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 think it depends which team it is. I've always been suprised about how much of a song and dance Mclaren make over there new updates - its probably why they get so much flack when they don't work.

Why they can't just say whats on our car is between us, the FIA and the Ferrari blueprint we stole them off I don't know ;)
 
lol - thats true - I just think they set themselves up for a fall - wait to see if they work before you tell us you have 12 new things on the car!
 
I think the flood of information we get from McLaren these days is more to do with their reaching-out to the masses and using all the various forms of interactive media to keep fuelling the incessant demand for more news. This especially seems to have been more prevalent since they appointed Matt Bishop to be head of their media department.

It's just noise really - not irrelevant, but you do have to do some filtering.
 
The Redbull looks ridiculously high at the rear end. Like it's on stilts. I've never seen an F1 car with the rear end raised like that. You can really see the bounce and roll. It looks very odd!
 
Hamilton on track again, I hope he does a long run but I dont see these 12 upgrades doing much. I wonder if the u pods are effective
 
The Redbull looks ridiculously high at the rear end. Like it's on stilts. I've never seen an F1 car with the rear end raised like that. You can really see the bounce and roll. It looks very odd!

Seb is always pushing the boundaries with the RB7. He's up, on, and over curbs that some cars wouldn't dare tread on. This caught him out in the rain in Turkey. Much like it caught Webber out in Korea last year.
 
Red Bull and Vettel looking very strong.Vettel set his time on hard tyres and race fuel.Everyone else on soft tyres.
 
Red Bull and Vettel looking very strong.Vettel set his time on hard tyres and race fuel.Everyone else on soft tyres.

That would be truly scary.

Vettel was on the softs when he set his fastest time, and I doubt he had race fuel in.

There's a big gap between the "super" hard and soft here.
 
Pirelli don't seem to be able to make a durable tyre that is also fast. By adding to the tyres life they make it much slower.

Bridgestone could do both.
 
Isn't this precisely what Pirelli were aiming for, a more durable prime but a bigger performance deficit to the options?
It should make race strategies interesting. Whoever has the most sets of options left in a reasonably new state come the end of Q3 looks like being in the best position.
But it depends on how much extra durability the primes will have gained as a trade off against their poorer grip. If the wear rate on the options is very severe, might there be a two stop difference between the compounds? If so we could see a contest such as four tyre stops versus two, or even five stops versus three.
 
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