2022 Spanish Grand Prix - Catalunya, May 20 - 22

[Wouter]

[chrisc90]

They change a lot of parts for fuelling Ferrari over the weekend

[SirBastianVettel]

Difficult to predict the qualifying results. P1 is Leclerc, but behind that it could be anyone I think.

[_cerber1]

[cplchanb]

So the mercs managed to hold their Friday pace and be within touching distance of p1... let's see if that is genuine pace for qualifying and/or the race

[GrizzleBoy]

What is extremely interesting now given the Charles vs Max championship fight, is that I could probably see Red Bull or Ferrari either take their eyes off of the Mercs or even concede in fights against the mercs in order to stay ahead of their main competitors.

Say for instance Ham/Russel qualify well and and start to pressure whoever takes pole.

Would a Charles leclerc with tyre degradation issues fight hard against a George Russel for P1, or does he let it go and save his tyres for when Max comes at him?

This is all wildly speculative obviously, but I wonder how it would all work if Mercedes truly do end up with genuine fighting pace.

[SirBastianVettel]

I think it’s too early in the season for Ferrari to only focus on Verstappen.

[sunny1304r]

I think it’s too early in the season for Ferrari to only focus on Verstappen.

Why ? Red Bull will never hesitate to throw Perez under the bus for Max. If Ferrari wants to win the championship they should focus on Charles, otherwise it will be another 2008.

[organic]

I think it’s too early in the season for Ferrari to only focus on Verstappen.

Why ? Red Bull will never hesitate to throw Perez under the bus for Max. If Ferrari wants to win the championship they should focus on Charles, otherwise it will be another 2008.

They said it's too early for Ferrari to focus on Verstappen ie it's too early to discount either Merc driver as potential WDC rivals. Nothing to do with prioritizing Charles over Sainz etc

[PlatinumZealot]

I think it’s too early in the season for Ferrari to only focus on Verstappen.

Why ? Red Bull will never hesitate to throw Perez under the bus for Max. If Ferrari wants to win the championship they should focus on Charles, otherwise it will be another 2008.

This! And Mercedes doesn't have a number 1 policy at the moment. If Russell takes the number 1 by mid-season, he will be less of a threat than Max because of the "softer" attitude of Mercedes.

[f1jcw]

The dust Ted just mentioned?
Doesn't sound healthy, surly you'll be breathing that in.

[Schippke]

Coming into qualifying, I'd be surprised to see anybody else other than Charles on pole. In saying that, if Red Bull have a bit more in reserve, could spring a potential surprised. Mercedes themselves are also clawing their way back to the front and could very well be a factor... especially in the race.

... which leads me to my next opinion. The superior Red Bull race pace (and much better tyre wear) should see them win on pace alone; Even if they're behind, Red Bull can easily get ahead with strategy if they're behind on a fresh set of tyres. Only question on them is reliability...

If Mercedes' pace this weekend is genuine in the race as well as qualifying (and looking at the Friday long run times, it is)... Ferrari will be having a tough time staying on the podium, let alone challenge Max for the win.

[dialtone]

Looks like Ferrari solved tyre deg.



FP3 was at 4am my time and I only just woke up so didn't watch it.

* There's little between these 3, the only thing I can say is that Leclerc clearly started the lap slower through the main straight and that's obviously time that Ferrari has in the pocket.
* I said Merc was going to be close after FP1, they are.
* All of the salient features of the laps from FP1, e.g. Ferrari faster in Campsa, are still there unchanged

Verstappen line through S3 isn't different any more, when I went to check onboard from FP2, Verstappen was basically trying to take the last chicane from as far right as possible, sacrificing exit from T13 but that's gone now

More importantly Ferrari seems to have solved tyre deg, here's a stint graph from FP3 for both SAI and LEC on softs, it's going to be a fun 3 way fight weekend.



PER FP2
LAP 19 SOFT/13 Stint 6: 1:25.622
LAP 20 SOFT/14 Stint 6: 1:25.834
LAP 21 SOFT/15 Stint 6: 1:26.239
LAP 22 SOFT/16 Stint 6: 1:26.221
LAP 23 SOFT/17 Stint 6: 1:26.647
LAP 24 SOFT/18 Stint 6: 1:26.744
LAP 25 SOFT/19 Stint 6: 1:26.540
LAP 26 SOFT/20 Stint 6: 1:33.560
LAP 27 SOFT/21 Stint 6: 1:26.886
LAP 28 SOFT/22 Stint 6: 1:26.817
LAP 29 SOFT/23 Stint 6: 2:7.585
LAP 30 SOFT/24 Stint 6: 2:11.605

LEC
LAP 9 SOFT/1 Stint 4: 1:45.243
LAP 10 SOFT/5 Stint 4: NaT
LAP 11 SOFT/6 Stint 4: 1:24.605
LAP 12 SOFT/7 Stint 4: 1:24.974
LAP 13 SOFT/8 Stint 4: 1:25.108
LAP 14 SOFT/9 Stint 4: 1:25.162
LAP 15 SOFT/10 Stint 4: 1:25.747
LAP 16 SOFT/11 Stint 4: 1:25.795
LAP 17 SOFT/12 Stint 4: 1:25.705
LAP 18 SOFT/13 Stint 4: 1:25.782
LAP 19 SOFT/14 Stint 4: 1:50.181
LAP 20 SOFT/15 Stint 4: 1:25.366
LAP 21 SOFT/16 Stint 4: 1:25.905
LAP 22 SOFT/17 Stint 4: 2:13.390
LAP 23 SOFT/18 Stint 4: 1:59.876

SAI
LAP 11 SOFT/4 Stint 6: 2:11.577
LAP 12 SOFT/6 Stint 6: NaT
LAP 13 SOFT/7 Stint 6: 1:25.137
LAP 14 SOFT/8 Stint 6: 1:25.365
LAP 15 SOFT/9 Stint 6: 1:25.206
LAP 16 SOFT/10 Stint 6: 1:25.361
LAP 17 SOFT/11 Stint 6: 1:25.663
LAP 18 SOFT/12 Stint 6: 1:25.772
LAP 19 SOFT/13 Stint 6: 1:26.005
LAP 20 SOFT/14 Stint 6: 1:26.566
LAP 21 SOFT/15 Stint 6: 1:26.842
LAP 22 SOFT/16 Stint 6: 1:53.981
LAP 23 SOFT/17 Stint 6: 2:6.896

[GrizzleBoy]

Oof, that's a lot of money for not a lot of return there with the Aston Martin cars.

[PlatinumZealot]

Both Astons are out in Q1. So much for the side-pod evangelists!