Grand Prix 2015 Italian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Catch it while you can folks otherwise you could be watching the last but one Italian GP from the Monza circuit. Bernie will be sitting down with the GP organisors after the race to discuss a new contract post 2016 and at the moment has said he is not sure if there will be a race here in 2017. The track itself openend in 1922 and since 1950 has held every single Italian GP with the exception of 1980 when it was held at Imola. Since it's a track with so little F1 history behind it, it's no wonder it's in danger of not being around much longer. (sarcasm !!). Bernie has stated he is not going to offer the track a cut price deal and expects it to pay the going rate to host a race.

The layout of the track is of course most famous for it's banked circuit which, despite it being hugely dangerous, would make for an interesting race if it was brought back into use. Since that is extremely unlikely we'll content oursevles with a layout that has remained virtually the same with the exception of a few chicane based tweeks here and there, since the mid 60's.

Known as a breaker of gearboxes and with the engines required to run at full throttle over about 80 percent of the lap, a reliable and powerful engine is an absolute requirement here. So, with a Mercedes one-two the only likely result the big question will be who else will round out the podium?

You would imagine that, for the reasons stated above, it would have to be one of the other Mercedes powered cars. Williams, Force India and Lotus had mixed fortunes in Spa but will all be eyeing that third step. Of course, with Ferrari at their home race and the Italian 'Tifosi' out in full voice there will be an added urge to compete but is that Ferrari engine powerful enough at this track?

McLaren have become the new Caterham in terms of promised upgrades not doing what they are claimed to do. In an Autosport piece in the run up to Spa we were cheerfully informed that the Honda upgrades would put them on a par in terms of power with Ferrari. Sadly it would seem they meant the 2014 powered Manor Ferrari and not the current Ferrari GP car.

With the remaining Reanult and Ferrari powered teams almost certainly fighting it out for the lower end of the top 10 it's really hard to see where the entertainment is going to come from. Let's just hope there is some.
 
Common sense prevails.

fia-report.jpg


http://www.fia.com/file/33143/download?token=_Y5KdGxV

Perhaps the procedure needs to be changed so the pressures are checked when the tyres are in the blankets at the maximum permitted temperature.
 

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Right, so mow that's all cleared up it's time for conclusions from today's Italian GP.

Top put it simply I think it's all over bar the shouting and Hamilton's got one hand on the championship. I don't see Rosberg coming back from a points gap that inow extends to over two race wins.
 
I'm glad that is over. I'm also glad that fhe decision making seemed to be sound.
But all teams need to be aware that tyres are now top priority in F1, especially Pirreli's tyres.

Bring back choice.
 
I'm a bit late to the party here but had they penalised Lewis and Nico they would have also had to penalise Sebastian and Kimi for the same offence. Not that I think that had anything to do with the decision, of course.
 
A few more details from Toto Wolff.

"It is about the procedure when you measure the tyre," Toto Wolff said.

Wolff, Mercedes' F1 boss, said the team had correctly followed the procedure for measuring the tyre pressures established by manufacturer Pirelli but that they had been measured by governing body the FIA outside the stipulated period.

The FIA referred the issue to the race stewards after Hamilton's left-rear tyre was found to be 0.3psi below the minimum requirement, after the signal indicating five minutes to go before the start of the race.

But Wolff said the procedure agreed with Pirelli had been to measure the pressure before that.

"We followed the procedure established with Pirelli, which was to have the tyres in the blankets, check the pressures together with Pirelli," Wolff said.

BBC Sport - Italian Grand Prix: Mercedes blame tyre 'procedure' for issues
 
Wow, an outbreak of common sense, who'd have thunked it?

So if everyone else's type pressures were ok, does that mean they're playing silly buggers with the tyre warmers?

And did anyone else notice the distinct lack of effort of the marshalls to properly put out the fire on Rosbergs car, and the missing front wing when it was on the crane?
 
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I suspect the pressures were the same on all of the cars - at the point they left the garage.
After all, there is a Pirelli engineer in each garage ensuring just that.

Mercedes just took theirs out of the tyre blankets sooner, which means they had cooled down more by the time they reached the grid, resulting in slightly lower pressures.

Which makes all the talk of safety total nonsense.
If it was unsafe for Mercedes then it was equally unsafe for every other car.
 
Auntie Beeb and it's "blame" culture.Blame this, blame that, I hate that bloomin' word. However, I "blame" the FIA and its jobsworth who clearly didn't follow procedure and then proceeded to bring the sport into disrepute. The fans at the track were clearly well happy with the race and with the three guys and three teams on the podium. When was the last time we saw a Monza crowd that happy? Sometimes I wonder if the FIA have something against excitement.

As for the safety angle, I think Ant' Davidson made a very good point about the "running temperatures" being the most important. Even if every car started the race with the exact same tyre temperatures and pressures they will all be different within no time time at all. Just think about the differences in ride height, camber, toe in, toe out, front and rear downforce, aero, suspension settings, etc. etc. not forgetting driving style, corner and straight-line speed, to name but some of the variables. Short of inflating the tyres on the grid I'm not sure that there's much else Pirelli or the teams can do that they're not doing already.

The FIA scrutineers, on the other hand, can simply look over the Pirelli tech's shoulder as he/she and a team's engineers complete their routine procedure. Sometimes policing is not about penalising after the fact. It's about saying "hold on, you don't want to do that, correct it now!" and observing the correction being done. Not frickin' rocket science, is it?
 
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