does the rubber not gradually come away with rain and days in between? before the pole time last year, there would have been 2 days of probably more intense practise - more cars out desperately trying to work on setup. either way, i think the fact that mercedes have gained not only 1.2 seconds on the mclaren's pole from last year, but also a lot more on last years car says it all. mercedes practically gave up development on last years car halfway thru season - to focus on 2013. they've changed staff etc and the rules will have helped them. the question for me isn't about whether mercedes have improved...more about "How much have the opposition improved?"

 

[Kevin McDonald]

For the past 3 years they have given up development during the year to focus on the next car so that's not really relevant. I think most teams will gain between 0.5 - 1.0 seconds on last year and I don't expect much change in the constructors standing next year.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

this run in mercedes is clearly low fuel too - it was a short run. if the fuel had been higher it would have been "More impressive". the fuel will have been similar to the mclaren.

He did a 5 lap stint when doing that time.

 

[Andrew Ford]

He did a 5 lap stint when doing that time.

so even taking into account tyres at optimal temp etc...is it normal to gain about 2 seconds over the previous year?

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Tires are new as well.
Basically we have no idea where Mercedes is in the rankings until Australia Q3.
How much faster they are then last year is largely irrelevant as they are not competing against their own last years car.

 

[Andrew Ford]

For the past 3 years they have given up development during the year to focus on the next car so that's not really relevant. I think most teams will gain between 0.5 - 1.0 seconds on last year and I don't expect much change in the constructors standing next year.

my point is that redbull (for example) will have had to focus more resources from the mid point of last season into the development of the 2012 car as they were title contenders. mercedes were out of the running so deployed more resources relatively speaking. it makes sense that if the regulations remain the same historically the gap closes and...if mercedes were able to focus more resources on the 2013 relative to say redbull, then that wouldn't do any harm at all for mercedes. even on a 5 lap run, i would think that gaining about 2 seconds shows progress. again, i'm not saying mercedes will win the championship..but they have made lot of progress. jenson button noted this yesterday. think his interview is on the bbc website. i think my points are relevant

 

[Andrew Ford]

Tires are new as well.
Basically we have no idea where Mercedes is in the rankings until Australia Q3.
How much faster they are then last year is largely irrelevant as they are not competing against their own last years car.

well there is inevitably some uncertainty over the times as tyres are new, track is different temp etc, rubber different blah de blah. also the driver is new to the car and setup which can't help.
again, not mercedes will win championship, but if, even under different conditions, anyone is telling me a 2 second gain is a bad thing, I won't agree with them. lets see. looking forward to finding out in australia. can't wait!

 

[Andrew Ford]

Tires are new as well.
Basically we have no idea where Mercedes is in the rankings until Australia Q3.
How much faster they are then last year is largely irrelevant as they are not competing against their own last years car.

it would be relevant if other cars made 1 second improvement compare to their last years car and mercedes made 2 seconds compared to their last years car. like you said, you won't know if this is the case until at least
australia Q3

 

[Ivan Mills]

Fellipe Massa did a 1 23 4 in Q2 last year at this track ,which is 2sec slower than the time he put up today

I would imagine Red Bull or Macca would have no problem getting in the 19's if not today or tommorow then come the weekend in Spain later this year

 

[Hampus Andersson]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105808

Button impressed by Mercedes's form during winter testing

 

[Andrew Ford]

Fellipe Massa did a 1 23 4 in Q2 last year at this track ,which is 2sec slower than the time he put up today

I would imagine Red Bull or Macca would have no problem getting in the 19's if not today or tommorow then come the weekend in Spain later this year

hamilton was pushing 100% for pole in 2012. lets assume he, at best, pushed 100% today on the same tyres and both low fuel (worst case scenario for mercedes). that would be about 2 seconds gained.

with massa..i don't know. was he on soft tyres in q2? was it his best lap?
id need to check it out to compare. if massa can do 1.19s i would say he would be a title contender as that would be nearly 4 seconds faster than his q2 time last year. 4 seconds is a massive improvement. from memory, did redbull do a low 1.22 last year? if they gained 2 seconds, that would mean that they made low 1.20 - only 5 tenths faster than mercedes. so with hamilton getting used to the car and good development, mercedes could have a good starting point for closing that gap

 

[Ivan Mills]

i dont know if Massa can do 1 19's,but if Mercedes can do 20 5 then 19's seem very possible for the top teams

 

[Andrew Ford]

i dont know if Massa can do 1 19's,but if Mercedes can do 20 5 then 19's seem very possible for the top teams

i wouldn't be surprised if say redbull could do that for example - by the time they reach barcelona in a few months time. if they did say a 1.22 last year, a 1.20 would be possible now and then in a few months, advances/upgrades would get them into the 1.19s. at the minute, i would say that over a 2 second gain would be a very, very rapid development on last year. i can't wait to find out, can you?! we're so close to the season starting. it's been too long

 

[Shane Butler]

i can't wait to find out, can you?! we're so close to the season starting. it's been too long

The suspense is palpable I really dont have any idea which is the quickest car.. it seems close between Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Lotus. But if Ferrari can produce a solid car from the very start of the season (which I think they have), then Alonso has an extremely good chance of winning the title. Sorry for going off-topic in a Hamilton thread

Mercedes are there or there abouts aswell. I think development of the car during the season is going to be more important than ever. Perhaps we will see a repeat of the start of the 2012 season, where Mercedes and Lotus were strong in the first few races, but then fell back because of their lack of development.. should be interesting.

 

[Ejike Wodu]

Lewis Hamilton joins BBC Sport's Formula 1 line-up as a columnist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21769197

Bad idea?

 

[Scott Webber]

Lewis Hamilton joins BBC Sport's Formula 1 line-up as a columnist

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21769197

Bad idea?

not a bad idea at all, good on him to do some writing and give some insight.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

1st one,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21793873

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Mclaren staff talking about the days with Lewis. I keep forgetting he´s been there since he was a little kid.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Quite an interesting stats i came over.

First of all, Rosberg is so far the only teammate to Hamilton to have recorded more pole positions in a season then him.
(season has barely started so we don´t know if it will stick to the end)

But another interesting thing is that while Hamilton has managed to record 27 pole positions,
The total of all his teammates amounts to only 6.

2 - Fernando Alonso
1 - Heikki Kovalainen
1 - Jenson Button
2 - Nico Rosberg