[AW335TT]

Originally Posted by five_timer

86F with the sun down is what I'd call hot.

Lol, it's that Cali weather. I can't wait till summer and those 90 degree summer nights.

[hellrotm]

Yeah, mid 80's at night is not hot. Since they were in the desert and everyone is saying it would be hot, I thought they were talking about 100+ temps.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by five_timer

86F with the sun down is what I'd call hot.

More important is, how quick the track temperature will "cool down" after sunset. That will have certain effect on tire degradation.

[dim635csi]

Note: Please check your TV listings, cause NBCSN might be used to show Barclays Premier League instead.

In US qualification is live now on CNBC, NBCSP will have it tape delayed at 4:30pm PDT.

[AW335TT]

Benz
Ferrari
Benz
Ferrari

[GuyOh]

I'm hoping for Lewis, Kimi and Vettel on the podium. Rosberg can go cry and complain some more

[solstice]

This is shaping up very nicely! Should be a good race tomorrow.

[mike the snake]

On one of the in-car videos, of one of the cars dying abruptly, I could hear the turbo/energy retension system winding down. It sounded like a huge shop-vac being turned off.

I realized, with the turbo being both driven, and driving (electrically) these cars reminded me of a famous hillclimb car that used a small turbine engine to maintain full boost at all times.

While the F1 engines are transitioning from off, to On throttle, the huge turbo is being driven by an electric motor so boost is available anytime/no lag.

The car in this vid kind of ran with the same concept.

These are tiny little engines (1.6 liters) and I suspect the turbos actually have more displacement than the engines.

Crazy technology. Amazing that they make it all work, with the braking/recharging balance

[NickyC]

Good race!!

[escobar929]

Yea, good race. Nice to see the ice man on the podium

[M_Six]

Great race. MB gets bitten by faulty brakes. A few more laps and the podium may have looked very different.

Pastor again putting on amateur hour. He must be bringing in a *ton* of dough for the team to keep putting up with his antics.

[SonnyJack]

Hobbs as Perez is coming up on a few other cars...

"....Surely something ghastly is about to happen."

If you didn't hear it live, just try to imagine his very English, very deadpanned way of speaking. I literally spit my coffee onto the floor.

[SonnyJack]

So is he a complete head case now? He appears to have absolutely nothing for LH? Maybe he also loses out to SV w/o the driving error.

If he can't beat LH in either Spain or Monaco does he officially get named the #2 driver?

[E9TOU]

Excellent race! The battle up front between Merc and Ferrari are starting to heat up! Too bad Vettle screwed up or he could've capitalized on Hamilton's brake issues.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by SonnyJack

So is he a complete head case now? He appears to have absolutely nothing for LH? Maybe he also loses out to SV w/o the driving error.

If he can't beat LH in either Spain or Monaco does he officially get named the #2 driver?

I think he was nursing a brake problem. Same one that almost bit LH at the end. I was impressed with some of his aggressiveness against Seb earlier on.

That said, I don't think there's any question about him being the #2 driver. He's clearly not at LH's level.

[solstice]

Thouroughly enjoyable race! Even Rosberg managed to pass a competitive car (twice) without taking the shortcut over a run-off area, that's even more incredible development than Ferrari's resurgence . I hope this type of races will be the norm for 2016. We waited so long for a season like this, wohooo!

I was not a fan of Vettel in RBR's glory days but he has matured immensely since then. The moves he pulled at the start to serve Kimi the 3rd position through turn 1 was the best of the race, great driving in the heat of the all important start.

[six_timer]

Originally Posted by solstice

I was not a fan of Vettel in RBR's glory days but he has matured immensely since then. The moves he pulled at the start to serve Kimi the 3rd position through turn 1 was the best of the race, great driving in the heat of the all important start.

LOL at Vettel "maturing". He's a 4-time WC, and only 2 of those were walkovers. He's made hundreds of mature moves. But I'm glad you're now noticing.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by five_timer

LOL at Vettel "maturing". He's a 4-time WC, and only 2 of those were walkovers. He's made hundreds of mature moves. But I'm glad you're now noticing.

Lol if you don't see it. Noticed any difference in how he interacts with Kimi vs. with Webber? If not, well we just need to agree to disagree .

He acted like a douche while in RBR. That he isn't now is a sign of maturity.

[six_timer]

Originally Posted by solstice

Lol if you don't see it. Noticed any difference in how he interacts with Kimi vs. with Webber? If not, well we just need to agree to disagree .

He acted like a douche while in RBR. That he isn't now is a sign of maturity.

OK, I agree there's a difference in that aspect; I just thought you were referring to his skills as a driver maturing.

As for his team attitude, I think a lot of that is due to circumstance. At RBR, he clearly established that he was the #1, and the team was behind him as well, because the better-performing driver gets favored. Nobody cared about Webber's personal achievement except Webber. The team just wanted him to GTF out of the way and finish one position down. So maybe Vettel was a little douchey, or maybe it was the way things were.

[E90SLAM]

Ferrari was 'artificially' close to Mercedes in Bahrain - Sebastian Vettel

http://www.espn.co.uk/f1/story/_/id/...bastian-vettel

Sebastian Vettel believes Mercedes was not racing to its full potential for the second race in a row at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton deliberately drove below the potential of the car in the second stint in order to save tyres, much to the annoyance of his team-mate Nico Rosberg behind. In Bahrain the tyre management was less obvious from the outside, but once again the gaps between the top three closed in the second stint.

Vettel, who was running third in the second stint but dropped to fifth with front wing damage, believes Mercedes was trying to manage the race and ultimately saw it backfire when Nico Rosberg encountered brake problems on lap 56 and lost position to Raikkonen.

"I think they had a very strong pace in the race, probably more than they showed in the middle stint, so I think we were artificially a little bit closer," Vettel said. "But equally it worked pretty well for us as a team because they slowed themselves down in comparison to Kimi and he was able to catch them at the end."

Asked directly whether Mercedes might be sandbagging this year in response to pressure from the sport to make racing more exciting, Vettel added: "I don't think they are trying to do something stupid. I'm sure Lewis and Nico are pushing as hard as they can and the first stop was very close when we all came out of the pits, even between Nico and Lewis.

"So I don't think they were sandbagging at that point, but I think the second stint they were managing a little bit more the tyres just because you can when you are in the lead and you have free air.

"You are free to do what you like because you know that for many laps you won't get undercut [at the next pit stops] because that wouldn't make much sense [to pit again so soon]. But that's normal I think. Last year we didn't see them sandbagging but they had way less reason than this year. "

[E90SLAM]

Rosberg drove well in an attacking position yesterday.
But once he's in defending positon, as we saw a few times last year, he tends to be crack under pressure. (e.g. Error is Monza 2014)

Having said that, Mercedes was fortunate again (so does 2014), to have mechanical problems have yet able to nurse and still win. Martin Brundle did said last year, that the amount of Mechanical Problem Mercedes had in 2014. If that were to happen in pre-Power Unit era, they would easily lost the championship.

Watch out, Ferrari is right behind, with better strategy, improved power unit (with more PU upgrades coming in Canada, using 3 or 4 more development tokens), and improved reliability.

[E90SLAM]