2009 Turkish Grand Prix

[teabagyokel]

The Turkish GP kicks off on Sunday. Do we expect a Ferrari revival, particularly Turkey king Felipe Massa? How about a the continuation of the Brawn domination. Or will Red Bull gain their wings? Will Toyota or McLaren come roaring back?

There's only one way to find out, but only one place for pre-race discussion! Well, there is another place, but you wouldn't like it there...

 

[Brogan]

I'm looking forward to this one, even more so after Monaco which was extremely boring.

I suppose Brawn have to be favourite (again) but Ferrari certainly seem to have made significant improvements.
Monaco however is a slow speed circuit with very tight corners so we'll have to see how the improved Ferraris perform on a much faster circuit with some high speed corners.

Red Bull have to be 2nd favourite after Brawn.

McLaren I expect will be about the same unless they have managed to find some downforce from somewhere.
Not easy with the in-season testing ban...

Toyota, who knows? They seem to go from 1 extreme to the other
Challenging for podiums at some races and finishing last at others.

Renault I suspect may do quite well....well, one of the Renaults might

So my prediction goes something like:
Brawn
Red Bull
Ferrari
Toyota
Renault
McLaren
Williams
BMW
Toro Rosso
Force India

I have been known to be wrong though

 

[teabagyokel]

I see F1 in 2009 as something like this:



If you can't see him [bg=#FFCE00]8[/bg] Piquet is in the gravel trap.

Just to clarify, the grass means that you are likely to throw it off, the front obviously implies speed.

Piquet is in the gravel trap for clear reasons! If there was a pit-lane, Romain Grosjean would be in it. Bourdais is not going to go on top of Buemi, and yes, they probably should be in the grass...!

As for Turkey, I think it is going to be Vettel, Button or Massa. I'm not fool enough to write off Massa in Istanbul, he is mega* around there!

*Motorsport speak!

 

[Boyle]

After the snooze-fest that was Monaco 2009 I am certainly hoping for some excitement here. A Massa win is not out of the question, especially after the improvements that the Ferrari team have made in recent races. However, it is just so hard to see past Button at the moment - he has that Midas' Touch at the moment.

 

[McZiderRed]

Ferrari's showing at Monaco may be misleading. Brawn and Red Bull will be front runners, but Toyota will be back at the front. Of course, Ferrari have improved, so your top four teams will be:-

1 Brawn
2 Red Bull
3 or 4 Toyota/Ferrari

Pick you drivers from those teams and you have your front few rows of the grid. Anything can happen in the race (crosses fingers)*

*the sharper members of C_t_A may have noticed a similarity between the McZiderRed Fantasy F1 Team and the list of teams above, but any resemblance is purely coincidental.

 

[Andrea_Moda_Rules]

Well the return of the Almighty Ferrari may be a bit premature but the version of Ferrari run by Baldrick seems to be fading away, They had decent pace in Cataluna remember too as well as monaco, so perhaps saying that Monaco's performance is due to the unique nature of the ciruit is perhaps a little harsh.
Turkey tho however shoudn't really suit the Ferrari as much has the last two tracks but I think both Drivers should get into the top 10 even if it is the bottom end of it.

Looking at it logically I shouldn't be able to see past a Brawn 1-2, but whenever I think about there Chances this weekend i get an uncomfatable feeling in my gut almost like butterflys, which is telling me perhaps Brawn are not going to have a great weekend this time.....Usally when that happens Im right. So I think we might see a RedBull victory.

 

[Amdathlonuk]

If Button wins this one, I think the fat lady will be clearing her throat........

 

[Galahad]

The fat lady is already well into her warm-up, isn't she?

Brawn just seem to have enough of an edge on all types of circuit - that won't last forever but I think it's too early for anyone to quite have the pace to beat them outright.

Toyota look like they've completely lost their way, they didn't know why their car was quick and now the "improvements" they're adding seem to be making it worse.

I think McLaren could put on a bit of a better showing in Istanbul, only the first sector is really critical aero-wise, and the rest of the lap should play more to their less weak areas.

I'll go for one of the Ferraris to tag Button at the first corner, and Barrichello comes through to win.

 

[bogaTYR]

i just want to see cars going through that turn 8. who is in front isn't interesting at all i think. i want to see good and positive racing and overtaking. i am hopeful for a good race, lets hope it stays that way.

 

[teabagyokel]

McLaren seemed pretty fast in Practice, or was everyone else sandbagging?

 

[Brogan]

I've come up with a great cost-saving plan for McLaren.

Pack up and go home for the rest of the season...

 

[FB]

Wasn't that exciting, not. Now we have the "excitement" of waiting for the car weights to be published so that we will ACTUALLY know what was the fastest car/driver combo and then tomorrow we can look foward to waiting for the pit stop strategies to decied who's going to win.

Wow, I cant.....



Sorry, dozed off - wait

 

[Brogan]

Once again Jenson is heaviest of the front runners so if he stays in touch with Vettel then he should take him at the first stop.
Hamilton with 33 laps of fuel in his car? Yes because we all know how well he looks after his tyres, especially on this circuit with Turn 8

Pos. 	Name 			Weight 	Fuel 	Laps

 1 	Sebastian Vettel 	649.5 	44.5 	15

 2 	Jenson Button 		655.5 	50.5 	17

 3 	Rubens Barrichello 	652.5 	47.5 	16

 4 	Mark Webber 		656.0 	51.0 	18

 5 	Jarno Trulli 		652.0 	47.0 	16

 6 	Kimi Raikkonen 		658.0 	53.0 	18

 7 	Felipe Massa 		654.0 	49.0 	17

 8 	Fernando Alonso 	644.5 	39.5 	13

 9 	Nico Rosberg 		660.0 	55.0 	19

10 	Robert Kubica 		664.0 	59.0 	21

11 	Nick Heidfeld 		681.5 	76.5 	27

12 	Kazuki Nakajima 	680.4 	75.4 	27

13 	Timo Glock 		689.0 	84.0 	30

14 	Heikki Kovalainen 	665.0 	60.0 	21

15 	Adrian Sutil 		668.5 	63.5 	22

16 	Lewis Hamilton 		696.5 	91.5 	33

17 	Nelsinho Piquet  	689.6 	84.6 	30

18 	Sebastien Buemi 	686.5 	81.5 	29

19 	Giancarlo Fisichella 	688.5 	83.5 	30

20 	Sebastien Bourdais 	701.0 	96.0 	35

 

[bogaTYR]

looks like LH has seriously lost the plot.

thats almost an one stop strategy, there is no way he can keep the options alive for that long. and with that weight there is little he can do int he first part of his race. this is not a good sign.

 

[Boyle]

McLaren seemed pretty fast in Practice, or was everyone else sandbagging?

 

[teabagyokel]

McLaren seemed pretty fast in Practice, or was everyone else sandbagging?

The answer is clearly yes!

I can see that Lewis Hamilton is still getting the same criticism from some quarters whatever he does, I'm sure that big no.1 on his car got there by accident!

How many times have we said that "Vettel is on more fuel than Button" and it hasn't worked out for him. Judging on the last couple of years you damned sure wanna be on the "odd" side of the grid. (Odd in the sense of 1,3,5,7,9...)

Don't rub it in, Boyle, it doesn't become of a man!

 

[Brogan]

Well Seb V blew it and only has himself to blame.

There are still some question marks over his ability to race, overtake and win in the dry.
So far he has only won from pole position in the wet which is arguably the easiest type of race to win due to the problems with spray for the rest of the drivers.

 

[Galahad]

I've felt for some time that Vettel was being built up too much, too soon. He has qualified reasonably well (though usually on lower fuel loads than Webber) but hasn't tended to do brilliantly well in the races. He has a long way to go until he earns the "new Schumacher" tag - he is still young though, of course.

looks like LH has seriously lost the plot.

thats almost an one stop strategy, there is no way he can keep the options alive for that long. and with that weight there is little he can do int he first part of his race. this is not a good sign.

Seems like there was a way, eh boga? Luckily, McLaren aren't complete idiots. And perhaps Lewis is learning from his difficult season.

 

[Boyle]

Sorry Teabag, I couldn't resist!

It does seem that the further we get into the season the more Fat Bloke's prediction comes true (sadly). Ah well, there's always next year.

Anyway, I missed the race but I'm sure it would have been just like Groundhog Day with Jense winning...

 

[Brogan]

In recognition of Jenson's latest win, there's a new poll on the home page.
Place your vote with regards to how many races you think he's going to win this season.