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

In a case of after the lord Mayor's show, we are back to square one after Valencia served up another placid race with the same result - A Sebastian Vettel victory. Some people reckon that the championship will be decided at Silverstone as if Red Bull still win despite the EBD ban, that is the championship over and done with for this season, and it's hard to argue with that considering Vettel has only dropped 14 points so far this season after 6 wins and 2 second places, not even Schumacher in his 2002/2004 pomp started a season like that.

So we go to a circuit where 3 drivers hold as their home grand prix, lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Paul Di Resta, but the Mclaren pair go into their home race in low spirits after their update package failed to get them closer to Red Bull on a circuit where Red Bull were supposedly weaker at than other tracks, a feeling that has been reflected across the paddock with Alonso admitting that the championship was virtually over and it would be more productive to focus on 2012 and 2013.

Silverstone has recieved a massive redevelopment as part of the 17 year contract it recieved when Donnington couldn't come up with the goods to stage a British Grand Prix and the new addition this year is the pit lane complex which looks stunning and has really elevated Silverstone into the 21st century as one of the elite grand prix facilities, (and certainly one to show off to the other countries when they come here ;) )

With the rule changes this could be the most unpredictable race of the season however, as we saw in Valencia, if anyone can adapt to rule changes, it's Red Bull, Adrian Newey has often been able to pull a rabbit out of a hat when the chips are down so don't be surprised to see Vettel take his seventh win of what has been a remarkable season for the young German who has swept all before him and is now walking towards his second World Championships and joining the select few who have won back to back Championships.

It's been a curious couple of weeks for Ferrari, off the pace and then suddenly back on it in Valencia and once again (like Turkey) they are the second fastest team again when the car is in the hands of Alonso (although Massa didn't exactly have a bad race himself)

Further down the grid at Toro Rosso, Alguesari has proven a point to his critics after a points finish at his home race and his second points finish in a row, and if he wants to keep his race seat there, he needs more of where that came from as Ricciardo is no slouch and will want the second seat at Toro Rosso next year. Even Sutil in the Force India shrugged off his critics to beat his team mate to claim a handful of points to relieve the pressure on his shoulders, albiet for only a short while.

For Galahads superb circuit write up see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/silverstone-circuit/
 
Horner's been crying about his "inferior" Renault engine for years.

The Renault engine was inferior to the Mercedes last year in terms of ultimate power and it was inferior to the Ferrari engine last year in terms of reliability.

So now that Renault have got some edge in their philosophy finally, the others want to change the pecking order?

C'mon, Keke. We all know that our biases are based on who is one's favourite driver and what team they happen to be driving for.

Let's all be honest. If Hamilton was driving a Red Bull, then some of us would be on the other side of the same fence.

I have no national bias in any of this...but my belief is that it's wrong to disadvantage the Renault teams with this mid season change in the Formula One engine regs.
 
Once again Ray, Boo Hoo!

So, you don't think this has anything to do with tightening up the championship and, thus, preventing a tailing-off of tv ratings if Vettel clinches too early?

Let's get real. We all know that there will be a dilution of viewership in many locations (such as Italy, Spain, the UK, Australia and many, many other out-posts) once Vettel clinces.

The earlier, the worse for the likes of CVC Partners/Ecclestone, the FIA, etc.
 
The Renault engine was inferior to the Mercedes last year in terms of ultimate power and it was inferior to the Ferrari engine last year in terms of reliability.

So now that Renault have got some edge in their philosophy finally, the others want to change the pecking order?

C'mon, Keke. We all know that our biases are based on who is one's favourite driver and what team they happen to be driving for.

Let's all be honest. If Hamilton was driving a Red Bull, then some of us would be on the other side of the same fence.

I have no national bias in any of this...but my belief is that it's wrong to disadvantage the Renault teams with this mid season change in the Formula One engine regs.

Ray what you don't mention are the many benefits of the Renault engine. I don't know them all but one especially is how much better it is with fuel-consumption. This means those teams are able to run with less fuel, or more fuel to net the same speed as their rivals engines. This is worth just as much as a tiny bit of extra power. Plus Renault themselves were always top of the time sheets in the speed traps last year, it was only Red Bull complaining and the reason they aren't fast on the straights is because of their huge amounts of downforce, nothing to do with the engine!

Also the off-throttle rules haven't been changed at the last minute because of anything to do with the Mercedes engine and how it burns a little fuel on the over-run. It is because Renault are complaining that their engine needs to cold-blow on off-throttle for reliability reasons. The stupid thing is that the FIA have known about all of this for weeks, so why wait until FP1/2 before the Grand Prix and then basically revert to a different rule, when all the teams (or should I say non-Renault teams) have prepared for 10%.

The reason why I think Christian Horner was so downbeat and angry when interviewed during FP1 was because they have always intended to keep using a significant amount of off-throttle exhaust gasses and have probably designed their upgrade around it thinking that the FIA will end up altering the usage from 10% to a higher figure. During FP1, he clearly didn't have his way and now he has got his way so im sure he's a much happier bunny.

An to all this stuff about him complaining about Mercedes engines, that's all just smoke and mirrors. A few of the tech guys who put together the Autosport Magazine wrote several weeks ago that Red Bull wanted the limit to be closer to 30% than the 10% the FIA were intending. This wasn't anything to do with Mercedes getting an unfair advantage, it was because by having that much off-throttle still, they'd lose very little performance wise.

I don't believe anything Horner says as he is the same guy who insisted Red Bull were not flexing their front-wing when millions of TV viewers could see it quite obviously last season.
 
So, you don't think this has anything to do with tightening up the championship and, thus, preventing a tailing-off of tv ratings if Vettel clinches too early?

That has absolutely nothing to do with it at this point. If that was their aim, they would have taken more draconian measures already.

They simply do not want the cars to be fundamentally designed around the exhaust exits.
 
Ray what you don't mention are the many benefits of the Renault engine...Also the off-throttle rules haven't been changed at the last minute because of anything to do with the Mercedes engine and how it burns a little fuel on the over-run. It is because Renault are complaining that their engine needs to cold-blow on off-throttle for reliability reasons.

The FIA allowed Ferrari to recalibrate their engine last year during the season for "reliability reasons".

I understood that Renault, as a result, felt/feel the need for a similar application.
 
...If that was their aim, they would have taken more draconian measures...They simply do not want the cars to be fundamentally designed around the exhaust exits.

But, Keke, don't you see? For RBR-Renault this is a Draconian measure!

It's being said that the cars were designed around an engine which has a different philosophy (to the Merc, for instance) and the basis of it all is reliability.
 
Updates on the situaiton from twitter:-

"The off-throttle ban was 10% for all teams but according to Whitmarsh, FIA changed to 50% for REN engins DURING P2."

"There's more though! Mercedes are using something called "fired overrun" which is apparently more powerful than the 50% Renault have."

"Each team ran these maps pre-EBD so have been allowed to retain them, Renault 50% open throttle, Mercedes fired overrun (hot blowing)"
 
Scarbs:- "I listened at two slow corners, Renault engines still sounded loud on the overrun and at part throttle, Merc and cosworth sounded clean, where as Ferrari still popped and banged a bit on theoverrun"

"'Auto Motor und Sport': At 9.17 clock it was official. "In the middle of training was the official notification of the FIA, that allows Renault, what they have demanded." The McLaren chief speaks of distortion of competition. "We've never been on such an opening. With us, the gas exchange is controlled by roller slide. Even if we are allowed to open 50 percent now, we have no experience with it. We would be thrown into cold water.""
 
It's almost as if Governing Bodies try and out-do each other with the patent absurdity of their rulings, or in this case "non-rulings".
 
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