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

With the championship nearing the climax, the F1 circus rolls into INDIA for the best race of the season! With Sebastian Vettel winning in Korea to make it three wins on the spin it seems highly likely that he will make it three consecutive titles after taking the lead of the championship from Fernando Alonso in the less competitive Ferrari but he took third in Korea to show that he wasn't giving up.

Korea saw the end of Lewis Hamilton's title chances after a dismal race where everything that could go wrong did go wrong and he ended up with half of the astroturf hanging off the car as he just about held onto 10th place from Sergio Perez. Korea was a less than spectacular race with the top 4 not racing at all with strict team orders in place to maintain formation in terms of the team mates as Alonso couldnt catch Webber so there was no overtaking at the front after the first few laps.

India is another Tilke track and while in theory it promises exciting racing, in 2011 it was the scene of one of the most dominant performances by Vettel as he completely destroyed the opposition and winning by a country mile. It seems that now Red Bull have managed to recapture their 2011 form with the double DNF at Monza being a watershed moment as Vettel has won every race since then. In contrast Monza was seen to be where Hamilton launched his title bid as he went into Singapore closing on Alonso in a faster car. But just 11 points in the next three races has wrecked this and his title hopes are now over.

Despite still being yet to win a Grand Prix yet this year, Kimi Raikkonen lies in third in the Championship with half a chance of landing the championship although it is plainly obvious that it will be impossible for Kimi to catch Alonso and Vettel without winning probably at least 2 of the remaining races, and while Lotus is quick enough for solid points, Kimi is still falling short of the podium and this, along with Red Bulls resurgence means that it's really a 2 horse race with Vettel and Alonso.

Alonso has now not won since Germany and his once formidable 40 point lead has been completely wiped out and he's now second in the championship, this won't have been helped by DNF's in Belgium and Japan, races where Vettel took 43 points and that's where the gap was reduced and while i don't think these incidents will have cost him the title, it will have made it a helluva lot more difficult, particularly with the pace of the Red Bull. Now, it's a case of whoever finishes ahead of each other the most times between now and Brazil, at the moment I would say Vettel is the clear favourite unless the Red Bull's reliability gremlins return.

Write up of the best circuit on the calendar and we are all really privileged to have a Grand Prix there - http://cliptheapex.com/pages/buddh-international-circuit/
 
Nope. As long as he drives in quali and clears the 107% rule (a given), then he is good to race. Remember HRT doing their first running in Q1?
 
Jos the Boss ... I think it's one of these:
Hoover.webp
 
I would be more worried if it wasn't a story given that 12 months ago two dogs made their way onto the circuit. It seems only right that after taking measures they would want to affirm the public of the effectiveness of those measures.
 
I noticed that Ross Brawn has stated that because their type DDRS is going to be illegal next year and they have reached a dead end in development terms they are going to have to completely redesign the car for next year, where other teams are just evolving this years car.

That must be a bit worrying for Lewis....
 
I noticed that Ross Brawn has stated that because their type DDRS is going to be illegal next year and they have reached a dead end in development terms they are going to have to completely redesign the car for next year, where other teams are just evolving this years car.

That must be a bit worrying for Lewis....
I'd have thought Lewis should be pleased - an evolution of the current car isn't likely to set the world alight.

There may be some risk involved, but the big rule change is coming in 2014 anyway, so they might as well try something different. If that's what they decide, even!
 
Not completely different cars because some parts such as the monocoque have to be homologated. However as we have seen in the past some teams choose to give certain drivers new or special parts that offer advantages. However they are unlikely to do this on a large scale because it means they have to split their resources down two different design philophisies and consequently may have less success because they are expectively cutting their R&D budget in half.

Although it would certainly be interesting to see the outcome... :thinking:
 
Anyone find it odd that Mclaren got Lewis to test 2013 car bits? Surely the man you want to be doing that is JB. Also it's a bit lame to tell someone to test some stuff and not let them know what their testing and looking for.
 
HammydiRestarules Surely they're just looking for more speed, better stability, more oversteer/understeer etc. Generally just improved characteristics on the old part. By allowing Hamilton to test the parts they get a different perspective from Button's, different doesn't mean bad, in fact it allows them to collect more data which allows for a more accurate analysis. Sam Michael also said today that Hamilton couldn't tell Mercedes any important technical information about the new parts because the drivers are never told (or ask I presume) about the engineering aspects of the updates.
 
Red Bull one-two in qualie. Baring major mechanical failures it's difficult to see anything other than a Red Bull win tomorrow. Lewis looked grumpy, Alonso even more so. Strange that Massa was faster than the P1 time in the first sector on his last Q lap and then slowed up to be behind Fernando. No team orders there then.
 
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