Ferrari, Circuit de Catalunya, 2018

Hamilton suspects DRS design is part of Ferrari’s advantage

2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton suspects Ferrari has found a performance advantage in the operation of its DRS, in addition to improved performance from its power unit.

“They’ve shown they’ve been very quick on the straights,” said Hamilton after being beaten to pole position by Sebastian Vettel. “They’ve got a very strong DRS in particular, quite efficient DRS as far as I’m aware.”

“I’ve not looked at the data so I don’t know where they are faster than us and where we’re faster than them,” he added. “But obviously they’ve made a big step forward this year and they are the number one team to beat at the moment.”

Hamilton’s best time through the middle sector of the lap was four tenths of a second slower than Ferrari’s best. “I can’t really explain it,” he said. “I think they have a little bit more downforce than us.”

The world champion said he is encouraged by the gains the team made overnight with his car.

“Ferrari have been so dominant in the last couple of races and pace-wise we knew that they would be very quick here. Which they have been all weekend. I think Red Bull also looked really promising, not sure what happened to them.

“We were struggling yesterday, but we came into today and the engineers did some really great work last night to understand where we were and how we could progress forwards, so a big thank you to them for all their hard work.

“Today was much more reasonable car. There were still areas where we were lacking but it’s a work in progress I would say and to be that close to the Ferraris is definitely a positive and to have me and Valtteri up there is a good booster for the team, to be right there in up in the mix.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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62 comments on “Hamilton suspects DRS design is part of Ferrari’s advantage”

  1. Ferrari have been so dominant in the last couple of races

    Oh please.

    1. A win is a win.

      Ferarri 2, Redbull 1, Mercedes 0. Anything else is mostly educated speculation. It’s ok to speculate but it’s, could have, would have should have.

      The Cowboys could have won the 1994 championship game as they were better than the 49ers. They didn’t.

      1. Well, if you don’t want to look at the circumstances:
        Vet 54 points – Ham 45 points
        Fer 84 – Mer 85

        1. I think he was referring to their qualifying pace advantage, which has been pretty strong, they had a half-second margin in China. But that pales in comparison to how far ahead Mercedes were at this track in 2016 and 2017. Of course from Hamilton’s perspective it’s exaggerated by the fact Mercedes are much slower here than last year.

          1. @keithcollantine
            Fer had good qualifying pace in China, certainly, but surely he must have been referring to this seasons’ wins:
            “A win is a win. Ferarri 2, Redbull 1, Mercedes 0.”

      2. A win is a win.
        But none of those were dominant wins. More SC luck, challenger chickening out, or good strategy.

    2. Oh please what ?

      Bahrain – front row lockout and win the race easily. Bottas was only able to get close due to being on the better tyre at the end. The Ferrari car was dominant enough to win on much worse tyres.

      China – another front row lockout and dominating pace. Got tricked by Mercedes and then lost out more with the safety car. More unlucky than slow.

      In Australia they had the pace to stay out longer and luck into the win.

      Ferrari are dominant in 2018. It’s simple. It’s fact. Baku highlights it by how they are now in front at a track they were nearly a second behind at last year.

      Wake up and smell the domination.

      1. Bahrain – front row lockout and win the race easily. Bottas was only able to get close due to being on the better tyre at the end. The Ferrari car was dominant enough to win on much worse tyres.

        Uh, Ferrari had to gamble on making to the end on Soft tyres because Mercedes had good enough pace on mediums to keep within a few seconds of Ferrari on the softs.

        In Australia they had the pace to stay out longer and luck into the win.

        They had the pace to be 2nd and 3rd until they lucked into the win. All after Bottas chucked away a potential front row start alongside his teammate by crashing.

        1. I think you’ve got that a bit backwards @simracer

          Ferrari being stronger on old tyres is more impressive than a car being quicker on fresher tyres even if they are a compound harder.

          As for Australia I stand by my point. Vettel was able to stick with Hamilton quite well until his pit stop. Vettel then still had the pace to remain in the VSC window even with Hamilton on fresh tyres.

          People are so set in their ways with Mercedes domination but we’ve seen that drop off since 2016. Ferrari had the better race car last year but Mercedes could outqualify them and remain in the lead due to overtaking being hard. This year Ferrari have the best car full stop.

          1. @F12020

            Ferrari being stronger on old tyres is more impressive than a car being quicker on fresher tyres even if they are a compound harder.

            Ferrari weren’t stronger on old tyres, the gap between Vettel and Bottas obviously came down as the stint went on.

            As for Australia I stand by my point. Vettel was able to stick with Hamilton quite well until his pit stop. Vettel then still had the pace to remain in the VSC window even with Hamilton on fresh tyres.

            Vettel was around 6-7 seconds behind until Hamilton’s stop. And according to Mercedes they miscalculated the VSC window, which implies that Hamilton could have built a bigger gap.

            Ferrari had the better race car last year but Mercedes could outqualify them and remain in the lead due to overtaking being hard.

            Even that wasn’t the case. Mercedes won 12/20, which included untroubled wins in Abu Dhabi, Canada, USA, Britain and Italy.

        2. Uh, Ferrari had to gamble on making to the end on Soft tyres because Mercedes had good enough pace on mediums to keep within a few seconds of Ferrari on the softs.

          ehhh nope, ferrari was doing 2 stopper which was superior to bottas one stopper, in fact, bottas might had to change to 2 stopper because it was 2 ferraris forcing him to change strategy, hamilton wasnt close enough yet to affect the outcome, so as soon as raikonen got DNF because of the incident in the pits.. it became 2 mercedes vs one ferrari because hamilton at that point was close enough so if vettel pitted bottas would get away and hamilton would probably be too close or even pass him, so no… they didnt gamble, they were forced to do it because kimi was not in the game anymore

          1. @j3d89

            ehhh nope, ferrari was doing 2 stopper which was superior to bottas one stopper, in fact, bottas might had to change to 2 stopper because it was 2 ferraris forcing him to change strategy

            No. The expectation was that the 2 stop (SS-S-SS) would be superior, but Vettel wasn’t that much faster on his softs, than Bottas on mediums. In the end, SS-M was the best strategy, at least for Mercedes, since they likely would have had the pace (on mediums) and track position to win. Ferrari chose not to give them track position and barely pulled off the SS-S 1 stop. Bottas was never 2 stopping once they threw mediums onto his car on lap 20. He was in front of Kimi when he made his second stop. Mercedes had no reason to respond to a car that would have been faster, but 30s behind them.

          2. @simracer look, SS-S-S (when raikonen pitted he was mounting the soft tires before breaking the leg of the pit guy) and it was the better strategy because bottas was alone… SS wouldnt last that much and would lose performance quickly, around lap 35 they would need to make around 20 laps… so S tires was the better choice… why it was better?.. like i said… bottas was alone

            bottas was on medium since lap 20, the 2 redbull are out of the race, so is basically 2 ferrari and 1 mercedes way ahead of the pack.

            raikonen pitted on 36:

            1..if bottas stay out he cannot close the gap to vettel but raikonen will pass him and even vettel because of the faster and fresher tires.

            2..if bottas pit to protect himself from kimi then vettel pit safely, vettel retain the lead, and raikonen get closer to bottas because mercedes don’t perform well with softer tires.

            so no matter what bottas did, he was going to get the short end of the stick, what gave them the chance was kimi retirement because forced vettel to do one stop

          3. @j3d89

            1..if bottas stay out he cannot close the gap to vettel but raikonen will pass him and even vettel because of the faster and fresher tires.

            Raikkonen on softer tyres was 2 seconds behind Bottas throughout the stint before he pitted again. Pitstops cost you about 25 seconds in Bahrain. Kimi was also only about 13 seconds in front of Hamilton. KR would have had to make up 12s on Hamilton and 27s on Bottas before passing them on track. You really think this would have happened?

            2..if bottas pit to protect himself from kimi then vettel pit safely, vettel retain the lead, and raikonen get closer to bottas because mercedes don’t perform well with softer tires.

            Bottas had 27s and his teammate to protect himself from Kimi. Mercedes threw on mediums for Bottas because they were one stopping. Their pace was good enough to justify it.

    3. My thoughts exactly.

    4. I guess after 4 years of having a dominant car, suddenly not being able to beat the field easily but having to get a really great run to have a shot at pole now feels like a huge step back to Hamilton @flatsix.

      But indeed for the rest of the world it rather looks like Ferrari has (Finally) made the step to close the gap to Mercedes and have been slightly ahead on pace so far in the first couple of races, while Red Bull has also closed in to make it more interesting for all fans. Nowhere close to the red cars “dominating” apart from “having been often on the first row so far”

      1. All. Just in time for the regulations to change again lol

      2. Yes Ferrari did their homework. Bu do not forget Merc is slower this year than last year. The development of the car went the wrong way for them.

    5. anyone know what the third paddle on vettel’s car? i have first time seen him using it… he used it before the corner clearly… i doubt it is brake bias adjustment… energy recovery/deployment/traction control thing maybe where red bull was suspected of using (energy recovery/release during bracking as means of traction control?)
      watch his index finger at the top right corner of steering wheel, at 22-23 seconds mark on the video? engaging it during twisty sections and around 36-37 seconds mark, he quickly touches it once… looks like disengaging it? or is it conspiracy?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN76TfXYADI

      1. It’s a simple tension device to strengthen the muscles of his index finger.
        He hasn’t used that finger very often over the past years and now wants to make sure it’s working fine to celebrate poles and wins.

        1. Priceless, Coldfly :-)

      2. I think it’s not related to any new tech that is being utilised only by Ferrari, otherwise Kimi would have it too. Seb is frequently changing his steering wheel layout, so I guess the third paddle offers a preexisting functionality but in a layout that Sebastian prefers.

      3. It’s the drink bottle.

    6. I guess hams hungry, a bit Anoying but motivated. Like hes not within 10 points. Like the Mercedes still isnt the best PU, look at the costumers and also particularly race pace. Reliability and dependability might win them the title rather than sheer speed.

    7. @flatsix
      Oh please, Ferrari wins three qualifications in a row on absolutely different racetracks with different weather conditions, and has 4-5 tenths advantage over the closest competitor (yesterday, both Ferrari drivers failed in their last attempts, hence the advantage was smaller).
      That’s dominance. I can’t believe how you manage to ignore facts. How can you do this?

    8. Andrew Purkis
      29th April 2018, 13:00

      ferrari have the best car overall in the most races

      but should do £300 million ayr and took them 3 yrs to get there

      im sticking with a close fight to the last race

      in a 21 race season reliability is key and merc have been best at that

      and remember Ham is on a record 28 race streak

  2. this joke is beginning to be a classic… merc are leading the wcc and are in p 2 and 3…
    they were telling the same story last year and had both championships in the pocket ez.

    1. @zad2 As much as I love Kimi, he is costing Ferrari points and Ferrari are treating him like Vettels doormat – that is the reason Mercedes are ahead in the WCC. The Ferrari right now is indisputably the most rounded car, it bodes well for Vettel’s season, and 2018 could well be a classic.

      1. “Ferrari are treating him like Vettels doormat” can’t really imagine what you are referring to, surely nobody intended the accident in the pits. maybe you treat you doormat very differently than me ;-)

        1. He is obvioulsy talking about the abysmal strategy decision for Kimi in the last race just to help Vettel close a 2 second gap to a sec.
          If you didn’t see that, is not surprising you disagree about the doormat affirmation.

          1. @Ed

            the abysmal strategy decision for Kimi in the last race just to help Vettel close a 2 second gap to a sec.

            Do we really know this ? Or is it just speculation ? You are entitled to your opinion though…

      2. Delusional, anti ferrari and vettel preaching in mainstream media. This disease plagues the fans as well, a shame. I feel for kimi hes driving just like vintage kimi. Its either him or luck or typical ferrari strategy costing ferrari better results. With .3 of a second Merc can win 18 out of 21, and Rb maybe even more but Feerari, thet find a way of doing exactly what you should not do.

    2. But they haven’t won a race yet… and won’t this season. Ferrari have it wrapped up, not Mercedes.

      1. God I hope so, but… jeez, you’re so sure of yourself as if the 1st half of the season is over and Mercedes has 0 wins. It’s just the 4th GP of the season! Don’t want to talk much about Quali ’cause it doesn’t matter in the end if the pole sitter cannot translate it into victory. But, there’s absolutely no dominant car+driver combo yet in race trim. In AUS VET managed to keep HAM honest, but no real chance to close the gap completely and try a pass. Things changed only because of the VSC period. In Bahrain VET won by less than 1sec margin. In China, Mercedes and RBR kept VET honest for 19 laps, a little (4sec) flaw in Ferraris’ strategy and BOT took the lead in lap 21. Almost sure BOT would have won if it wasn’t for the SC period. VET didn’t have to pace to drive into distance in the first part of the race, didn’t have the pace to retake the lead after pit-stop but kept BOT within reach. So, I fail to see any domination. It seems that this WDC will be decided by strategy calls, driver mistakes, pit-stop mistakes, VSC/SC periods, great/poor starts etc. And if it’s decided by such factors, it means there’s no dominating car.

    3. i’m sorry guys, but i have to disagree. merc will figure out how to manage the “diva” and become the team they are. i’ve heard the same stories (mostly from merc.) last year and neither wdc and wcc were close… merc are ahead in wcc @ the moment and are in pos 2 & 3. hardly the underdogs, or 2nd best car as they like to say. the only advantage ferrari has is crazy max behind the mercs but it wouldn’t suprise me if he’s torpedoing vettel in the first lap.

  3. Mee think Mercedes are playing slow to an agrement with Liberty, and are using the spare time to help FI and Williams.
    The Ham blasting pole was a mistake a few races ago, he forgot not to use party mode as instructed..
    They will begin wining again from next time onwards, as long wdc points are not going too far away, they can wait.

  4. Hamilton is purposing himself for an aerodynamics engineering degree?…

  5. Isn’t the DRS pretty much standard?

    1. @johnmilk

      With the teams trying new rearwings every weekend i would say its the opposite of standard. Also the DRS wing is at the back of the car where the air has been affected by the entire cars aerosetup.

    2. Can we spaculate that DRS’ effects are being amplified by the strange and oily exhaust gases of the Ferrari’s?

      1. @serkank
        An interesting theory is that they use burned oil to leave a residue on the cylinder walls with as a result higher revs possible for some time.

        1. That seems far fetched but i love speculations like that.

  6. I think what HAM is saying is that when the DRS is open on the Ferrari, there is less drag on the car, and thus faster, then when Mercedes has the DRS open. So the ferrari’s DRS gives a greater drag reduction. During qualifying, the DRS can be opened at anytime, without regards to being behind someone by no more than 1 second.

    1. It really can’t.

    2. As @falken mentions, Johns, DRS really cannot be opened at anytime. Sure, you don’t have to be following, so that every driver can use it on their hot laps, but they can still only use it in the designated DRS zones.

      1. Guybrush Threepwood
        29th April 2018, 4:36

        I think it’s obvious that’s what Johns was meaning…

    3. Perhaps because of the wing mirrors which are in the wake of rear wing.. It generate less drag compared to other car’s mirrors. This time they put three teeths on it. It’s just my feeling

  7. Hamilton suspects something, Watson.

  8. I don’t see why he would have to suspect, so long as you have accurate speed reading from the Ferrari it’s an easy theory to check.

    1. @george

      You kinda need more than the speedtrap to evaluate an F1 car…

      1. @rethla
        I mean live telemetry, not speed trap. The cars are topping out at this track so if you see their top speed with DRS closed and top speed with it open you get the effect of the DRS, it’s quite simple.

  9. Used to despise this event but it is actually a very good test of how much balls the cars have here. Impressed by the beauty of the city and the challenge of this place. Now one of my favorite tracks. Nice but odd to see the Mercedes struggle. Could become a problem if they slip anymore. It’ll rattle the team and down the grid they fall

    1. So, in essence, you didn’t like the first race but you liked the second race?

      1. Nope

        Thought the idea of modern Formula One cars race there of all places was foolish unbecoming of this level of racing and only happens because big money. My opinion means nothing except l would say the really long straight is a challenge to the cars lap after lap. Without the castle area which is too narrow period, l questioned how F1 benefits from this type of race. But today it’s just another kind of F1race in a crazy cool city. This event pushes the car in special way and l finally get it

  10. James Allison finally taking it’s toll.

  11. Mercedes is into Ferrari 2005 encounter, ending the last season on high but suddenly have no answer without major changes in regulation. Both also blaming tyre/tyre window for the dismal result. Mercedes will need Red Bull and Ferrari bad luck for A win.

    1. No major change in 2005? FIA changed the tire rules from 2004 to 2005. No changing of tires in the race, only on set was allowed. The Ferrari of 2004 with the Bridgestones was optimised for short sprints like the famous France race with 4 stops . This comparison is nonsense. It was obvious for everyone Ferrari struggled because of this MAJOR change.

  12. Damn it does look well engineered in that picture that’s for sure. The curves, the packaging, the suspension, what are we calling that pre-wing before the rear wing? It’s a beautiful looking thing.

    1. agree, @skipgamer.
      And how appropriate to have a non-smoking sign next to their exhaust ;-)

  13. 1) “They’ve shown they’ve been very quick on the straights,” said Hamilton after being beaten to pole position by Sebastian Vettel. “They’ve got a very strong DRS in particular, quite efficient DRS as far as I’m aware.”
    2) Hamilton’s best time through the middle sector of the lap was four tenths of a second slower than Ferrari’s best. “I can’t really explain it,” he said. “I think they have a little bit more downforce than us.”

    In other words, “I, as a driver, am a lot faster than Sebastian. Probably more than 1.5 seconds.” CQTMS

  14. So Ferrari 3 poles in a row on different circuits, with different conditions and especially with last 2 very dominant pole positions. Kimi would have been an easy P1 or P2 untill his mistake and that would give Ferrari another 1-2. The real qualifying gap is around 4-5 tenths had any Ferrari improved their last run.

    And still there are people talking about Mercedes domination…..SMH. Merc domination ended at the end of 2016. Ferrari was already very competitive last year and now Ferrari is clearly ahead and the fastest overall car.
    Get yourself updated with the new pecking order…

  15. Mickey's Miniature Grandpa
    29th April 2018, 13:04

    My favourite team is best because misinterpreted or entirely fictitious facts and invalid reasoning.

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