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

After the shenanigans earlier this week, Ferrari and their drivers will be pleased to be back at the home of the tifosi where no doubt they will get the usual adulatory worship heaped upon them.

Monza is what is commonly referred to as a power circuit so Red Bull once again won't be able to take advantage of their trick aero package. Even if it weren't such a high speed circuit, it's highly likely that most, if not all, of Red Bull's advantage will finally be nullified by the new bodywork tests to be introduced by the FIA this weekend.

McLaren have already stated that they have had to make changes to their floor so one would presume that several of the other teams will have to also. There has been a lot of talk of articulated planks, which is now assumed to be the key to Red Bull's design, so will Christian Horner once again claim the car is unchanged?

After McLaren's impressive performance at Spa they will be hoping to repeat that here and to cement their claim on both championships.
They won't have it all their own way though.

The Italian GP Preview thread confirms that traditionally Ferrari have been strong here so they too will be looking for a good result. With a bit of luck they won’t have to resort to coded messages or drivers lining up outside the grid box to engineer a good result for their championship contender.

Force India and Renault must also fancy their chances after their respective results at Belgium 2 weeks ago.

The weather forecast currently shows uninterrupted hot, dry and sunny weather for all 3 days so that’s at least one variable out of the mix.

Whatever happens, it's going to be a pivotal grand prix for the run in to the season finish.

 

[Brogan]

This is the speed trap data:

Pos  	No  	Driver  		Time of Day  	Speed

1	17	Jaime Alguersuari 	14:08:16	348.7

2	16	Sebastien Buemi 	14:08:54	346.4

3	2	Lewis Hamilton 		14:59:50	344.3

4	23	Kamui Kobayashi 	14:29:44	343.0

5	4	Nico Rosberg 		14:40:24	342.6

6	14	Adrian Sutil 		14:31:36	342.2

7	10	Nico Hulkenberg 	14:07:21	341.8

8	3	Michael Schumacher 	14:16:39	341.5

9	9	Rubens Barrichello 	14:07:53	341.2

10	7	Felipe Massa 		14:33:27	341.1

11	8	Fernando Alonso 	14:29:01	341.0

12	6	Mark Webber 		14:51:38	339.4

13	18	Jarno Trulli 		14:16:24	338.7

14	11	Robert Kubica 		14:51:45	337.6

15	19	Heikki Kovalainen 	14:19:17	337.1

16	24	Timo Glock 		14:17:42	336.9

17	5	Sebastian Vettel 	14:41:32	336.0

18	22	Pedro de la Rosa 	14:07:25	332.4

19	12	Vitaly Petrov 		14:40:40	332.1

20	15	Vitantonio Liuzzi 	14:02:54	331.5

21	25	Lucas di Grassi 	14:05:42	331.0

22	1	Jenson Button 		14:04:52	329.5

23	21	Bruno Senna 		14:16:09	324.5

24	20	Sakon Yamamoto 		14:05:44	324.2

It's going to be an interesting race tomorrow.

Button could find himself a bit of a sitting duck on the straights unless he can build up an early lead.

 

[Speshal]

You've got a point there Bro.

I think Hamilton must be looking at podium ahead of Webber as a decent day at the office.

 

[ATL11]

Button will need a very wide car, though with his set up he should get a good start off the line well up to 50 kmh or so, he could even nip in front of Alonso.

Just with those speed trap difference Jenson will need to make this car very wide down the straights and coming into the corners, will McLaren give him widescreen mirrors on the left hand side of his car this time, JUST IN CASE?

 

[Andrea_Moda_Rules]

something of slight interests is the autosport weather forecast.

Not sure how reliable it is (who ever is with weather) and it doesn't say when it is going to happen but it says that showers are forecast for today.

Works, Spanner? perhaps

 

[ATL11]

The BBC is saying the rain will only come on the Monday (start of this article), but then I always despise BBC weather people (politically correct). The BBC forecast for Wigan Saturday said rain at around 4pm (light showers), so me & my son took the dog for a walk around 10ish in bright sunshine. 20 minutes later all 3 returned back looking like we'd jumped in the fish pond of Number 32.

Looking @ Weather.com, they say it'll be a dry race, they have said a 10% chance of rain, but only from 6pm Italian time. So there could be some rain later in the race but looking remote.

http://www.weather.com/outlook/health/f ... r/ITXX0049

Why I'm on BBC Weather forecasts, anyone ever noticed that they are glum when they do the morning report on Breakfast TV if it's cloudy over London and the rest of the country is bathed in sunshine? & even worse they are happy as a 'F1 fan in a noisy Pit Lane' if it's sunny over London and the rest of the country has cloud & rain.

 

[Brogan]

If it does rain then Button will be favourite to win with all that downforce.

Conversely, Hamilton will barely be able to keep it on the road.

On refelection, Hamilton's setup really doesn't seem that clever whereas Button has all the bases covered.
I read yesterday that setup was ultimately down to Whitmarsh, can anyone confirm or deny this?
Surely not?

 

[sportsman]

I usually find this site accurate.

http://www.euronews.net/weather/europe/italy/monza/

 

[snowy]

On refelection, Hamilton's setup really doesn't seem that clever whereas Button has all the bases covered.
I read yesterday that setup was ultimately down to Whitmarsh, can anyone confirm or deny this?
Surely not?

Martin Whitmarsh said:

"We're a team, it was a team decision." ... "Lewis wanted to be attacking in the race, he certainly has an attacking setup."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 990820.stm

 

[snowy]

I would have thought a medium downforce setup with the F-Duct would have been a second a lap quicker...

 

[Speshal]

I would have thought a medium downforce setup with the F-Duct would have been a second a lap quicker...

On the flip side maybe we'll see Lewis nailing people down the straights

 

[Brogan]

An extremely disappointing start to the race with Lewis being too hot-headed and too impatient to wait until after the chicane before passing the cars in front with his superior straight line speed.

He really needed to score some good points here as the remaining circuits will favour the Red Bulls.

I have a feeling this 3rd DNF is one too many and will be the reason why he doesn't win the WDC.

 

[siffert_fan]

I have to agree with you, Bro. Right now, I would have to say that Hamilton is the leading candidate for Chump of the Weekend. But the race isn't over yet, so lots of opportunities remain.

 

[Brogan]

Alonso is the first driver to score a hat trick this season - pole, win and fastest lap in the same race.

 

[cider_and_toast]

I may be making a bit of a sweeping statement since I only actually managed to catch about 10 laps of the race due to work going to hell in a hand basket however it seemed like less than a classic. Some good drives throughout the weekend but coupled with a handful of silly mistakes. I certainly think there are two drivers (Hamilton and Webber) who could look back on this race at the end of the season and pin point it as the moment in the run in, where it all went wrong for their drivers title hopes.

It's ceratainly openend up the title hunt for the remainder of the season with the chasing three now only 1 win away from the front two, it's still anybodys game. Despite everything I still think I'd like to see Webber take the title this year. I can't see him having another chance as good as this to win a WDC so he really has to knuckle down and bring the car home.

Starting with the wrong choice on setup and finishing with a broken steering arm on lap one. A race to forget for Lewis. I wonder if it's down to the style of the two McLaren drivers that Button seems more content to play the averages and cover every base while Lewis goes for the more aggressive "bull by the horns" style. Granted Lewis is ahead in terms of points but is there a feeling of "the tortus and the hare" here? (by the way, I don't mean by that that Button is massively slower than Hamilton just that Button seems to be less aggressive but perhaps more consistant). It's not in Hamiltons nature to drive at 9/10s to bring home the points and we've seen that a couple of times before. It's lead to people using the C word about Hamilton when I think the opposite may be true. He doesn't choke, he tries too hard to win it.

I'll make no bones about it, I'm not an Alonso fan, can't stand the bloke and groaned when I found out that he'd won so now that it's impossible for either of the Lotus boys to take the WDC then I'm going to have to side with the ABA (Anyone But Alonso) camp. Even Vettel would do. (but as I said above, I really hope Webber can pull it off).

 

[ATL11]

Not the most exciting race, similar to Bahrain and in the end the race was won in the pits...

But the intrigue as to whether Button could hang on and what would the pit strategy be like? Because by then we knew Hamilton had DNF'd and the RBR's where languishing in the lower top 10 (strange that with them using the same front wings as Hungary & Spa), the title race was about to be flipped around like it had 2 weeks earlier in Spa.

For the occasional fan not your best GP to watch, for you purist an "edge of your seat" race.

Loved Button's dig at Stefano Domenicali in the room prior to the Podium when Button asked about the points and didn't believe that Stefano didn't know.....

& the mutual respect that Alonso & Button have for each other with them both nodding in agreement to each others post race interview & their comments.

 

[Boyle]

This race, for me, highlighted why we should not have compulsory pit stops. Wouldn't have we all enjoyed the race a lot more if Alonso had to attack Button throughout the entire race and pass on track rather than simply backing off after the first ten laps and then jump him in the stops? I for one certainly would have. Well, my and a lot of others views on this dumb rule are well documented so best not to go into it but surely this is one rule that is reducing on track entertainment.

 

[FB]

Interesting comments from Martin Whitmarsh being reported on the BBC website (from an Autosport article)

"I don't want to change Lewis Hamilton. He is a great product, a great human being and a great racing driver. He and we wish he had done something different in that corner but we will just now focus on Singapore, getting the car quicker and focusing on beating other people."

A la Christian Horner, MW has a vested interest to protect his driver which is to be expected (although MW at least didn't try and blame anyone else for the incident so one up on Horner there), that said, if someone referred to me as a "great product" I might take a little offence.

 

[RickD]

This race, for me, highlighted why we should not have compulsory pit stops. Wouldn't have we all enjoyed the race a lot more if Alonso had to attack Button throughout the entire race and pass on track rather than simply backing off after the first ten laps and then jump him in the stops? I for one certainly would have. Well, my and a lot of others views on this dumb rule are well documented so best not to go into it but surely this is one rule that is reducing on track entertainment.

Totally agree Boyle... Would have been much more interesting if Button didn't need to pit..

 

[Brogan]

Likewise.

I can't recall how many times I've said I would like to see the "must use both compounds" rule dropped.

 

[snowy]

Likewise.

I can't recall how many times I've said I would like to see the "must use both compounds" rule dropped.

1384 times and counting.