Grand Prix 2014 Brazilian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Sao Paulo is an enormous city. There are 20 million people in the urban area around the city, which makes it one of the top ten most populated urban areas in the world. To the south, the city is forced into a narrower strip of land between the Guarapiranga and Billings lakes. Between the lakes, as the name suggests, is the area known as Interlagos, containing the Autodromo José Carlos Pace.

At the end of the current Formula One calendar, there are three of the newest circuits in F1; clean, corporate, Tilke. They contrast the fourth circuit, Interlagos. It is unmistakably historic, it has elevation change in a way Tilke could never contrive, it is only 75 seconds a lap and it is fierce. The run from Juncao right the way to the Senna S requires the foot on the throttle for as many consecutive curves as you'll see all season, and it ends with the great Turn One in Formula One.

In the last 10 years, the circuit has offered significant succour to the non-European challengers, with two wins each for Montoya, Massa and Webber. Indeed, it has never seen a victory for Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton, despite them both taking championships here without winning the race, as did Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel. The only driver to win the race and the championship on the same day was Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.

Mercedes are, as usual, likely to be contesting the win. Hamilton must have extremely mixed feelings about Interlagos, as despite his title win in 2008, he seems to have angered some sort of local deity. His pace around the circuit has never looked particularly bad, but gearbox problems, ill-timed rainstorms and Nico Hulkenburg have cost him the chance to win the race here, with 2009 standing as his only podium. Hamilton has taken victories at a range of jinx circuits this year though, you would not bet against him.

Rosberg, meanwhile, can be proud of an excellent if forgotten performance in 2007 where he beat the BMWs into 4th place, for his best result of the season. He also had the pace on Mercedes team-mate Hamilton at the circuit last year in qualifying, although he relied on Hamilton's collision with Valteri Bottas to beat his team-mate in the end. Both drivers will be looking at setting themselves up for the best possible chance at Abu Dhabi.

Felipe Massa will be hoping to put on a show for his home crowd; of the Brazilian drivers to win in F1 all bar Barrichello have done so at home, and Massa's performances in 2006-08 were matched by his performance as his pace was subsumed under Alonso's title tilt in 2012. Everyone will be hoping that a mixed track like Interlagos may create a close battle between Williams, Red Bull and perhaps even McLaren and Ferrari.

Don't forget that Interlagos is often affected by rainstorms! The rain's appearance nearly ended Lewis Hamilton's title aspirations in 2008, handed Nico Hulkenburg his only pole position in 2010, delayed qualifying in 2009, affected Vettel's run home in 2012 and, of course, gave Jordan their final hurrah in 2003. While I'm sure if there is to be rain, appropriate caution will be demonstrated in the wake of Bianchi's incident, it has been known to joyously shake up many an Interlagos event.

So the penultimate race of the season, a chance for everyone to get into the best possible position for the Ecclestonian hand-grenade of double points to blow the Championship positions apart, and all held at a fantastic racing circuit. Fun, no?
 
I thought his argument was because it had been resurfaced there would be no tyre wear and it would have been a repeat of Sochi.

However, Massa unambiguously stated that Pirelli had never brought the medium and hard tyres to Interlagos before... Despite the medium and hard tyres having been used in both 2012 and 2013....
 
Pirelli ought to think their strategy through. Rather than always set themselves up to be lambasted and demonised they should consider bringing three compounds to each race and let the teams choose after friday free practice. Or perhaps they should even consider making tyres with a broader operating window...
 
A broader window would probably see the return of the one stop race.

What could be fun is if before the race an unknown tyre type was given to the teams, each team would have to judge tyre wear on how the car feels and take the risk whether to pit or not. Could get rid of the silly two compound rule as well a the same time.
 
Someone on here suggested that the teams/drivers pick their own compounds three weeks before the race, which are then provided by Pirelli. Massa could turn up with softs and supersofts and retire after 34 laps because he's got no usable tyres left.

Would give Sauber/FI/Lotus a real chance of getting a good result if they call it right or are able to sit on hard tyres for 80% of the race, frustrating faster drivers on a soft in a Bernoldi/Coulthard style.
 
Someone on here suggested that the teams/drivers pick their own compounds three weeks before the race, which are then provided by Pirelli. Massa could turn up with softs and supersofts and retire after 34 laps because he's got no usable tyres left.

Would give Sauber/FI/Lotus a real chance of getting a good result if they call it right or are able to sit on hard tyres for 80% of the race, frustrating faster drivers on a soft in a Bernoldi/Coulthard style.
That was me and I still feel this way. Let the teams decide a week in advance what tires they will use and they must use two different compounds. It sure would spice up the show
 
Last edited:
And I would go one step further and scrap the rule using both types of tyre in the race. If someone wants to run the hardest tyre and not stop in the race at all they can.

At some racetracks where the hard and mediums are better, you could get a slower car using supersofts and softs and getting higher up the grid in qualifying.
 
I don't think Pirelli could bring all the different compounds in sufficient quantities to each race to let the drivers make the choice, certainly not at the long haul races.
 
I think it is a splendid idea (obviously as long as it's safe to use super softs on certain tracks). Drivers and teams can decide whether they want to go for qualifying glory or for optimum race tyres. It would certainly shake up the grid a bit!
 
Can you imagine how much moaning there would be if one team chose right and the rest chose wrong at one event? Or even one driver in a team made a better choice than the other. I'm not sure internet forums throughout the land could cope with the fall out. At least under the current system all drivers are given the same advantage/disadvantage with the tyres.

I'm not sure I could cope if Button beat Hamilton by a lap because Jenson had the soft/super soft combo and Lewis the hard/mediums.

:shocked:
 
At least under the current system all drivers are given the same advantage/disadvantage with the tyres.

It's funny but every time we extrapolate things like that, we end up bottoming out at a spec series. I think that's half the problem we've got at the moment. We are so far from an open series with the level of regulation that nothing can move without giving one team an untouchable advantage. Since it would seem the only way to unwind that position would be to make things far too expensive in this day and age, the closest solution is to just make every car, every engine and every tyre the same. Then let the drivers do the talking. The trouble is, no one seems to want that either. Oooooh my head hurts :twisted:
 
I'm loving this tyre argument thing because we can moan when the tyres are too durable and gives a crap race like the Russian one and we can moan when the tyres or on the edge so that the drivers have to manage them, brilliant that is right up my alley that is...LOL
 
Back
Top Bottom