What difference has the FRIC ban made?

The removal of FRIC suspension systems has been the talk of Hockenheim so far during the German Grand Prix weekend, with Friday practice the first opportunity to see whether the change has reduced Mercedes' advantage.

As always, the headline laptimes only tell a small part of the story, but there are plenty of other reasons to look forward to a closely-fought weekend.

RAW PACE

As usual, it was Mercedes on top, with Ricciardo right behind. All the fastest times were set on super-soft Pirellis, which were significantly faster than the softs over a single flying lap.

Pirelli had expected the gap to be in the vicinity of two thirds of a second, but with track temperatures very high, at up to 58C, the difference was often over a second.

But there were signs Mercedes could have been quicker. With tyre degradation high, Nico Rosberg aborted his first lap and set his best time on his second, which was just 24-thousandths slower than Lewis Hamilton's best.

Best lap by car

 1. Mercedes (Lewis Hamilton)    1m18.314s
 2. Red Bull (Daniel Ricciardo)  +0.102s
 3. Ferrari (Kimi Raikkonen)     +0.546s
 4. McLaren (Kevin Magnussen)    +0.619s
 5. Williams (Felipe Massa)      +0.683s
 6. Sauber (Adrian Sutil)        +1.076s
 7. Toro Rosso (Daniil Kvyat)    +1.111s
 8. Force India (Sergio Perez)   +1.240s
 9. Lotus (Pastor Maldonado)     +1.817s
10. Marussia (Jules Bianchi)     +2.987s
11. Caterham (Marcus Ericsson)   +3.529s

FRIC WINNERS AND LOSERS

Red Bull seems to have closed the gap on Mercedes © LAT

Gary Anderson: "It is always difficult to look at just one day of running and assess the impact of rule changes, but after Friday practice it made sense to see whether anything stood out with all cars running without FRIC.

"To get a rough picture of what has changed, it's best to compare each car's peak pace relative to the front today with the average deficit during the first nine race weekends of 2014.

"To do this accurately, I always convert the times into a percentage of the overall fastest lap of the weekend. This means that each race weekend carries equal weight without things being skewed by different lap lengths.

"Obviously, this is only to give a broad idea of what the loss of FRIC might have changed, but it does appear to show that Mercedes has lost out."

Gary Anderson: "This shows that, while Mercedes remains on top, nearest rival Red Bull has closed up dramatically, while Sauber has gained a huge amount.

"McLaren has halved its deficit, although it is important to note that the team has also introduced further updates today.

"The majority of teams have made a gain of between 0.286 per cent (Ferrari) and 0.669 per cent (Caterham)."

WHY LOSING FRIC HAS MADE A DIFFERENCE

Gary Anderson: "The majority of cars looked a bit harder to drive. Taking the Sauber as an example, it has always looked hard to drive and it doesn't look any worse, but it is closer to the pace.

"Without FRIC, you lose braking stability and you have to run the car stiffer, which makes it harder to drive. Mercedes, for example, was able to run quite soft at times and the car looked fantastic over the kerbs in Monaco and Canada, but it will lead to more ride height change, which FRIC counters.

Rosberg leads the long-run pace chart © LAT

"Now, you need to support the car more with stiffer suspension. The teams will have had a good idea of how to modify their suspension, and most likely the challenge is more about drivers re-adapting to life without FRIC."

LONG-RUN PACE

Given the high track temperatures, tyre degradation was a big problem today. The bold choice to allocate the super-soft and soft rubber means that the option tyres on which the majority of the top 10 on the grid will start the race on will not last long should temperatures remain as high as they were today.

The below averages are based on seven counted laps, with outlying slow laps disregarded.

Top five cars: Super-soft runs

 1. Mercedes (Rosberg)    1m22.778s
 2. Red Bull (Ricciardo)  +0.156s
 3. Ferrari (Raikkonen)   +0.460s
 4. McLaren (Magnussen)   +1.058s
 5. Williams (Bottas)     +1.228s

Ricciardo's run was particularly impressive, as he completed 12 flying laps on the super- softs at an average pace of 1m23.285s, suggesting that the Red Bull is looking after its tyres well. Particularly in Ricciardo's hands.

Gary Anderson: "Looking at the Red Bulls in Turn 1, Vettel seems almost to have a 'double-take' when he turns in. The rear kicks out, he corrects it and then goes again.

"Ricciardo, who is having a fantastic season, is just smoother in the way he loads it up and takes it through the corner. That will be very good to the tyres, while Vettel's aggressive turn in will hurt the rears."

As the first stint will be decisive in setting the tone for the race, if the two Mercedes, which should lock out the front row, do not have a bigger pace advantage than this, there is no guarantee that they will retain track position during the first pitstops.

But there's a strong chance that the Mercedes pair still have more in reserve. As Ricciardo pointed out, what we saw today was pretty much the maximum for Red Bull, so there's a good chance that things will be very different come Sunday.

SAUBER LOOKING BETTER

Sauber has benefited from the FRIC ban © LAT

After failing to score a point so far this year, thanks to the gains that have been made possibly because of others losing the advantage of FRIC, a system Sauber had but had not perfected, the Swiss squad is looking like a points threat at Hockenheim.

On long-run pace, while not setting the world alight, the car has the potential to run more closely to the top 10 than has been the norm this season.

On his super-soft run, Adrian Sutil averaged 1.778s per lap off the leading pace based on the same seven lap run used to calculate the above averages.

While it's nothing extraordinary, it's a step in the right direction.

STRATEGY

With the super-soft tyre not lasting long, Pirelli reckons that this will be a two or three-stop race, with everyone having just one relatively short stint on the super-soft.

Gary Anderson: "Having the super-soft and the soft will make the decisions on the pitwall very tricky.

"The super-softs are definitely a one-lap special, so you have no safety lap in qualifying, and they won't last forever in the race.

"That means that not only must drivers nail it in qualifying and not make mistakes, but there is perhaps more scope for varied strategy in the race, particularly behind those who have to start on the super-soft."

WOLFF'S RUN

Williams test driver Susie Wolff was able to do some serious running during FP1 at Hockenheim after an engine problem ruined her outing at Silverstone.

She completed 22 laps, with her best lap just two-tenths off the other Williams of Felipe Massa.

Gary Anderson: "I think Wolff did an excellent job this morning. I can't see any reason why Williams would bother to lighten her fuel load so it's clear she did a good, competent job as well as putting in a laptime that it took some very experienced drivers a while to work down to.

"Jumping into an F1 car after a few laps at Silverstone, knowing that this is your one chance and that you can't make a mistake is not easy. As far as I'm concerned, she is a driver who did a good job, regardless of whether she's male or female."