I think the biggest revelation of Spain was that Mercedes seems to have solved much of its tire issues though with the latest batch of updates, as, at least in the hands of Lewis's and his car, he was able to do quite impressive stints on both tires during the race.It is the 70th pole position of Lewis Hamilton'\s F1 career and number 84 for the Mercedes F1 team. Hence why Mercedes seems quicker on Friday and Ferrari seemingly closes the gap on Saturday and both ending up neck at neck at QF. Mercedes using more potent maps (and running closer to the limit) on Fridays while Ferrari do on Saturday morning. I think watching the ORF broadcast (with Alexander Wurz) there was some thoughts that Ferrari and Mercedes like to do things in reverse, i.e. Not quite sure if this logic is entirely sound and accurate. Justed wanted to clarify that AMuS is using this conclusion because Mercedes looked mighty on a few occasions on Friday (namely Barcelona) and then after Pirelli looked at the data of various teams, then decided to lower the pressures for Saturday and Sunday, with the result then that Ferrari ended up much closer. "It is true that some of the output values in reality prove to be exaggerated." Mario Isola did not want to comment on the rumors.
"Ferrari suspects that only teams that have an interest in high pressure can be behind it. If we see from our own measurements after a training day that the values do not match the reality, we change the limits for the air pressure. In Barcelona the cars were heavily modified and thus the contact pressure increased. Pirelli technician Mario Isola defended himself: "We determine the pressures on the output data, which we get from the teams three weeks before the race. Mercedes was the obvious choice as to teams who would benefit from doing that. The PSI was high in the first place because Pirelli says that 2 teams were giving them bogus data to keep the pressures high. It's dumb in the first place but I can see why they don't want any more failing tires. The effect of being the hare chasing the leader on fresher rubber does not work as well in Monaco.Īt least they're open to dropping them each race.
Unlike in the past few races, Lewis pitting after a longer first stint is not an option. I think pitting first will be vital for the race, because the improvement in pace on fresher rubber will be noticeable. He can control the race up front and react on the cars behind when needed. Mandatory stop has already been done by changing to a different type of compound
F1 2017 MONACO QUALIFYING DRIVER
I think the driver in front after the first round of pitstops will win the race, because: The race will be won after the first and potentially last round of pitstops. Even more now, because of the wider cars and also quicker cars through turns. Monaco is a circuit where overtaking is nearly impossible. Valterri is fast, but I think Lewis is just on a different level. Valterri also has a first DNF this season, which is costly when he's already on the backfoot. The gap in performance between the two is immense and let's be honest, Seb is also the only Ferrari that can challenge Merc and Hamilton during Quali and during the Race at the moment.
If you look at the current situation at Ferrari, Seb is clearly quicker than Kimi in Quali and Race trim. I'm not insinuating it's the case, but I think Merc management might think otherwise. That is the last thing this new Mercedes Administration wants because Hamilton would be too influential in the team. Why do you get that feeling? My feeling is that Mercedes don't want Hamilton to feel he is number 1. So they know when they should pit for Lewis and Seb without compromising track position. I have the feeling Merc will be using Bottas as a dummy, just like Kimi will be for Ferrari, just to test out how things pan out when they switch tires during the race.