German Grand Prix - 07.07.2013

Jason Campbell70 said:Oh yeah—what’s the schedule looking like for practice?

What time are we looking at on Friday?

Friday, July 5th, 2013
FP-ove 1: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
FP-ove 2: 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Saturday, July 6th, 2013
FP-ove 3: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Qualifying 2:00 PM
Sunday, July 7th, 2013
race 2:00 PM

Raymond Anderson4 said:Ferrari showed up with two different FW-ing versions and a Monkey Seat.
A Monkey Seat is never good news—experience tells us they only reach for it when they know their downforce is lacking.
They’ve reverted the FW to the Barcelona spec, which is another bad sign... development has stalled. Stefano will probably step in again to play peacemaker and tell everyone how to do their jobs, but hey, they’ve been at this for four years now and still can't build a car capable of winning consecutive races.
I'm dying to see the FP-ove and qualifying to see how they handle Sector 1.
The Ferrari looks sluggish in slow corners, like it completely lacks agility.

It's loud and clear: they need a driver who actually understands car setup and development, not some clueless kid who can't give engineers usable data. Maybe then they'd actually make something out of this car.

Like I said before the season started, Hamilton and Mercedes are going to be eating their lunch on a regular basis soon...
Everyone laughed their heads off back then, but honestly? It’s not looking so funny anymore.

I suspect the issue lies with either Fernando or Felipe.
The real problem is that every new part they bring in seems to push the car backward, and that’s on the engineers, not the drivers.
A driver isn't sitting next to an engineer in a wind tunnel giving them directions on how to modify the FW; clearly, whatever they're testing just isn't working.
Drivers aren't scientists or engineers. They simply say, "I need more downforce," and it's up to the specialists to actually make it happen.
Alonso is incredibly sharp when it comes to setup... he wouldn't be fighting this hard for every single position if he didn't know how to dial in the car between FP and the race.

Jason Campbell70 said:And that old rear wing. 😁

If we try to make predictions based strictly on what we saw during Thursday's practice—things aren't looking great for us.
But I have to reiterate—this was Thursday. During the last VN vikend, we didn't even have half a floor on the car by Thursday. 😁

By the way, did you catch the new Mečkin nose? 🍿
It looks like not everyone spent the last three days idling around.

We’ll just have to wait and see if that raised nose actually yields any time (probably a tenth at most)... it all depends on how it integrates with the rest of the chassis.
If it were truly a game-changer, Newey would have integrated it into his Red Bull cars ages ago.

stormybadger8 said:They need a driver who actually understands car setup and development, not some amateur who can't give engineers the right data to finally make this car decent...

As I predicted before the season started, Hamilton and Mercedes will soon be getting left in the dust by Red Bull...
Of course, everyone was laughing their heads off back then, but I’d say it isn't looking quite as funny for them anymore...

Hamilton and Mercedes will be getting smoked by Red Bull soon enough, and you won't be laughing either....

Man, Ferrari is absolutely falling apart... 😢
Well, hey, I guess it's better they tanked during practice rather than actually being out there in the race, right? 😍

The maestro, naturally, did a masterclass job managing the crew to make sure they hauled that car back into the pits as fast as humanly possible... 🙏

I’ve got a hunch Mark is going to pull some strings to make sure this coming weekend stays completely chaos-free, haha 😁😁

Edward Howard2 said:there goes the maestro's Ferrari... 😢
well, fine—better it dies during practice than in the actual race 😍

the maestro, naturally, did a masterful job managing the crew to get the car back to the pits ASAP... 🙏

Looks like the red tractor is in a bit more trouble than expected—hoping they can actually get it back into contention. 🤷

Speaking from At the Nurburgring, BBC Sport’s lead F1 expert Andrew Benson reports:
"For Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the concerns go way beyond just wondering if the car will play nice with the new tire compounds. Even though he managed to snag third place at Silverstone Last weekend , and made up ground on Sebastian Vettel in The championship , after The German's red Bull retired with gearbox failure, it was easily Ferrari's most lackluster performance of the season. They were left scratching their heads after the checkered flag. Ever since, the team has been digging through the telemetry, hoping to turn those headaches into breakthroughs for this weekend's race. 'WE went very Deep in the analysis of Silverstone,' Alonso noted, acknowledging the lack of pace. 'WE saw som issues with The Car in terms of aerodynamic characteristics AT Silverstone in set-up maybe that WE Can do Better. So we will try to improve here.'"

some issues with the car 🙂🙂

Fernando is pissed off, causing a whole scene in the garage ☕ one less headache, the GOAT ☕

It seems as though Mercedes is projecting an aura of absolute dominance that is truly intimidating to witness.

🙂

graniteharbor502 said:Mercedes looks terrifyingly dominant.

Way too strong...
On the other hand, you've got Ford... what's that old saying... "I'm scared of the horse, I don't..." 🙂

Emily Patel64 said:nando is clearly agitated, making quite the scene in the garage ☕ which just means one less headache for us, honestly ☕

Emily Patel64, are you casting spells over there?! It feels like so much chaos has unfolded on the track lately, doesn't it?

graniteharbor502 said:Emily Patel64, are you casting spells over there?! There's been way too much chaos on the track lately.

It’s just the universe recalibrating itself—call it whatever you want, I haven't got a clue 😁


(though it would be a hell of a twist if Mark finally breaks through the noise and grabs a headline like 😍 "Luxury duo Nico and Mark are unstoppable"—let them celebrate those qualifying sessions if they want 😍)

1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m31.754s 25

2. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m31.973s + 0.219s 25

3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m32.789s + 1.035s 22

4. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m32.822s + 1.068s 16

5. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m32.956s + 1.202s 22

6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m33.065s + 1.311s 18

7. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m33.139s + 1.385s 24

8. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m33.213s + 1.459s 20

9. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m33.260s + 1.506s 27

10. Sergio Perez McLaren-Mercedes 1m33.456s + 1.702s 18

11. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m33.493s + 1.739s 18

12. Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari 1m33.810s + 2.056s 20

13. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m33.901s + 2.147s 23

14. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m33.976s + 2.222s 26

15. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m34.025s + 2.271s 20

16. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1m34.200s + 2.446s 22

17. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m34.437s + 2.683s 24

18. Charles Pic Caterham-Renault 1m35.674s + 3.920s 23

19. Max Chilton Marussia-Cosworth 1m35.987s + 4.233s 19

20. Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1m36.078s + 4.324s 23

21. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Cosworth 1m37.459s + 5.705s 21

22. Fernando Alonso Ferrari no time 2

Mercedes is absolutely crushing it.

Emily Patel64 said:

It feels as though the universe is simply attempting to restore its own equilibrium, or perhaps that is just my way of making sense of the chaos, though I cannot say for certain how much weight one should give to such cosmic notions, 😁


(though, if one were to indulge in a bit of whimsy, wouldn't it be quite the delightful twist if Mark, working so quietly behind the scenes, finally found himself the subject of headlines claiming that 😍 the luxury drivers and Nico are truly unbeatable in race conditions, regardless of their qualifying positions, allowing them some small reason to celebrate 😍)

I find myself harboring a quiet apprehension that the Mercedes teams have finally rectified their issues, which will surely bolster their race pace. While there is a part of me that sincerely wishes to see Webber depart as a champion, one must admit that the level of competition currently on display is enough to make one's blood run cold.

What’s that supposed to mean? Minimum tire pressure at 16 psi? 😂

Fernando Alonso had to swap out his ECU, so he sat out
FP1.

Haha, look at how violently this Walkman junk is bouncing around. 🤣