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/
 
The British GP - the last 5 years!
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Wow Benneton had a terrible record at silverstone to be 10th didn't they?

Love the fact that Cooper and Tyrell are still 5th and 6th in the standards. Got a feeling Red Bull may jump up the standards after this years though!
 
This will ruffle a few feathers.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92720 Pirelli has announced that it will take its soft and hard compounds to the British Grand Prix weekend, despite Ferrari's admitting its chances will be hurt with the use of the latter.
Pirelli's decision means teams will be using the same tyres ran at the Spanish Grand Prix, where Ferrari's drivers finished a lap down as they struggled with the hard tyres, despite Fernando Alonso leading the race while running with the softs.
Team-mate Felipe Massa had admitted before the Pirelli decision that his team would be in trouble if the Italian manufacturer opted for the harder tyres for Silverstone.
 
So thats them spending 2 weeks at Ferrari doing as many tests as they can on the hard compound.

Someone want to explain to me as a non-techy why it is that the Ferrari is slow with the hard tyres on?
 
I wouldn't call it an incident. It was known that Ferrari would prefer a softer compound. Pirelli were asked if they would take this into account. They didn't. That's it.

I might have been an "incident" if Pirelli back-tracked on their original plans to bring the hard tire and didn't have a valid explanation.
 
More graphs!

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This shows starting position vs finishing position in 2009 vs 2010. It seems the 2009 race saw more of the front runners at the start finish the day as frontrunners!
 
I'm really looking forward to seeing how the new Wing complex will look like with all the chaos of a F1 weekend around it - I think it's going to be spectacular. Also it looks like the new starting position will create some first lap excitement, which is one thing that's been lacking this year compared to previous years.
 
I was thinking about this year's races so far. On the whole, apart from the Ferraris flying off the line at the front, there's not been a lot of movement off the line or incidents on the first lap this year. A long straight followed by a fast corner and then a hairpin (I think) surely should create something.
 
Ten-day weather forecasts aren't all that reliable, but the few I have seen are all going for unsettled weather next week, with chances of precipitations fairly high.
 
It's England in July, it usually does rain in July, we NEVER get a decent Summer anymore

Indeed - you have to make the most of that last week in May/first week in June that seems to constitute our British Summer these days - and then pray for an Indian Summer in late September. Don't bother with July or August, as they're usually a washout. :tea:

I'd be happy if it was a nice showery Sunday next week anyway...
 
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