Things to (and not to) Pay Attention to on Friday

Pay attention to:

Red Bull, particularly the time distance between Webber and Vettel. Red Bull often does try to go fastest in practice, so the distance will be super important because Webber, one is now the oldest driver on the field (36), so that will put him in a position of pressure, and also because people in high places in the team (Helmut Marko) have already had a lot of criticism for him. Of course, one practice or one race weekend in general won’t change much, but Webber’s future at Red Bull now hangs in the balance, so watch out for his and Red Bull’s pace

Don’t pay attention to:

Hamilton’s time. At Mclaren, Hamilton would often put the car on P1 in practice, even if the car wasn’t the fastest. So, I’m going to infer that his time will not necessarily dictate the outright pace of the Mercedes. The one thing it would say that Mercedes does have a pretty good car, however, we already know that.

Pay attention to:

Reliability. Certain teams like Lotus and Marussia have had some issues with reliability, and while it is true that if a car breaks down in practice it might not break down during a race and vice versa, it does signify that there is a bigger chance of a breakdown.

Don’t pay attention to:

Ferrari. Ferrari is not the kind of team that would show off in practice, and Fernando Alonso topped barely any practices lat year, and he ended up only 4 points away from the title. Massa as well, he got on the podium twice, and yet never topped a practice session.

Pay attention to:

Mileage. Some teams did not achieve to amount of mileage they had hoped for in Winter testing, so FP1, 2, & 3 will be super important for them and could greatly effect the results of the race.