Grand Prix 2012 United States Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Yeehaw!
Saddle up and let's mosey on down to Texas for the penultimate round of the 2012 season.

(Okay, that's quite enough of that...)

If it wasn't for the fact that Red Bull and Vettel have all but tied both titles up, this would be one of the most exciting ends to a season for a while.

What we should have had is two or three drivers on approximately level points heading to an unknown circuit, which by all accounts looks like it's going to be a challenge for even the best drivers. Turn one in particular is a blind left at the crest of a hill, which could either make or break the race.
Instead, what we have is a dominant Red Bull who need just four points to take the Constructors' title and Sebastian Vettel who only needs to outscore Fernando Alonso by 15 points or more over the next two rounds to take the Drivers'.

The wheels have come off at McLaren with yet another retirement for Hamilton when leading comfortably at Abu Dhabi; this time due to a faulty fuel pump. McLaren have prosecuted a dreadful campaing this year; without doubt they should have been in a position to take both titles and instead they are unlikely to even be runners up in both.
Where did it all go wrong?

Renault scored their first victory of the season with Kimi Räikkönen. Apparently it was "nothing to jump around about" so we'll say no more.

Mercedes had another race to forget with both cars finishing outside the top 10. Again. One has to hope that this is not a precursor to next season's performance and the redesigned car will be a lot more competitive. They may be able to hang on to fifth in the Constructors' but that will be dependent on how many points the Sauber drivers squander, of which Pérez has been doing an admirable job since he signed for McLaren.

Force India and Williams are in their own private battle in both championships but the Force Indias are in the driving seat (thank you, I'm here all week) and look as if they will just have the edge.

Sadly, for another year, the three "new" teams still occupy all of the bottom places. Caterham had an opportunity during last week's race of attrition to jump Marussia into 10th place, which they currently hold thanks to Timo Glock's 12th place finish at Singapore, but Kovalainen was overtaken in the closing stages. The really sad part is I can't see this ever being any different; the step change in performance required to breach the gap just seems to be unattainable.

For those who haven't seen the circuit, this is the view from the start-finish straight to turn one:
austin-straight-jpg.5108


Here's an onboard lap:

Galahad's circuit write up is here: http://cliptheapex.com/pages/circuit-of-the-americas/

Burgers, weak beer and popcorn are available from the concession stands (OK, OK, I'll stop now :D)
 
Fox don't have stories about it on their web-site.
Fox don't do real news, only party political broadcasts on behalf of the Republican Party.
In many countries, probably most in fact, motorsport is relegated to the fine print, unless of course somome is killed, then it's front page headlines. Here in NZ the broadcasts out of the US, from sources that don't normally bother were quite good, before and after the GP.
 
There was a fair crowd of locals (Austin)... and a sizeable local (US) turnout... spoke to guy next to me and his dad from Denver (kid used to race Jetta TDI Cup for a few years)... four or five guys behind me from Southern California (SoCal)...all veterans of last few Long Beach GP's back in the early 80's... got my coffee the same time each day with a Chicago native who had attended Montreal several times, plus a bunch of Indy races... but would say that the majority of people around me were from Mexico, South America and Europe... and the Brit who was red in the face and streaming with sweat who was just making it to his seat as race got underway ("I've just beaten Roger Bannisters mile record"...which got a number of laughs as he squeezed past people to sit down)... all in all, it was a real United Nations crowd...

I would hope that the show that was put on... plus the solid organization (but for the food queues and running out of food... due to underestimating the turn out... not a bad problem overall)... coupled with Austin's reputation and ironic nature (a Democratic town as the capital of Texas ;) ... will bring back punters next season... to get 60k / 80k / 120k through the gates for three days shouldn't be a challenge ... also have to remember that Texas is a relatively cheap state to eat, drink and sleep in... (except eating and drinking at the track of course)...

As has been heard in there here parts...

All y'all come back here next time you hear...
 
I've got to say I loved the race, and have my time reserved to go next year (though need to update my visa before then so it is valid again :whistle:). It did seem like the track produced close combat through the whole field and it took a bit of luck and a lot of skill to get to the flag. Hoping that the proposed change in tyres for next year doesn't hurt this as to me this race has shown what F1 should be like :D
 
An extremely good race- Hamilton 'signing off' for McLaren and a title battle for next week.

A few points though:

  • Why was Vettel moaning about Hamilton's overtake? If anyone was weaving it looked like Vettel.
  • Ferrari did what they had to with Massa's gearbox, but what impact will this have for the future? Will the FIA change those regulations on gearboxes? Was this the incident that finally fired up Massa? And will we have yet another round of people hating Ferrari for a lack of fairness?
  • Was Maldonado's overtake effectively the end of Senna's F1 career?
  • What's going on at Mercedes? Is Hamilton ever going to win a second world championship because of this move?
  • I hate to be like this, but if Vettel becomes a three-time champion- will it feel a little 'undeserved'? Looking at the list of 3* winners and more, does Vettel's reputation stand up with any of them? Maybe Piquet at a push?
 
  • Why was Vettel moaning about Hamilton's overtake? If anyone was weaving it looked like Vettel

He was mainly moaning about Narain Karthikayan holding him up in the Esses section as he's had 2 blue flags and that's an impossible section to pass a back-marker.
 
He really lost his cool, then. Nearly took himself and Hamilton out before making a complete hash of the apex of turn 1, and all this whilst having a quickfit over the radio about the driver in front of him and the driver behind him. That said, I was very impressed with how he regathered himself and he mostly came across quite well after the race. One area that Vettel seems to be slowly improving on is managing his head when he's in a bit of adversity and I think that has been one of the very few chinks in his armour. It is still quite evident but he is moving in the right direction in that respect.
 
So is Karthikeyan expected to drive completely off the circuit in order to get out of the way of the leaders? He moved out of the way before the 3rd blue flag was shown so was within the race regulations. If Vettel loses the championship by a few points then it will be unfortunate for him but championships have been lost on smaller incidents.
 
He can avoid impeding the leaders without leaving the circuit. He should also regard the first blue flag as an indication to move over for the faster car(s), rather than waiting for another one to appear before considering doing so.
 
That was the section of track which the commentary team knew would cause problems when drivers came up to the back markers, it is narrow and twisty and only one line through there. It's just bad luck that Vettel happened to meet him on that part of the circuit. Yes KAR could have got of the way before that section but he didn't.

Galahad It seems that Kewee has further information on this. It seems that KAR asked about lapping on this section of the track and didn't have to move over until turn 8.
 
I don't remember who but I'm pretty sure I saw another guy move out of the way during the section where it is "impossible" to get out of the way.
 
Andrew Benson (BBC) has just tweeted that there are two pages of Nascar coverage in the US newspapers and all the usual US sports but nothing at all about F1.

Absolutely ZERO coverage of the Grand Prix on "The Worldwide Leader in Sports", ESPN. Very, very sad.

This race was an unbridled success for those that already follow the F1 circus, but as far as expanding it's base in the US on the back of this race, I just don't see it happening without ESPN covering it.

It's going to take an American driver to really open up the US market big time. And with Caterham passing up an opportunity to give Rossi a session, I'm afraid we're still a ways off on that front.
 
...
  • Ferrari did what they had to with Massa's gearbox, but what impact will this have for the future? Will the FIA change those regulations on gearboxes? Was this the incident that finally fired up Massa? And will we have yet another round of people hating Ferrari for a lack of fairness?
...

Probably it has already being commented somewhere else, but according to Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari checked with FIA before breaking the seal. So in his mind it was a "fair" move. And I would say "yes" to your last 2 questions.
 
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