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/
 
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MCLS said:
I also wonder how much time the flat spot cost Hamilton. I think overall he's around 6/7 tenths from Red Bulls qualifying pace, of course racings a different matter, as we saw in China.
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I'd agree with that estimate, I think the flat spot would've cost him around 0.2s, it was hard to tell because I think the replay was in slow motion, so it's hard to see how much mid-corner speed he lost. He didn't run too wide or anything if I recall, but it would've hampered his entry.

downforce said:
I doubt McLarens upgrades have made them slower or they would have been taken off, also they seem to be ahead of Ferrari again.
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Well, it's not so much a case of updates making them slower per se, it's more about a net loss to the other teams, i.e, their cars have improved in overall downforce and lap time, but maybe not as much as the leading - or indeed, chasing - pack. As I said before it seems they still have many balance issues, how much of that is the car and how much of that is the tyres (and the combination of the car with the tyres of course!) is almost impossible to know.
 
@ enja I get what your saying but they have net moved ahead of ferrari again so they have worked. Its just Red-Bull are invincible.

McLaren have had "balance issues" since Melbourne 2009
 
Interesting to see that, on a circuit he knows well, Maldonado can show strong pace. I didn't expect that, to be honest.

Heikki will need a miracle to keep the Force Indias behind in the race, beyond the first stint at least, but strategy is so important now, I suppose nothing is impossible.

Suppose the Force Indias stay on the lead lap until about lap 53, when the other teams are considering switching to the hards for their final stint, and there's a Safety Car. How far up the field could they get on their soft tyres? Oh, and Schumacher too? Well, he should win...
 
Deja vu :blink:
Barcelona 2010

1 Mark Webber		1'19.995		

2 Seb Vettel		1'20.101	0.106	

3 Lewis Hamilton	1'20.829	0.834	

4 Fernando Alonso	1'20.937	0.942	

5 Jenson Button		1'20.991	0.996	



Barcelona 2011

1 Mark Webber		1'20.981		

2 Seb Vettel		1'21.181	0.200	

3 Lewis Hamilton	1'21.961	0.980	

4 Fernando Alonso	1'21.964	0.983	

5 Jenson Button		1'21.996	1.015
 
Well they are similar qualifying gaps between the cars as well but Hamilton was able to keep up in the race and this year some of their qualifying advantage is thought to be from DRS which they don't get in the race so maybe he will keep up again.

I have just watched a replay of last years start.

Hamilton had a poor get away and Alonso looked like he was going to take the place but Hamilton had a double slipstream from Red-Bull which kept him ahead.

Another thought with KERS and the extra weight this year the wheels should stop spinning sooner and the slipstreams should be stronger.
 
A few things I'd say regarding McLaren's pace. Hamilton has said since qualifying that he made some setup changes after FP3 and went the wrong way with setup, so he said the car didn't feel good in qualifying and he could have found a tenth or two by using a different setup. Possibly this explains why he was so poor in sector 1 (12th fastest time only).

Martin Whitmarsh has also cited that both drivers had KERS problems in qualifying ( http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2011/5/12062.html ), and im not sure if either used KERS in Q3. Certainly WHitmarsh suggests they lost time because of it.

He also mentions wind effecting them adversely.

If you add all of this to the fact that Hamilton flat spotted his tyres, which must have hurt him a little, then you could see McLaren being within 5 - 6 tenths of pole, which isn't too bad at Barcelona, where Red Bull are usually that much quicker than they are at other tracks. You could see McLaren being much closer at other tracks.

Also, McLaren didn't use all their upgrades. I know for a fact that they took the end piece of their new sidepod off for qualifying ( http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2011/853/863.html ), whether they used the rest of the new sidepod, im not 100% sure. I think they used the new exhaust, diffuser and front wing, but they also brought a new gearbox to this race and it was mentioned both drivers had gearbox changes overnight, so whether they swapped back to the old one, I don't know.

All in all, I think if McLaren had of got everything working correctly they could have been pretty close.
 
MCLS said:
Is Googling good for your health? LOL I think Red Bull stopped being the plucky small team in 2009. The more trophies you get the more money you get and more sponsorship.
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Not only that, but from a Red Bull point of view this is now very powerful advertising, so they wouldn't even mind making a year on year loss through investing in it, although i doubt their accounting department thinks like that. lol
 
MCLS said:
If Vettel and Hamilton have KERS issues Alonso's in a great position
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Is there any reason Lewis would have or are you just saying hypothetically? More likely is both Vettel and Webber have KERS problems at same point in the race. It is getting a bit comical that the most efficient team in the whole pit with every think else is struggling so much with it. Every time i see the danger sign for KERS go on top of their car i have a little giggle to my self. They've had about 7 or 8 problems with it, while the rest of the grid seem to have had about 2 put together.
 
johnnoble1990 said:
Is there any reason Lewis would have or are you just saying hypothetically? More likely is both Vettel and Webber have KERS problems at same point in the race. It is getting a bit comical that the most efficient team in the whole pit with every think else is struggling so much with it. Every time i see the danger sign for KERS go on top of their car i have a little giggle to my self. They've had about 7 or 8 problems with it, while the rest of the grid seem to have had about 2 put together.
Click to expand

Checkout what Whitmarsh says about KERS here:- http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2011/853/863.html
 

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