Has the FIA’s ban on Front Rear Inter-Connected suspension held Red Bull close the gap to Mercedes?
At first glance the lap times appear to support the view that they have. Red Bull were just 0.102s slower than Mercedes during the second practice session on Friday. They’ve only been closer than that in second practice once all season – in Malaysia – and until this weekend had been 0.74s off Mercedes on average in this session.
It is striking, however, that Red Bull only achieved their quickest time with one of their cars – Daniel Ricciardo’s. Sebastian Vettel was a further eight tenths of a second off which suggests he was running a different programme – perhaps a heavier and more representative fuel load. “It’s tomorrow when we’ll see how close we really are,” Ricciardo admitted.
The loss of FRIC won’t just be felt at the front of the field. Marussia have also taken the system off their car.Max Chilton had done some preliminary set-up work without it during the Silverstone test, but the team were unhappy with the balance of their cars in the first session and made “large set-up changes” ahead of second practice.
Williams gave their test driver Susie Wolff a public vote of confidence by keeping their word about giving her a second run in the car, even as the team now faced the additional complication of having to hone their car’s set-up without FRIC.
“Susie was driving this morning and did a really good job, worked well and drove sensibly,” said head of performance engineering Rob Smedley. “The feedback we got helped us get used to the car without our interconnected suspension which was valuable.”
The banning of FRIC is likely to have some effect on the competitive order as some teams will inevitably have had more highly-developed systems than others and therefore more to lose from removing them. But the full consequences may not be known until F1 visits a circuit with a bumpier surface and more rapid changes of direction than Hockenheim – such as the Hungaroring next week.
The weather forecast for Sunday remains doubtful but tomorrow’s qualifying session is likely to see a repeat of today’s hot conditions. Expect traffic to be a problem, particularly during Q1, as the narrow and twisty final sector often sees drivers getting in each other’s way as they try to back off to make space for their flying runs.
Longest stint comparison – second practice
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 83.753 | 83.101 | 83.179 | 83.182 | 83.163 | 83.707 | 83.766 | 84.183 | 86.804 | 84.237 | 83.862 | 84.203 | 83.842 | 83.849 | |
Daniel Ricciardo | 82.653 | 82.696 | 83.049 | 83.13 | 83.235 | 82.891 | 82.891 | 82.703 | 83.03 | 83.851 | 84.648 | 84.642 | |||
Lewis Hamilton | 83.151 | 83.354 | 83.464 | 83.009 | 86.937 | 82.94 | 82.969 | 82.88 | 83.024 | 83.172 | |||||
Nico Rosberg | 82.698 | 85.225 | 82.652 | 82.192 | 82.464 | 82.398 | 82.55 | 87.379 | 82.359 | 83.103 | 85.441 | 83.585 | |||
Fernando Alonso | 83.602 | 83.774 | 83.901 | 84.866 | 84.385 | 83.469 | 84.055 | 83.467 | 83.583 | 83.584 | 83.904 | 83.87 | 83.836 | 83.927 | 84.543 |
Kimi Raikkonen | 83.38 | 83.338 | 83.23 | 84.54 | 83.5 | 85.056 | 84.036 | 83.32 | 83.775 | ||||||
Romain Grosjean | 84.986 | 86.982 | 85.399 | 85.205 | 85.272 | 85.04 | 86.199 | 86.012 | 86.4 | ||||||
Pastor Maldonado | 85.084 | 85.129 | 84.229 | 84.047 | 84.081 | 84.124 | 84.286 | 84.501 | 84.486 | 85.001 | 86.345 | ||||
Jenson Button | 84.592 | 83.951 | 83.619 | 84.222 | 84.144 | 85.497 | 84.908 | 84.994 | 84.973 | 85.209 | 85.436 | ||||
Kevin Magnussen | 84.439 | 84.838 | 85.053 | 84.294 | 84.832 | 84.823 | 84.887 | 85.14 | 85.162 | 84.934 | 85 | 85.272 | |||
Nico Hulkenberg | 83.448 | 83.1 | 83.129 | 83.121 | 83.029 | 83.81 | 83.043 | 83.601 | 83.637 | 83.324 | 83.741 | 84.347 | 85.083 | ||
Sergio Perez | 82.559 | 82.963 | 82.631 | 82.606 | 82.8 | 83.004 | 83.554 | 83.415 | |||||||
Adrian Sutil | 84.642 | 84.459 | 89.185 | 84.555 | 84.38 | 84.554 | 84.314 | 84.985 | 84.91 | 85.287 | 86.163 | 86.954 | |||
Esteban Gutierrez | 85.609 | 85.271 | 85.282 | 85.989 | 88.333 | 85.912 | 86.103 | 86.361 | 86.889 | 88.285 | |||||
Jean-Eric Vergne | 83.703 | 83.442 | 84.328 | 83.819 | 86.056 | 83.745 | 84.12 | 84.045 | 84.497 | ||||||
Daniil Kvyat | 84.403 | 84.199 | 84.114 | 84.544 | 84.189 | 84.583 | 85.665 | ||||||||
Felipe Massa | 82.645 | 82.645 | 83.64 | 83.037 | 83.201 | 83.187 | 84.304 | 84.045 | 85.84 | 84.008 | 84.372 | 85.005 | |||
Valtteri Bottas | 83.249 | 83.705 | 84.062 | 83.98 | 96.644 | 83.844 | 84.182 | 85.029 | 85.267 | 88.437 | |||||
Jules Bianchi | 86.963 | 86.334 | 86.083 | 87.359 | 86.91 | 86.099 | 86.555 | 86.994 | 87.218 | 87.086 | 89.285 | ||||
Max Chilton | 85.519 | 100.959 | 85.184 | 85.601 | 85.719 | 86.306 | 86.441 | 87.94 | |||||||
Marcus Ericsson | 86.966 | 87.548 | 86.187 | 87.037 | 86.857 | 86.277 | 86.336 | 86.307 | 86.505 | 86.74 | 87.867 | 87.379 | |||
Kamui Kobayashi | 84.476 | 94.368 | 89.345 | 84.091 | 94.588 | 83.728 | 92.591 | 83.756 |
What the drivers said
First practice
Perez report she had "good grip straight away" on his first run. #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Button: "Poor rear grip, but also traffic in the last sector." Stallard: "Did our best to avoid that but it's tricky with cars backing up."
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Hulkenberg: "As soon as you slide a bit the tyres go away." #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Ross to Rosberg: "Use more of the track on the left-hand side before turn 12 [entry to Motodrom]." #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Second practice
Lambiase: "Relatively we're losing in sector three now. How's the balance through there?" Perez says he's losing rear grip. #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Hamilton told: "So it's 0.15 sector one, sector two. Sector three looks OK. Loss to Nico braking entry turn two, also apex turn eight." #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Rosberg: "Driving advice." Ross: "Try a an earlier apex in 16 to get a better exit from 17. Concentrating on the exit from 17." #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Bianchi finding it difficult to get into his pit box. He's told the team aren't set up in the correct one at the moment. #F1
— F1 Fanatic Live (@f1fanaticlive) July 18, 2014
Sector times and ultimate lap times – second practice
Pos | No. | Driver | Car | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate | Gap | Deficit to best |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 17.052 (2) | 36.472 (1) | 24.817 (3) | 1’18.341 | 0.000 | |
2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 17.008 (1) | 36.609 (3) | 24.748 (1) | 1’18.365 | 0.024 | 0.000 |
3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 17.075 (3) | 36.607 (2) | 24.761 (2) | 1’18.443 | 0.102 | 0.000 |
4 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 17.267 (7) | 36.696 (7) | 24.924 (4) | 1’18.887 | 0.546 | 0.000 |
5 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 17.301 (10) | 36.660 (4) | 24.999 (6) | 1’18.960 | 0.619 | 0.000 |
6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 17.254 (6) | 36.750 (10) | 25.020 (7) | 1’19.024 | 0.683 | 0.000 |
7 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 17.235 (4) | 36.676 (6) | 25.181 (12) | 1’19.092 | 0.751 | 0.129 |
8 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 17.347 (11) | 36.832 (12) | 24.948 (5) | 1’19.127 | 0.786 | 0.121 |
9 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 17.241 (5) | 36.737 (9) | 25.160 (10) | 1’19.138 | 0.797 | 0.191 |
10 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 17.468 (17) | 36.664 (5) | 25.253 (14) | 1’19.385 | 1.044 | 0.000 |
11 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 17.290 (9) | 36.992 (14) | 25.135 (9) | 1’19.417 | 1.076 | 0.000 |
12 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 17.287 (8) | 36.703 (8) | 25.453 (17) | 1’19.443 | 1.102 | 0.150 |
13 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 17.430 (15) | 36.915 (13) | 25.107 (8) | 1’19.452 | 1.111 | 0.000 |
14 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 17.394 (12) | 36.789 (11) | 25.398 (16) | 1’19.581 | 1.240 | 0.000 |
15 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 17.421 (14) | 37.161 (15) | 25.178 (11) | 1’19.760 | 1.419 | 0.000 |
16 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 17.405 (13) | 37.377 (17) | 25.202 (13) | 1’19.984 | 1.643 | 0.174 |
17 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 17.461 (16) | 37.449 (18) | 25.324 (15) | 1’20.234 | 1.893 | 0.124 |
18 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 17.618 (18) | 37.177 (16) | 25.669 (18) | 1’20.464 | 2.123 | 0.040 |
19 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 17.814 (19) | 37.579 (19) | 25.935 (19) | 1’21.328 | 2.987 | 0.000 |
20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 17.850 (20) | 37.657 (20) | 26.363 (21) | 1’21.870 | 3.529 | 0.000 |
21 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 17.989 (21) | 37.705 (21) | 26.204 (20) | 1’21.898 | 3.557 | 0.000 |
22 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 18.425 (22) | 38.539 (22) | 26.691 (22) | 1’23.655 | 5.314 | 0.073 |
Speed trap – second practice
# | Driver | Car | Engine | Max speed (kph) | Gap | |
1 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | Mercedes | 332.2 | |
2 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | Mercedes | 329.8 | 2.4 |
3 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 329.4 | 2.8 |
4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | Mercedes | 328 | 4.2 |
5 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 323.5 | 8.7 |
6 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Mercedes | 321.9 | 10.3 |
7 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | Renault | 321.8 | 10.4 |
8 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | Renault | 321.6 | 10.6 |
9 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | Ferrari | 321.5 | 10.7 |
10 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Mercedes | 321 | 11.2 |
11 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | Renault | 321 | 11.2 |
12 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | Ferrari | 320.8 | 11.4 |
13 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | Mercedes | 320.7 | 11.5 |
14 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | Ferrari | 320.6 | 11.6 |
15 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia | Ferrari | 319.5 | 12.7 |
16 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Ferrari | 319.2 | 13 |
17 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | Ferrari | 318.9 | 13.3 |
18 | 13 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus | Renault | 316.1 | 16.1 |
19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | Renault | 315.1 | 17.1 |
20 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | Renault | 313.7 | 18.5 |
21 | 10 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham | Renault | 312.4 | 19.8 |
22 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | Renault | 310.7 | 21.5 |
Complete practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’19.196 | 1’18.341 | 63 | ||
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’19.131 | 1’18.365 | 68 | ||
3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’19.697 | 1’18.443 | 62 | ||
4 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’20.210 | 1’18.887 | 59 | ||
5 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’20.105 | 1’18.960 | 72 | ||
6 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.542 | 1’19.024 | 55 | ||
7 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’19.833 | 1’19.221 | 64 | ||
8 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’20.097 | 1’19.248 | 63 | ||
9 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’19.423 | 1’19.329 | 53 | ||
10 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’19.385 | 34 | |||
11 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.505 | 1’19.417 | 59 | ||
12 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’20.337 | 1’19.452 | 55 | ||
13 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.598 | 1’19.581 | 52 | ||
14 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’20.592 | 1’19.593 | 54 | ||
15 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’20.586 | 1’19.760 | 55 | ||
16 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’21.854 | 1’20.158 | 65 | ||
17 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’21.603 | 1’20.358 | 55 | ||
18 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.504 | 40 | |||
19 | Susie Wolff | Williams-Mercedes | 1’20.769 | 22 | |||
20 | Giedo van der Garde | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’20.782 | 23 | |||
21 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’22.982 | 1’21.328 | 55 | ||
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1’23.256 | 1’21.870 | 56 | ||
23 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’23.299 | 1’21.898 | 50 | ||
24 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1’22.572 | 1’23.728 | 43 |
2014 German Grand Prix
- Mercedes explain cause of Hamilton’s brake failure
- Three-in-a-row for Bottas in Driver of the Weekend
- Hockenheim continues 2014’s run of top races
- 2014 German GP Predictions Championship results
- 2014 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
Images © Red Bull/Getty, Williams/LAT
Siddhesh (@androsid)
18th July 2014, 18:28
Perez’s long run pace looks impressive..and if rain stays aways and the temperartures are fairly high we can see a force india leading the race similar to canada.. hulkenberg’s long stint was compromised by yellow flags :(…Biggest surprise are both mclarens though…
vickyy (@vickyy)
18th July 2014, 19:02
Force India long runs look mighty, on par with RedBull and Williams. Game on!
andae23 (@andae23)
18th July 2014, 21:12
Yup, if they qualify well I can see them fight for a podium here.
gDog
18th July 2014, 19:15
Sounds like Rosberg needs to let Ross have a drive to show him what line to take.
kpcart
19th July 2014, 9:48
Hamilton and rosberg keep doing this, copying each others driving and braking to find the best way around the track. it would be better if they didn’t share data and worked it out the old fashioned way, by feel.
Becken Lima
18th July 2014, 19:39
“…What the drivers said…”
Looks like ‘Ross’ (Nico´s RE) has had a lot to say about driving style.
:D
“…Has the FIA’s ban on Front Rear Inter-Connected suspension held Red Bull close the gap to Mercedes?…”
I bet not. Those weather conditions (faced for the first time this year) plus track lay-out must be playing into Red Bull hands, at least on this friday.
Theres a lot of data to Mercedes go through until tomorrow.
Alan Miller (@alanmiller)
18th July 2014, 21:35
Hmmm. Vettel seems to be quite a few KPH down from the front runners in the speed trap. Running too much wing maybe?
@HoHum (@hohum)
19th July 2014, 0:24
I noticed it’s more that Dan is quite a few kph up on normal RBR trap speed, maybe Seb was running high downforce setup to be ready for a wet race while Dan was running a new dry setup.
@HoHum (@hohum)
19th July 2014, 3:59
I’m totally baffled, care to enlighten me?
Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
19th July 2014, 0:50
Also down a lot compared to Ricciardo.
ResultantAsteroid
19th July 2014, 1:00
Noticed it and thought maybe he’s limiting the RPM of the engine, he’s on his 4th ICE now. But who knows.
rm
19th July 2014, 1:05
Or the usual PU problems?
kpcart
19th July 2014, 9:52
more likely fuel. vettels car is bound to be 10-15kph slower anyway because of the Renault engine, but whether he was running heavy or ricciardo running light, we do not know. it is more likely ricciardo was running light, as he was “only” 10kph slower, which isn’t usual this year for Renault powered cars.
HK (@me4me)
18th July 2014, 23:14
I think Ricciardo run lower on fuel and nailed his lap. He’s consistently a couple of tenths faster then Vettel in every sector. I expect Mercedes to still be at least 6 tenths ahead of Redbull. That said, it’s not even sure Redbull will be 2nd fastest and take #3 and #4 on sunday. I bet Ferrari and Williams will give Redbull trouble.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
19th July 2014, 0:06
Last year Red Bull and Mercedes teamed up to change the tyres this year McLaren and RedBull teamed up to change FRIC. Perhaps next year McLaren will be mighty quick. On paper good track for Williams but their car seemed much stiffer than usual and all round all cars seemed to carry more ride height other than that I didn’t notice anything.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
19th July 2014, 0:44
Maybe the qualifying and race are very exciting.
SauberS1 (@saubers1)
19th July 2014, 0:45
Maybe the qualifying and race will be very exciting.
sv
19th July 2014, 6:57
force india’s long run pace of sergio seems to faster than sebastian and at par with daniel..nico looking good as well..both of them quicker than williams hoping for force’s second podium.