The Official 2018 German Grand Prix Thread **SPOILERS**

[Dr Z]

Date(s): Friday 20 July 2018 - Sunday 22 July 2018

UK Broadcast Timings (and local time)

All sessions are live on Sky F1 and highlights on Channel 4.

Session	Day	Sky F1	Channel 4	Session Start	Local Time
Practice 1	Fri	0945		1000	1100
Practice 2	Fri	1345		1400	1500
Practice 3	Sat	1045		1100	1200
Qualifying	Sat	1300	1730	1400	1500
Race	Sun	1230	1845	1410	1510

Hockenheimring



Live timing for all sessions available here:

https://www.formula1.com/en/f1-live.html

Lap times, PU component use, technical reports and Stewards' decisions for the weekend will appear here:

https://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-one-world-c...

Weather forecast:

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/Germany/Hoc...

The tyre choices:



2016 Qualifying



2016 Race

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Ferrari winning at the British GP is possibly the most significant event in the last 5 years of F1, why? The Mercedes winning streak has been the longest at Silverstone and dates back to 2013, the last year of the hybrid V8 era continuing on to the hybrid V6T era. By winning at Silverstone, Ferrari have also prevented Mercedes from winning a sixth consecutive time at a Grand Prix and thus allowed McLaren to have that record for themselves (Monaco, 1988-1993). Go Seb!

At Ferrari, the narrative seems to be about gaining new territory in ‘killing their [Mercedes] magic’, and Vettel seems to revel in waving the Ferrari flag about in parc fermé as he also did in Montreal after winning. The ‘finger’ doesn’t come out often as much as the Ferrari flag these days. Can Mercedes respond and return the favour in the German’s home race at Hockenheim, which he has never won?

It’s a nice little technical track with an equal mix of low, medium and high speed corners, with the emphasis on tuning and setting up the car to work well for the wide range of corner speeds it will see over the course of a lap and not getting ragged in the driving. As Button would say, ‘smooth and precise’. We can expect the fast corners to not be easy flat and I particularly like watching the drivers at Mobil (T12) and Nord Kurve (T1). The corner preceding the long 1.14km straight is an awkward medium speed corner and is key to get right as it is possible to leave a lot of time on the table if the driver messes up the entry or of course, the exit.

It’s a short lap, full throttle per lap is about 10% less than Silverstone, but fuel consumption is still on the high side owing to more acceleration from low/medium speed. The FIA are continuing with the theme of three DRS zones (but two detection points), the DRS zone in the longest straight has been extended further than the last time.

Tyre talk. Pirelli have skipped a compound for the second time this year and are bringing the ultrasoft as the qualifying tyre. The pace gap over a single lap will probably be too big between ultra soft and soft, however if the ultras are durable, teams may well use it as a part of their race strategy. The same tyre sets were brought to China and we saw the top teams except RB opting to go through Q2 with the soft, and we saw how the RB cars were hanging on well to the others on the softer compound in the 1st stint. We could expect a different strategy like that here too.

It's the first time for these wider faster cars to visit this track, and I estimate the qualifying times to improve by about 2 sec this year.

On another note, it's scary to think that 9 drivers who raced here two years are ago are no longer racing now!

Edited by Dr Z on Friday 13th July 15:07

[Dr Z]

I'm thinking RB will be going much better here. Lots of corners for the Best Chassis of the field to flex its muscles.

I'm going for a Red Bull win. Anyone with me?

[Dr Z]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuHHgRte8NE

Vettel's track guide/hot lap.

Another driver who doesn't like sims?

[Dr Z]

FP1

[Dr Z]

FP2



Merc looking good. Max was as quick as the Merc cars in S1 & S3, but losing a couple of tenths in S2.

Ferrari lacked some speed in the twisty sector 3, but generally matching Merc/RB in S1 & S2...

Would be nice to have a wet qualifying...

[Dr Z]

Great pace. Vettel 4 and a bit tenths up in the 2nd run at the second split was insane after the first lap.

Great lap from Bottas too.

[Dr Z]

Have Ferrari just given the win to Kimi?

[Dr Z]

Oh dear Vettel!

[Dr Z]

What a gift to Hamilton, he could win the race!

[Dr Z]

Clockwork Cupcake said:

NRS said:

Wonder if PH will recognise the good strategy by Merc?

No; it will be put down to luck.

Quite a large element of luck. If the car didn't break in Q1 he would have been on the same strategy as the other front runners.

[Dr Z]

Lewis' old mate James giving the team order. Classy.

[Dr Z]

The Force Indias had a good race. P6 & P7.

[Dr Z]

Hungrymc said:

RichB said:

Crofty banging on about Merc team orders but he never says anything when Vettel eases past Raikkonen every week.

In fact at the same time as making questioning comments about Merc telling Bottas not to attack (after giving him a lap to have a go), they’re moaning that Ferrari didn’t do the switcheroo earlier... Bunch of clowns.

Surprised that you guys think they're both the same scenario.

Vettel was comfortably ahead in the race after qualifying ahead of Kimi. It's not uncommon to request that sister cars to run their own 'optimum' race.

Merc had to stack a lot of calls in Hamilton's favour to get him ahead of Bottas, then to ask him to not attack at the final sprint is a bit rich, but understandable from the WDC perspective. The irony won't be lost on me next time Hamilton has the holier than thou attitude to Ferrari tactics.

Good drive from Hamilton, he made the strategy work but I found James' call to Bottas quite interesting after his grovelling to Hamilton at Austria for the strategy fk up. Perhaps the team felt they owed Hamilton a win.

[Dr Z]

Hungrymc said:

Dr Z said:

Vettel was comfortably ahead in the race after qualifying ahead of Kimi.

I know we all see these things differently, but I’ve never seen a car that’s stuck behind another being described as being comfortably ahead.

That's strange. You must think Hamilton ahead of Bottas at the SC came about by merit too?

I must have been watching a different race. Kimi only got ahead of Seb because he was given pit priority to try and undercut some cars ahead.

[Dr Z]

hairyben said:

Dr Z said:

That's strange. You must think Hamilton ahead of Bottas at the SC came about by merit too?

I must have been watching a different race. Kimi only got ahead of Seb because he was given pit priority to try and undercut some cars ahead.

are you for real? I read that more as an attempt to interfere with Hamilton's pace, only not sure Kimi got the memo. Made no sense to brundle...

Your guess is as good as mine. For me it was to try and pull Merc in with Bottas and still allow them to run their own race without being held up by Hamilton.

If they had waited any longer it would have allowed Hamilton to interfere with their strategy and potentially beat them to the flag.

[Dr Z]

LDN said:

Dr Z said:

Hungrymc said:

Dr Z said:

Vettel was comfortably ahead in the race after qualifying ahead of Kimi.

I know we all see these things differently, but I’ve never seen a car that’s stuck behind another being described as being comfortably ahead.

That's strange. You must think Hamilton ahead of Bottas at the SC came about by merit too?

I must have been watching a different race. Kimi only got ahead of Seb because he was given pit priority to try and undercut some cars ahead.

Turns out Hamilton made strategy calls that race; and also made his tyres last first stint, moreso than they could have; given he’s in dirty air and is weaving traffic etc. I’d say merit had a lot to do with it all...

Vettel driving off the track was also on merit, or lack thereof. He had a gap behind him and was in control. But pressure and changing conditions don’t mix with Vettel.

It was certainly very interesting strategy to launch one's car off the exit kerb and put oneself out of qualifying so one could do the faster tyre strategy in the race and be in a position to captalise on a late race change of weather. The merit of this cunning plan would have gone right over the head of even the great Professor. All credit to Hamilton there.

Hungrymc said:

Kimi did only get ahead of Seb for that reason. He’d driven to the tactics well and was ahead on track with Seb unable to pass.... Ferrari then made the right call to favour the driver in the title hunt...

Or do you really think it was only their unwavering commitment to fairness that made them tell Kimi to give the place to Seb ?

<snip>- it’s too tight to allow team mates to trip each other up.... I can see that, but it seems some are blind to it with their favored teams.

It was not simple tactics that Kimi got ahead, I think that Ferrari made an error in leaving Seb out too long in the 1st stint allowing Kimi to get within his pit window. Then they dithered about for several laps during which both Kimi and Seb destroyed their tyres trying to race. Perhaps they have more of a commitment to fairness than some other teams.

Anyways, a pattern seems to be emerging whereby the Merc seems better on the tyres in the last few races than Ferrari.

[Dr Z]

NRS said:

The quali has nothing to do with the race

But that's the thing that allowed him to start on the harder compound and go as long as he did in the first stint while the other front runners couldn't make the soft work in quali and were on a tyre that was not a good to do the 1st stint for the range required to cover off a rain threat. This is my point.

If he had had a normal quali he would be pretty much on the exact position as the other guys having to pit earlier than they'd like.

That's my 2 pence.

[Dr Z]

All this accusations of bias, I'm flattered to be held to a higher standard here, but c'mon guys let me have some fun too! It's very boring in the unbiased side!

[Dr Z]

jm doc said:

Virtually every driver went over that kerb at some point in the same way as Lewis did.
Ferrari are not stupid. They were clearly working to a strategy, whatever that was, and it was one which they got wrong on this occasion.
You're a bit of a broken record really, aren't you?

Finally, the safety car actually jeopardised Hamilton's chances. Up to that point he had been lapping massively faster than anyone else (at one point 5 secs in one lap) and would have comfortably caught and passed all the other cars on worn softs whilst he was on fresh ultras. The safety car may have allowed him to get track position (and only on his own decision to ignore the instruction to pit), but that allowed Bottas and Kimi to change to fresh rubber and attack him at the restart.

Lewis showed today why he can justifiably be called one of the all-time greats whilst Vettel showed today why he will never be.
An absolute masterclass.

Talking about broken records, listen to yourself:

jm doc said:

Bottas wasn't faster than Lewis, it's just that the part worn US tyres were slower to warm up after the restart which allowed Bottas on the new tyre to attack in the first lap. I don't think Bottas has ever really shown faster race pace than Lewis anyway.

This sounds like a rather well known borked record. It's obvious.

Mark Hughes agrees with my assessment:

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2018...

Btw, I was poking fun @ LDN in the post you quoted as he did at me. Lots of sarcasm detectors have failed there.

[Dr Z]

ajprice said:

Lewis winning from 14th is the lowest grid position to a win since Alonso winning from 15th in Singapore in 2008. That race win was ever so slightly engineered though , so what's the next lowest before that?

Michael Schumacher - Spa - 1995 - From 16th on the grid
Kimi Raikkonen - Suzuka - 2005 - 17th
Rubens Barrichello - Hockenheim - 2000 - 18th