Unfortunately I don't have any text prepared (this was supposed to have been posted yesterday by someone else), nor the time to write anything up, so this will have to do.
Grand Prix 2014 Bahrain Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion
- Thread starter Brogan
- Start date
During pre season testing I put forward the idea that nobody had done a balls to the wall quali lap and I was shouted down for it and basically called an idiot for even thinking such a thing and yet throughout the FP's the pundits were saying exactly what I was saying and that is that nobody had shown their true hand in pre season testing, and so why would they do it in the FP's just before the race...????
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Kewee
Race Winner
Things will become far more interesting when the teams return to Europe and major upgrades start to come online. There's a very strong possibility no one will catch Mercedes this season. One of the Sky Sport commentators believes the advantage Mercedes have is far greater than Red Bull had at any time during Vettel's four year Championship run.
Lew_beauty
Rookie
Mephistopheles I think those are two different things though as one is quali simulation and the other is race simulation. It's not about showing your hand, it's about gathering reliable information.
Not convinced, if Renault sort the engine out, the RB chassis looks too much of a beaut not to blow the field away. Merc have as big a job maintaining that gap.
Lew_beauty
Rookie
Kewee I think Mercedes are more dominant right now than Red Bull were for most of those 4 years. I think the worrying thing is that the dominance is coming from the engine too. Pundits talk about the laws of diminishing returns, but that probably applies to Mercedes in the engine department and Red Bull in the aero department. So if Red Bull are going to find it hard to get gains from Aero and it is harder to force through changes to the engine (though not impossible), it is hard to see Red Bull closing that gap any time soon. Then again, there is much still to be understood about these cars and the development will be rapid. It is possible though that Red Bull will always be handicapped by their engine this year and the teams with the best chance of catching are the Mercedes powered ones.
Wonder if the Mercedes powered cars will get a 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in places like China and Valencia with the super long straights.
Wonder if the Mercedes powered cars will get a 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 in places like China and Valencia with the super long straights.
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Lew_beauty
Rookie
Anyone else think Red Bull are stuck in domination mode? Sending Vettel out for 1 timed lap late in Q2 is crazy, right?
That is exactly the same argument I had to deal with in pre season testing it didn't hold any water then and it doesn't hold any water now.
It is just that some people will not admit they are wrong and say so, simply because they refuse to righteously bow down to my superior intellect...
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Lew_beauty
Rookie
Mephistopheles Haha. What point are you making? Massa did a 1:33.2 in testing during the day compared to a 1:34.5 today in the cooler night temperatures. How fast do you think Massa could've gone balls out in testing then? Pole last year was a 1:32.3.
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That depends on what tyres he was on during testing we know that there is a 2 second difference between the prime and the option this weekend and I seem to remember those times being set on the supersofts in testing and they only have the mediums and the soft for this weekend, which makes the testing times irrelevant...
You can try but you will never be able to pull the wool over my eyes....
Of course there is always the possibility that the cars have gotten slower since testing and that would make a mockery of the millions of euros being spent on development wouldn't it...
You can try but you will never be able to pull the wool over my eyes....
Of course there is always the possibility that the cars have gotten slower since testing and that would make a mockery of the millions of euros being spent on development wouldn't it...
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Lew_beauty
Rookie
Wool over your eyes? I only asked a question. Which you didn't answer incidentally. 
The supersofts are suppose to be around 2 seconds a lap quicker than the mediums. So Massa will have found around .7 of a second since testing (or less if we don't the time was "balls out").
The supersofts are suppose to be around 2 seconds a lap quicker than the mediums. So Massa will have found around .7 of a second since testing (or less if we don't the time was "balls out").In my book the "Balls out." part is important when quantifying a lap time, as indeed it is in other areas of life...
Lew_beauty
Rookie
Now you're just getting cryptic. My question was "How fast do you think Massa could've gone balls out in testing then?". I'm not saying you're wrong or right, I just don't know how much point there is to the argument.
There seemed to be a lot of point for some people to tell me how wrong I was to suggest that they did not show their true potential during testing, and like you I am at a loss to understand why most people told me I was talking bollocks, and so when at this track the pundits say the same as I was saying back then I get a small amount of pleasure in crowing about it...
It's not much but it makes me happy...
It's not much but it makes me happy...
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Lew_beauty
Rookie
I personally don't know either way, I'm just interested to know what time you think Williams could've done.
Well that's the point of sandbagging, nobody knows what time they could have done, but I must admit Williams seemed pretty happy not to do much running in the FP's
Personally I hope no driver does a balls out lap in any session!
This is a family sport.
This is a family sport.
I find myself hoping that Ricciardo runs off with race tomorrow. At the very least, that would keep the Mercs honest.
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