Training analysis GP Canada 2018

G inge it after the fastest lap Max Verstappen has already won the Canadian GP. The Dutchman was ahead in both training sessions. With his afternoon best time of 1:12.198 minutes, the Dutchman remained 7 tenths above the pole position from last year.

Lewis Hamilton's 2017 record will not survive Saturday. The teams don't turn up their fresh engines until Saturday. Mercedes also had to protect its aged engines on the first day. And the Silver Arrows haven't rolled a single lap on the hypersoft tires. The world champions only ordered 5 sets of Pirelli's softest rubber compound. All other teams stocked up on at least seven sets of Hypersoft per vehicle.

According to Pirelli, the Hypersoft tire has an advantage of 1.1 seconds over the second softest compound on one lap. If this time were to be subtracted from Hamilton's fastest lap with 1.12.777 minutes, the Englishman would easily have set the best time. How strong the Mercedes are in Montreal was already indicated in the racing simulations. On the ultrasoft tires and the supersoft rubbers, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are each ahead in a double pack. On Ultrasoft 4 tenths ahead of Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen, on the harder Supersofts 6 tenths ahead of Max Verstappen.

Red Bull Motorsport Director Helmut Marko still expects a close race between the three top teams. He is not put off by Hamilton's strong longrun times. “The Hamilton was super fast, but its first set of tires looked terrible in the end. Strangely enough, his lap times haven't collapsed. ”During the race, Red Bull is again counting on the quality of the car in terms of tire protection. A look at the weather forecast on his cell phone brightened Marko's face. “24 degrees on Sunday. The hotter the better for us. ”

Six things you need to know about the training day in Montreal:

1) Did Mercedes gamble away with the tire order?

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Mercedes was only up on Friday ultrasoft and supersoft on the go.

At the end of February, Mercedes received three sets of supersoft from Pirelli, five sets of Ultrasoft and five sets of Hypersoft from Pirelli for its ordered by both drivers. All other teams stocked up on at least seven sets of Pirelli's super glue. Ferrari and Red Bull have even ordered eight sets for their drivers. For Mercedes this meant: Stay away from Hypersoft on the first day of training.

'We will drive one set of Hypersoft in the third training and then four each in the qualification,' explains team manager Ron Meadows. But that would not mean Mercedes would have a fresh set of hypersoft for the race. That could tactically restrict the Silver Arrows. According to Pirelli, you drive the fastest race with the combination of hypersoft-hypersoft-ultrasoft.

'In retrospect, we made a mistake,' criticizes Niki Lauda. 'We should have ordered more from the Hypersofts, but the decision was made early in the year.' The strong longrun times of his drivers reconciled the Mercedes Foreign Minister: 'We are in good spirits.' Supersoft tires are most comfortable. Hamilton and Bottas were the only ones to break the 1.15 mark in their long runs.

2) Why does Ricciardo not have a long run

Daniel Ricciardo only covered 17 laps in the second training session. In comparison, Max Verstappen was 39 laps on the track. While his new Renault V6 turbo worked perfectly, Ricciardo rattled around the course for four laps with dropouts and reduced performance. This was followed by a longer stay in the garage.

'We have exchanged all parts that do not mean a penalty,' reveals Marko. So spark plugs, ignition coils, cables. After a 54-minute repair, Ricciardo still did 13 laps, but could no longer reel off a regular long run. At the end of the practice session, the traffic on the track was also the heaviest.

3) Why was Vettel's racing simulation so short?

Sebastian Vettel's second practice session started almost 15 minutes late. The reason: “In the morning I went to the wall in turn 4.” That is Hessian and means posted. A wishbone of the right front suspension broke. Repairs to the front axle are a complex procedure in modern Formula 1 cars.

After that, the entire car had to be measured. So Vettel ran out of time for an extensive long run program. After all, he managed 6 laps with the Hypersoft tires and was just behind team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, who set the long-run best with 1.16.321 minutesHypersoft tires put up. Vettel's comment: 'I'm satisfied.'

4) Is Red Bull stronger than Ferrari?

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Verstappen was only a touch faster than Raikkonen in the Ferrari in the second training session.

It's going to be a very tight box. Comparative values ​​are only available on the hypersoft tires. Verstappen was four tenths slower than Raikkonen, but the Dutchman drove almost twice as long. Red Bull hopes that its tire-friendly car will again become a trump card in the race. 'If we make it to the second row of the grid, we will fight for victory,' believes team boss Christian Horner.

The situation in midfield is again confusing. Force India is driving strong as expected and is just ahead of Renault and McLaren. Fernando Alonso divided his ultrasoft long run into two servings of 7 rounds each. The second was an average of 7 tenths faster, despite the tires already being used. In the first part, Alonso had to take off the gas too often due to traffic.

HaasF1 has recovered after the Monaco bankruptcy. “We only have to get faster on the ultrasoft tires. Our drivers say that they haven't found any grip, ”explained team boss Guenther Steiner.

The Sauber drivers gave a very strong performance. “Points are possible. We were doing well on all types of tires ”, praised Marcus Ericsson, who finished fourth with his Hypersoft long run. Team boss Frédéric Vasseur explains: “The track layout suits the car better than Monte Carlo. And we can get over the curbs well too. That was a question mark before. ”

5) What good are the new engines?

To answer this question, we have to wait for qualification and the race. On the first day of training, all teams drove with reduced performance. Honda is said to have found 20 hp with its new internal combustion engine. Renault also managed a 20 hp jump, but in two installments. A small one with new gasoline in Barcelona, ​​a larger one with the Spec2 engine.

Because Red Bull uses different fuel, only about half of the power gain reached the third place in the World Cup. One speaks of one to one and a half tenths extrapolated to the lap time, in the case of the works team of three tenths.

Ferrari is also rumored to have found 10 hp. As in the case of Honda, only the internal combustion engine is new. Mercedes will be able to get over it. The Spec 1 engine is still the measure of all things. In the meantime we also know what made the world champions reschedule at short notice. On Tuesday, one of the new engines broke down on the test stand after a mileage of 3,700 kilometers. Mercedes promises: The problem in the crankcase will be eliminated by the French GP.

6) Will the hypersoft tire keep in the race?

The delta of one second between hypersoft and ultrasoft will make it hard to survive the Q2 on an ultrasoft tire. The top ten will probably have to start with the softest rubber compound. But how long does the hypersoft tire last before the grain on the rear tire eats up the traction? 'The goal is 10 to 12 laps,' says Force India Technical Director Andy Green.

The graining starts with four to eight laps, depending on the driving style. Max Verstappen and Romain Grosjean did the longest long runs on hypersoft rubber with 12 laps each. The marathon men on the ultrasoft soles were Nico Hülkenberg and Marcus Ericsson with 16 laps each. Charles Leclerc covered almost a third of the race distance with 22 laps on the supersoft tire.