Rain And Saving Tyres
Today we have seen Practice session 1 with the Mercedes being dominant yet again. They are half a second quicker than their old car (Racing Point) and over a second quicker than the cars from 5th onwards. Too early to tell right now if anyone can mount a challenge and stop the dominance.
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I have been waiting to see how the Mercedes fairs in the slower corners this season as that is the technical aspect the team has been working on. The thought process is you spend more time in the slow corners than the rest of the race so you may as well try and quicken them up. We know they have the down force required to make the car stick.
The teams will most likely set for dry conditions even though it is raining for Practice session 2. There is a chance of rain for Sundays race so the Mercedes team is hoping to be way out if front by that point. The intermediates and wet tyres displace around 85 liters of water per second per tyre at 300 kph so a shower will have little to no effect so we need some decent rain to make it interesting.
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As expected most teams are sitting out waiting for the rain to pass in Practice Session 2. Most teams have the data from this mornings session.
Safety cars could also keep the cars tightly packed like the first race in Austria. Looking at the lap times that is the only chance some teams have of keeping competitive. Having overcast cooler conditions actually helps the teams as they don't have to open up the cooling flaps which will help with creating more down force for the cars.
Teams have to be careful with tyre management as they only have 3 sets of wet tyres and need to use one set for practice two and possibly practice 3 depending on the conditions. Teams will most likely limit how many laps they complete in Practice session 2 as there won't be much learning to do in the rain. I think most teams need to keep 2 sets for the main race just in case. If it is raining for qualifying tomorrow it will be fairly interesting as that would leave one set for the main race and possibly a used set as back up. Definitely the limitation on wet tyres has limited the amount of cars out on track during Practice Session 2.
I am hoping for rain this weekend as otherwise it looks like another Mercedes one two and then any of the next best with Verstappen the favorite. Perez and Stroll have a good car yet I don't have the confidence in their ability over a full race.
What was interesting was the discussion regarding Racing Point and Lance Stroll, but that is another post for later in the weekend.