2017 British Grand Prix - Silverstone, 14-16 July

[godlameroso]

I thought that Ferrari was bringing an engine update, if so, we won't know their true pace until tomorrow because they could have just been using an older unit today. To me it still looks like Vettel and Hamilton are the fastest cars around here.

No one is touching that medium tire for the rest of the weekend, I wonder if they can one stop, I don't know if the SS can last more than 20 laps around here, the soft will be struggling by the end of the race if it has to do 36 laps, although there may be some intermediate running. Some brave soul will try to go through the damp track on slicks if it does rain.

[Sieper]

What happened between Massa and Verstappen?

They gave the info that there's an investigation but did not show any replays ...

Verstappen was on a lap, Massa was ahead of him, likely on an outlap, didn't want to let him past, it turned into somewhat of a training fight for position.

It was more than that, Massa was stupidly slow and went very wide into a turn, kinda looked like he was leaving space but then closed the door. Out of the next corner Verstappen pulled way alongside Massa and considering Massa was slow, not on a full lap and certainly not pushing hard he could have easily left the inside to Max. Instead he chopped to the inside as usual, Max saw it coming and braked fairly hard and came within an inch or two of wing damage for sure could easily have been more considering it was in a fast corner.

No clue what Massa was doing, absolutely no reason to block a guy going that much faster than you in practice, none at all.

Completely agree, really weird and dangerous what Massa was doing there. Well Verstappen better not say anything and respect the more mature driver.

[drunkf1fan]

If the FIA actually punished Massa for his absolutely numerous inside chops over the years he may have at some point learnt it's not actually okay, instead the FIA has let him get away with it for literally a decade, Massa always blames the other guy, almost always gets away with it and has never learned it's wrong. He even does it in practice.

[SchuMassa]

Verstappen was on a lap, Massa was ahead of him, likely on an outlap, didn't want to let him past, it turned into somewhat of a training fight for position.

It was more than that, Massa was stupidly slow and went very wide into a turn, kinda looked like he was leaving space but then closed the door. Out of the next corner Verstappen pulled way alongside Massa and considering Massa was slow, not on a full lap and certainly not pushing hard he could have easily left the inside to Max. Instead he chopped to the inside as usual, Max saw it coming and braked fairly hard and came within an inch or two of wing damage for sure could easily have been more considering it was in a fast corner.

No clue what Massa was doing, absolutely no reason to block a guy going that much faster than you in practice, none at all.

Completely agree, really weird and dangerous what Massa was doing there. Well Verstappen better not say anything and respect the more mature driver.

Hmm, the stewards are stupid then, aren't they?

[Treble]

Man Hamilton is beasting around this track he was the only one that could dip into the 31's in his race sim, Vettel was closest, Bottas a little slower.

It is worth noting that, Bottas was doing his race sim on MEDIUMS on second stint with 1m33.xxx and was matching Hamilton's time of 1m32.xxx in first stint.

Pace-wise, Mercedes seems to be quite far ahead of the Ferraris on both short and long runs. Looks like if it is going to be a straight forward weekend (without any drama), Mercedes would run away with an unchallenged 1-2 in both quali and race.

Let's see if it is JUST FRIDAY.

I've never seen that in this season neither when MERC were half a second faster in quali.... Btw i hope for your happiness it will be like that.
In my opinion this race will be closest than the last one between MER and FER.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Man Hamilton is beasting around this track he was the only one that could dip into the 31's in his race sim, Vettel was closest, Bottas a little slower.

It is worth noting that, Bottas was doing his race sim on MEDIUMS on second stint with 1m33.xxx and was matching Hamilton's time of 1m32.xxx in first stint.

Pace-wise, Mercedes seems to be quite far ahead of the Ferraris on both short and long runs. Looks like if it is going to be a straight forward weekend (without any drama), Mercedes would run away with an unchallenged 1-2 in both quali and race.

Let's see if it is JUST FRIDAY.

I've never seen that in this season neither when MERC were half a second faster in quali.... Btw i hope for your happiness it will be like that.
In my opinion this race will be closest than the last one between MER and FER.

You did not read when I said, "If it is going to be a straight forward weekend....". In Baku, Hamilton was comfortably ahead before the drama struck. Bottas would have followed the suite if he would have managed the first corner properly. Similarly, in Austria, the tragedy of gear box penalty struck and forced Hamilton to change the approach to the weekend. That is why, IF THERE IT IS GOING TO BE A NORMAL WEEKEND...

There have hardly been weekends where both Mercedes and Ferrari have had it normal, together.

[Sieper]

It was more than that, Massa was stupidly slow and went very wide into a turn, kinda looked like he was leaving space but then closed the door. Out of the next corner Verstappen pulled way alongside Massa and considering Massa was slow, not on a full lap and certainly not pushing hard he could have easily left the inside to Max. Instead he chopped to the inside as usual, Max saw it coming and braked fairly hard and came within an inch or two of wing damage for sure could easily have been more considering it was in a fast corner.

No clue what Massa was doing, absolutely no reason to block a guy going that much faster than you in practice, none at all.

Completely agree, really weird and dangerous what Massa was doing there. Well Verstappen better not say anything and respect the more mature driver.

Hmm, the stewards are stupid then, aren't they?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DEtDhdAXYAIqo9M.jpg:large

They most certainly are not, that is why it was picked up, even officially investigated but the final step of actually giving a penalty was not taken.

[matt_b]

I thought that Ferrari was bringing an engine update, if so, we won't know their true pace until tomorrow because they could have just been using an older unit today.

The engine update was today for both Mercedes and Ferrari, they both had it in the car, they wouldn't test a new engine upgrade on a Saturday the same with testing anything on the car.

[stf969]

Anyone knows if Bottas will be punished with 5 positions on starting grid for the substitution of the gear?

[atanatizante]

Anyone knows if Bottas will be punished with 5 positions on starting grid for the substitution of the gear?

Yeap! According to AMuS both gearboxes were damaged on Baku but Bottas` was less and could managed to do the race in Austria ... After the race they did a new gearbox test with both damaged ones and they saw that it will no last for UK race : https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Anyone knows if Bottas will be punished with 5 positions on starting grid for the substitution of the gear?

Yeap! According to AMuS both gearboxes were damaged on Baku but Bottas` was less and could managed to do the race in Austria ... After the race they did a new gearbox test with both damaged ones and they saw that it will no last for UK race : https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=

There you go... the DRAMA. Once again, Mercedes on the back foot.

[stf969]

Anyone knows if Bottas will be punished with 5 positions on starting grid for the substitution of the gear?

Yeap! According to AMuS both gearboxes were damaged on Baku but Bottas` was less and could managed to do the race in Austria ... After the race they did a new gearbox test with both damaged ones and they saw that it will no last for UK race : https://translate.google.com/translate? ... edit-text=

tnx

[Artur Craft]

Abbey = 300 km/h
Copse = Flatout
https://www.mercedesamgf1.com/en/merced ... t-to-test/

That page has some mistakes. For a starter:

This year, fans can expect to see the awesome Abbey section flat in qualifying, which has never been done before.

RB6 did it in the very first year when it was even bumpy and with Vettel completely missing the apex of it

It also says the apex speed of Copse in 2016 was 265kph but it actually was 258(ok, no big deal here with this difference). Later, it says this year will be closer to 290kph, but that wouldn't allow for full throttle as the W08 will reach the corner well over 300kph.

Copse won't be flat, guaranteed.

Sainz, on his fastest FP2 lap, reached it with around 300kph and braked, or lifted, to bring his STR to 276.

The 2010 Red Bull would keep over 5Gs during the entire corner, despite being limited by it's power, while the 2017 cars shown during the FPs were doing only 4.x sustained Gs.

Btw, I wasn't impressed with the sensation of speed of the cars, actually. Maybe my expectation was too high but it felt a bit underwhelming to my eyes watching the onboards today, unlike in Austria.

Anyway, Ricciardo said Copse was flat for Red Bull during the FPs. I guess they are so down on power that it get's possible for them. At least that's the typical joke with the Mclaren(initiated by Alonso, himself)

Haas and Renault are off the pace, running mostly 35's.

Yep. And Force India and Williams looks very good, on contrast(I would expect a factory car to be much faster than these two). The relative performance of these midfield teams confirms the supremacy that Mercedes is having around this track.

There are only 4 fast corners and, of those, only Stowe is long. Relatively speaking, little time is gained/lost on brief turns like Copse, Beckets and Chapel. The Mercedes cars benefit a lot on the acceleration parts and they can all run high downforce levels and still be ahead of Renault and Ferrari powered cars, on the speed trap. At least for the Ferrari fans, Bottas will be out of the way on the starting grid.

[atanatizante]

So that`s why Bottas spend most of the time on the medium tyre ... he should be doing a one stop race on Sunday having a S-M strategy contrary to the most drivers doing a 2 stop (at least Vestappen said that) with a SS-S-S race ...

[matt_b]

Such a shame and like Austria it takes away the spice in qualifying especially as Bottas looked strong today, i'm certain he will qualify on the S which looks like the preferred race tyre then switch to the mediums, should be interesting.