Grand Prix 2012 German Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The German GP marks the half way point in this strangest of seasons.

There have been seven different winners, with Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber the only two able to notch up more than one win.

From having a car which looked to be well off the pace at the start of the season, Fernando Alonso is still leading by 13 points, from Mark Webber of all people. Can he and Ferrari maintain the momentum going forward?

Indeed, in a drastic reverse of fortunes from last season, Mark is comfortably winning the head to head over his double world champion team mate, Sebastian Vettel.
The Red Bull car appears to suit both drivers though and is the class of the field so expect things to change between the top three before the summer break.

It's a different tale at McLaren. Button has gone from winning the first race to only scoring seven points in the last six races. His team mate, Lewis Hamilton has fared better, despite multiple team errors and the best efforts of certain other drivers. He is however languishing in fourth place in the standings, as are McLaren who have been overtaken by Lotus.

What is clear, is the McLaren is no longer in the top three and some (including Button) are even claiming it is behind several of the mid-field teams. This after the results of both McLaren drivers at Silverstone, where they barely scraped 8th and 10th place finishes.
It's a big change from just a few races ago when Hamilton was leading the Drivers' Championship and McLaren were second behind Red Bull in the Constructors'.

Lotus appear to be getting stronger with every race. Surely it's just a matter of time before one of their drivers is on the top step. Which one though? Romain Grosjean looks every bit as good as Kimi Räikkönen and if not for some unfortunate collisions earlier in the season would most likely be ahead of him in the standings.

Mercedes are consistently inconsistent. Michael Schumacher appears to have broken his dreadful run of results and bad luck but Nico Rosberg had a very poor race last time out, finishing a lowly 15th.

Likewise for Williams; the car appears to have the pace, if only the drivers were capable of exploiting it.

It has been two years since F1 last raced at the Hockenheimring, due to the alternating calendar with the Nürburgring. As a result the teams will have no data concerning the Pirelli tyres, so expect lots of running in the free practice sessions, weather permitting.

Will we see the eighth different winner of the season? Will this race finally reveal the pecking order and see things settling down?
Will McLaren be able to recover their position amongst the top three with their much vaunted upgrade package they are planning to bring?

All these questions and more will be answered soon.

For the circuit write up, stat's, map and videos, see here: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/hockenheimring/

 

[siffert_fan]

on another note I would say Kimi pulled the pass of the race with his move on Schumacher. Great going, Kimi

 

[Pyrope]

I see no difference in using the "off track" surface to gain a position, or using it myriad times thru a race to continue at unabated speed, thereby gaining a competitive advantage and preventing coming under attack.

You have a valid point. However, the solution isn't to give all drivers free rein to break the rules, it's to tighten up the enforcement or else bring back passive enforcement (gravel traps, grass, etc.).

 

[Brogan]

I made the same point siffert_fan

Gaining an advantage can happen on any lap, whether in clear air, overtaking or defending.

 

[The Pits]

I think it was Monaco where they have a system in place which allows a driver to cut the chicane once or twice, with a warning that if they cross three times, they get a penalty, regardless of any overtakes involved. I think that the same should apply everywhere. That said, I am not sure that having 24 race stewards following each car around would be the best use of time.

 

[GeoffP]

siffert_fan I agree, it baffles me why cars can get away with flaunting clearly stated rules, and wish they would start to enforce them again - if corners weren't perfect mayber driver quality would get a chance to show through.

I do believe they have to start enforcing by publically announcing intention to do so, and apply the rules through free practice, qwuali and the race with complete dispassion.

However, they have demonstrated an intention to penalise off circuit passing and so should continue to do so on an incident by incident basis

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Wow what a GP! Hockenheim is a brilliant track and must remain on the calendar at all costs.

Alonso - Brilliant lights to flag drive. Never looked under pressure and when he did he handled himself very well. Although getting rather peeved at the secret Italian messages. Other wise top drive by him.

Button - Excellent drive from a man who needed a good result this weekend, pulled some decent overtakes on Hulkenberg and Schumacher.

Kimi Raikkonen - Wrong tyre strategy cost him the chance of stepping on the podium, even though he was classified as 3rd now he really didn't have the pace when he needed it.

Kamui Kobayashi - Excellent drive from the Japanese Driver. My Driver of the day, made his strategy work to a tee and was rewarded with this by getting 4th.

Sebastain Vettel - Well should he even have been racing? He did deserve his penalty but on a whole he had a decent race, scrapping with Schumacher at the start must have been a buzz for him.

Sergio Perez - Fantastic drive from his grid position following Kobayashi home and bringing the Sauber team some decent points.

Michael Schumacher - Really starting to outshine his younger team mate and it's about time. Looked like he was enjoying the wheel to wheel action.

Mark Webber - Not his best day and i was expecting much better from him. On the pace of his teammate he really should have been challenging for a podium not settling for 8th.

Nico Hulkenberg- Now starting to find his feet at Force India is starting to out perform his British team mate. Looked like he was enjoying the wheel to wheel action.

Nico Rosberg - His strategy paid off and he managed to score a decent point.

On Di Resta and Hamilton:

Di Resta - was expecting much better from him for the position he was starting in. Also think he let a few drivers get pass him a bit too easily.

Hamilton - Can someone get him a Balotelli t-shirt that says WHY ALWAYS ME! As he always seems to get flat tyres from pieces of other drivers bodyworks. Also played the team game well with regards to getting past Vettel to help Jenson.

On DRS:

It should have been a little bit shorter and agreed with Brundle that the overtakes were done well before the braking zone at turn 6.

But overall cracking race and interesting battles. But good to see Jenson back on song today.

Yet again sorry for the essay.

 

[The Artist.....]

Wow what a GP! Hockenheim is a brilliant track and must remain on the calendar at all costs.

Yep - i've made this point on countless occasions before - and, to me, the GPs at the new hockenheim are FAR better than the GPs at the old one - and infinitely better than the ones at the Nurburgring.... Yet many people still deride "New-Hockenheim" as merely a tilke-drome... If we could keep Hockenheim on the calendar, at the expense of circuits like the Hungaroring, Nurburgring, Monaco etc, then I would be a very happy viewer....

 

[Pyrope]

On DRS:

It should have been a little bit shorter and agreed with Brundle that the overtakes were done well before the braking zone at turn 6.

We saw last year at quite a few tracks that the initial DRS zone was a little too long or short, but this year most of those tracks have it pretty well judged. It seems that, despite the sophisticated computer modelling available the FIA do need a suck-it-and-see trial to get things spot on. I expect next time we see DRS at Hockenheim it will be better judged.

Having said that, when two drivers were genuinely pretty closely matched in terms of pace the DRS zone didn't make too much of a difference. Think of Hamilton and Button both trying to catch and pass Alonso at various points (ok, in Lewis's case re-pass).

 

[FB]

The length of the lap almost made the DRS zone irrelevant as so often the faster cars were lapping slower ones so could use DRS in a defensive way. Maybe the position needs to be looked at for next year, or an extension of the circuit? Perhaps they could run it out into the forest and back again

 

[mjo]

Yep - i've made this point on countless occasions before - and, to me, the GPs at the new hockenheim are FAR better than the GPs at the old one - and infinitely better than the ones at the Nurburgring.

Really? Whilst I like the New Hockenheim more than the old one, I think the Nurburgring is better than both of them, and produces better races.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Shortening the old Hockenheim circuit one of the longest on the calender to the new Hockenheim one of the shortest was a massive drop of a bollock hasn't Herman ever heard of a compromise? it could do with being at least ¾ of a mile longer and not have so much run off area for drivers to gain advantages...

 

[The Artist.....]

mjo - Fair enough - personally I can't stand the (new) nurburgring - I can't remember an exciting race there.... But each to their own...

Mephistopheles - There were certain constraints that Tilke had to take into account - such as the huge area of forest that he couldn't chop down!

 

[Josh]

I actually found out that the Dutch commentator speaks a bit of Italian . Very useful that was

EDIT: this was meant to go under Hammy's post

 

[Dizzi]

I rather liked Brundle's idea of McLaren/Williams speaking in Cockney Rhyming slang, that would be hilarious.
I can see the time coming when they devise their own languages or ridiculous coded messages.
Of course much of the time is bluff & double bluff (we have an engine problem - sets fastest lap..).
It's become a bit of a game in our household guessing which are the true messages & which are put out to confuse the opposition.
(hint...it's usually pretty honest if Lewis says fricking )

 

[Mephistopheles]

"Jenson you can get Alonso switch to green G2" was definitely a bluff, that turned out to the fuel saving mode. also "Kimi you are the fastest man on track you can do this" was another one and what about "Vettel Button has a serious flat spot on his front right tyre"?

 

[Jos the Boss]

I rather liked Brundle's idea of McLaren/Williams speaking in Cockney Rhyming slang, that would be hilarious.

Into the Old mans bits in a lady Godiva Bruno!

 

[Jos the Boss]

on another note I would say Kimi pulled the pass of the race with his move on Schumacher. Great going, Kimi

I thought Schumi on Hulkenberg in Turn 8

 

[Il_leone]

I thought yesterday Alonso taught everyone a driving lesson and played games telling both guys he beat them both after the race
..he's got the team behind him and he will be difficult to beat now unless he has a bad run

Button - the master of managing tyres cooked his too soon in pursuing and fell back but a good solid drive to answer his critics that he should retire reminding them when he is on it he can fight for wins

Vettel - no love lost with Fernando who held him at bay all race. Oh dear oh dear Seb does not have the fastest car outright and is showing petulance with his "Stupid! " Hamiton comment... old style Grand Prix tracks he would have been buried into the gravel trap with the number of offs he was having to keep pace...he did look a bit rattled with his gesturing at Hamilton and his teammate in quali as well

As for the penalty ...lame excuse and people might question his ability to overtake - see Silverstone 2010 Alonso on Kubica for not passing within the track

Hamilton

- Should have been on the podium ..made one fatal quali decision and messed his SUnday then with a poor start and puncture but his response to Vettel was class " That is real maturity for you!"

Webber

- another one of his poor races where his start is his achilles heel again plus the inferior straight line speed of the Red Bull meant he was a sitting duck

Schumacher

- the lead MErcedes driver for a while now but the car has not improved

Kimi

- another race where he started too far back to be a threat for the win

Grosjean

- he did not want JYS' offer to tutor him and I think after that race he should have a rethink

Rosberg

- what has happened to Nico ? Two poor races and he's a forgotten man


Kamui

- reminds everyone he can still race despite rumours he may get replaced

Perez
- another solid drive and believes the car is good enough to win races if they can sort out quali

Hulkenberg
- showing signs of his ability but will be disappointed that from 4th he ended with only 2pts


Di Resta

- I wonder if the contract situation with Mercedes and recent split from Anthony is beginning to distract him


Massa

- just what he did not need another nose chopped

 

[Il_leone]

Mephistopheles@The Artist.....

The reason why Hockenheim was shortened from 4.3miles to less than 3miles was because as a fan you only saw the cars when they entered the stadium section before they disappeared into the forest for another 3 miles or so and the old race was 45 laps in 1m40 seconds so you had to wait two minutes nearly before they came around

Shortening the track meant the fans saw the cars 67 times instead of 45 times

The old circuit was a matter of pounding the engine around at nearly 200mph on the long straights but you hardly saw any overtaking because it was done at the other parts of the circuit and it was also rare as it was difficult to pass the other car

Tilke designed turn 6 with the theory it has two lines and encourages cars to dive down the inside to pass

 

[Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld]

JUST FOUND MYSELF ON TV!!!!!!!!!

will try and get a picture of it soon


[EDIT] me in the green stripy shirt