Grand Prix 2010 British Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well 60 years after it all began we are back at Silverstone for the 2010 British GP. This time last year most of us were contemplating how 80,000 people were going to use a park and ride scheme to reach Donington. This year the modified Silverstone circuit sees the addition of the Arena section which adds another 4 seconds per lap and in the sticky mitts of the BRDC, a 17 year contract to host the race.

Can anyone see past the RBRs and McLaren in a fight to the end for victory in this race. Will the RBRs magic "any weight" ride height suspension see them top the podium or will the sheer grunt of the Merc' engine shine through on this high speed circuit?

Merc' and Ferrari need to bounce back from a disappointing couple of races because the front two are starting to edge away. The race marks the mid-point of the season and at the moment it looks like a two horse race for the remainder of the season unless Ferrari can find something (6 10ths anyone?) and Ross Brawn manages to find that old magic.

Williams and Sauber were the surprise packages in Valencia and can they carry that on through to GB. Barrichello loves Silverstone so don't be surprised to see at least one Williams car in the points.

Lotus were talking of bringing another major upgrade to the car for this race so can they finally close the gap to the midfield pack. Expect further progress from HRT and Virgin now that they seem to have found some reliability and Virgin have a fuel tank capable of making it to the end of the race.

All in all we are in for a fascinating weekend.

 

[snowy]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Hamilton does it again.
The safety car rules, as expected, have been "tweaked" after Valencia.

And it's another ill considered, poorly thought out, knee jerk decision! It will now take the entire race distance to bunch up the field behind the safety car which is supposed to shepherd them past accidents. Thus allowing maximum time for marshals to do their work and minimum time lost for those precious TV broadcasters.

They couldn't actually be more imbecilic if they actually tried. I spit on them, all their lousy ancestors and their DNA line.

 

[RickD]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The press conference shows how much journalists try to manipulate a driver to make certain comments..

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... 10993.html

Makes for fun reading though..

 

[Muddytalker]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Sounds like Antony D just read the overtaking stats for Silverstone, no doubt lifted from somewhere near here...

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Sounds like Antony D just read the overtaking stats for Silverstone, no doubt lifted from somewhere near here...

Just heard that Muddy and they were our stat's as they match exactly.

It would be nice if they credited the site/Galahad/Keke when they use the figures every race

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well I can see that bump at Abbey causing a few problems.

The new part of the circuit seems OK.
It just adds a bit of technicality to what has historically been just a very fast circuit.

 

[MajorDanby]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The RedBull suspension system is just fantastic, I heard that McLaren also made updates to their suspension system for this race so it will be interesting to see what they can do with it, and that bump. Even though Lewis went wide on that last lap, I still think that it looked a lot more stable over the bump.

Might have to miss FP2, which I'm a bit gutted about!

 

[teabagyokel]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I notice that Yamamoto is his traditional second off the back of the field!

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Hispania may well be getting more cash by using Sakon but I doubt their results will improve.

 

[Speshal]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

[quote="Muddytalker"
Just heard that Muddy and they were our stat's as they match exactly.
It would be nice if they credited the site/Galahad/Keke when they use the figures every race

Find the address that ends in bbc.co.uk and create a pop up for that address saying "some recognition would be nice"

 

[fat jez]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Find the address that ends in bbc.co.uk and create a pop up for that address saying "some recognition would be nice"

I suspect they are some dopey researcher who just hands figures to Ant or Croft. The commentators won't know where they are coming from. Not condoning the lack of credit, just thinking out loud.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Don't forget chat for those of you skiving off work http://cliptheapex.com/chat.php

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well thanks to Enja Tweeting 5LiveF1, the site was finally mentioned on their Twitter page when they retweeted my tweet

http://twitter.com/5LiveF1
http://twitter.com/ClipTheApex

Enja: @5LiveF1 could you give Clip The Apex a mention if your website is going to use it's statistics and information? Cheers.

5LiveF1: @enjard We don't use cliptheapex, our stats are put together by the FIA and by an various media guides

5LiveF1: RT @ClipTheApex: #F1 Overtaking figures for Silverstone as mentioned by Crofty @5liveF1 here http://bit.ly/QIY3S

5LiveF1: @enjard oh ok, maybe the stats people get them from cliptheapex?

That was why the site traffic shot up to 200 visitors

It's not looking good for McLaren, they have a decision to make now with regards to the "upgrades".

A lot of drivers were getting caught out at the same places, apparently due to the wind.

 

[Boyle]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Well Mclaren seem to have lost a bit of pace there. Let's hope they were just trying to get the balance right for the race rather than qualifying but it seems to be genuine lack of pace with that new diffuser. Another Red Bull lock out on the grid tomorrow by the looks of it but Silverstone is going to push their reliability to the limit come Sunday.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I think HRT would do well to put Senna in for at least 1 lap in FP3.

I have a feeling Yamamoto might not be fit enough to race due to strained neck muscles but if Senna doesn't compete in a practice session then he can't race.

Yamamoto's time in FP2 was 112.78% of Mark Webber's.

 

[Enja]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Not a bad first two sessions, as usual though I thought they proved to be undecipherable.

We knew that the Red Bulls would be quick and that definitely appears certain today. Ferrari are a bit closer than I expected them to be, and McLaren.. a bit tough to say, really. Lewis had his fair share of problems with wind (quiet at the back) and a loose rear end (settle down), so it's difficult to tell whether his lack of overall pace was fuel, a misplaced trust in a certain setup, or the new updates.

Apart from that, not an awful lot to shout home about, the new track is decent even if it's not an improvement on the old one (though I guess this will be decided after we've had Sunday), and the new Abbey/Village corner looks to be catching a few out, in particular that bump.

Roll on qualifying, good sirs.

 

[McZiderRed]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Yeah, a little worrying about the McLaren performance. OK, Lewis is up there, but Jenson was a lowly 13th in FP2.
I know it's impossible to judge from the practice sessions, but even so, I'm a worried.... now, where's the worried smiley.. ah, this will do -

 

[MajorDanby]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I have absolutely no idea of the relative position of the McLaren. They were fast through S1, and really bad fromt the bump in abbey (reminiscent of that one in Bahrain) and through S3, although looked to be getting better towards the end.

The thing is I didn't see him stringing one clean, mistake free lap together, and really didn't see much of Jensons laps at all.

Will be a total surprise what happens with them tomorrow.

 

[slickskid]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

I suspect Jenson was running with heavy a fuel load as for Lewis it's hard to tell what he was doing other than taking the scenic route. The red Bull's do look quick for a one lapper but race pace wise i think it will be alot closer than we imagine with Ferrari looking like they have a decent pace along with Kubica and the mercs hanging in there... who knows i'm normally wrong in my predictions.

 

[RickD]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Tell you what, just watching the replays of FP2 and really think that Red Bull active suspension is working a treat, look how much more stable they are than any other car when onboard..

 

[cider_and_toast]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

A few observations, odds and sods from Wifey and I's Silverstone adventure today.

(as I type this I'm also sporting my new Lotus Racing Baseball cap (Kovalainen edition )

The beauty of being a visitor on Friday practice day is that aside from one or two spots you can sit in any grandstand you like around the track. For practice one we chose Stowe A because it was a good chance to see the cars at high speed and under braking into Stowe and then down through Vale. We also hoped that some one would have the decency to bin it there as well .

In the build up to practice the big screen showed a few Silverstone TV interviews with the drivers. Mark Webber made everyone laugh with his response to a question about his collision with Kovi:

"So what did you think as the nose of the car lifted"

"Well I shit myself"

Also in his response to how he was getting on with his team mate:

"Well we're not putting sugar in each others tea if that's what you mean"

As for the on track action:

There is a slight bump at the entry to Stowe, right in the braking zone. Both Renaults and both Saubers managed to hit it every single time and as a result they don't half look dodgy under braking. The back of the car seems to bounce a little.

The Mclarens, RBRs and Ferraris were untroubled all the way through the corner, the Mclarens especially. You can see that those three cars are a class apart when it comes to set up and handling by the way they take that corner.

The Lotus leans like hell on its left rear as it puts the power on after the apex. It would seem like the rear of the car is quite soft so the transfer of load through the corner is quite visible.

Schumacher looked very out of sorts in FP1. Going through Stowe he seemed to suffer under steer on entry and over steer on exit. Both Mercs seem to have issues trying to get the power on to the ground with the car very twitchy under acceleration out of Stowe.

For the afternoon session we made our way around to Luffield A so that we could see the cars at low speed as they came through the complex. Most of the cars had little trouble with this section although the back end of the Mercs still had a tendency to twitch on the way out of Luffield as they put the hammer down for Woodcote. Rosberg in particular had a good twitch on during what turned out to be one of his fastest laps so you get the impression that both drivers really are hammering that car to its limits.

It was a cracking day out and all in all worth the 50 quid a ticket. Around the track they have the same stuff that will be there on Sunday only on Friday you can actually see it without having to queue for an hour. Got to listen in to a Q and A with Anthony Davidson and his comments about the Webber / Kovi collision were amusing. Suffice to say he didn't agree with David Coldtart either.

I'll stick some pictures up in the Grandstand thread when I can find the thingy that attaches the whatsit to the jobby.

C_A_T