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.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

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"

Good old Mark

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.

Maybe we were watching a different practice online
Hamilton was onto the grass more often than he was on the circuit.
The bump was causing him no end of problems.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Maybe we were watching a different practice online
Hamilton was onto the grass more often than he was on the circuit.
The bump was causing him no end of problems.

We were

Hamilton was all over the shop in FP2. I was talking about Stowe in FP1

It was typical, we went to Stowe in FP1 hoping to see someone bin it and no one did. All the action was from Abbey to Woodcote.

FP2 comes along when we are at Luffield and all the action is from Stowe to Abbey.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

See, knew I was right

 

[cider_and_toast]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

When the new pits complex opens next year the new turn 1 (Abbey) will be a worthy successor to Copse. Most of the cars had a hard time getting through there and spent some time off track at one time or other.

It's great to see circuits where the first corner isn't the traditional tight right hander after a long straight.

 

[BlackCountryBob]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

When the new pits complex opens next year the new turn 1 (Abbey) will be a worthy successor to Copse. Most of the cars had a hard time getting through there and spent some time off track at one time or other.

It's great to see circuits where the first corner isn't the traditional tight right hander after a long straight.

Indeed but I have a horrible feeling that the first thing they will do is relay that patch of tarmec to eliminate the bumps but I really hope I am wrong, it turns what is a fairly non-descript corner into a real genuine corner with no margin for error and a real work out for the cars set-up.

Have to wonder if some of Tiilke's designs would be more inspiring if they were not quite so well funded, all Abu Dhabi needs is a bit of crappy patchwork and it could be a great race However, that extra bit at Bahrain was bumpy and dirt and that was rubbish so go figure (though it was nothing like as neatly integrated into the existing circuit as Silverstone's changes).

In all seriousness, I really like the new track, I think it genuinely adds something to the circuit and seems to be really challenging the drivers. I am unsure at this point if the Red Bull is really that good or if they are the only ones who have strung a lap together so far without either binning it at 11 or running wide at village. There could be quite a lot of overtaking at the end of the straight (is it the national straight?)

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Whilst I think it's good for the cars and drivers to be challenged, I think the bump is just too much which is causing too many teams to compromise on set up.

When ride heights are adjusted in fractions of a millimetre, a bump like that will affect the set up for the rest of the lap so it's too much the other way.

I fully expect it will be toned down for next year as the MotoGP guys were also complaining about it and on a motorbike it's a bit more dangerous than for an F1 car.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As I suggested earlier today, McLaren have ditched their upgrades.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85141

 

[Speshal]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

As I suggested earlier today, McLaren have ditched their upgrades.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/85141

Oh as you said, was it?

I think everyone said it.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Red Bull's unreliability strikes again!

Vettel's nose cone dropped off whilst approaching a corner at around 180 mph!
Fortunately he was able to use the run off to slow down.

Lucky for him it didn't happen at a different part of the circuit or during qualifying.

It remains to be seen whether the problem reoccurs during the rest of the weekend.

 

[cider_and_toast]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Somehow I get the impression that it's going to be a long, long weekend for the Mclaren team.

Sadly, looking the practice times, the 6 new teams have fallen back away from the midfield. For the first time in a while, the gap between Lotus and Red Bull is over 4 seconds again. Blooming typical, just as they were getting somewhere. Now DC looks as if he was right. I wonder if this is just a characteristic of Silverstone?

 

[teabagyokel]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Somehow I get the impression that it's going to be a long, long weekend for the Mclaren team.

Sadly, looking the practice times, the 6 new teams have fallen back away from the midfield. For the first time in a while, the gap between Lotus and Red Bull is over 4 seconds again. Blooming typical, just as they were getting somewhere. Now DC looks as if he was right. I wonder if this is just a characteristic of Silverstone?

From my limited understanding of it, Silverstone has a whole portfolio of fast corners which tend to suit the established teams and Red Bull in particular with their intelligent application of downforce. The new cars are not quite as sophisticated.

For example, the closest they've been was in Canada when Kobayashi nearly got outqualified by Kovalainen. There are no fast curves in Canada.

And DC was not right, what he was saying was self-serving Red Bull loving tosh. Webber claimed 5 seconds, which is not true (to Lotus) even here.

And anyway, the point about Coulthard's jackass comments was that Lotus should not defend position, which is patently [defecate of a male cattle] and caused almost entirely by Coulthard's naiveté having not driven for a lower midfield runner never mind a backmarker.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

It's clear now why Mark wasn't too happy after Qualifying.

When Vettel broke the new front wing during practice this morning, there was only 1 new wing left and Vettel got it.

 

[teabagyokel]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Who's number one at Red Bull Racing then? Did we have any doubts?

 

[cosicave]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Horner's lame defence of his decision was embarrassing to see.

- Applying similar logic to Webber's crash at Valencia, would have required Horner to say something to Vettel along the lines of: "Look, Mark's crashed out and there's only that dog of a chassis left, so we're giving him your car. - You can use your old one".

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Vitantonio Liuzzi demoted from 15th to 20th for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q2.

 

[teabagyokel]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The man's an idiot! That puts him between [bg=#000000]Timo Glock[/bg] and [bg=#005500]Jarno Trulli[/bg] on the grid, which puts him into the zone of collision imo. Yamamoto has a history of not lasting past T1 as well!

 

[cosicave]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Vitantonio Liuzzi demoted from 15th to 20th for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q2.

In my opinion, Liuzzi's baulking of Hulkenberg was indefensible. He has enough experience to know better.

 

[BlackCountryBob]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

What are the odds of the Red Bulls coming together in T1, seems to be the exact opposite of a harmonious team and I don't think the problems from Turkey are nearly as sorted as they lead us to believe.

Good run by Alonso and Hamilton to get to the second row but stunning how far back they are from the Red Bulls. Not gonna guess a winner but it should be the red bulls if they dont go bang or bump into each other. Fancy Hamilton to grab a podium (unknown which step) and chaos in the midfield due to a slow starting Rubens.

 

[Brogan]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

You have to laugh at the poll results on the home page

Who will win the F1 British GP?

Lewis Hamilton 		23.81%

Jenson Button 		33.33%

Sebastian Vettel 	19.05%

Mark Webber 		14.29%

Fernando Alonso  	 9.52%

Felipe Massa 	  	    0%

Other 		  	    0%

More than a bit of wishful thinking there...

 

[cosicave]

Re: 2010 British GP Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

What are the odds of the Red Bulls coming together in T1, seems to be the exact opposite of a harmonious team and I don't think the problems from Turkey are nearly as sorted as they lead us to believe.

Good run by Alonso and Hamilton to get to the second row but stunning how far back they are from the Red Bulls. Not gonna guess a winner but it should be the red bulls if they dont go bang or bump into each other. Fancy Hamilton to grab a podium (unknown which step) and chaos in the midfield due to a slow starting Rubens.

You ask a good question but unfortunately the answer is very simple: Almost no chance. Vettel has been told precisely what is expected of him as a team player and that absolutely above all, heroics will not be welcomed!