Ferrari quick enough to 'do a Williams' in Austria

Ferrari ended the first day of practice in Austria with reasons to be cheerful even though it hadn’t been completely trouble-free.

Most of the team’s problems were located on Sebastian Vettel’s side of the garage, as his car stopped during each of the two practice sessions. However according to the team’s power unit director Mattia Binotto, the stoppages had different causes.

“The two problems are different,” Binotto confirmed. “This morning it was not engine-related, it was a problem related to the transmission on the back of the car. It is something that we have seen, we have analysed, we are confident to sort it out for the rest of the weekend.”

“While in the afternoon, it just happened, we analysed, apparently it’s on the gearbox but again we’ll try to analyse and fix it for the rest of the weekend.”

However there were two pieces of good news for Ferrari. This first was that they ended the day quickest of all – Vettel’s best lap on the super-soft tyres was 11-thousandths better than Nico Rosberg managed in the Mercedes.

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The second, perhaps more significantly, was the speed Kimi Raikkonen demonstrated on his long run at the end of second practice. Ferrari’s pre-race preparation was far from ideal: Vettel had to park due to his gearbox problem and Raikkonen trashed his super-soft sets before he got to see how they would hold up.

Mercedes tried to push the pace beyond what Raikkonen was doing, but Hamilton didn’t feel it was possible. “Target 12.3 if possible,” race engineering Peter Bonnington told him at one stage. “I know I can’t get to that pace,” he replied.

Hamilton had a scruffy second session, ending up over half a second off the pace after several errors. “If you’re not making mistakes you’re not trying hard enough,” he said.

The Mercedes drivers did not seem as comfortable as usual. Hamilton responded to one radio request for a ‘strat mode’ adjustment by asking, “How many changes you guys want me to do? Can I just focus on driving?” Meanwhile Rosberg was once again asking for information his team couldn’t give him – this time regarding his target brake balance level for the first corner.

“Ferrari looked quick,” Hamilton admitted afterwards, “it’s definitely closer here than at other circuits.”

In pure lap time terms Austria always seems a tighter affair than at other venues simply because the track is so short. Today’s quickest time was under 70 seconds, and based on the lap time improvement seen in the first session there’s a slim chance Michael Schumacher’s 2003 track record of 1’07.908 could fall in qualifying.

But the shorter track also diminishes the importance of the performance gap between cars and punishes drivers harder for any mistakes. That’s how Hamilton’s slip-ups in qualifying 12 months ago paved the way for Williams to lock out the front row of the grid.

The heavily upgraded FW37s were, as usual, not on the pace on Friday. Tomorrow should reveal whether they as well as Ferrari might be in a position to exploit any problems Mercedes might experience.

Off the back of their most competitive showing of the season so far in Canada, Lotus look set for another competitive weekend at a track which has also favours cars with top-end grunt. Force India have changed their power units this weekend and thus have access to the latest version of the Mercedes, and also look quick.

It’s not impossible we could see all eight Mercedes-powered cars in Q3. Red Bull are struggling again at their home track – Daniil Kvyat branded his car “undriveable” at one stage while Daniel Ricciardo’s ten-place grid penalty for a power unit change has now been confirmed.

Meanwhile at McLaren Fernando Alonso will take a twenty-place drop and Jenson Button also expects more penalties The pair were frustrated by myriad glitches throughout practice including a faulty electrical connection, gear selection problem and an ignition failure. McLaren racing director Eric Boullier said Alonso’s final stoppage in practice was merely a precaution: “there was no reported problem on his car”.

Longest stint comparison – second practice

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2015drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Lewis Hamilton	73.179	73.187	72.463	72.478	73.313	72.987	77.814	72.647	72.796	72.729	72.902	76.478	76.692	73.835	74.494
Nico Rosberg	73.741	73.538	73.234	73.101	72.464	72.885	72.849	73.927	73.386	73.02	73.063	73.425	73.138	72.971	74.297	73.23	73.156	74.653	73.045
Daniel Ricciardo	73.298	73.628	73.429	73.629	73.621	73.35	73.443	73.976	74.691	73.961	73.945	74.189	74.512	76.139	74.79	75.486	74.892	74.046	75	74.203	73.61	73.732	77.725	73.882
Daniil Kvyat	73.709	73.957	74.055	74.819	73.837	73.727	73.652	73.458	73.813	73.569	73.632	73.501	73.75	73.721	76.118
Felipe Massa	74.362	73.355	73.052	72.824	72.952	74.44	73.446	73.634	72.609	72.587	72.425	72.285	72.997	72.653	73.349	73.436	73.133	73.346	73.083	73.164	73.13	73.137	73.046	73.04	73.174	100.388
Valtteri Bottas	73.335	72.893	72.589	72.481	73.237	73.153	73.859	77.595
Sebastian Vettel	73.584	71.935	72.084	71.335	70.944	70.711
Kimi Raikkonen	72.959	72.907	72.83	73.266	72.506	73.744	72.693	74.125	72.487	72.914	72.955	73.846	75.109	73.181	73.164	72.769	72.951	73.155	72.842	73.71	73.764	73.105	72.824
Fernando Alonso	74.452	76.225	72.557	72.116	83.499	76.505	71.517
Jenson Button	73.219	72.303	79.347	75.241	72.257
Nico Hulkenberg	74.029	73.607	73.582	73.433	77.602	73.509	73.735	74.16	74.221	73.645	73.553	73.693	73.574	73.841	73.813	74.272
Sergio Perez	73.804	73.514	73.521	73.274	74.953	73.649	74.513	75.837	74.434	75.673	73.847	73.684	73.931	74.103	74.393	74.137
Max Verstappen	74.324	73.468	73.831	74.111	73.558	73.789	74.015	73.821	73.987	74.027	74.561	74.266	74.404	74.633	74.556
Carlos Sainz Jnr	73.866	73.599	73.173	73.932	73.631	73.548	73.847	73.576	74.102	74.263	75.922	73.999	74.171	73.706	73.578	74.599	73.988	73.782	74.21	74.537
Romain Grosjean	81.518	73.759	73.198	73.041	73.342	73.431	75.003	74.42	73.486	73.406	74.095
Pastor Maldonado	74.336	73.407	73.684	73.76	74.501	73.856	73.648	74.141	74.187	73.911	73.738	73.763	73.907	73.95	74.641	74.441	74.361	74.384	74.534
Marcus Ericsson	73.958	74.358	74.891	73.704	73.868	73.783	73.692	73.328	73.818	73.55
Felipe Nasr	74.684	73.813	73.769	73.92	74.379	73.866	76.446	73.623	73.708	73.934	73.542	73.729	73.77	74.977
Will Stevens	78.432	77.459	77.87	77.096	76.585	77.622	76.629	77.848	78.001	76.902	77.673	77.896	76.694	76.467	76.31	76.071
Roberto Merhi	79.906	75.099	75.038	85.441	74.594	74.052	73.924

Complete practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	Total laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’15.684	1’09.600	28
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’10.401	1’09.611	50
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’11.028	1’09.860	41
4	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Mercedes	1’12.004	1’09.914	44
5	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’10.709	1’10.137	49
6	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’12.031	1’10.160	49
7	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Mercedes		1’10.267	38
8	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’11.825	1’10.356	48
9	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari	1’11.633	1’10.495	39
10	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’11.905	1’10.585	46
11	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’11.948	1’10.631	50
12	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull-Renault	1’11.642	1’10.686	48
13	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’12.159	1’10.744	40
14	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1’11.452	1’10.746	34
15	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’11.890	1’11.011	42
16	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1’13.272	1’11.517	17
17	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-Renault	1’11.724	1’11.676	38
18	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda	1’12.920	1’11.919	17
19	Jolyon Palmer	Lotus-Mercedes	1’12.050		0
20	Will Stevens	Manor-Ferrari	1’13.937	1’12.522	34
21	Roberto Merhi	Manor-Ferrari	1’15.459	1’13.094	34

2015 Austrian Grand Prix

Browse all 2015 Austrian Grand Prix articles

13 comments on “Ferrari quick enough to ‘do a Williams’ in Austria”

Ed
19th June 2015, 20:42

Ferrari seems to be quicker than Mercedes. It looks great.
But then i clicked to see Massa and Bottas and they too are “there”.

Let’s see. I don’t expect surprises anymore.

The Skeptic
20th June 2015, 9:45

This is the first race in a very long time that Mercedes have not been clearly dominant in FP2.

Felipe Massa’s long run pace was the most consistent and fastest of anyone in FP2 according to that data.

Kimi Raikkonen looks very good too.

It would be most excellent to see a closer race!

rm
19th June 2015, 21:16

I thought McLaren were making major updates to Alonso’s car for this race, including a new short nose? If so then going by the numbers here, the changes are definitely not working.

Park
19th June 2015, 21:20

Hello @keithcollantine
I am sure you are using FP1’s long runs data here. A lot of drivers had 20+ laps in a single stint in the afternoon.
http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-1-world-championship/season-2015/event-timing-information-6

Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th June 2015, 22:25

Yes that graph was showing the wrong data! I’ve switched it now, thanks for letting me know.

John H (@john-h)
19th June 2015, 22:20

McLaren are all over the place. They don’t need to go back to Ron, they need a fresh outlook. Not Boullier, but someone with some energy and passion. The team don’t believe in themselves anymore. I might be wrong, but from the outside that’s what it feels like.

svianna (@svianna)
19th June 2015, 23:36

Looking at McHonda’s performance I can’t help but wonder how Alonso must feel. What a disastrous season they are having. Having not won a championship in so many years, McLaren is obviously struggling to sign sponsors of the caliber Don Dennis believes they deserve. Curious to see how much development they will be able to afford if things don’t improve DRAMATICALLY soon.

Polo (@polo)
20th June 2015, 0:44

Apparently Honda have detuned the engines to “Melbourne levels” in order to protect the them against the kind of problems they had in Canada. Austria is the most power-dependant circuit on the calendar – given Honda’s huge engine deficit this was always going to be one of their very weakest tracks. McLaren haven’t fallen back in the development race, this track just doesn’t suit them. The chassis development actually seems to be coming along fairly well – allegedly, according to those who have estimated Honda’s horsepower deficit (supposedly around 100-110 horsepower) McLaren’s chassis is similar to, perhaps slightly below Ferrari’s.

McLaren’s future performance will be very dependent on how well Honda develops their engine, but given the current regulations we shouldn’t expect miracles. This is essentially a “testing year” for them. 2016 will be the real year where we find out how much scope McLaren-Honda has for development given the token system, and whether it is realistic to expect them to fight at the front in the future.

It’s worth remembering that Honda only started development on their engine two years ago, whereas the other engine manufacturers have been developing theirs for twice as long. Every weekend they will be on a much steeper learning curve than the other manufacturers, but they will also be catching up in the knowledge deficit. Will the token system even allow them to entirely close the gap though? Ferrari suggests it may be possible, but I feel like it will be 2017 at the earliest before McHonda can consistently challenge the front of the grid.
1. Patrick (@paeschli)
  20th June 2015, 9:25
  
  2016 will be the real year
  
  Just like 2014 was their real year after 2013 and 2015 was going to be their real year after 2014.