2008 European GP

[McZiderRed]

[centre:1yqur1m2]2008 FORMULA 1 TELEFONICA GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE

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A tad early, I know, but it gives everyone time to give their thoughts on a brand new venue! To me, it seems a bland, flat, boring circuit but what do I know..? So, what do you think...?

The recent GP's have thrown up some unpredictable results. Some of which have been contributed by the weather. Keep an eye on the possibilities on Meteo. Aparantly it may be hot and sunny!

Here is the official website's lap diagram: http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail ... agram.html

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[centre:1yqur1m2]Climb in and take a ride in a GP3 car!

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A race at a new venue, so you never know, it may throw up the unexpected!

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Wiki page for Valencia.

Pictures from wiki and http://www.aboutvalencia.com/
Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

 

[slickskid]

For a street circuit it looks pretty good, plenty wide enough and pretty quick looking that the onboard footage. I get the feeling the corner after the bridge might just see alot of action though!

Can't wait!

 

[teabagyokel]

Apparently its a lot like Montreal and it does seem to have a lot more throttle time than Monte Carlo...

If the results of the last two years are taken as pointers it is a Lewis gift because:-

1. It is a street circuit (McLaren have won Monaco two years on the spin)
2. It is a new track (Lewis never raced at Montreal, Indy or Fuji before last year and won all three)
3. It is like Montreal (Lewis has been in the fastest car at Canada for two years)

However climate wise it is towards the hot (& red) end of the continent, and Ferrari front-rowed in Monaco (fuel?)

Who knows, all about adaptability by teams & drivers so maybe McLaren and/or more likely Ferrari (based on 2008 evidence) will get the set up wrong opening the door for BMW, Renault, Toyota or Red Bull...

If everyone makes mistakes, Nick Heidfeld will win the European GP!

 

[Jake360]

I thought i was going to be clever and say that it looks very similar as canada. But i then read your post. lol. But you do have to say, that its looking good for hamilton. But with Alonso gone, will he be able to set his car up to get the maximum out if it? You can never put it past Ferrari to come up with somthing special. I would like to see Kimi to win ( a fan of him from his first race at merc ) but his driving style is much the same as heidfelds. And they are both struggling with qualiflying. There not aggresive an the brakes like hamilton and kubica. And thats why they both come through in the race, Hiedfeld having 1 fastest lap and kimi i think 7 now. But it seems like a good track, not as fast as canada, and not as punishing as monaco. But i think hamilton could be leagues ahead of everyone.
But you can never tell untill race day. It seemed like an easy one two last race. But did that turn out to be true
But no, Hiedfeld will not win, if all goes wrong, im going to guess... Piquet

 

[McZiderRed]

Jenson is looking forward to the challenge of Valencia. He's been practising on Honda's simulator, to get used to distance and braking points. Rubens believes his experience will give him an edge over his rivals, but given the poor showing by Honda recently, what size edge is required..?

Meanwhile, Ross Brawn is expecting it to be a very windy race. So, not only is it a blank canvas when it comes to car set-up, the teams may also have to cope with wind upsetting the car balance aswell.

Details here, on autosport website.

Friday practice next week, shown on itv.com, will be very interesting.

 

[Jake360]

wind wont help Ferrari, not with there new shark fin thing. THat the reason McLaren arn't going to run it. Due to the wind.

 

[Brogan]

I've added a new Circuits sub forum to the F1 forum.
Valencia is here.

I'll add the other circuits over the coming days.

If anyone can think of any other details they'd like to see on each circuit page, let me know.

 

[Brogan]

Well that was an interesting qualifying session.

I predicted Massa would get pole but it was close for a while.
Made a nice change to see some different names at the top of the time sheets - and Vettel of all people.

Apparently they've removed the 1st grid slot so pole is now on the right as this is considered to be the cleanest side of the track and hence has the most advantage.
That may mean Hamilton getting passed before the 1st corner if he is unable to get off the line cleanly.

Having now seen the circuit at speed I can't help thinking there are going to be some major incidents and extended safety car periods.

Here's hoping for an incident-free race.

 

[teabagyokel]

Well Brogan, you got your incident free race...

A great win for Lewis there...*

*if Ferrari are justly punished for an act of utter stupidity

Seriously, though, Massa deserves the win as he did in Hungary. His team is trying to pull the rug out from under his feet again. How many points have Ferrari's reliability/strategic stupidity cost Felipe now, even if he keeps this win!

I can understand that maybe the FIA did not want to hand a victory to Lewis in Spain due to the likelihood of a riot if Fernando was punted out by turn 5 by some mad Japanese bloke and Lewis is gifted a win. However, I would imagine that a bit of Ferrari International Assistance is reconvening to see if they can find a way to get Ferrari off the hook about this one.

What is happening to Kimi Raikkonen by the way? Since that exhaust dropped off in Magny-Cours he's really not looked interested! I know his engine blew, but it looked like the green light was not on on his "look-we're-Ferrari-let's-be-smarter-than-everyone-else-and-install-a-really-clever-and-expensive-system-that-does-exactly-the-same-thing-as-a-lollipop" device when he pulled out into his mechanics and with his fuel hose in situ. Kimi, either retire or act as if you're bothered. The Belgian GP will tell all of Kimi's state of mind!

TEABAG YOKEL'S EUROPEAN GP AWARD:

SEB VETTEL did really well in the early part of the race to keep up with Mr. Demotivator [Raikkonen] and was punching above Toro Rosso's weight. And certainly above Bourdais! And he held off Timo!

JARNO TRULLI leapfrogged Vettel and Raikkonen eventually and well deserved 5th place. Toyota are really motoring at the moment. Will they be in contention in 2009?

FELIPE MASSA. What more can you say about this guy? Great season since Bahrain, great driver, great race.

And by the way, what was James Moron Allen on about when Lewis got his 2nd place trophy. "Some cheers for Lewis Hamilton..." Ranks with yesterday's "Massa for pole... Can he do it? NO" and confirms that he is indeed a second rate pundit! If you don't know, Hamilton was booed by everyone in the crowd.

*British fans were deprived of the opportunity to boo Alonso on the British podium due to him talking himself out of the best car on the grid and finishing a lucky 6th at Silverstone!

 

[Brogan]

Incident free thankfully but also excitement free....
What a boring race and it's on the calendar for another 6 years

I was surprised LH didn't get passed to the 1st corner, starting on the dirty side of the track.
He did well to keep his position.

Kimi was at fault for moving off before the green light at the pits.
Obviously he was a bit too eager to get back out on to the track.

2 engines in 2 races now for Ferrari.
Is it the same problem as Massa had 3 weeks ago or something else?
Either way it's not good news for the reliability of the Ferrari engine.

For Massa to suggest that Sutil should have slowed in the pits to let him past was a joke.
I see he has been handed a 10,000 Euro fine and a reprimand.
Not sure exactly how that is an acceptable "penalty" for infringing a safety rule but who knows with the FIA.

At least they got it right with GP2 earlier in the weekend by handing a drive through penalty to the driver that did exactly the same as Massa....

Unless Kimi picks it up at the next race, it looks like Ferrari won't have a difficult decision to make when it comes to choosing who to support for the WDC.

 

[Croydon Bob]

Yes, what teabagyokel and Brogan said. I fully agree.

 

[Chrisoldinho]

This race was the single most boring F1 race I have ever seen, bring on the 2009 changes and thank god BBC will be covering it just in time, hopefully it will get rid of that stupid showbiz edge.