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

Got your breath back yet?

After an exhilarating grand prix which lasted for record time, it seems as if there is renewed optimism that Sebastian Vettel can be caught after a last lap slip in the moist conditions in Canada allowing Jenson Button to take his first win for over a year despite a turbulent race which included crashes with Alonso and team-mate Hamilton, a puncture and a drive through.

However, a candidate for most improved driver since the season started is a certain Michael Schumacher. Ridiculed early on after a poor start, he seems to have found the groove again and if it hadn't have been for the last safety car, he arguably would have gotten his first podium since returning to the sport, indeed he was closing the gap to Vettel and could even have taken the win at one of his favourite circuits. Now that he has overtaken Rosberg in the standings, is it time for him to push on and show that he is worth the 7 world championships to his name?

Another name that has been bandied about the press recently is Lewis Hamilton, after a disappointing race in Monaco, he followed it with a worse showing at one of his most successful circuits. During the race he hit everything that moved, and seemed to take the blame for most if not all of the incidents, whether he deserves the current criticism is another thing entirely. He knows he needs a strong showing in Valencia where he has finished 2nd on every single visit so far to the Spanish circuit.

It is the second home race of the year for Fernando Alonso, but it looks like he is going to need more than home support to beat the Red Bulls here, however an improved showing in Canada was masked by a clumsy incident with Button which punted him out of the grand prix. Felipe Massa had an overall strong race and recovered form an impact in the wall to finish 6th after beating Kobayashi in a drag race to the line.

Williams claimed their first points of the year finally with Barrichello claiming a handful of points while Toro Rosso managed to get both drivers into the points which will go some way into relieving the pressure on the two embattled drivers who will no doubt be looking over his shoulder.

Looking ahead to Valencia, it is easy for people not to get their hopes up about any exciting racing as the European Grand Prix here hasn't been known for frantic racing, particularly as the 2009 race didn't have any overtaking whatsoever, yes, there were 0 overtakes. But with a combination of two long straights and the new dual DRS zones, we should be seeing tons of overtaking into the hairpin, remember Kobayashi's overtake on Alonso late on last year.

No doubt Mark Webber will want to eradicate last years memories where he found that Red Bull literally did give him wings when he flew 360 degrees in the air after tagging Kovalainens lotus at high speed, seeing as this happened in what will probably be a DRS zone this year, I sincerely hope we do not see a repeat, while Webber walked away unharmed, it is never nice to see that happen in any kind of motorsport.

For Galahads superb circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/valencia-street-circuit/
 
I don't know what will happen in this race, but I expect the new rules will make me complain about something as it has done for every grand prix bar Catalunya....
 
I expect McLaren to be very strong in the race at Valencia, with Ferrari also pretty handy. What's interesting is Ferrari may end up out-qualifying McLaren, as they now have a new engine mapping setting that worked to good effect in Canada. I reckon if the DRS zone allows overtaking then you could see the McLaren and Ferrari drivers getting past Vettel in the race, especially if he is without KERS.
 
Was mightly impressed with Kobayashi's performance at Valencia last year making one set of tyres last for 55 laps can he do it again?
That's a very good question. Can anyone do that this year? It would certainly add to the tension. Misled Ted may well be reporting from pitlane that "X is going to pit in the next couple of laps and we expect team Y to react ... but wait they're all asleep in the garage ... they haven't come in yet ... don't know when they're coming in ... oh .... huh?":thinking:
 
That's a very good question. Can anyone do that this year? It would certainly add to the tension. Misled Ted may well be reporting from pitlane that "X is going to pit in the next couple of laps and we expect team Y to react ... but wait they're all asleep in the garage ... they haven't come in yet ... don't know when they're coming in ... oh .... huh?":thinking:

Ted Kravitz can be a bit of a drama queen to be honest. He needlessly asked Hamilton in the McLaren garage after Canada whether he's going to be at Valencia in a sad attempt to provoke a reaction from him. I realise he has a very difficult job but the constant guesswork doesn’t help. Shame Holly Samos has decided to call it a day, she was far more useful.
 
So they can now use the DRS to pull a gap out as well? Meaning there really is no come back from a DRS pass now. Thats a new development. Doesn't this just play into the hands of the fastest car wins whoever drives it?

Have they done this to stop lap by lap swapping like in oval racing? Makes it even more difficult to keep a faster car behind you now. At least before if you were overtaken by DRS as long as you could hold on until the detection zone you'd at least have half a chance of getting back past.

Although if I were the leader I'd risk following a lapped car for a bit just to get the double activation.
 
Have they done this to stop lap by lap swapping like in oval racing?

Although we didn't see much of that in the standard DRS races at the start of the season (though there weren't many; Canada double DRS, Monaco, Spain, Australia all perhaps ineffective DRS to varying degrees).
It generally seemed that, if the faster car got in front, he stayed there; barring tyre degradation of course, of which certainly Hamilton was victim to a few times.

Agree with the point about the distance between the detection point and 2nd activation point - lots could happen.
 
In the past the field has really strung out as they go over the swing bridge (just after the detection point) so I think thats a good place to put the detection and first zone at least.I dont understand why they dont just have a second detection point?
 
Er... why is there FOG forecast for all 3 days of the event on formula1.com???
I thought it was just meant to be sunny!!!
 
I've got to say I quite like the DRS zones here. Granted I still don't like DRS, and especially the double usage, but if we're going to have it, we're going to have it..

Following another car around Valencia is not easy, and considering the detection point, it appears to me that not many people will be in that 1s zone very often. That first sector is quite fiddly and invariably leads to a concertina effect. It looks as though the activation point will not be too early, either. Which is good. And passing into that turn is not the easiest any way.

The second activation point is again interesting, partly because you can use it earlier, but also because that straight again isn't particularly long. In fact it may actually be better to think of activation 2 as the first activation zone. I think it will close the cars up, before heading into a faster Sector 3 which stretches the cars out. Sector 1 will then come, which again could stretch things out, before being closed up by activation 1 in Sector 2.

Yeah. I quite like it. But really, this isn't a very good circuit to begin with. However I'm oddly looking forward to it..
 
It was the only natural place they could have put it really, at least the detection zone is going into a corner not coming out of a corner.
 
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