2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

[Hammerfist]

For some reason I feel mercs free practice performance is more real than Miami. Fastest car in a straight line? Their long runs were only second to max. Ferrari looked quite weak on long runs but I think they might be hiding their pace to throw off Redbull. Well let’s hope so anyway.

[Zynerji]

Have Merc finally turned a corner ?? Haven't noticed any bouncing on the straights whatsoever.

The camera, mysteriously, changes right when you are about to see it. I mentioned that to my wife this morning.

If the AM and AR updates are a serious breakthrough, and Merc have their stuff figured out, and even HAAS with their looming update, we could (with reliability) be seeing the beginnings of a 2012-type run with several different winners until the end of the season.

I'd like to hope we could be on the verge of an "Instant Classic" type season after the letdown at the end on an epic 2021.

[Shrieker]

Have Merc finally turned a corner ?? Haven't noticed any bouncing on the straights whatsoever.

The camera, mysteriously, changes right when you are about to see it. I mentioned that to my wife this morning.

They showed George's onboard lap on Sky. They still have a bit of bouncing thru the corners.

So not %100 dialed out yet. Tomorrow will be more telling as was the case in Miami, but this time I have a hunch they've actually managed to turn a corner with the new floor and other new bits.

[PlatinumZealot]

Mercedes into a sweet window again. Only a tenth off Charles Leclerc.

Again Russell seems to be more comfortable on the softer tyres. HAM going wide on the curbs in the first sector.

I think this is the strongest driver pairing!

By some margin at that! It's race 6 now, considering all the problems they've had with the car, it's incredible that the drivers have been able to keep their noses clean. That means the team can focus on investing money in understanding the car and producing upgrades.

Merc also fast in the AWS high speed ratings!

[silver]

Post race interview, Russell says both Redbull and Ferraris are on lowest power modes. Invariably, he is alluding that they are running higher power mode than the others. So that's the story. They did the same in Miami.

[Sieper]

I don't understand Sky Sports "Audio Up", Its just a lap without commentary.

That is not sky. The FOM mandates this. Apparently the commentator must also be silent during this lap.

Never been said explicitly but we have the same here, both with ziggo last year and viaplay this year.

[silver]

They might be matching last year's pole time! With all the progress made since the beginning of the season, it's not that far off to imagine it. Another 3 seconds to come.

[Spoutnik]

Verstappen (and also to a lesser extent Perez) weas impressive on race pace.
As it stand, we can expect a Ferrari 1-2 on qualy but a very very difficult Sunday for them to keep the RBs behind.
Wonder how Merc is on long run/tyre deg ? Didn't manage to see their times

[Hammerfist]

Post race interview, Russell says both Redbull and Ferraris are on lowest power modes. Invariably, he is alluding that they are running higher power mode than the others. So that's the story. They did the same in Miami.

I would not listen to George on this. He’s probably just deflecting. He has no idea what Ferrari and Redbull are doing and long run data is not power mode sensitive anyway.

[MV8]

Ferrari actually is looking quite off-pace in long runs, let's hope that they are playing with some sandbagging... if they are not Sunday will be "Sleepy Race TM"

[Spoutnik]

This is so funny to read

[Sevach]

I would not listen to George on this. He’s probably just deflecting. He has no idea what Ferrari and Redbull are doing and long run data is not power mode sensitive anyway.

It makes some sense, if the speed gained by running high power modes can get the car into porpoising territory, they need to run high power modes to fine tune the car, otherwise they will test, think ride height "x" is fine and turns out it's not when the power is on.

[organic]

Max is still using his first engine in free practices. Both Merc and Ferrari have taken their second unit. Wouldn't be surprised if merc were using higher modes in practice today to check the porpoising

[dialtone]

Alright, work got in the way of me checking telemetry...



* Merc is definitely running the engine hot, their performance so high is thanks to a higher engine mode
* Ferrari continues to have the fastest Campsa
* RedBull certainly had traffic in FP1, but their way of taking S3 is different than Merc and Ferrari anyway, Max is taking those last few corners by braking earlier and getting to apex earlier, but it sacrifices entry speed. RedBull is very strong in the last chicane
* T6-7-8 seem to be quite different between each car, Verstappen had some control to do maybe given telemetry, Ferrari is very fast through there
* Ferrari seems very fast through medium-fast corners like T6-7-8-9
* Better braking for Ferrari

come quali Ferrari and RedBull will be ahead, I think Ferrari looks a bit better on a single lap.

race sim, I think it's hard to read much into this, LEC is around 1s slower than VER so I think they were simulating different stints and SAI went first with soft and then mediums. I would need to draw a diagram to see real differences in tyre deg though, maybe someone else can do it because I got to work this morning .

LEC
LAP 13 MEDIUM/10 Stint 4: NaT
LAP 14 MEDIUM/11 Stint 4: 1:26.955
LAP 15 MEDIUM/12 Stint 4: 1:25.853
LAP 16 MEDIUM/13 Stint 4: 1:25.980
LAP 17 MEDIUM/14 Stint 4: 1:30.395
LAP 18 MEDIUM/15 Stint 4: 1:26.460
LAP 19 MEDIUM/16 Stint 4: 1:26.619
LAP 20 MEDIUM/17 Stint 4: 1:26.861
LAP 21 MEDIUM/18 Stint 4: 1:26.925
LAP 22 MEDIUM/19 Stint 4: 1:26.860
LAP 23 MEDIUM/20 Stint 4: 1:27.343
LAP 24 MEDIUM/21 Stint 4: 1:27.014
LAP 25 MEDIUM/9 Stint 5: 1:31.724
LAP 26 SOFT/6 Stint 5: 1:49.853
LAP 27 SOFT/7 Stint 5: 1:24.974
LAP 28 SOFT/8 Stint 5: 1:41.886
LAP 29 SOFT/9 Stint 5: 2:7.529


RUS
LAP 15 MEDIUM/11 Stint 6: 1:54.146
LAP 16 MEDIUM/12 Stint 6: 1:25.846
LAP 17 MEDIUM/13 Stint 6: 1:26.225
LAP 18 MEDIUM/14 Stint 6: 1:26.791
LAP 19 MEDIUM/15 Stint 6: 1:26.736
LAP 20 MEDIUM/16 Stint 6: 1:26.915
LAP 21 MEDIUM/17 Stint 6: 1:26.692
LAP 22 MEDIUM/18 Stint 6: 1:26.809
LAP 23 MEDIUM/19 Stint 6: 1:31.185
LAP 24 MEDIUM/20 Stint 6: 1:26.654
LAP 25 MEDIUM/21 Stint 6: 1:26.506
LAP 26 MEDIUM/22 Stint 6: 1:51.504


VER
LAP 13 MEDIUM/8 Stint 5: 1:55.065
LAP 14 MEDIUM/9 Stint 5: 1:25.178
LAP 15 MEDIUM/10 Stint 5: 1:25.880
LAP 16 MEDIUM/11 Stint 5: 1:25.704
LAP 17 MEDIUM/12 Stint 5: 1:25.612
LAP 18 MEDIUM/13 Stint 5: 1:26.424
LAP 19 MEDIUM/14 Stint 5: 1:26.295
LAP 20 MEDIUM/15 Stint 5: 1:25.836
LAP 21 MEDIUM/16 Stint 5: 1:26.161
LAP 22 MEDIUM/17 Stint 5: 1:26.351
LAP 23 MEDIUM/18 Stint 5: 1:26.164
LAP 24 MEDIUM/19 Stint 5: 1:26.433
LAP 25 MEDIUM/20 Stint 5: 1:26.334
LAP 26 MEDIUM/21 Stint 5: 1:26.577
LAP 27 MEDIUM/22 Stint 5: 1:42.996

SAI
LAP 15 SOFT/7 Stint 4: 1:25.068
LAP 16 SOFT/8 Stint 4: 1:25.628
LAP 17 SOFT/9 Stint 4: 1:25.688
LAP 18 SOFT/10 Stint 4: 1:26.502
LAP 19 SOFT/11 Stint 4: 1:30.693
LAP 20 SOFT/12 Stint 4: 1:26.361
LAP 21 SOFT/13 Stint 4: 1:26.908
LAP 22 SOFT/14 Stint 4: 1:27.165
LAP 23 SOFT/15 Stint 4: 1:27.209
LAP 24 SOFT/5 Stint 5: 1:31.806
LAP 25 MEDIUM/11 Stint 5: 1:45.422
LAP 26 MEDIUM/12 Stint 5: 1:25.766
LAP 27 MEDIUM/13 Stint 5: 1:26.108
LAP 28 MEDIUM/14 Stint 5: 1:30.529
LAP 29 MEDIUM/15 Stint 5: 1:26.405
LAP 30 MEDIUM/16 Stint 5: 1:40.203
LAP 31 MEDIUM/17 Stint 5: 2:9.550

[zibby43]

Alright, work got in the way of me checking telemetry...

https://i.imgur.com/BIgfmEd.jpeg

* Merc is definitely running the engine hot, their performance so high is thanks to a higher engine mode
* Ferrari continues to have the fastest Campsa
* RedBull certainly had traffic in FP1, but their way of taking S3 is different than Merc and Ferrari anyway, Max is taking those last few corners by braking earlier and getting to apex earlier, but it sacrifices entry speed. RedBull is very strong in the last chicane
* T6-7-8 seem to be quite different between each car, Verstappen had some control to do maybe given telemetry, Ferrari is very fast through there
* Ferrari seems very fast through medium-fast corners like T6-7-8-9
* Better braking for Ferrari

come quali Ferrari and RedBull will be ahead, I think Ferrari looks a bit better on a single lap.

race sim, I think it's hard to read much into this, LEC is around 1s slower than VER so I think they were simulating different stints and SAI went first with soft and then mediums. I would need to draw a diagram to see real differences in tyre deg though, maybe someone else can do it because I got to work this morning .

LEC
LAP 13 MEDIUM/10 Stint 4: NaT
LAP 14 MEDIUM/11 Stint 4: 1:26.955
LAP 15 MEDIUM/12 Stint 4: 1:25.853
LAP 16 MEDIUM/13 Stint 4: 1:25.980
LAP 17 MEDIUM/14 Stint 4: 1:30.395
LAP 18 MEDIUM/15 Stint 4: 1:26.460
LAP 19 MEDIUM/16 Stint 4: 1:26.619
LAP 20 MEDIUM/17 Stint 4: 1:26.861
LAP 21 MEDIUM/18 Stint 4: 1:26.925
LAP 22 MEDIUM/19 Stint 4: 1:26.860
LAP 23 MEDIUM/20 Stint 4: 1:27.343
LAP 24 MEDIUM/21 Stint 4: 1:27.014
LAP 25 MEDIUM/9 Stint 5: 1:31.724
LAP 26 SOFT/6 Stint 5: 1:49.853
LAP 27 SOFT/7 Stint 5: 1:24.974
LAP 28 SOFT/8 Stint 5: 1:41.886
LAP 29 SOFT/9 Stint 5: 2:7.529


RUS
LAP 15 MEDIUM/11 Stint 6: 1:54.146
LAP 16 MEDIUM/12 Stint 6: 1:25.846
LAP 17 MEDIUM/13 Stint 6: 1:26.225
LAP 18 MEDIUM/14 Stint 6: 1:26.791
LAP 19 MEDIUM/15 Stint 6: 1:26.736
LAP 20 MEDIUM/16 Stint 6: 1:26.915
LAP 21 MEDIUM/17 Stint 6: 1:26.692
LAP 22 MEDIUM/18 Stint 6: 1:26.809
LAP 23 MEDIUM/19 Stint 6: 1:31.185
LAP 24 MEDIUM/20 Stint 6: 1:26.654
LAP 25 MEDIUM/21 Stint 6: 1:26.506
LAP 26 MEDIUM/22 Stint 6: 1:51.504


VER
LAP 13 MEDIUM/8 Stint 5: 1:55.065
LAP 14 MEDIUM/9 Stint 5: 1:25.178
LAP 15 MEDIUM/10 Stint 5: 1:25.880
LAP 16 MEDIUM/11 Stint 5: 1:25.704
LAP 17 MEDIUM/12 Stint 5: 1:25.612
LAP 18 MEDIUM/13 Stint 5: 1:26.424
LAP 19 MEDIUM/14 Stint 5: 1:26.295
LAP 20 MEDIUM/15 Stint 5: 1:25.836
LAP 21 MEDIUM/16 Stint 5: 1:26.161
LAP 22 MEDIUM/17 Stint 5: 1:26.351
LAP 23 MEDIUM/18 Stint 5: 1:26.164
LAP 24 MEDIUM/19 Stint 5: 1:26.433
LAP 25 MEDIUM/20 Stint 5: 1:26.334
LAP 26 MEDIUM/21 Stint 5: 1:26.577
LAP 27 MEDIUM/22 Stint 5: 1:42.996

SAI
LAP 15 SOFT/7 Stint 4: 1:25.068
LAP 16 SOFT/8 Stint 4: 1:25.628
LAP 17 SOFT/9 Stint 4: 1:25.688
LAP 18 SOFT/10 Stint 4: 1:26.502
LAP 19 SOFT/11 Stint 4: 1:30.693
LAP 20 SOFT/12 Stint 4: 1:26.361
LAP 21 SOFT/13 Stint 4: 1:26.908
LAP 22 SOFT/14 Stint 4: 1:27.165
LAP 23 SOFT/15 Stint 4: 1:27.209
LAP 24 SOFT/5 Stint 5: 1:31.806
LAP 25 MEDIUM/11 Stint 5: 1:45.422
LAP 26 MEDIUM/12 Stint 5: 1:25.766
LAP 27 MEDIUM/13 Stint 5: 1:26.108
LAP 28 MEDIUM/14 Stint 5: 1:30.529
LAP 29 MEDIUM/15 Stint 5: 1:26.405
LAP 30 MEDIUM/16 Stint 5: 1:40.203
LAP 31 MEDIUM/17 Stint 5: 2:9.550

It’s new PUs in the cars for each driver.