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/
 
I hadn't noticed anyone talking about late pitstops in the plural. Lewis's stop at the end of lap 23 was at least one lap too late as he had started losing time after his then fastest lap on lap 21. Martin Brundle commented on this throughout the laps between Seb's and Lewis's stops so it's not rocket science. The thinking was that Lewis was racing Fernando for 2nd rather than Seb for first. Add to that the fact that that stop wasn't perfect. The left rear wheelgunner lost his nut (LOL). This is why I said in an earlier post that this was one of those F1 "ifs" in that had Lewis pitted straight after his fastest lap he may well have undercut Seb. It was just a hypothesis.
 
A bit of a 'what if' from today's race:
Hamilton looked like he was held up in Vettels dirty air for about the last 8 laps. Would a better strategy have delayed the last pit stop for as long as possible? Unless Hamilton's tyres had fallen off the cliff from wear, and I think he had been on them for a few laps fewer than Vettel, he could have delayed the stop for another 3-4 laps.

Vettel would have in effect done an undercut (except for already leading) and gained time over Hamilton on fresh rubber, however as soon as Hamilton switched he would have been on fresher tyres. It may have been that he could catch him with ~4 laps instead of 8 laps remaining but with a greater performance advantage, just enough to get past.
 
I think track position was key to Lewis winning. They should've pitted the lap before Vettel, but obviously it was impossible to know exactly when he was going to pit and they were catching him at the time.

Also, Lewis could've tried to go longer in all stints so he could run the softs in the last one. Vettel pitted out of sync on lap 20 but then managed to get back in sync because Lewis responded to his next stop.
 
It is possible that the McLaren pitwall lacked ambition right up till the last stop. Lewis's third pitstop was made in response to Fernando and Mark and disregarded the fact that he still had fresh tyres and was setting the quickest laps at that time. Had he delayed that stop he would have been able to delay the 4th stop and would have had a distinct advantage over Sebastian in the final stint.
 
I said that at the time.

Unfortunately the team had already decided they couldn't catch Seb and Lewis was racing Fernando :givemestrength:

It was a definite wasted opportunity of an almost certain win.
 
I think it was a fair decision, but the only thing that bothers me about this thinking about the reactions in forums is that had it been Alonso instead the forums would be absolutely chock-a-block with people whining how this is further evidence of Ferrari getting preferential treatment and what have you...

Actually the last time Alonso was penalised (malaysia if I remember correctly) most people including myself (an avid mclaren fan) were outraged for him.
 
Oh and before I forget: Nick Heidfeld 24th to 8th (rght behind 7th) was a wonderful performence. I think he and Hamilton were both driver of the day for me with Vettel right behind. I was dissapointed with Button not even trying a four stopper even though he couldn't win without 4 stops. Basically giving up before the lights go out.
 
How was Button giving up? The strategy was right for him, from 10th where he was early on, a 4 stopper would not have worked as well as the 3 stopper did which got him third on the podium......
 
Only a four stopper could win this race and he said afterwards that he came to spain not wanting o do anything but a three stopper. It may have worked better for a guy in tenth after lap one but not for a guy trying to win.
 
If anyone can make a three stopper work its Button, if it wasn't for the bad start he could have won regardless of the strategy
 
Well it's all hypothetical but I'm unconvinced that both Red Bull's and Alonso and Hamilton would go for the same strategy if it weren't the best one. I also don't see where this thing about Button being able to make tyres last forever comes from. There have been plenty of instances of Hamilton outlasting him and vice versa. I'm not sure Button has the self confidence of the other title contenders to try and win a straight fight for the win. He always seems to want to go a different route which shows ingenuity but also a lack of confidence in his ability to beat his teammate and other rivals on pace alone, which is a needed attribute to become champion in my opinion.
 
If anything a 3 stopper shows confidence in his ability to make the tyres last and keep them at a competitive level, he made mincemeat out of Alonso and Webber
 
It's all conjecture and hypothesis - we will never know what might have been. We do know what is and can only hope that all the 'teams' management' works in conjunction with their drivers to get the best from their cars.

I don't believe in committees, so I suspect the rest of the season will be equally as contentious :(
 
He was on a completely different strategy to them, well made moves but they were their for the taking. It's ok being confident to last but it still proved not to be the fastest route to the end of the race. He needs to do more than make his tyres last if he wants to be anywhere near first position at the end of the race.
 
I can see what you mean Evil, he does like to go for the different route. It can play to his advantage but like you, I see it as showing a lack of confidence that he would win when competing on the same strategy as everyone else. In his defence though he did say he didn't know why everyone didn't choose the three stopper - to him it was the optimal tactic. Also in defence of McLaren in general, having seen the different paces in qualifying can you blame them for thinking they weren't racing the red bulls early on? You could see it as a lack of ambition but they probably thought it was pragmatic, lets hope they get it right next time.
 
The fantastic 'From the pitlane' with Ted now available on the BBC sport website... some great stuff, interview with Horner and some interesting comments on Lewis' brake locking issues...Give it a watch
Thanks for that link Keyser, and welcome to the site by the way. Good to see you here, hope you're going to stick around for a while. :thumbsup:
 
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