Forum topic: First Free Practice Tomorrow Night

So here we are only 24 hrs from the real season starting with the first GP practice and a real understanding where all the teams stand.

I have read that most teams think that majority of the teams are all with-in half a second of each other and the tires strategy will play a larger role this year in determining who wins the races rather that straight pace of the cars; so if this is the cases which we will soon find out does anyone else feel like this is wrong?

I mean a team spends so much time getting their cars to perform at top pace around the tracks and it could simple be which car manages their tires better. While this is a part of racing is this what we want to see? Driver managing tires by driving as quickly as the tires will let them while limiting the amount of stops to gain position by simple not having to stop?

I hope that what I have read is wrong and that the fastest team(s) will continue be at the forefront!!

I still think the fastest teams will be at the front, but teams that gamble say like Sauber did a few times last season, may stumble/chance into a better result more often.

It's always going to be the fastest teams and those that manage their tyres better than the rest that have an advantage, so I don't really think that much has changed.

From what I saw from testing, there didn't appear to be any one team that far outperformed any of the others, either in single lap or over a longer run. There were a couple of teams though that had better long run form than single lap form, but remember that testing doesn't involve traffic and having to actually pass people.