"Cato Batista" 21/11/2014 21:22:20 ID #703

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Lewis was slightly faster than Nico in both session today, the Mercedes have their usual huge advantage over the rest. But it was not your typical Friday testing as the teams focused their attention to solve the drop in temperatures that will happen during the course of the race on Sunday. This GP presents a unique challenge as it starts under the sunlight late in afternoon and ends at night time under the floodlights making the cars and tyres behaving completely different as the temperature falls. The other challenge is to understand the compounds Pirelli has chosen  this time around: super soft / red - soft / yellow. So far it looks like a struggle to preserve the options /super soft from degrading in just a few laps.

P1 - HAM (1.43.476) ROS (+.113) ALO (+1.708 !) VET RIC VER KVY BOT PER HUL

P2 - HAM (1.42.113) ROS (+.083) MAG (+.782) VET BOT RIC RAI BUT KVY

All the times above were done with super-softs early on both sessions, the options are around 1 sec per lap faster but they are proven to be very difficult as they are unwilling to reach working temperature and then they are degrading suddenly after only 6 to 8 laps when on high fuel loads.

Mercedes - HAM was only fractionally faster on options than ROS but more revealing he had the best crono in all 3 sectors in the last of his 6 timed-laps race simulation on primes by over 2 tenths.

Ferrari- ALO appeared in his customary 3rd place in the opening session but his weekend has taken the wrong turn as his F14T had a failure leaving him out of the running for FP2. RAI had his program affected by high degradation on the softer compound, the problem was complicated further by the lack of data input from ALO’s car.

Red Bull - VET was complaining all day of several small problems despite the 4th best time and a really impressive stint on primes lapping steadily in the 1.47 bracket, very close to the Silver cars. RIC was just behind him (3 hundredths). The RB10 is expected to fight Williams for the ‘best of the rest’ in Abu Dhabi.

Williams- Both drivers had the same scary moment when part of bodywork went out flying at speed, the problem was a new sidepod for this race to improve cooling that created excessive pressure, the team lost most of P1. Their best lap times came from their superior top speed in the trap of sector 1 but they look a handful to drive on the rest of the slower sections. Pat Symmonds admits they never care about lap times on Fridays, “particularly in Yas Marina”

McLaren - BUT is saying the MP4-29 “is OK in single lap” configuration” but he had several issues and couldn’t complete enough laps to work on set-up, particularly testing their new Red Bull -style front wing, MAG third best time in P2 has the team talking about a podium finish on Sunday, but they concede they are running behind dialing the cars.

As usual Toro Rosso anticipates to get their 2 cars in the top 10, but this time Force India with their new aero package and their newer engines (their 5th units with only 1 race) will be fighting with them for a place in Q3. PER was the 3rd fastest on the speed traps and looking very smooth.

In CFA matters let’s put the double point issue to rest. Your feedback was prompt and clear: we don’t like the ‘artificial’ measure either in F1 or in our own Championship. Let me copy & paste a response that might represents the general feeling:  “No! A race is a race and the season reflects dedication, ability and perfection throughout so to scoot in under the door at the end won't do…” Amen.

And for the last QF of the year - Cato -HAM  ROS  VET.

This is serious,I strongly suggest you check FP3 results for you final consideration, let’s do our homework!

Cheers