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/
 
ecclestoned, Esq:

...

I mean... forgive me for being 'out there'...but how is Mark getting out-gunned by two guys behind him from the dirty side (!) a case of RBR 'preferential treatment'?
Well,you know,getting away from the dirty side should be more difficult than from the clean side,but isn't always the case on some Sundays,now is it?
For what I'm going to say now,I'm probably going to be pulled by my ear to another thread,or just get banned from the board altogether for blasphemy,but I'll say it anyway:
When I heard Lewis say after qualifying he was on the clean side and was aiming to overtake 1 or 2 Red Bulls by the first turn of the race,I shook my head in disbelief,thinking:we're in Spain and Fernando is on the "dirty side" behind you,forget it.
I had the same feeling about Silverstone last year(ok spank me:spank:,but not too hard please)when Vettel was on pole(clean side)in front of Webber,Alonso in 3rd and Lewis "the home boy" in 4th(dirty side),and at the start Seb as well as Nando were both struggling to find some grip on the clean side..
I remember Ferrari alluding to that strange grid condition swap after the race.

Oh well,my friends keep telling me I shouldn't see the organised world as one big conspiracy web,and lighten up a bit,so I probably should get some rose-tinted glasses for those spectacles you can see on my Avatar
 
Honestly, I don't think it makes a difference because the last running of F1 cars is in qualy on Saturday, where obviously the grid positions are not well known.

I don't know what they could do to "unrubber" the clean side and "rubber" the dirty side!
 
Doesn't mean they should ignore Webber

Webber has his own race engineer and I imagine his race team were doing their absolute best for him.

I don't know what information you have that would suggest Red Bull Racing were 'ignoring' Webber.

Had Webber been ahead of Vettel in the laps leading up to the first two stops, he would have been called in first...but he got out-gunned at the start and that was why he wasn't brought in first.

RBR were in an extremely tough fight for the win in Spain...and you can't compromise the driver in the best/better position to extract that win by diluting your efforts in such a way that you, basically, 'gift' the victory to the oppositon.

The margin was too thin.

Right now RBR are winning like no tomorrow...but that was not always the case and it won't be the case forever.

Similarly, Williams, Mercedes, Renault, Ferrari, McLaren all know just how precious wins are...and you don't throw away victories by not giving the driver in the best position to take that victory...for the whole team.

I said in another post that Webber was adapting less well to the Pirellis than Vettel and that's been part of the increase in gap between the two this year.

Well, in clean air, Webber didn't close up on Button...whilst Vettel barely hung on to win.

Let me suggest the following:

1. The McLaren was the fastest car during the Spanish GP; and

2. Vettel was the faster RBR driver during the Spanish GP.

This leads me to believe that Webber - after losing out at the start - wasn't going to take the Spanish GP victory trophy for RBR no matter what anyone says.

In a straight fight between Webber and Hamilton, McLaren would have won that race.

Cheers.
 
Well,you know,getting away from the dirty side should be more difficult than from the clean side,but isn't always the case on some Sundays,now is it?

Well, it's irrelevant becasue Webber came out of Turn 1 in P3.

Everything else is moot.

Webber had a head start over everyone else on the grid...but couldn't keep it.

That's the bottom line and everything else is moot.

Cheers.
 
Well, it's irrelevant becasue Webber came out of Turn 1 in P3.

Everything else is moot.

Webber had a head start over everyone else on the grid...but couldn't keep it.

That's the bottom line and everything else is moot.

Cheers.
Yep,I catch your drift,Piquet is a triple WDC,Mansell won 1,Gilles Villeneuve won 6 races out of 67,everything else is moot.:thinking:
 
ecclestoned, Esq:

It's moot in that it burries the 'conspiracy theorists' for this event. You can't point to this race to suggest 'preferential treatment' for Vettel.

If you exist to win Grand Prix races and you're in a very tight fight for a Grand Prix victory against a driver from another team, then you call the driver who is ahead in first, especially if he's proven to be the more effective on the new Pirellis.

Yes?

Was Vettel ahead of Webber going into the stops? Legitimately and on merit?

I believe he was...

...but we're all entitled to our own opinion.

Cheers.
 
Listen RaylnTorontoCanada,since this is turning into A Monty Pythonesque conversation ,where I have to reply with yes or no on things we both agree on and you somehow misunderstood in my first message,I would like to end this debate here.
Let's just focus on Monaco now:goodday:
 
Honestly, I don't think it makes a difference because the last running of F1 cars is in qualy on Saturday, where obviously the grid positions are not well known.

I don't know what they could do to "unrubber" the clean side and "rubber" the dirty side!

I see what you mean TBY,and the cars go to Parc Fermé,but the track doesn't go into "Circuit Fermé " .
For this year e.g.after saterday F1 qualifying,there's the Formula 3000 race(30 laps) and qualifying for Trofeo Vodafone Maserati.
On sunday before the F1 race,there's the Trofeo Vodafone Maserati race(12 laps)and the Porsche Supercup race (12 laps)

But I would like to chicken out of what I said about Silverstone 2010,just consider that conclusion was made by a paranoid person trying to watch those races like a hawk,and risking himself on a slippery slope:crazy:
 
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