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

And so on to Spain, after the anti climax that was Turkey, it seems that no-one can stop Vettel as he marched to his 3rd win in 4 races and is in dominant form as we head to the Iberian peninsula. Despite the highest amount of overtakes since records began (126), a lot of people were questioning how authentic these overtakes were due to their artificial nature because of the DRS. The Spanish Grand Prix hasn't been known for its overtakes, indeed this is a track where more often than not, the driver who gets pole goes on to win so thats the race in the bag for Vettel. In 2010 the race was won by Mark Webber in the first of back to back wins from Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel. lewis Hamilton was on course for second until a wheel rim failure with two laps to go.

After a dominant performance in Turkey, Red Bull will be aiming at another one two in Spain, and on current form and given the nature of the track it is hard to see past the Red Bulls from extending their championship lead. However Ferrari and particularly Alonso have showed that Red Bull won't have it their own way and no doubt Alonso will be boosted by a capacity crowd all cheering him on. Mclaren planned to bring updates to Turkey but abandoned them and instead will introduce them this weekend to plug the ever increasing gap with Hamilton currently second in the drivers championship, over 30 points behind Vettel.

Mercedes were Jekyll and Hyde in Turkey and its not exactly hard to figure out who was who. Mercedes Rosberg has shown improved form recently and has been mixing with the Mclarens and Ferraris and with continued development, Mercedes will be confident of a top 5 finish this weekend.

Renault have seemed to have fallen back recently with Heidfeld and Petrov in the lower reaches of the points, their podium form of Australia and Malaysia now seems a distant memory and have now been overtaken by Mercedes in the development battle. In the midfield it is really tightening up as Toro Rosso have found a speed boost with Buemi claiming points in Turkey and Kobyashi coming from last on the grip to claim a top 10 position with Force India not holding the same level of competitiveness as the first few races with Di Resta's first DNF of his career.

While Team lotus didn't gain the jump that they hoped, they have high hopes that this weekend is the one where they establish themselves as a solid midfield runner while Virgin and HRT continue to fight it out over who gets the wooden spoon.

With the arguments over DRS raging on, no doubt we will see a circuit record of overtakes as cars breeze past each other down the main straight but if only one thing is certain it is that Red Bull will be right at the front barring major developments (or crashes)

For Galahads excellent circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-de-catalunya/
 
"Aye, Captain. transparent Aluminum. Just the ticket for transporting the wee beasties ... jus' gime a wee while an' I'll check oot Yell.com .... ":rolleyes:
 
Meanwhile, back on the thread....

So the big story with the tyres is the super hards last 10 laps longer but are 2 seconds a lap slower. So what's the optimum strategy for qualifying and the race?
 
Qualifying will be interesting as the teams really don't want to use either set of tyres. Don't be suprised to see a big team out in q2.
 
Well Brogan, 10 x 2 = 20 seconds, so these 10 laps longer are not too far away from equaling a free extra pit stop. Plus, some drivers are finding it's more like 2.5 seconds plus.

I would say you'll get drivers going Soft, Soft, Soft, Hard and just doing 15 laps or so on the Hard tyre. You could go Soft, Soft, Hard, but you'd be on the hard tyre for 25 laps.
 
Where's Snowy when we need him? I'm just catching up with FP2 now on the red button (missed the live show, had to work) Karun's in the commentary box so hoping to get a grasp of what was actually happening as to date he has been great at actually talking about the times not just the fastest lap at the finish! Caught the last couple of minutes earlier and got the impression that Lewis is right up there. Hope that's true.
 
I know some have suggested starting on the hard tyre for the top 10. Maybe if you are in positions 8, 9 or 10, it might be worth the gamble, but for the top 6 - 7 runners, if they started on the hard, they'd be so far behind and in traffic I think the top runners could easily control their race on strategy and minimise the super hard tyre stint.
 
Where's Snowy when we need him? I'm just catching up with FP2 now on the red button (missed the live show, had to work) Karun's in the commentary box so hoping to get a grasp of what was actually happening as to date he has been great at actually talking about the times not just the fastest lap at the finish! Caught the last couple of minutes earlier and got the impression that Lewis is right up there. Hope that's true.

Karun is fantastic to listen to. Lewis did look good over 1 lap. I don't think the McLaren has got its full potential out of this package either and they could find time and a better setup overnight. Lewis set a time of 28.3 on his long run compared to a 28.0 from Vettel, however, Lewis then flatspotted his tyres trying to get past a HRT so we don't know how that run would have panned out. All in all, I'd say McLaren will be between 2 - 5 tenths behind Red Bull in qualifying and so long as Lewis gets away off the line, he could trouble them in the race.
 
doesn't that show that they don't work? I always thought a great race was Canada last year because there was not actually that much difference between the hard and soft tyre. If you give one tyre that is faster for qualifying and another that is only half a second slower, but gives more laps, you'd get a lot of different strategy. Having a tyre that is 2 seconds slower just makes its use obvious.

WHY can't Pirelli see this :S

Even some well renowned F1 journalists have not picked up on this and I was banging my head against the wall saying, we want a hard tyre that is not too far off the soft, not one that is miles off, because that makes it conclusive!
 
doesn't that show that they don't work? I always thought a great race was Canada last year because there was not actually that much difference between the hard and soft tyre. If you give one tyre that is faster for qualifying and another that is only half a second slower, but gives more laps, you'd get a lot of different strategy. Having a tyre that is 2 seconds slower just makes its use obvious.

WHY can't Pirelli see this :s

Even some well renowned F1 journalists have not picked up on this and I was banging my head against the wall saying, we want a hard tyre that is not too far off the soft, not one that is miles off, because that makes it conclusive!
I completely agree. Half a second is I believe just the right amount of time between the 2 compunds and it should go about 5 or 6 laps longer. Allowing both tactics to be safely taken.

Who wants a tyre 2 - 2.5 seconds slower. Wasn't that McLarens deficit in 2009 when they kept getting lapped?
 
It's tough for Pirelli though, if they make a durable tyre they get criticised because it's slow, if they get a racy tyre they get criticised because it degrades quickly. Mixing the two and you get Bridgestones tyres
 
In the bbc commentary Pirelli seemed confident that doing 30+ laps on the new hards shouldn't be impossible.
Pirelli Media on Twitter: "Michael Schumacher managed to lower his lap time after putting 30 laps on his tyres: a sign that the new hard compound has an improved range."
It is a 66 lap race so if you can eek 16-18 laps from the softs then a two stopper may be possible. The one thing that the new hards should ensure is that there won't be any 4 stoppers.
 
It's tough for Pirelli though, if they make a durable tyre they get criticised because it's slow, if they get a racy tyre they get criticised because it degrades quickly. Mixing the two and you get Bridgestones tyres
yeah Im gonna sound like a bit of a mind changer as Im not sure which outcome this will have yet, best to look again after the race. On the plus side it may be that Red-Bulls rivals may have soft tyres at a time when Red-Bull are on the hard tyres allowing them to get ahead and from there they may be able to make a real race of it. And again the new teams may start on the hards and change instantly to the softs and get among the midfield.
 
Don't be surprised if the final results of this race aren't known for some time due to protests, etc.

Force India and Virgin have removed their EBD exhausts, possibly so they can benefit from the other teams being DSQed?
 
Wondering if Heidfeld's hot seat boogie will influence the EBD discussions. Whilst we wouldn't want to see a knee jerk reaction in that respect I suspect Nick's knees were jerking in reaction, somewhat.:)

p.s. very glad he got out of there okay, of course.
 
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