Grand Prix 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Only one more to go, better find those samba drums

After Abu Dhabi we move onto Brazil for the final race of the 2011 F1 season and for a lot of people it can't come quick enough, it's certainly been an interesting season with Sebastian Vettel and the RB7 dominating the year with the German breaking almost every record in the book.

But in Abu Dhabi his luck finally ran out. After taking yet another pole position he suffered a dramatic puncture at turn 2 of the first lap and had to retire with damage to his car making it unsafe and undrivable. This turn of events helped Lewis Hamilton put his demons behind him (and Felipe Massa) to take his third win of the season with a perfect drive finishing ahead of Fernando Alonso who brilliantly took second in a slower car.

For Hamilton it marks the end of a dramatic dip in form where he had lost his confidence and hitting everyone around him. He was on the pace all weekend and was unlucky not to take pole. In the race, despite pressure from Alonso, he didn't put a foot wrong all race to take his 17th race win and in the process leading his 1000th lap in F1. Jenson Button has one and a half hands on second place in the championship after taking a strong third place after battling with KERS problems for the first half of the race meaning he was unable to challenge Hamilton or Alonso.

Mark Webber was once again unable to step up to the plate after his team-mate retired and after battling with Button and Massa for most of the race, took fourth after a change of strategy in the middle of the race gave him the jump over the Ferrari who still is a long way off the pace and is more likely to fall behind the Mercedes drivers than challenge the leaders.

Schumacher and Rosberg had very quiet races but came through to finish 6th and 7th as they continue to have a massive gap in the championship between the teams above and below and they are almost running in their own formula of the middle of the points as they arent fast enough to challenge the Ferraris, Red Bulls and Mclarens, but are faster than the Renaults, Force Indias and Torro Rossos.

It was a rare point for Kamui Kobayashi who has had some poor races recently but took the final point for Sauber ahead of his team-mate to inch ahead of Jaime Alguersuari in the standings and at this point of the season, every point is crucial, particularly when contracts are up for renewal which is of utmost importance for a lot of midfield drivers.

Moving onto Brazil, a track where Red Bull dominated in 2010 with Vettel winning to keep his chances of his first championship alive and it was where Red Bull sealed their first Constructors World Championship. It was also Williams last pole position after Nico Hulkenburg shocked everyone to take his first pole.

This year things arent quite so complicated with both championships wrapped up long ago, but there are still a lot of scores to be settled up and down the grid, none more so than the battle for second in the championship with Button and Alonso separated by just 10 points. The newer teams will be hoping for a high attrition race so that one of them might scrape into 10th place and take their first point which would be worth millions to HRT, Caterham and Marussia. Brazil has been the scene of many a classic race (just ask both Mclaren drivers) and this years race should be no different.

For Galahads superb circuit write up, see herehttp://cliptheapex.com/pages/autodromo-jose-carlos-pace-interlagos/

 

[tranquility2k9]

a_felixcosta13 Antonio Felix Costa

#F1 raining cats and dogs att Sao Paulo!

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

Does anyone else hope McLaren have gambled on a wet setup?

Not unless it rains.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Rain is looking like a given at the moment.

 

[sportsman]

Q: (Livio Oricchio - O Estado de Sao Paulo) While the weather forecast tomorrow is for rain, have you chosen the set-up of your car only for qualifying or also thinking about 71 laps for tomorrow?
SV: To be honest with you, I think a typical rain set-up doesn’t exist anymore. The big difference is that you put on different tyres. Car-wise, there isn’t much you can do. Generally if it’s wet, you put on more downforce if anything but car-wise, from the set-up point of view, it’s more or less the same as in the dry.
JB: I think that the set-up we’ve taken this weekend is a set-up that helps us in the wet, and it’s not been done on purpose, it’s just the way it is for us around here. Yeah, as Seb said, there’s not a big difference. You don’t really have a massive change to the car for wet conditions but there are small things.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Well, those small things, like extra downforce are surely not insignificant.

 

[sportsman]

You missed the bit where he said "if anything".
Most of the changes are done by the driver ie diff settings, mixture settings and he simply like all of us "short shifts" to avoid loss of traction.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

What about ride height, suspension stiffness, camber levels? Remember Korea last year? Mercedes changed thier cars to a wet setup on the grid before the restart. This completely changed thier levels of competitiveness in relation to the rest of the field allowing, particularly, Schumacher to put in a much better challenge than would otherwise be expected.

 

[gethinceri]

Beat me to it Ninja!

 

[sportsman]

I shall bow to your obviously superior knowledge.Personally I will choose to believe both Sebastian Vettel and Jenson Button's views.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

And would you take everything a racing driver says at face value? I don't claim to be more knowledgable than any F1 driver. I certainly have very different motives and levels of impartiality than a competing F1 driver, though.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Heikki Kovalainen 4 hours ago

Woke up in Brazil, and where's all the promised rain?! Sun is shining like no tomorrow!

Edit: Didn't see earlier post by tranquility that was 2 hours ago!

 

[Jos the Boss]

Almost lunchtime and still no rain at Interlagos, some clouds but sun is shining, I have just put some suncream.

Still dry at Interlagos. 24C air temp at the moment but many still expecting rain for the race.

now the weather is good, but in the next 2 hours the rain is possible on Interlagos Circuit... wait and see

Earliest one was 38 mins ago

 

[Mephistopheles]

It is a fact that with EBD and DRS there is very little difference between a wet and a dry set up these days.

 

[Brogan]

Assuming there are no first corner incidents, Vettel will build up his usual 2 second lead after a lap or two and then just gradually extend it over the course of the race.

The rest of the top 5 will be scrabbling over 2nd to 5th.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

I hope not and, as much as I am trying to repress it, it's difficult to think otherwise.

 

[eaurouge94]

radarguruf1 Emlyn Hughes

#F1 radar update 12:24 BRST: Convection building all to the south, enveloping back towards #Interlagos. Showers now pepping up and moving in

 

[Chad Stewarthill]

On the subject of wet v dry set-up, what about Interlagos 2008?

Ok, I know the conditions were changeable, but wasn't Vettel's car much better suited to the wet conditions compared to Hamilton's precisely because Red Bull had gambled with a full wet set-up while Mclaren went for the 'safer' option of a dry set-up, knowing that Lewis 'only' needed fifth place?

 

[Mephistopheles]

During qualifying yesterday Martin Brundle who has more insight into this than thee and me and no axe to grind said that there was very little difference these days between wet and dry set ups bar a bit of extra front wing and slightly different gear ratio's and the wet tyres gave the car the extra ride height, this subject has also come up at other wet races this year Canada for instance where everyone who was asked said more or less the same thing, so who am I to say they are lying, and why would they.

 

[Mephistopheles]

On the subject of wet v dry set-up, what about Interlagos 2008?

Ok, I know the conditions were changeable, but wasn't Vettel's car much better suited to the wet conditions compared to Hamilton's precisely because Red Bull had gambled with a full wet set-up while Mclaren went for the 'safer' option of a dry set-up, knowing that Lewis 'only' needed fifth place?

That was before DRS and EBD

 

[gethinceri]

These views are pertinent, agreed. Gear ratios are critical choices, if these differ in wet and dry then we will see different performances is those who selected ratios more suited to wet than dry and vice versa. It should be an entertaining race, and if there truly is no difference in set up between wet and dry then we could possibly see the evidence of this in a couple of hours time.