2018 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 11-13

[PhillipM]

It does look like the upgrades have lifted McLaren a bit, but they also seem to be struggling with balance on a single qualifying lap - I don't think I've seen Alonso string a clean lap together yet.

[dp12]

Is there rain for tomorrow's GP??

[Shader]

So the illegal looking wing mirrors are actually illegal.

Why would Ferrari try such an obviously illegal looking thing if it actually was illegal? Would have just been a waste of time.
It most possibly was not illegal, but FIA changed it afterwards, like they always do. A bit ridiculous.

FIA just declared it illegal.

[Restomaniac]

Well, you don't just think if something is illegal or not, you look it up. These are rules written down so it makes less to no sense to tell that they thought it was not illegal.
The rule tells that you are not allowed such big wings on the halo. Ferrari didn't put the wing on the halo, but on the mirror. So technically it is allowed. Ferrari went to the legal limits which is absolutely ok and FIA declared it as illegal afterwards which is really ridiculous. But I'm not surprised anymore.

How to fix F1? Ban the FIA. For once the halo looked okay with some things hanging off. But that aside, is the mirror placement the issue (FIA really messed up if it is) or the winglet above (My guess)? I can get no straight answers anywhere.

MAMBA

The issue was that it wasn't Mercedes or Red Bull to create those mirrors, because in such a case they would have not forbidden them after having said they were legal.

No the issue is that the halo wasn't designed to hang bloody wings and wing mirrors off it.

The second I saw it on here my intial thought wasn't 'oh that's clever' it was instead 'well someone's taking the mick'.
It seems my initial reaction was correct.

[Xwang]

How to fix F1? Ban the FIA. For once the halo looked okay with some things hanging off. But that aside, is the mirror placement the issue (FIA really messed up if it is) or the winglet above (My guess)? I can get no straight answers anywhere.

MAMBA

The issue was that it wasn't Mercedes or Red Bull to create those mirrors, because in such a case they would have not forbidden them after having said they were legal.

No the issue is that the halo wasn't designed to hang bloody wing mirrors off it.

The second I saw it on here my intial thought wasn't 'oh that's clever' it was instead 'well someone's taking the mick'.
It seems my initial reaction was correct.

FIA has declared that mirrors can be mounted on halo and winglets in different forms are in use in conjunction with mirrors by many teams in the last years.
So if no "prohibited bodywork volume" is violated, then those mirror should be legal.
Otherwise they should have not been allowed for this race too.
The fact that it is now legal, but illegal from the next race let me think that FIA is completely in the hands of Mercedes (in fact this GP tyres are tailor made for them and all other teams have been disadvantaged by that).

[Darth-Piekus]

One thing is certain. The made the right decision to go to Renault. 5 years counting 2013 and Honda still hasn't made an engine worth of a top team.

I now noticed that Alonso was slower on those first times by 1.2 secs but he had the medium while Raikonnen had the Supersofts. Is it possible that Alonso is much closer than we think considering the huge difference between the Medium and the Supersoft?

[fouad1979]

Alonso doing 1.18.7 on medium sandbagging or what

[PhillipM]

That's pretty good for Alonso on mediums.

[PhillipM]

18.2 on mediums...he's taking a while to string a lap together though, it looks like they're either struggling to generate temp at the same time or the balance is shifting until it's got a few laps on the car.

[PlatinumZealot]

The Ferrari looking like its on rails! I fear my Merc pole prediciton is going to be proved wrong.

[Darth-Piekus]

Alonso was 1.2 slower on the Mediums? What can he do with the Supersofts?

[PhillipM]

Alonso was 1.2 slower on the Mediums? What can he do with the Supersofts?

Depends if they can make them work, a lot of cars struggling to keep them in check over a full qualy lap.

[PhillipM]

Get Kubica in that bloody car and stop chasing money Williams, it's been an embarrasing money grab for the past 3 years, and everyone knows it. Stroll's a joke, he couldn't even keep up with an old retiree and then started mouthing off about it.

[mwillems]

Alonso was 1.2 slower on the Mediums? What can he do with the Supersofts?

Depends if they can make them work, a lot of cars struggling to keep them in check over a full qualy lap.

Looks like they didn't get the right temps until the end of the lap, slower in the first two sectors.

[Darth-Piekus]

It proves though that Mclaren is much faster than they have shown so far this weekend.

Also I'm afraid Vandoorme won't be in Q3.