[forzaferrari]

Is my telly on the blink or does that track surface have shiny glass bits in it? Very noticeable on the onboards.

Maybe thats how they recycle all those wine bottles

[Jody Barton]

If you read my comment Morini you'd see my comments with regards to FP2 looks a lot better for Lewis, looks far more settled. Ditto Leclerc in FP2. He's looking really good. Everyone was scruffy in FP1.

Yes there is glittery bits in the tarmac here as the surface has crushed glass mixed into it to give better grip. The blue and red strips also have higher amounts of glass in it to provide way more grip, or scrub off speed if things go wrong.

[morini]

Sorry, multitasking and not giving my full attention to anything. Working, watching practice and posting on here. Never going to fly really is it!

[Jody Barton]

I will be intrigued to see these race simulation stint times, because it looks nip and tuck between RBR and Mercedes, with Ferrari a bit off. But we don't really know until we see them, ultimate pace it looks like Mercedes have plenty in hand here, but race pace could be different, especially as RBR have brought extra sets on the Softs, but my gut instinct and notepad say Lewis might have the edge on race pace as well. We'll see.

[morini]

I will be intrigued to see these race simulation stint times, because it looks nip and tuck between RBR and Mercedes, with Ferrari a bit off. But we don't really know until we see them, ultimate pace it looks like Mercedes have plenty in hand here, but race pace could be different, especially as RBR have brought extra sets on the Softs, but my gut instinct and notepad say Lewis might have the edge on race pace as well. We'll see.

I'm always wary of reading anything into the long runs. Fuel levels will make such a big difference and Ferrari are always the biggest Friday sandbaggers. Poor Valterri, he's lost a lot of useful track time this afternoon.

[Jody Barton]

Morini, in quali runs I agree, teams over fuel and turn the wick down so we don't really know much from those, but so far this season the race simulations have actually been a really good indication of race pace. Probably because the teams need the tyre information to feed into their strategy decisions. So I do personally take quite a bit from them. So I'll be interested to see the stints. In FP1 there seemed to be zero time difference between the Soft and the Super Soft, but we know the Softs generally speaking last way longer, so seeing the tyre degradation and lap times could determine whether this is a 1 or 2 stop race. If the Ultras hang on long enough and the Softs don't have a big delta to the Super Softs we'll see a one stop race, but if as I suspect after rubbering in there is a big lap delta difference between the Super Soft and Soft tyres, we could see balls to the wall racing with two stops, or even mixed strategy. I'm just really hoping for an interesting race this weekend

[LotusLover]

No but it looks like a tribute to williams very Texa looking i reckon there may be a few illegal overtakes. I know i said OVERTAKES lol what was i thinking

[Jody Barton]

PS, Nicki Lauda confirmed that Mercedes are running a spec 2 engine this weekend as all teams Merc powered teams are, so there we go. Supposedly quite a BHP bump expected, although everyone is being coy about it.

[LotusLover]

PS, Nicki Lauda confirmed that Mercedes are running a spec 2 engine this weekend as all teams Merc powered teams are, so there we go. Supposedly quite a BHP bump expected, although everyone is being coy about it.

I thought that too, why the coy stance? is this silly mind games. I see a Merc win this weekend

[forzaferrari]

Mercedes has confirmed it is running its upgraded Formula 1 engine in France and revealed it is a better specification than if it had been used in Canada.
The German manufacturer intended to bring an upgraded version of its engine to the previous race in Montreal but delayed it because of a last-minute reliability concern.
Its works cars, Force Indias and Williams were all fitted with new internal combustion engines, turbochargers and MGU-H components for Friday practice, but Mercedes would not say whether these were upgraded parts or fresh versions of the original specification.
After practice finished at Paul Ricard, with Lewis Hamilton setting the pace in both sessions, Mercedes confirmed the engines are an upgraded specification that have "reliability and performance updates".
It is calling it a "Phase 2.1" engine, explaining that "we would have had a Phase 2 in Canada" and that its High Performance Powertrains division in Brixworth has been able to introduce "added goodness" in the delay.
Mercedes' Brixworth team has "reworked" six race units plus spares, and this allocation is on-site at Paul Ricard.
It confirmed it intends to continue running these engines for the rest of the race weekend.

During FP2, Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda told Sky Sports F1 that it was important for the manufacturer to respond to Ferrari and Renault bringing successful updates in Canada.

"We've been one race late with the new engine, because we really have to watch it," he said. "It's very important that Andy Cowell [Mercedes HPP chief] is doing a perfect job.

"What I hope is that our engine will help us here to get back, because everyone improved their engine in the last race.

"The difference could be one or two tenths, nobody really knows what the others are doing.

"So, I hope that our engine will work well here, this is important, so we can get pole position back."

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"It is calling it a "Phase 2.1" engine, explaining that "we would have had a Phase 2 in Canada" and that its High Performance Powertrains division in Brixworth has been able to introduce "added goodness" in the delay."....(wearing tinfoil hat)....could this be the real reason Merc delayed all along???