Abu Dhabi Grand Prix - Final practice
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The sun is shining out on track with air temperature at 27C and track temp at 32C. That would usually be good news for an F1 car, but the conditions will change a lot ahead of Q3 in qualifying as the sun sets. As a result, this session has less of an impact on setup for qualifying than your average FP3 session, but none of the teams will turn down the chance to get an hour of track time.
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@Siddhesh: Good question. The spec is the same as Hamilton's - i.e. the latest spec of Mercedes engine - but it is much older as he lost his original new-spec engine (his third engine of the season overall) to a cooling liquid contamination in Monza. That meant he had to make his fourth and final engine last nearly twice as long as it was originally intended by running it at more conservative settings. It wasn't such a big deal in Brazil, but this is a power circuit where it will make a quite a substantial difference.
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@Pavan: They looked competitive yesterday, but I think they might struggle to remain in the top four or five today when the Mercedes teams turn up their power units for qualifying. But you are right, the chassis is very strong and at this track gives them a big advantage in the final sector. Red Bull are also keen to point out how much skinnier their rear wing has to be to make up for its straight-line speed disadvantage, suggesting it would be even quicker in the twisty bits with a more powerful engine.
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@Salman: It does, but the changes Honda needs to make to its MGU-H and Turbo require more tokens than they had towards the end of the season and a huge amount of time to redesign and manufacturer the parts. Honda are already working hard on that and will continue to do so over the winter. We'll see the results of that hard work in the early tests and races.
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@Pavan: Mercedes undoubtedly has one of the best, Red Bull is up there and McLaren have made huge progress. The Toro Rosso is also very good and often looks planted in the corners. The general consensus is that Ferrari and Mercedes are now matched for power, which means the deficit you see each weekend is largely down to the chassis and aero. Williams have a car that is very efficient but lacks a bit of overall downforce. Force India have come a long way, Lotus have been unable to develop their car. Sauber went on a crucial weight-loss programme over the winter and have improved, but are still a long way off. The Manor was always going to be a bit of a bodge job given the winter they had.
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@Keith: Well, that is how they have posed the question, but this is about the chassis not the power unit. They want clarity on whether they can work with another entity - be it a potential team or something else - to be able to get around the strict wind tunnel regs. For clarity, it's been referred to the stewards of the meeting this weekend as it is a matter relating to the Sporting Regulations. If I had to bet on it, I'd guess they will refer it back to the FIA and we might have a tribunal or something similar over the winter. But I haven't had a chance to study the details yet.
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Hi Guys --send us some of that 33c weather to us! We are freezing in Montana!! Given the performance of Mercedes, and how they seem to be systematically increasing the performance of their cars, some are saying that it will not be to 2017 earliest before we have a competitive F1 again? That would give the Hammer 5 championships, not withstanding pretty boy's wimpering. What is your view?
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@Mary-Lou: Ferrari has gained, no doubt about it, but the gap is still big. I would not be surprised at all if next year becomes another two-way fight for the title between the Mercedes drivers. But these things always change over time, I remember when it was unthinkable that anyone other than Schumacher and Ferrari would be champion
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@SudiptaSengupta: Only that they have one! We expect it to be a Renault, but the big question is whether it will have Renault branding and whether it will be Renault or Ilmor that take on the development. We expect to know more next week when Renault announces its plans regarding Lotus
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@Keith: Under the regulations you can't do what Ferrari has done with Haas with an existing team. The difference was that Haas wasn't an existing team. The FIA went to Maranello and was happy with what was going on, but Mercedes appears to be saying that it could open up a Pandora's box of extra spending if everyone does it (which is what the FIA regs are trying to avoid in the first place). If Mercedes gets the go ahead from the FIA, I suspect they will do exactly that
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@Keith: That's the point, it would be against the regulations to do it with an existing team. One of the questions is when a prospective team becomes an existing team... But perhaps another part of the Mercedes empire could use the Mercedes wind tunnel to design parts for a completely different project and then that information could find its way back to the F1 team...
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Laurence if ferrari got the advantage of the fact that Haas wasn't an existing f1 team then surely the current front runners like mercs or mclaren can invest their money on another new comer team in the future.. surely this means that we can have the high probability of new comers on the grid in the future.
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@Keith: My understanding is it is down to the wheelbase and positioning of the front bulkhead of the Ferrari. They took a different route to most of the other teams, but had their reasons for doing so. It will be interesting to see which way they go next year.
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F1 - Chinese GP
Chinese Grand Prix April 10-12
April 10: Free practice 1
10:00 local | 02:00 GMT | 03:00 BST
April 10: Free practice 2
14:00 local | 06:00 GMT | 07:00 BST
April 11: Free practice 3
12:00 local | 04:00 GMT | 05:00 BST
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