News 2016 FORMULA 1 BRITISH GRAND PRIX

[Notebook]

Home favourite Lewis Hamilton topped Friday’s first practice for the 2016 Formula 1 British Grand Prix, but just 0.033s separated him from Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. They ruled the roost around a cool and overcast Silverstone, with 1m 31.645s and 1m 31.687s respectively, on the medium Pirelli tyres, having been fastest too on the hards.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/...lton-edges-rosberg-in-silverstone-opener.html

Kimi Raikkonen will stay at Ferrari next season, the Italian team announced on Friday morning. It means an unchanged driver line-up at the Scuderia for 2017, with Raikkonen again partnering Sebastian Vettel.

https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/headlines/2016/7/ferrari-confirm-raikkonen-for-2017.html

 

[Trekkie]

Verstappen for the win!

 

[Alfastar]

So maybe a bit off-topic, but was there really still an other option remaining for Ferrari to replace Kimi by any other good driver?

Looking forward to this weekend, I wouldn't be surprised if we seeing another high nervy battle between Lewis and Nico. Likely Red bull would be stronger then Ferrari on this track so that would be something (obvious) to watching

 

[Notebook]

Final Practice started

10:04




Red Bull boss Christian Horner: "There's a bit of weather about and Ferrari have bolted i their big engines now so let's see. I think the circuit will dry pretty quickly so I think within 10 minutes everyone will be in slicks."

On Mercedes' drivers colliding: "They should fire both drivers immediately and retire from the world championship."

Classic banter from the big CH there.

Qualifying starts 13:00 BST

 

[C3PO]

Q1 has started without Ericsson who crashed in final practice.

 

[Notebook]

Hamilton'r time voided, has to go out again...

done it!

 

[fred18]

I love F1 but I can't believe how much difference there is between Mercedes and the others... there's no point, no race, it's boring... 3rd car is 1 second slower...
Commentators have been saying "this F1 is already faster than the others in the past since the circuit record has been broken"... it's actually not true, the only cars that broke it are the Mercedes, all the others are half a second slower than the circuit record...

 

[Fabri91]

I agree that now it's boring, and in fact the best race was when they managed to knock themselves out, but if they managed to make the best car within the framework of the rules, I guess they deserve it. It wasn't much different between 2000 and 2005.

 

[Notebook]

Qualifying results.

Pos No Driver Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps
1 44 Hamilton 1:30.739 1:29.243 1:29.287 14
2 6 Rosberg 1:30.724 1:29.970 1:29.606 14
3 33 Verstappen 1:31.305 1:30.697 1:30.313 12
4 3 Ricciardo 1:31.684 1:31.319 1:30.618 12
5 7 Räikkönen 1:31.326 1:31.385 1:30.881 15
6 5 Vettel 1:31.606 1:30.711 1:31.490 17
7 77 Bottas 1:31.913 1:31.478 1:31.557 12
8 55 Sainz 1:32.115 1:31.708 1:31.989 15
9 27 Hulkenberg 1:32.349 1:31.770 1:32.172 18
10 14 Alonso 1:32.281 1:31.740 1:32.343 15
11 11 Perez 1:32.336 1:31.875 12
12 19 Massa 1:32.146 1:32.002 10
13 8 Grosjean 1:32.283 1:32.050 14
14 21 Gutierrez 1:32.237 1:32.241 14
15 26 Kvyat 1:32.553 1:32.306 12
16 20 Magnussen 1:32.729 1:37.060 12
17 22 Button 1:32.788 3
18 30 Palmer 1:32.905 9
19 88 Haryanto 1:33.098 9
20 94 Wehrlein 1:33.151 9
21 12 Nasr 1:33.544 8

Q1 107% Time: 1:37.074 Note - Sauber's Marcus Ericsson did not participate following crash in FP3, thus races at stewards' discretion, having failed to set a time within the Q1 107% requirement.

 

[C3PO]

I agree that now it's boring, and in fact the best race was when they managed to knock themselves out, but if they managed to make the best car within the framework of the rules, I guess they deserve it. It wasn't much different between 2000 and 2005.

People were saying exactly the same about Red Bull, and a few years before that, about Ferrari.

 

[ADSWNJ]

Re dominance ... the best thing is a radical rules shake-up, exactly as we will see next season.

I was disappointed at the inconsistency of the track limits rules today. I could not understand them. It was clearly not all corners (i.e. see the on-board for Lewis's pole lap), but the ones they said had zero tolerance were being abused and only randomly penalized. I would rather have a consistent for every driver rule, enforced by a laser measure running down the line, or no rule at all.

Same old Silverstone in mid-summer though: 68F / 20C, cloudy, windy, chance of rain!

 

[indy91]

I'm also not happy with the track limits decisions. One would think they have learned since this happened last year:

I guess their way of thinking is that they don't want to delete too many times, if the driver didn't gain any advantage, so they have a zero tolerance policy for the corners that clearly give an advantage outside the track limits and then take a good look at all other track limit infringements.

But that makes it very inconsistent by default. What are track limits even for if they don't limit the track you can race on? I would delete every time outside the track limits during qualifying and during the race give out warnings and for repeated offenses appropiate penalties. That makes more sense to me, but what do I know... :shrug:

 

[Alfastar]

I love F1 but I can't believe how much difference there is between Mercedes and the others... there's no point, no race, it's boring... 3rd car is 1 second slower...
Commentators have been saying "this F1 is already faster than the others in the past since the circuit record has been broken"... it's actually not true, the only cars that broke it are the Mercedes, all the others are half a second slower than the circuit record...

Well maybe it is boring about who is on P1 and P2, but below that we seeing a lot more action what makes F1 in this time, even with the dominant Mercedes, still worthy to watch and not boring.

However a lot likely going to change next season, so lets hope next year the domination role would being over for Mercedes and seeing more battles for P1 and P2.

Re dominance ... the best thing is a radical rules shake-up, exactly as we will see next season.

I was disappointed at the inconsistency of the track limits rules today. I could not understand them. It was clearly not all corners (i.e. see the on-board for Lewis's pole lap), but the ones they said had zero tolerance were being abused and only randomly penalized. I would rather have a consistent for every driver rule, enforced by a laser measure running down the line, or no rule at all.

Same old Silverstone in mid-summer though: 68F / 20C, cloudy, windy, chance of rain!

The whole "zero tolerance" rule was basically just a worthless warning, I did expect (and that would be logic) that it counts on the whole track. But no, it did count only on some corners.

First we seen that dangerous yellow bumps in Austria, now we seeing an inefficient "zero tolerance" rule. What for new worthless thing/rule comes in about two weeks to stop drivers for going outside the track? Can't they just place some artificial turf or something to prevent drivers more efficient to stay on the track without dangerous methods?

 

[orb]

Well, related pics :

 

[ADSWNJ]

Provisional result:

1. Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-Mercedes	52 laps 1h 34m 55.831s	
2. Nico Rosberg	GER	Mercedes-Mercedes	6.9s# 
3. Max Verstappen	NED Red Bull-TAG Heuer	8.2s 
4. Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	26.2s 
5. Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Ferrari-Ferrari	69.7s 
6. Sergio Perez	MEX	Force India-Mercedes	76.9s 
7. Nico Hulkenberg	GER	Force India-Mercedes	77.7s 
8. Carlos Sainz Jr	ESP	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	85.8s 
9. Sebastian Vettel	GER	Ferrari-Ferrari	91.6s 
10. Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	92.6s 

Read more at http://www.crash.net/f1/results/231990/1/british-grand-prix-race-results-provisional.html#ORE52oOgByhzl51i.99

An action-filled afternoon at Silverstone, with a sharp downpour just before the start. The drivers spent 6 laps behind the SC, which for many people was a way too long period. As soon as the SC came in, many drivers went for Inter tires immediately, showing how poor the decision was to keep the SC out so long. Pretty soon after, drivers came in for medium tires, and then went the rest of the race on them.

On each transition (wet to inter, inter to slick), we had drivers spinning and/or sliding off all over the place. Amazingly, no collisions or damage into the barriers in the race, due to the effectiveness of gravel run-offs.

Apart from a brief 'off' at turn 1, HAM had an uneventful race for the win, never challenged. ROS and VES had a big battle for 2nd, with Max, despite having an inferior car, holding off Nico for several laps until his tires gave in.

Nico had a late problem with his 7th gear, and the pit crew has to message him a car setting and advice on how to get out of that 7th gear, either going through it to 8th, or down-selecting if it gets stuck. Post-race inquiry underway to see what, if any, penalty to assess for pit coaching. Should be an interesting setting of precedent for the crews. (Personally - I would be happy to let the pit crews say anything they like to the driver, but that's me.)

A sad and disappointing day for the Scuderia, with no sign of the red cars anywhere near the front. The season is already looking lost for them before the mid-season break.

A frosty post-race cool-down room, with I don't think one word spoken between HAM and ROS. Lots of boos for Nico on the podium, from a huge and engaged British crowd. Payback for last weekend in Austria, of course, and the Germans get their chance to do the same in 3 weeks' time, no doubt! All good rivalry between the nations!

 

[indy91]

Apart from a brief 'off' at turn 1, HAM had an uneventful race for the win, never challenged. ROS and VES had a big battle for 2nd, with Max, despite having an inferior car, holding off Nico for several laps until his tires gave in.

Yes, nice battle. Red Bull also has the better car for the mixed conditions thanks to the great Adrian Newey aero. It was a little bit like Austin last year, when for a short period of time both Red Bulls were easily faster than Mercedes. Once it got dry today Nico had the better car again.

Nico had a late problem with his 7th gear, and the pit crew has to message him a car setting and advice on how to get out of that 7th gear, either going through it to 8th, or down-selecting if it gets stuck. Post-race inquiry underway to see what, if any, penalty to assess for pit coaching. Should be an interesting setting of precedent for the crews. (Personally - I would be happy to let the pit crews say anything they like to the driver, but that's me.)

Note that at the time of me writing this the steward's decision isn't made yet

Here a rule about permitted messages: "Indication of a critical problem with the car, any message of this sort may only be used if failure of a component or system is imimminent and potentially terminal."

If a gearbox is about to fail, then I guess this rule applies. Rosberg still might be in trouble for the extent of the messages he received. My guess is a small time penalty and loss of 2nd place, but it could go either way.

 

[Fabri91]

They might also just have balanced the odds of a penalty post-race vs. an almost-certain DNF if the gearbox were to definitely break.

 

[ADSWNJ]

Interested to see what they announce for Rosberg. I think there's three aspects: (1) "Chassis Default 0, 1", (2) "Avoid 7th gear", and (3) "Affirm, Nico, Affirm. You have to shift through it."

On (1) ... Merc would have to demonstrate that that switch setting was critical for the car's safety, otherwise the driver should have had to work that out himself. (Stupid, but that's what the no-coaching is about.)

On (2) ... probably OK, but Nico already was thinking this, after seeing the car bog down in that gear.

On (3) ... that looks more like coaching to me. Driver asked how to deal with the issue, and the crew coached him to select through the gear. I think Nico would have figured that out by himself - i.e. he should not have been coached on this.


As I said before, I would much prefer no restrictions here at all, but I want there to be real clarity for everyone if the F1 Management insist on enforcing this restriction,


-----

Just seen the ruling: 10 second penalty, and therefore a demotion to 3rd place. Their view was almost exactly what I said above: (1) and (2) ok, but penalty for (3).

 

[Notebook]

Having trouble getting the results into a table, so this is a link to them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/2016/british-grand-prix/results

N.

 

[ADSWNJ]

With 1 point between HAM and ROS now, and ROS on a gearbox change (expected) for a 5 grid penalty, we have a wide open championship again. Amazing considering the first 5 races.