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/
 
Well, he seems to need some luck in Turkey! 2009 he finished behind Webber after letting JB past on lap 1 and going for a mad 3 stopper, and in 2010...

He's not got many happy memories there!
 
I would disagree if Pirelli had quick degrading wet tyres; that's not only unneccessary, but kind of dangerous to boot. Who wants races decided by how many people are in the pit lane gravel trap. We don't want races decided by how many laps before the end the leader failed to finish!

The Bridgestone inters never had any complaints, and I'd hate to see wet races end in farce, when they're so damn enjoyable most of the time. It would be cruel irony if Pirelli revitalised dry racing just as they killed wet racing!
 
Both Alonso and Maldonado have attempted a 4 wheel drift around turn 8 in FP2 - we may see a lot more of those over the weekend when the tyres go off.
 
Good session for Mclaren. Red Bull may have the fastest car still, but Mclaren are constantly doing positive things. Who knows, this could be the weekend. At very least i want Hamilton on front row.
 
As for Maldonado, is this guy really good enough to be in F1? It may be a bit unfair to judge him on his first 4 weekends, but the only time the camera seems to cut to him is when he's facing the wrong way.
 
Intersting quote on Di Resta...

BBC Sport's Sarah Holt in Istanbul: "Paul di Resta has been linked with a seat at Mercedes in 2012. The Scot's start in F1 has drawn high praise from Mercedes vice-president of motorsport Norbert Haug, and the pair are often seen together on the F1 circuit. 'You are always interested that teams like that are interested in you,' said the rookie. 'I definitely would like to be in the position of that one day. But at the same time I'm fully focused on doing my best job for Force India.
 
Hah!
They've been reading my posts :whistle:

With a few more races under his belt I can see him being a real contender for a promotion to Renault or possibly Mercedes (assuming they don't want to keep the team all German).
 
Plenty of action in FP2. Much of it involving Schumacher.

How about Kobi and Schumi battling away in practice, d'Ambrosio throwing one up the inside on the old master, and di Resta flying by in the middle of a bend. I know Michael was heavily fueled while d'Ambrosio and di Resta probably weren't, but it was pretty fun to watch anyway.

It's just great to see the cars out there again.
 
Hah!
They've been reading my posts :whistle:

Yeah i couldn't remember the thread where we were talking about it. I certainly have had the impression for some time that when Button outed and the whole Mercedes deal came to be, that McLaren were planning to go alone and become fully British, and Merc wanted to go fully German, complimented with German drivers... the 2010 line-up shored up that impression with Heidfeld as reserve.

But maybe Mercedes know whats good for them.;)

Of course, Mercedes have known Di Restas talent for a long time...
 
Anyone else have a little smile to themselves when they saw Vettel's Red Bull sliding across the grass into the wall - after i saw he was okay of course. :whistle: Then again, these cars are so safe these days i've been desensitized to the danger of hitting a wall at well over 100mph.
 
Anyone else have a little smile to themselves when they saw Vettel's Red Bull sliding across the grass into the wall
Yeah, I did, good to see he is still fallable. I was beginning to forget the last time he made a serious error after his recent run of form.
This might lead to even more Schumacher parallels though, as in his best days he often pushed to and past the limit on Fridays, often risking quite a lot, just so he could get a proper feel for the circuit.
 
Wasn't it Brundle who said something along the lines of that was the point of Friday practice - to find the limits, and the team owners would probably be less pleased if they didn't make a mistake due to taking a corner too fast, etc. as it means they're not trying hard enough?

Of course there's making a mistake and destroying the car :D
 
Wasn't it Brundle who said something along the lines of that was the point of Friday practice - to find the limits, and the team owners would probably be less pleased if they didn't make a mistake due to taking a corner too fast, etc. as it means they're not trying hard enough?

Of course there's making a mistake and destroying the car :D
This is the excuse I always use when someone labels Kobayashi as "wild" because they saw him go wide in practice.

Come to think of it, it's not really an excuse - it's the sign of a Future World Champion. Probably.

As much as anti-Evil Eye thing will smite me for saying this, it was quite nice to see Vettel make a mistake this year. Now, if he could just outbrake himself in qualifying..:whistle:
 
Back
Top Bottom