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

Party time has officially begun... if you are Red Bull anyway

So, its now over, Sebastian Vettel is the 2011 world champion after finishing third behind Fernando Alonso and winner Jenson Button. Vettel is not only the youngest ever world champion, but the youngest person to defend his championship after walking to the championship with (so far) a podium in every race bar one and a phenomenal record in qualifying with pole in near enough every single race.

The RB7 has no doubt been the best car of the season and has been night and day quicker than anything else on wheels. Adrian Newey must now be known as the scourge of F1 as he has designed yet another car that has won the championship but surely this has to be one of if not the best car he has ever designed as the RB7 doesn't have the fragility that has struck Newey designed cars.

For Mclaren they have finally found the winning formula again after winning a track that everyone thought Red Bull would walk, however , like in 2010 and 2009, it has come too late and has cost them a shot at the title, but Mclaren really have been Red Bulls only consistent challenger this year due to the surprise lack of speed from the Ferraris.

It hasn't been a great season for Ferrari, in pre season all the signs pointed towards a very strong year for the Scuderia, but it was apparent early on that they were only the third fastest team behind Mclaren (whose pre season was shocking in comparison). After an early season shuffle and because of new regulations they were able to win in Silverstone but that has been the only highlight for Fernando Alonso and as for Massa it has been even worse.

Going into Korea we go into the real unknown as it is unclear who has the best package suited to Korea as the only race we've had at the circuit was severely rain affected so it should be a jump into the darkness, although it will be an even bigger jump when we go to India in the not too distant future.

So congratulations Seb, who is starting to rewrite the record books almost with the ease that Schumacher did in his pomp. Eight world championships for Seb by the time he's finished?

For Galahads brilliant circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/korean-international-circuit/
 
Quite fancy Button to make it 2 in a row. He's got that i want to win attitude about him despite the championship been gone. I really truly hope Lewis finds his groove again next weekend and help Mclaren to a 1-2 (pretty please :)).

I think Seb will score a podium and take pole next weekend and can Red Bull win the constructors next weekend?
 
The return of the Hard Tyre in India then. As for Korea - soft and supersoft. Should be interesting.
 
I like this track for some reason, whether its the fact it was new last year or not I'm not sure

The last part of the lap is trickier than it looks on paper, one corner flows into the next, off camber as well
 
Red Bull currently have a 130pt lead over McLaren; they need to be at least 129pts ahead at the end of Korea to take the constructors' championship. So if McLaren outscore the Red Bulls by 2pts or more, the battle continues to India.

Thanks for clearing that up with me. It seems very much a given and like Brogans said it's been coming for months, it was just a question of where not when would their win the title.
 
I think if you look back at most of the double header GPs over the last 10 years (i.e a 1 week gap) you'll see they usually produce the same winner - whether this be form, fate or enthusiasm I don't know. Think Jenson might struggle on that though as he did not have a great race in Korea last year to put it mildly. Having said that I'd never have predicted him to do as well as he did in Japan.

I think Red Bull will sweep in here with confidence and pomp and blow everyone away. However I'm giving the victory to Mark Webber as I feel Vettel in a moment of grace and sportsmanship will let Merk past for his first win of the year and to help him fight for second in the drivers championship. Of couse he'll make it the most obvious thing in the world so its a hollow victory for Mark but I can see him doing it.
 
I think if you look back at most of the double header GPs over the last 10 years (i.e a 1 week gap) you'll see they usually produce the same winner - whether this be form, fate or enthusiasm I don't know. Think Jenson might struggle on that though as he did not have a great race in Korea last year to put it mildly. Having said that I'd never have predicted him to do as well as he did in Japan.

I think Red Bull will sweep in here with confidence and pomp and blow everyone away. However I'm giving the victory to Mark Webber as I feel Vettel in a moment of grace and sportsmanship will let Merk past for his first win of the year and to help him fight for second in the drivers championship. Of couse he'll make it the most obvious thing in the world so its a hollow victory for Mark but I can see him doing it.
He didn't have a great race due to changing his braking system for the weekend when McLaren were desperately looking for some speed and consistency. They aren't doing that anymore as they seem to have found something fundemental in the last few weeks.

Mark decided to take out Nico (possibly thinking it was a McLaren [get your tin-foil hats here..]) in the most spectacular fashion, so he doesn't exactly have experience or a glowing CV at this track. Seb had a failure, so neither Red Bull finished last year.

Wouldn't bet against Alonso or Lewis, but can see Jenson just edging it as he is the man on form at the moment.
 
I think Korea could be a very close contest, especially with the super-soft and soft tyre.

Bridgestone brought the soft and hard compounds and their compounds were A LOT more durable than pirelli and they had a lot of degradation in practice last year, so god knows what will happen in the race, we could easily see 5 stops!

Ferrari will be strong due to their kindness on the tyres and like for the softer compounds. Red Bull will be strong because they're always strong and actually seem to go better at tracks this year that have a mixture of long straights and a bit of high speed stuff. They're only fallback may be how they wear their tyres, as was a problem in Suzuka. Then finally McLaren, you would expect to be up there - they should push Vettel for pole again and then be strong in the race.

I can't wait - I really hope it doesn't rain.
 
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