Grand Prix 2016 Russian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As China fades into the sunset and F1 moves on to Sochi, what a different picture we have in 2016 to the 2015 season.The same team is out front, but with Rosberg well in control while Hamilton is struggling to stay with him. Last year Hamilton was 66 points in the lead after Sochi. Although that could never be the case this year, as the Sochi race is considerably earlier.

This year the Russian GP is being run almost six months earlier in the season, the previous two having been run in October. But the weather, or at least the temperature range seems to be about the same, I don't know if it's any wetter, so from that point of view it's a bit of an unknown.
But for the teams the tyre choices should be relatively straightforward. The Pirelli choice of tyres for Russia are medium, soft and supersoft, the drivers must use one set of medium and one set of soft during the race. Sochi has a long slow pitlane so I can't imagine that there will be too many pit stops, or that the teams will rush to use the supersofts for that reason. Although the supersofts will play their part in Qualifying. However we shall see, it's sometimes hard to fathom team thinking.
Mercedes are still the team to beat, but Ferrari are slowly, very slowly, closing the gap. The McLaren team have improved to the point of being mid-field (sort of), but at least they have moved forward, which has to be encouraging for McLaren fans. The new Haas team having started so well, have just delivered the sort of race we expect from a new team, lets hope that it's a temporary blip. The Red Bull seems to have staged a bit of a fight back, or at least they have stopped sliding down the field so rapidly, much like the Williams. Rumour has it that the Red Bull will be testing a canopy at Sochi, (PItPass) I don't know if that will be just on track or for the race. But if it's true it will be very interesting.
So far it's been a good start to the season, which I hope continues with this race. But just as a point of interest the nearby Russian mountain resort of Rosa Khutor held the BoogleWoogle mountain carnival, which involved Bikini Skiing. I kid you not. So if anyone is going to Sochi and they find themselves suffering a boring race week-end, maybe they could pop along and see what else happens in Rosa Khutor.
 
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Perhaps, at Sochi, they realise there are fewer chances to overtake and no "under cut" from the pit stops so they take more of a risk on the opening lap to gain a few places?
 
Glad to see that McLaren have made improvements, so that Fernando and Jenson could finish in the points, instead of languishing in the rear with back markers.

Lewis obviously not a happy camper, but drove well with some great passes to finish in second place. It would ]have been interesting to see how much Hamilton, would have been able to close down on Rosberg, as he felt for a possible win, but a water pressure problem put an end to that idea.....:thinking:
 
There is also that long run-up to the first corner off the grid at Sochi combined with one of those tarmac run-offs at the end of it. Maybe drivers these days feel encouraged into taking more chances at the first corner?
 
It is pitty that another race in the Sochi suffered due to Pirelli choice.
"one-stop strategy is just crap for racing" (C) Lewis Hamilton
And few overtakes is result.
Thanks to Galahad who was counting their.
 
Well the bit with the KGB dictator asking the drivers questions after the race was certainly weird.

Yeah it was a weird atmosphere in drivers room. Especially when putin asks rosberg "Do you like it here? Is everything all right?" Because what else can rosberg say of he was going to be positive but its was like nico felt like he had to overly nice & compliment putin other he'd get done for treason
 
I bit like the Queen asking everyone she meets "And what do you do?". Like she cares.
 
Having watched the highlights and analysed Kyvat vs Vettel part 2

Turn 1 - Kyvat locked up and went into the back of Vettel - agree

Turn 3 - Vettel was not going through throttle so was really putting himself in a dangerous position...its a tactic Schumacher use to do well and brake test others

-----------------------------------

Vettel goes down to the Red Bull pit to let Christian Horner know his anger and Horner apologises ! :rolleyes::facepalm::whistle:

I am sorry but he had not heard what his own driver's view yet and comes out to support the opposition. I'd be quite miffed that my own boss did that considering all it does is make him a scapegoat.
 
As for Rosberg.. well he's now 7 in a row and has won 4 in a row in a season so before anyone says stats don't matter... it appears Hamilton can't buy any luck at the moment and Rosberg has them all .

So Rosberg had best make the most of it while he can whilst all his rivals keep tripping up and not showing the same consistency
 
For the tyre rules to work, they've brought the wrong available tyres to this race, I feel.

In a backtrack to this comment, they can't really expect the ultra softs to cope with turn 3, can they? Bit of an oddball in terms of tyre wear is Sochi. There seems to be very little around most of the circuit, but an absolute ton of marbles at the outside of turn 3. Strange.

Anyway, Barcelona next, we can at least be sure they've got the right tyres there...
 
olegg He's gone from hero to zero in two weeks

But what I found very uncomfortable was Christian Horner siding with Vettel which really showed a lack of diplomacy and tact once again on Horner's part. There is nothing for humiliating then your boss siding with another driver over an incident before you had a chance to explain yourself
 
All, you may have noticed a few posts missing. Having reviewed the exchanges the were off topic and in one point bordering on causing offence in contravention of the forum rules. I have left a small part of the thread including the KGB part because it is just about on topic. Please keep the posts friendly in nature.

C_A_T
 
In a backtrack to this comment, they can't really expect the ultra softs to cope with turn 3, can they? Bit of an oddball in terms of tyre wear is Sochi. There seems to be very little around most of the circuit, but an absolute ton of marbles at the outside of turn 3. Strange.

Anyway, Barcelona next, we can at least be sure they've got the right tyres there...

With third compound added, here's what's the "extra" tyre compared to 2015:

Australia: supersoft
Bahrain: supersoft
China: supersoft
Russia: medium
Spain: soft
Monaco: ultrasoft
Canada: ultrasoft
Austria: ultrasoft

See - in Russia it was the hardest available, in the rest it's the softest.
 
Please keep the posts friendly in nature.

Mine was, I only hope olegg saw it before it was deleted.

Can I ask Olegg, how popular F1 has become since Sochi and if Kvyat is the most popular driver in Russia?

It might sound obvious but some go for old fave's or popular teams.
 
I had to remove some posts that would have made no sense out of context. Sorry about that but it was important to restore the tone of the thread over all.
 
But what I found very uncomfortable was Christian Horner siding with Vettel which really showed a lack of diplomacy and tact once again on Horner's part. There is nothing for humiliating then your boss siding with another driver over an incident before you had a chance to explain yourself

I imagine Horner was pretty pissed given that Kyvat managed to ruin the race for both red bull cars. (Nevermind the damage caused to other cars.)
 
I have to admit I switched off the coverage after the podium celebrations and watched the snooker. Was Horner taking Vettel's side before any debrief with his driver?
 
I have to admit I switched off the coverage after the podium celebrations and watched the snooker. Was Horner taking Vettel's side before any debrief with his driver?

Yes, of course but Kravitz asked Horner if he remembered having a driver known as "The Crash Kid" :)
 
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