2021 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Nov 05 - 07

[ispano6]

RedBull's pace on the mediums look good, key will be to undercut and tomorrow is expected to be lower Temps. Should be a exciting race

Let's see if Bottas makes way for Ham.
"Valtteri, this is Max..."

[Mogster]

Also I bet the dirty side of the grid is super dirty - assume a poor ham start and tuck in behind bot

It seems the whole track is dirty the following day, so maybe it wont be too much of a disadvantage on the inside

Are there not other series running before them?

Yes. Local Porsche cup, F4, touring cars.

[BlueCheetah66]

The main thing for Red Bull will be whether Perez is able to keep up with the others. If he is able to, it will be a very interesting strategy battle

[Juzh]

Red bull went backwards with increase of track temp. They only beat the alpha turi by a tenth so clearly this is the case. Merc stayed pretty much where they were relative to the rest of the grid. Just got to use a brain and look at the lap times to see what happened.

I thought so too, but Verstappen was complaining about cold rear tyres after his first Q3 run, so that doesn't seem to be the case.

[dans79]

…and presumably the instruction for Bottas will be to move over to the inside line and relocate the tow in front of Lewis assuming Lewis is alongside max.

That’s assuming Bottas does has he’s told and doesn’t go rogue…

That would probably be the worst thing he could do because the team would just ensure that Lewis undercuts him then.

[Just_a_fan]

RedBull's pace on the mediums look good, key will be to undercut and tomorrow is expected to be lower Temps. Should be a exciting race

Let's see if Bottas makes way for Ham.
"Valtteri, this is Max..."

Why shouldn't he be asked to? Hamilton is fighting for the title, Bottas isn't. No noises about Perez letting Max through at the last race, I note...

[ringo]

Bottas already said he is willing to play team orders. He isnt fussy about it.
Just like how Perez let Max through at COTA, Bottas is wright to let Lewis through and then play bowling ball with all honda engined cars. lol

[Mansell89]

Gasly in P5 could cause all sorts of headaches for Hamilton, though equally for Perez and the RBR strategy too!

Turn one is going to be so tense

[dans79]

Gasly in P5 could cause all sorts of headaches for Hamilton, though equally for Perez and the RBR strategy too!

Turn one is going to be so tense

Considering he knows he will never be allowed back to the parent team, I don't think he will do Checo or Max any favors!

[casper]

This is what I was talking about, old engines used for free practice while new engines for Q and race at this late stage of the F1 season. Old engines will be run less aggressibly in FP so the run time seen are unreliable gauge to determine the Quali pecking.

[Scorpaguy]

Red bull went backwards with increase of track temp. They only beat the alpha turi by a tenth so clearly this is the case. Merc stayed pretty much where they were relative to the rest of the grid. Just got to use a brain and look at the lap times to see what happened.

Q3 indicate the following lap time increase/decrease:

Bot - 0.9 quicker
Ham - 1.2 quicker
Max - 0.5 quicker
Per - 0.5 quicker
Gas - 0.5 quicker
Sai - 0.8 quicker
Ric - 1.0 quicker
Lec - 0.1 slower
Yuk and Nor had issues

Aside the pilots with issues, all but Lec got quicker. Merc started quali with the fastest package and improved accordingly, the Bulls...not as much. The Mercs onboards showed a bit of understeer in P1-3...heavier fuel loads one might surmise.

[AeroDynamic]

This is what I was talking about, old engines used for free practice while new engines for Q and race at this late stage of the F1 season. Old engines will be run less aggressibly in FP so the run time seen are unreliable gauge to determine the Quali pecking.

That’s not what determined the qualy order though. The RB didn’t like the softs in the presented conditions of qualifying 3. You could watch the car sliding around and lacking the firm composure it had earlier. That and max had to abort his lap. But the MCS found hardly any time on the RB on the first sector despite the poor grip of the RB in Q. The RB was likely going to best the MCS in the 2nd and 3rd sector without Tsunoda tripping them both up.

For whatever reason the MCS fell into a better optimal working window in Q3 and the RB was falling out of it. The MCS is not genuinely ahead here when both cars are working optimally.

[dans79]

The RB was likely going to best the MCS in the 2nd and 3rd sector without Tsunoda tripping them both up.

For whatever reason the MCS fell into a better optimal working window in Q3 and the RB was falling out of it.

If you go back through all of free practice and qualifying, you will see most of the time drivers at the front of the grid lost time in sector 3,If they pushed really hard in sectors 1 & 2 on the softs. Basically imo no one was able to push all out on the softs, they just couldn't take it.

The track temperature was substantially higher in qualifying than it was during FP3, so most likely Merc hit the sweet spot, and Red Bull was overheating the tires.

[cooken]

Isn't this corner cutting? I guess it was on the list of corners they don't monitor or whatever, but usually that's more to do with going outside on corner exit rather than cutting the apex. There's no shot of the rear tyers, but the front ones are clearly inside the white line, and given trajectory/steering, the rears definitely will be too.

[dans79]

Isn't this corner cutting? I guess it was on the list of corners they don't monitor or whatever, but usually that's more to do with going outside on corner exit rather than cutting the apex. There's no shot of the rear tyers, but the front ones are clearly inside the white line, and given trajectory/steering, the rears definitely will be too.

https://i.ibb.co/f2WYp6d/mvframe223.jpg

you would have to look at the race directors notes, but hitting the curbs as hard as they did I'm sure was a major contributor to Reb Bulls rear wing issues.