Grand Prix 2011 British Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

In a case of after the lord Mayor's show, we are back to square one after Valencia served up another placid race with the same result - A Sebastian Vettel victory. Some people reckon that the championship will be decided at Silverstone as if Red Bull still win despite the EBD ban, that is the championship over and done with for this season, and it's hard to argue with that considering Vettel has only dropped 14 points so far this season after 6 wins and 2 second places, not even Schumacher in his 2002/2004 pomp started a season like that.

So we go to a circuit where 3 drivers hold as their home grand prix, lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Paul Di Resta, but the Mclaren pair go into their home race in low spirits after their update package failed to get them closer to Red Bull on a circuit where Red Bull were supposedly weaker at than other tracks, a feeling that has been reflected across the paddock with Alonso admitting that the championship was virtually over and it would be more productive to focus on 2012 and 2013.

Silverstone has recieved a massive redevelopment as part of the 17 year contract it recieved when Donnington couldn't come up with the goods to stage a British Grand Prix and the new addition this year is the pit lane complex which looks stunning and has really elevated Silverstone into the 21st century as one of the elite grand prix facilities, (and certainly one to show off to the other countries when they come here ;) )

With the rule changes this could be the most unpredictable race of the season however, as we saw in Valencia, if anyone can adapt to rule changes, it's Red Bull, Adrian Newey has often been able to pull a rabbit out of a hat when the chips are down so don't be surprised to see Vettel take his seventh win of what has been a remarkable season for the young German who has swept all before him and is now walking towards his second World Championships and joining the select few who have won back to back Championships.

It's been a curious couple of weeks for Ferrari, off the pace and then suddenly back on it in Valencia and once again (like Turkey) they are the second fastest team again when the car is in the hands of Alonso (although Massa didn't exactly have a bad race himself)

Further down the grid at Toro Rosso, Alguesari has proven a point to his critics after a points finish at his home race and his second points finish in a row, and if he wants to keep his race seat there, he needs more of where that came from as Ricciardo is no slouch and will want the second seat at Toro Rosso next year. Even Sutil in the Force India shrugged off his critics to beat his team mate to claim a handful of points to relieve the pressure on his shoulders, albiet for only a short while.

For Galahads superb circuit write up see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/silverstone-circuit/
 
Think RBR were affected. This is a a very RBR circuit (medium speed bends), and to only have a tenth over Alonso isn't much. However Alonso has been very impressive lately, and looking at Massa's time the gap is much more reasonable. McLaren and Renault big losers today.
 
Whitmarsh doesn't seem very good at politicking only at complaining

Stepano and Horner seem to have played a better game

I'm sorry, but I must be missing something here.

The FIA said that the teams had gone too far with the blown diffusers. Nothing Whitmarsh could do there.

Mercedes said that their engine needed fuel to be going into the engine when running on four cylinders to prevent unreliability, they got it. Did Whitmarsh have any input there? If so he must have been successful.

Red Bull Renault said that the Mercedes concession was unfair to them, so got a concession to run at 50%. Mercedes/McLaren objected to this and had it reduced to 10%, much to Horner's disgust, just what Whitmarsh wanted.

So just where did Whitmarsh lose?
 
I know we can't swear in here but suffice to say I think this whole sorry saga is an utter shambles, even I can organise a piss up in a brewery :givemestrength:

So if I read it right, it's all changed for this race then back to normal until the end of the season when it will be all changed again?
 
Just back from holiday, having missed qualifying and much of the blown diffuser stuff, and what the (swear filter test coming up) fuck is going on??!! It is ridiculous that the FIA are playing around with rules like this during a race weekend - it's not fair on the teams or the fans.

And yet again it looks like a frustrating weekend to be a Hamilton fan.

UPDATE: Swear filter works :chuffed:
 
So just where did Whitmarsh lose?

I am not privy to all that happened behind the scenes

Mclaren lost out, and Ferrari gained

Maybe MW should have argued to leave everything as is, at least MM would not be a second off Ferrari

Maybe MW is only guilty of producing a car that is now even slower than RBR in non off throttle trim, so overall it's got even worse against Red Bull since last year. If so then he should have tried harder to prevent the banning of the OTEBD
 
why don't they just get rid of DRS use in quali because its clear the Red Bull set up makes it at more downforce and is good on low fuel runs especially at high downforce circuits
Because Red Bull are restricted to it being only used in overtaking during the race it means they are losing out there

the best chance of a race tomorrow is if Webber does not fluff the start and Alonso gets his nose in front of Vettel then we will see if Seb has any race craft and overtaking ability
 
Red Bull on pole and Mclaren try something clever and pay the price again. Some things never change. Oh well, at least it is possible for Lewis to overtake around here.
 
It would be nice if the Beeb commentary team stopped acting daft at times. Coulthard, EJ et al conviently forgot Kravitz's earlier report that Hamilton was out on used tyres and then resorted to the usual cliches to explain his poor qualifying time.

DC & MB did note that a used tyre might account for half a second of lost lap time,
but not two seconds. In fact, although Lewis' tyres at the start of Q3 were 'used'
in Q1, they were used for just a single lap, a 1'36s lap - in the rain. So, the newness
wouldn't have worn off that much.

If DC's half second guestimate was accurate Hamilton might have matched JB's
time on a new set - still 1.5s off pole..

I thought it was blindingly obvious that McLaren suffered more from the enforced
rule change than the other Merc-powered cars.
 
Soall this blown - diffueser thing was a COMPLETE waste of time... still made for an interesting side-show/scandal :D
 
I wouldn't describe it as "interesting". I think the FIA need to give the drivers a chance to make the headlines, rather than making them themselves.
 
Does anyone know if both McLaren drivers went out on used tyres (from Q1) at the start of Q3 or whether it was just Lewis.

When I was listening to it, I thought Ted said both the McLaren drivers went out on their used softs from Q1.

Supposedly Rosberg did the same, he is only a tenth up on Hamilton, but when he went out on his brand new set at end of Q3, even though it was raining, he was over a second quicker through the first 2 sectors. It looks like Hamilton could have been a second quicker, but that'd still put him 9 tenths off pole. Then again, McLaren were a second behind RB at Barcelona.

I'm thinking these used tyres and a poor setup (due to lack of running in practice) has made them look worse than they are. Although it is undeniable that the reg changes hurt them more than their rivals.
 
DC & MB did note that a used tyre might account for half a second of lost lap time,
but not two seconds. In fact, although Lewis' tyres at the start of Q3 were 'used'
in Q1, they were used for just a single lap, a 1'36s lap - in the rain. So, the newness
wouldn't have worn off that much.

If DC's half second guestimate was accurate Hamilton might have matched JB's
time on a new set - still 1.5s off pole..

I thought it was blindingly obvious that McLaren suffered more from the enforced
rule change than the other Merc-powered cars.

yes but they were talking like they had no idea why lewis was so much slower than button,eventhough they were told why lewis was so slow.so listening them talking about lewis qualifying 10th was annoying.
also im sure lewis still would have liked to qualify in atleast 5th eventhough he still wouldnt have been close to the redbulls.
 
Horrible showing from McLaren today, Hamilton again proved he needs to follow his own instincts when the team sent him out on used options in a situation where the weather was deteriorating fast. Di Resta was again impressive as was Kovalainen and Webber to a smaller degree. It would also seem that Ferrari and Sauber benefited from the rules changes most and with McLaren's pace today I can only see them losing 2nd in the WCC to Ferrari, I'm with Alonso on the fact that unless Vettel finishes outside the points the title is over.
 
DC & MB did note that a used tyre might account for half a second of lost lap time,
but not two seconds. In fact, although Lewis' tyres at the start of Q3 were 'used'
in Q1, they were used for just a single lap, a 1'36s lap - in the rain. So, the newness
wouldn't have worn off that much.

If DC's half second guestimate was accurate Hamilton might have matched JB's
time on a new set - still 1.5s off pole..

I thought it was blindingly obvious that McLaren suffered more from the enforced
rule change than the other Merc-powered cars.

I'm not sure what you are on about. I was referring to the live commentary after quali when they kept speculating why Hamilton had a poor lap. There was no mention of used tyres nor was it factored in in their assessment despite kravitz reporting this earlier. DC speculated that he did not see Hamilton go off the road. Hamilton also had another car following closely behind during Q3 when he was about to set his lap (not sure if this was Alonso or Rosberg but it looked like they were attempting to pass). Hamilton may have done a quick inlap as a result and probably overheated his tyres. Seeing as they were used tyres, the impact would've been more detrimental.
 
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