Grand Prix 2015 Spanish Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

F1 arrives in Europe at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Last year we had a Hamilton pole and a Hamilton win, I suspect we will see the same this weekend and if it is what hope is there for Rosberg in the title race? Beaten in to third in Bahrain, Nico's season appears to be being flushed around the U bend before it has even started. All the rhetoric in the press conferences and in the podium interviews don't seem to translate in to speed on the track. If I was advising Nico I suggest he do his talking on the track but he just doesn't appear to have the same pace as Lewis.

Ferrari seem to have found some pace but are still not able to challenge the lead Mercedes. It was nice to see Raikkonen back on the podium in Bahrain. A few uncharacteristic mistakes from Vettel, and his team mates better strategy, saw the German pushed back to fourth and his record in Barcelona isn't stellar so maybe Kimi will keep him honest this race too.

Williams will be next. Massa has started the season the better of the two but Bottas was faster in both qualifying and race in Bahrain and Williams have some upgrades for Spain so they might be closer to the Ferrari's.

The mid field battle is quite close with Toro Rosso, Sauber, Red Bull, Lotus and Force India all squabbling over the position from 6 to 16. All teams and drivers have scored points in races so far, with the exception of Pastor Maldonado, and no one team appears to want to take the Fourth Best on the grid position. Hopefully the TV coverage will let us see more the mid-field squabbles as the front running teams disappear in to the distance. Or maybe there will be a titanic struggle at the front and none of us will give a monkeys about who finishes 7th.

At the back will be Manor Marussia and McLaren. I wonder if McLaren will be able to get two cars to the grid for this race? Barcelona isn't traditionally a high attrition race so I suspect McLaren will continue in the same position in the WCC after Spain as a British Eurovison entry with Nul Point. Manor, well done for just being there and with Will Stevens showing some reasonable speed in a very slow car have we found Britain's next World Champion? :snigger:

It's a paella and Rioja weekend, enjoy.
 
Jackmen have scary jobs

angry-hugh-jackman.jpg
 
If the McLaren front jack man hadn't have had such quick reactions he would have been seriously injured or even killed, the rear jack man comes in from the side after the car has stopped so why can't the front jack man do the same? So it might add a second to the pitstop time but if they all had to do it that would not make any difference...
 
Would like to think that the front jack men get paid more than their rear counterparts. If they don't then after Sunday they wanna ask for a raise. I know which end I'd rather be at.
Speaking of rear jacks they re-ran the 1984 season a few days ago on Sky - complete with Johnny Herbert driving off with rear jack still intact. Lol what a 'jack' ass..
Update. Oops got mixed up (seen that many things on Sky recently) it was 1995 - 80's was way to early for JH of course. Still funny though..
 
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I noticed on the Merc pit stops that two of the mechanics had big black backpacks on. Anyone know what those were for?

Also, well done Nico. That was a great drive on Subday. He did everything he needed to and proved he's still got it.
 
After the Niki Lauda remark about Mercedes's pits
I has decided to see stats of pits in the Spanish GP.
If doesn't count bad pits (more then 24 seconds) we have:
Team - PitTime - Pits - Average
Ferrari - 88,01 - 4 - 22,003
Williams - 110,907 - 5 - 22,181
Mercedes - 89,014 - 4 - 22,254
RedBull - 67,38 - 3 - 22,460
ForceIndia - 112,632 - 5 - 22,526
ToroRosso - 67,644 - 3 - 22,548
Sauber - 68,735 - 3 - 22,912
Lotus - 45,884 - 2 - 22,942
Manor - 68,909 - 3 - 22,970
Mclaren - 69,644 - 3 - 23,215
Total - 788,759 - 35 - 22,536

Not so bad for Mercedes.
But Hamilton lost 3 second on his first pit
and it may be was scoring loss.

Full table (with bad pits) is:
Team - PitTime - Pits - Average
Ferrari - 88,01 - 4 - 22,003
Williams - 110,907 - 5 - 22,181
ForceIndia - 112,632 - 5 - 22,526
Mercedes - 113,6 - 5 - 22,720
ToroRosso - 92,04 - 4 - 23,010
RedBull - 92,264 - 4 - 23,066
Mclaren - 93,71 - 4 - 23,428
Sauber - 94,007 - 4 - 23,502
Manor - 142,427 - 6 - 23,738
Lotus - 136,575 - 5 - 27,315
Total - 1076,172 - 46 - 23,395
 
I noticed on the Merc pit stops that two of the mechanics had big black backpacks on. Anyone know what those were for?

I didn't notice at the time but I've just re-watched the pit stops. They appear to be rigid and made from carbon fibre and seem to have coiled hydraulic tubes coming from them. They seem to be only worn by two members of the crew who were both responsible for removing a front tyre (at each pit stop). The must serve a useful purpose as otherwise they are just bulky and would get in the way.

Of course, they may just be a fashion accessory as both the wearers were also sporting pink gloves.
 
It isn't that, they may be trying out air conditioned suites for the pit crew much like McLaren did a while back, put them on a couple of the pit crew team and see if it hampers them in any way or indeed makes them more efficient, analyse the results and see if it makes a difference one way or the other if it is beneficial then give them to the whole of the crew.

All experiments must be carried out using a control, that control being the guys not wearing the suites..
 
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