Poll: Spanish Grand Prix 2017, Catalunya - Race 5/20

Rate the 2017 Spanish Grand Prix

  • Total voters
    95
  • Poll closed .
I don't like these tyres, they don't last a single lap at full speed.
they seem far worse than weve had for years, but last far longer at race speeds.
 
el_dazza said:
Alonso's wrung the balls off that McLaren. What a great effort.
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People acting surprised on Reddit and everywhere else as well. 13th at Australia and China, tracks with longer straights, p15 in Bahrain... p10 was pretty much expected at the very high downforce, lower straight length/speed tracks.

p13 in China means p10 is pretty likely here, Monaco, Hungary, Singapore.

Think of it this way, last year with a similar engine deficit but more reliability, China p12, Spain p10, Russia p12(Button anyway, Alonso p14), Hungary p7, Monza p13, Singapore p9.

Mclaren are still a team with three times the budget of all the midfield runners(except maybe Renault now), they have a significantly better chassis than teams with no where near the same budgets. They will always improve 2-3 places at tracks less power and more downforce dependent as last year shows and simple common sense suggests would happen.

EDIT:- was writing this earlier, posted it after the laps in Q3, 7th isn't at all bad, but I would still say not too surprising. I'm almost more surprised that a Williams got into 9th with almost no downforce :p
 
I think he'll do well for a decent portion of the race potentially, heavier cars protecting tires maybe won't breeze by him too easily, but as fuel comes off and their ERS fails to harvest enough energy he will likely be passed by quite a few cars. Kind of depends how far back everyone drops to protect tires I would think.

Trouble is Mclaren's inability to finish races at the moment, he's had one classified finish this year(can't recall if it was a real finish or break down on last couple of laps?), less time on throttle will help but I wouldn't bet on him finishing.
 
If that's an Alonso who is "stagnating" (™ BuffetSlayer) then I should think he's got a bit to give to F1 just yet ;)

That McLaren really is a criminal waste of driving talent...
 
JRS said:
If that's an Alonso who is "stagnating" (™ BuffetSlayer) then I should think he's got a bit to give to F1 just yet ;)

That McLaren really is a criminal waste of driving talent...
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Agreed, a real shame we haven't seen him at the front for a while. He has made some poor car choices however.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Agreed, a real shame we haven't seen him at the front for a while. He has made some poor car choices however.
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I know we all joke about this, but I'm wondering now how many truly bad moves he's made that were all on him.

Renault to McLaren in 2007 ought to have worked. But a combination of Hamilton proving strong enough off the bat to challenge for the title and his own involvement in the Spygate saga killed it off. He pretty much had to go back to Renault at that point as there were no cars worth having otherwise (Ferrari weren't quite ready for him, Red Bull weren't quite ready full stop, Williams were sliding down the order, Toyota were perennial under-achievers, no room at the BMW Sauber inn...). Ferrari in 2010 was a reasonable move, that just so happened to come at a time when the RBR juggernaut was getting going. Perhaps he did stay there a bit too long though.

The move back to McLaren is pretty much the only definitive Bad Move™ that he's made. And it was a bad move that was so obvious to anyone looking even vaguely in the direction of the sport that you wonder why no-one close to him didn't try to stop it!
 
They didn't show bit sure Hamilton must have had a mistake on his final lap, after sector 2 was two tenths faster then his fastest lap and ended slower then fastest lap. Either that or took too much out his tyres but he was on course for sub 1.19.

Hope the race pace between Mercedes and Ferrari can remain that close in the race and we can see vettel vs Hamilton
 
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