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

Yes, its a tad early, but I'm not sure about being online tommorow and i'll do it now just to be safe. Well anyway, after a 3 week break, F1 roars back to life at the Tilke designed Instanbul Park circuit with the first European race of the season . F1 has been extremely unpredictable so far (apart from the pace of Vettel) and there seems no reason for this to change in Turkey barring the competitiveness, or lack of, this weekend.

Last years race is remembered for close action and fighting at the front, namely two incidents; The now famous crash between Vettel and Webber and Hamilton and Button arguing on track about who's going to win the race.

While we expect Red Bull and McLaren to pick up from where they left off in China with strong qualifying and race pace, it remains to be seen whether Ferrari can fulfill their pre season promise and finally get back to the front after 3 (or in Massa's case 2) lacklustre races. And what about Mercedes and Renault? Both teams will be aiming at the podium after strong drives this season with Heidfeld and Petrov getting 3rd places and Rosberg leading a sizeable portion in China before finishing a strong fifth behind the Red Bulls and McLarens. Williams appear to be going backwards and are now on a level with Team Lotus for pace and they will need a strong performance to banish doubts, and falling share prices. The midfield has also become increasingly conjested with Sauber, Force India and Torro Rosso fighting over the small points with the likes of Di Resta and Perez making positive early impressions with Sutil and the evergreen Barichello struggling.

At the back HRT and Virgin continue to squabble at the back with HRT finally getting their act together and posing a real problem for Virgin who have recently employed Pat Symonds to evaluate the outfit and suggest ways of improvement due to no increase in pace of their 2011 challenger and they could end up slipping behind the improving Hispania team.

Turkey has become famous for its high speed turn 8 which will no doubt help the likes of Red Bull with their *ahem* flexi-wings and it would be a foolish man to bet against a Red Bull Vettel taking pole on Saturday, but as Murray Walker said, anything can happen and it usally does, particulary with rain being forecast for the latter part of the week, we might be seeing the intermediate tyres being used for the first time this season. Tyres will again be the watch word though whatever the weather, along with marbles.

With the Turkish Grand Prix currently under threat due to rising prices and low attendance figures, this year could be the last time we see F1 cars grace the sweeping track and one of Tilkes' better tracks and if the last 3 grand prix are anything to go by, we should be in for a cracker this weekend.

For Galahad's superb circuit write up see http://cliptheapex.com/pages/istanbul-park/
 
This race will not see quite as many (DRS) slipstream passes as China, hopefully easing the minds of those that fear F1 has lost its soul.

Either that or the Pirelli's will give us 60-odd passes to discuss, ponder, analyze, and scrutinize.

Whatever happens though, I'd bet my bottom dollar that somebody won't like what they saw.
 
Any more up-to-date weather news? My (dubiously reliable) weather gadget is saying:

Friday: Rain 14°C
Saturday: Mostly Sunny 16°C
Sunday: Mostly Sunny 15°C

Wet practice could be very problematic for those bringing upgrades, which seems to be most of them.
 
Any more up-to-date weather news? My (dubiously reliable) weather gadget is saying:

Friday: Rain 14°C

Wet practice could be very problematic for those bringing upgrades, which seems to be most of them.

If it rains Tomorrow we could see a lot of running because I'm sure the teams would like to gather some data about the wet tires which have barely been used at all.
 
Awkward for Pirelli if it rains.They are bringing a new spec hard tyre for evaluation before introducing it at Barcelona.
 
Ah with you now.As far as I am aware if you are within one second at the activation point then that lasts for the entire duration of the designated zone.The driver can either activate the wing as soon as he is able too, or hold off and activate it later in the zone.The activation mechanism is live until he brakes for the next corner at the end of the zone.
May sound odd but if the chasing driver can get in the tow and then activate his wing that would increase the "slingshot" effect to assist passing.
 
Hmm...i'm finding it difficult to agree with most of your arguments. Sorry:embarrassed:. I was blown away by Lewis' overtakes in China, and his double one in Malaysia. I also thought Webbers on Massa in Malaysia was brilliant as well. Sure there is the odd "open goal" feel to certain overtakes, but i think most viewers can still pick out the goodens. :)

Blown away by what? Both moves drivers had to pull out as they were unaware, if they didn't they would have crashed both times. When Vettel went wide Hamilton used the KERS so I really wouldn't call that "blown" away....and the reason why these overtakes have happened is due to one driver having way more grip than the other.

Webber's move on Massa in Malaysia was good...but will many remember that? Due to the other chaos behind with tyres etc. DRS and what not.

I understand why purists are against it but anyone who has watched the early races must know it doesn't make a driver defenseless? I'm not going to list every single overtake that wasn't completed in the DRS zone, but Vettel and Hamilton would be the first to spring to mind. Hamilton didn't get Massa either in the DRS zone, but a few corners after - or Button for that matter. On a few occasions drivers have "chosen" not to defend or have been passed before the corner, but i'd say most were competitive.

Artificial it may be, but saying it makes drivers defenseless is a different argument. Personally, i haven't had a bad word to say about F1 for years now and i certainly don't now.

Having shoddy tyres and not having the DRS doesn't make you defenceless? The main reasons why drivers with more grip don't go round the outside is due to the massive amount of marbles.

There has also been of some talks of some drivers letting another through so they can use the DRS and overtake them again...most notably in Malaysia the midfield. Someone mentioned Petrov and Kobayashi doing this.
 
Blown away by what? Both moves drivers had to pull out as they were unaware, if they didn't they would have crashed both times. When Vettel went wide Hamilton used the KERS so I really wouldn't call that "blown" away....and the reason why these overtakes have happened is due to one driver having way more grip than the other.

I guess it depends what we are talking about when we speak of overtaking. His driving from the DRS zone till passing Massa on the start-finish straight was amazing. I see overtaking as more than just diving down the inside of someone, which can be impressive - as with when Hamilton overtook Button - but the general driving that lead to his overtake on Massa i thought was superb. That is my personal opinion, but i don't think we shall find common ground on this one. I don't budge on my opinion of Hamilton. :p

Having shoddy tyres and not having the DRS doesn't make you defenceless? The main reasons why drivers with more grip don't go round the outside is due to the massive amount of marbles.

This is what people thought would happen in theory, but in practice i don't believe this is what we have seen. I guess a lot of it is down to the eyes of the individual and as said previously, you can't pleased everyone. As for me, i loved F1 in 2007, i loved F1 in 2008, i loved F1 in 2009, i absolutely loved it in 2010 and so far, i am certainly loving it in 2011. :)
 
Hope to read lots of exciting stuff about practice when i get home from work tomorrow night.
Tiike produced a cracker of a circuit out in Turkey, it'd be a shame to see it go really (if it does).

Quite looking forward to this one and seeing which team brings the best upgrade to Istanbul Park. Ferrari certainly in Massa's hands in China were a bit closer to Mclaren and Red Bull. But i'd like to see a three horse battle for the title and see Ferrari back up there with the likes of Red Bull and Mclaren fighting for wins.

I really hope DRS is used between turns 11 and 12 (hope i've got it right). You know the back straight behind the pits, because thats a good straight to go up and overtake a rival. If not then KER'S will do the job in that spot.

Talking of KER's anyone know if Red Bull will be using them this weekend?
 
Talking of KER's anyone know if Red Bull will be using them this weekend?
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As far as I know they won't (may stand corrected) I think it's a red herring anyway.

Newey's design is too tight to lend to the extra weight IMHO.

But what do I know:)
 
Red Bulls only KERS problem is in cooling.They run the same system as Renault which is reliable in itself.It just that Neweys design makes the cooling difficult.
 
So a wet P1 then.

That could cause problems during the race if they don't manage to get any dry running in to see how the tyres perform.
 
Not as many as an entire wet weekend.As ever, tyre allocation is limited, with just four sets of intermediate tyres and three of the full wet available to each driver for the entire weekend. Although everyone will be keen to get some experience on the track today, engineers will be mindful of keeping fresh rubber available in the garage should the poor weather continue into the weekend.
 
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