Posted on 29th June 2013
During FP3 I was track side watching the cars through Abbey, Farm and the Arena section. It was quite warm and sunny, but there was a chilly wind at times. I first watched the cars through Abbey, I noticed the Red Bull’s look pretty solid. McLaren were ok through the corner, but not looking quite as committed as others. Perez was sometimes pushing his luck on the exit too. Mercedes and Force India looked good at the first turn, only a gust of wind have an effect on Paul DiResta causing a moment of oversteer. Ferrari looked good too, well balanced mid corner and good change of direction. Sauber on the other hand look twitchy, and uncomfortable in the high speed corners. The drivers having to take several fights at the steering wheel to keep the car on line.
The Arena section was very interesting to watch, I was analysing closely braking, turn in and acceleration, here Ferrari were impressive, good braking and no drama, acceleration was strong with good turn in too. Overall Ferrari look well balanced, and quick. McLaren however look poor, braking is ok but turning into the corner looks like a lot of hard work. Acceleration is ok however Perez and particularly Button just don’t appear to have the confidence. Sauber again look poorly balanced, under braking the car appears unbalanced once again. It’s very twitchy and very hard work for the drivers. Red Bull look planted in this area as do Mercedes, no drama, no problems the cars just work. It’s good to see Williams performing better in FP3, It will be a very interesting qualifying session.
Who do I expect to perform well? Mercedes and particularly Rosberg, also the Red Bull’s and Ferrari. Lotus are running a very low ride hight this weekend, that was very interesting to see. You can enjoy Qualifying live with Driving For Pleasure. Log onto our Live F1 feature for my latest tweets and reports. Follow us on Twitter TomWilkinsonF1 and drivin4pleasure
