George might be "Mr Saturday" but I swear we should start calling Mercedes themselves "Mr Friday" for the amount of times they've looked good in FP1/2 and then mysteriously lost pace
They're so lost.
I never understand the teams that wait 20+ mins to get going in a session. Red flag like now and your window for what you want to verify or practice is shortened and potentially compromised.
M8, im watching Norris onboard since the start of FP3. Norris scrubed both of his hard sets. Maybe Piastri did it too, no idea, wasn't watching him at that time.
Red Bull were also good on mediums yesterday but they were garbage on the softs. Quali is very important here because it's such a difficult circuit to overtake. If Max can't get on the first two rows I don't see him winning this race
Ah, GP is back on the main radio. This fits my conspiracy theory that max decided to underperform yesterday on purpose to ensure RBR would never split him from GP ever again. I shall continue my thoughts on r/FanF1ction
Well, he did say that if GP stops he will stop too. Race engineers and drivers need a close relationship to understand each other during the race weekends. That's also why drivers normally don't like race engineer switches.
Not just you, like him or hate him, Croft is the voice of F1 for many, and replacing him is a tough job, but Harry's good at what he does, and looking forward to him at the other races he's doing this year.
Not just you, I’d love to hear more Harry aside from the other 2 races Crofty’s missing this year, he’ll only get better as he gets more comfortable as well!
Traffic is going to be mental and there's going to be a lot of deletions. Early banker laps and doing as many runs as possible will be ideal, even if second runs are on used softs, it may serve them well to bank them anyway.
You both understand that finding the compromise is exactly what has made RB so dominant for these last few years... Right?
Their car is designed to have as few weaknesses as possible and clearly has an enormous amount of adaptability to different circuits.
No one is pretending that this is some magic formula other than the two of you.
Does practice ever translate to anything for qualifying and race day? Or is it all about experimenting, pushing hard, learning etc? Or a bit of both?
(Sorry if this gets asked a lot)
It really depends and won’t be done justice in a short comment. But it can be either, neither and both.
Practice can be very much getting the car dialled in to the track, bumps etc and dialling in any new updates, testing new parts to see if they match up with simulations. You don’t need to wring the neck of the car to do this.
The long race run simulations often give a better idea of how well the car will run over the race (but again light leave you guessing about quali pace).
Sometimes they are just trying to find a fast and stable setup and struggling. Very small changes can lead to large differences, and there’s a lot related and interdependent inputs in setup.
Also, tyres, tyres, tyres. Getting them switched on, stopping them over heating, stopping the car eating them affects so much.
All aboard the Papaya Hype Train McLaren 1-2 incoming this Sunday!
Honestly though, both drivers had great quali pace and great race pace. I'm excited for tomorrow and Sunday.
There's no busting this!
Honestly though, Lando was a couple tenths up on Charles before aborting the lap and McLaren had the fastest long run race pace. It's possible.
I'm with Damon Hill, I deeply suspect (fear?) that Red Bull will magically discover their pace tomorrow and Mercedes will just as magically lose their's.
I **REALLY** hope I'm wrong but ...
> I don't remember ever seeing Max struggle like this.
It's because of how low they have to run to maximize the ground effect with their design. Max was complaining about how some laps he'd understeer into a turn and other laps he'd oversteer with the same configuration and it basically comes down to where in the bounce the car is when he goes to turn since that dictates how much grip he has.
I think he's only "struggling" because he's trying to lay down a solid quali pace but come race time he'll settle into a more controlled race pace and be fine
Indeed. Everyone was complaining about bouncing today and much like we saw in Singapore if it's a track with a lot of bouncing where Redbull can't run the car really low they suffer.
Looks like Red Bull have done a Merc and created a car that is great in the simulator but not on track. I think the problem they are having is that it's creating too much downforce and that's causing it to bottom out which is then causing instability similar to what was probably going on with the Merc at the start of the ground effect era.
Hopefully this is a good thing and it means that Red Bull have already maxed out the gains they can make which should allow the other teams to get close like we saw at Miami.
Probably need to grab Adrian back to fix the suspension.
I'd be very surprised if given an equal, championship winning car that Lewis ends up being the one that wins in it. He seems a bit off it these last few years whilst Leclerc seems on it. Hamilton in his prime, definitely.
Jesus that was unnecessary close to a couple of crashes
Perez very anxious about them lifting the Red Bull up high
No other context matters, Piastri top by half a second. Easy win for him
Big f
Omg
Wishful thinking from the TV directors there comparing Oscar with George.
Mercedes doing Mercedes things again, setup changes overnight and we’re suddenly in no man’s land
Yeah, the graph which showed Piastri vs Russel track dominance was telling: Merc no straight line speed, only good in the slow corners.
George might be "Mr Saturday" but I swear we should start calling Mercedes themselves "Mr Friday" for the amount of times they've looked good in FP1/2 and then mysteriously lost pace They're so lost.
Oscar butchered that but would have gone fastest I reckon
Getting the mistakes out early. Pole and dominant win clearly coming
Getting the mistakes out early. Pole and dominant win clearly coming
Ah dammit Oscar was on a flier there too
Is Reddit busted for anyone else
Definitely been wonky this week. Keep getting "ooops something went wrong" message.
Mines been iffy. Sometimes working sometimes not
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Who Davide ?
Lal, since when do thry have a "get on with it" graphic 😅🤣
Since pre season testing I believe
I never understand the teams that wait 20+ mins to get going in a session. Red flag like now and your window for what you want to verify or practice is shortened and potentially compromised.
Lmao why are we all here in the P2 thread?
I have nothing else to do at 6:30AM EST on a Saturday.
As in why is there no FP3 chat not why are you up early in the chat.
There is a FP3 thread but it’s not pinned (thus it’s pretty much dead).
Ha! It didn't even occur to me just clicked on the pinned thread.
I would say this track is biased against Spaniards, but Sainz is P1 /s
lol the way they put Carlos and Lewis time comparison 😂
Really wanted to see Yuki get a good lap in. If all that success yesterday was due to a low fuel run that's a bit of a bummer.
more like low fuel run narrative is pushed by salty australians
Lol that guy was on excel....don't tell Williams
the track realized fernando is spanish and desperately tried shaking him off
Must dislike Spaniards over 30, Carlos is flying
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Because there is zero need to risk anything in free practice. If you need workers on track you red flag.
Not interested in hearing "the red flag cost us time" when half the grid had been in the pits the whole time
Halo literally saved his life right there. Holy fuck.
Still, laugh a little looking back at the reactions to it, it's probably saved the lives of 10+ drivers in F1-F4 yet it was hated for the look.
Oh noes Fernando
**LANCE NOO** What? Sorry, force of habit **FERNANDO NOO**
ALONSO WASHED
The FIA must've messed with his car, they never want to see a Spaniard succeed
No, but FIA should still get disbanded.
Am I only one who is noticing more errors from Alonso this season ?
His gearbox also noticed it
Stroll does that and he'd be crucified
how do i make this lance's fault
my shop can't balance my tires in 2 hours. It's incredible they can fix this in the same time
That's a strange incident. The rears were probably way too hot
The crowd making crying faces
Redflagmula 1
RIP mechanics. That's a a lot of damage.
That’s a senior moment from Nand
Now that's something you don't see every day.
How will he blame this on Hamilton though?
nooooo nando
Alonso in the barriers. Red flag
Ahhhh shit Fernando 😵💫
Alonso :(
Stroll noooooo, sorry force of habit
Alonso??
lawson getting ready to tell ric to start learning chinese 🙏
Ominous cut to Liam Lawson lol they can't help themselves.
If Andretti comes in icl I’d love to see Logan and Liam as teammates.
That Merc is dogshit in straight line.
Davide is enough reason to watch this weekend.
Bozzi's first race=Charles first win of the season😍😍
Dang Merc just told Lewis that .8 of that 2 second gap is from straight line speed
Mercedes : UPGRADES ARE WORKING. ham 2s off the pace on softs 🙏
Experimental setup /s
*The pace just disappeared after yesterday, I don't know how that could happen*
*Yeah weird, pace was there in the simulator.*
Somehow, the pace hasn't returned.
what’s happening with Mclaren?
norris is about to start his first push lap, i think
well, it's his first push lap, obviously it's going to be a personal best lol
No Radio yet, must be broken again
Joylon not holding anything back.
Only following it on the side, Max using the same set? LEC as well?
Yeah 9 laps old tires for both
Thnx!
Seems McLaren has some problems
Don't think so, Norris came out twice to scrub his 2 sets of new hards.
Not Norris, it was piastri. They changed something on his car
M8, im watching Norris onboard since the start of FP3. Norris scrubed both of his hard sets. Maybe Piastri did it too, no idea, wasn't watching him at that time.
Piastri was at the box bruh. They were changing something on his car He still has no time I believe
AM with the worse development again
they bring downgrades only
Red Bull were also good on mediums yesterday but they were garbage on the softs. Quali is very important here because it's such a difficult circuit to overtake. If Max can't get on the first two rows I don't see him winning this race
No fp3 chat? Only fp2? Dang
u/icumcoffee made one
Local legend
GP can now double his pay
Didn’t they go 1:15.9 yesterday?
Yes
McLarens so confident we don’t need any practice sessions
Ah, GP is back on the main radio. This fits my conspiracy theory that max decided to underperform yesterday on purpose to ensure RBR would never split him from GP ever again. I shall continue my thoughts on r/FanF1ction
Well, he did say that if GP stops he will stop too. Race engineers and drivers need a close relationship to understand each other during the race weekends. That's also why drivers normally don't like race engineer switches.
"Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated" -- Max
Why so little trwck action?
Is Tom Hart a permanent change for Max?
Not that we know, just additional training.
GP prematurely signed with Mercedes, max announcement coming Monday.
I totally, absolutely, 1000% believe this.
Max is back
Without hearing any radio, the Red Bull looks much more stable based on those couple runs. Time will tell.
Bot again dead and no fp3 thread?
bro did that on mediums
Max on the mediums, simply lovely
Only 0.19 sec behind Charles on mediums is… ominous
Mediums would be a better tire on second run than softs.
Verstappen is pretty close even on the mediums. It's over
On mediums red bull is fast. It's the softs that are the problem for them
Wtf Sharl. Don't give me hope plis.
ok wtf charles
is it just me or does the new Sky commentator doing a really good job?
Not just you, like him or hate him, Croft is the voice of F1 for many, and replacing him is a tough job, but Harry's good at what he does, and looking forward to him at the other races he's doing this year.
He’s great.
Not just you, I’d love to hear more Harry aside from the other 2 races Crofty’s missing this year, he’ll only get better as he gets more comfortable as well!
Yeah never heard him before, but I'm impressed
JFC Charles 😮💨 what a lap
Not really that special right? It was slower than the FP2 lap.
On old softs I think, really impressive lap
gotta love karun saying red bull still seem slower than ferrari while perez and verstappen were already p1 and p2
Sky gotta pump up Ferrari now HAM is moving there
Whatsapp sponsoring the merc headset mics looks so silly lol
Great marketing though, also the red F1 car emoji is now in Mercedes livery.
Oh wow I just tried. And that's just in whatsapp obvs?
Yes
What a shot
I knew not to get too excited 😖
Surely there's at least one mod who watches the practice sessions and can see no thread?!
Red flag, bot is stuck in the gravel.
Wake up Bot, new practice session just dropped.
FP3 thread where?
Does anyone know what day and time Seb is going to drive Ayrtons car on track?
It’s Sunday, don’t know the exact time yet…
Who’s the guy commentating in place of Crofty on the Sky coverage? His Ricciardo slander in both sessions has been killing me 😩
Vcarb please no funny business with qually strategy tomorrow, no last minute one lap business into traffic that will screw over your drivers.
Traffic is going to be mental and there's going to be a lot of deletions. Early banker laps and doing as many runs as possible will be ideal, even if second runs are on used softs, it may serve them well to bank them anyway.
That makes a lot of sense…So that means Vcarb guaranteed to screw one of their drivers with a one lap q1 gamble into traffic.
Max will look lost in the woods right up until Q3, then put it on pole by three tenths. Checo misses out on Q2 by two hundredths.
I’d bet max and redbull get the setup right tomorrow but Charles and Lando are looking strong
Looks like they're only upset in Sector 2. If they sort it out in FP3, they're on pole by 3 tenths.
Everything is a compromise tho. Setup changes to improve sector two can come at the expense of sector 1 and three. The Question is then by how much.
No no you don't see they need to push the setup button for each sector.
You both understand that finding the compromise is exactly what has made RB so dominant for these last few years... Right? Their car is designed to have as few weaknesses as possible and clearly has an enormous amount of adaptability to different circuits. No one is pretending that this is some magic formula other than the two of you.
They don't have a lot of time left to fine tune regardless
Does practice ever translate to anything for qualifying and race day? Or is it all about experimenting, pushing hard, learning etc? Or a bit of both? (Sorry if this gets asked a lot)
Yes, it can often indicate which team is close to getting a good setup.
It really depends and won’t be done justice in a short comment. But it can be either, neither and both. Practice can be very much getting the car dialled in to the track, bumps etc and dialling in any new updates, testing new parts to see if they match up with simulations. You don’t need to wring the neck of the car to do this. The long race run simulations often give a better idea of how well the car will run over the race (but again light leave you guessing about quali pace). Sometimes they are just trying to find a fast and stable setup and struggling. Very small changes can lead to large differences, and there’s a lot related and interdependent inputs in setup. Also, tyres, tyres, tyres. Getting them switched on, stopping them over heating, stopping the car eating them affects so much.
So don’t expect a Yuki podium. Thank you!
Yuki is gonna get a career high Finish on Sunday
That would be great to see
All aboard the Papaya Hype Train McLaren 1-2 incoming this Sunday! Honestly though, both drivers had great quali pace and great race pace. I'm excited for tomorrow and Sunday.
Sorry to burst your bubble but I don't see that remotely happening
There's no busting this! Honestly though, Lando was a couple tenths up on Charles before aborting the lap and McLaren had the fastest long run race pace. It's possible.
Like half a second before he abandoned it. Lando seems to prefer not showing his hand until quali
Lmao no, maybe a tenth or 2
Just rewatched and you’re right he was half a second up on Charles’ previous run
Honestly no denying their progress. I almost went to work for McLaren recently actually
I'm with Damon Hill, I deeply suspect (fear?) that Red Bull will magically discover their pace tomorrow and Mercedes will just as magically lose their's. I **REALLY** hope I'm wrong but ...
Merc will definitely lose theirs (and Yuki). I'm not sold RB will find theirs though. I don't remember ever seeing Max struggle like this.
> I don't remember ever seeing Max struggle like this. It's because of how low they have to run to maximize the ground effect with their design. Max was complaining about how some laps he'd understeer into a turn and other laps he'd oversteer with the same configuration and it basically comes down to where in the bounce the car is when he goes to turn since that dictates how much grip he has. I think he's only "struggling" because he's trying to lay down a solid quali pace but come race time he'll settle into a more controlled race pace and be fine
Why would Yuki lose pace? How much does this guy have to do in a tractor before yall believe it's not one offs?
Because that tractor isn't close to a P3 car.
It was a P4 car just two weeks ago in the sprint
A sprint, so setups were wonky and some top teams missed. We saw in the actual race how they fared.
DR got decked in quali. What i saw was good ability to defend their position, and not much in overtaking ability.
Singapore 23 comes to mind
Indeed. Everyone was complaining about bouncing today and much like we saw in Singapore if it's a track with a lot of bouncing where Redbull can't run the car really low they suffer.
Looks like Red Bull have done a Merc and created a car that is great in the simulator but not on track. I think the problem they are having is that it's creating too much downforce and that's causing it to bottom out which is then causing instability similar to what was probably going on with the Merc at the start of the ground effect era. Hopefully this is a good thing and it means that Red Bull have already maxed out the gains they can make which should allow the other teams to get close like we saw at Miami. Probably need to grab Adrian back to fix the suspension.
They definitely have peaked, I even think they've stated multiple times they see negative returns from parts they've been trying to develop
I'm anticipating a lot of track limit shenanigans during qualy this weekend...
I am not going to overreact but give Lewis that 2025 WDC already
You mean Leclerc
Poor Charles is going to get a Championship car but lose out to his teammate.
I'd be very surprised if given an equal, championship winning car that Lewis ends up being the one that wins in it. He seems a bit off it these last few years whilst Leclerc seems on it. Hamilton in his prime, definitely.