Did Rubens have a point?

[Galahad]

here are the tyre strategies for the brawns in germany

Button Brawn GP S-Soft S-Soft Med S-Soft
Barrichello Brawn GP S-Soft S-Soft Med Med

Thanks for that boga.

I've just spent an enjoyable half hour creating a lovely graphical representation of the two Brawns' German Grand Prix and thanks to the invaluable technical help of Brogan it is now attached to this post. For reference, the lap times are here: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... alysis.pdf

Suffice to say Rubens was quicker in three of the four stints but was let down by being stuck behind Massa (about 9s), a slower first stop (2s), his fuel rig problem (5s) and an earlier final stop (2s), compared to Jenson

 

[RickD]

One final point, I think any break down within the team will have a big effect on Button's title ambitions as general consesus is that Rubens sets the cars up and Jenson then goes out and wins.

The General Consensus between who exactly?!?

I think Jense has been in Formula 1 long enough to sort his own set-up out. Or is the same general consensus that said Hamilton couldn't set a car up?

Gordon - That would be interesting if Jenson wasn't stuck behind other cars for most of his slower laps. The first stint, he managed to get past Massa, but couldn't get past Kovi with his special button. Once Kovi pulled in, Jense was faster straight away. Then after his pit, there were a few cars he had to pass (can't remember all, but there were 2 or 3 he passed). When he was in clear air and not sitting behind another car, he was consistently faster than Reubens. Ruebens only had himself to blame for being stuck behind Massa as if he had been faster int he first stint, he would have cleared him and most likely won the race.

What I found most interesting about yesterdays race was the fact that as soon as the Red Bulls get behind someone, they have absolutely no chance of getting past, whereas the Brawns can still overtake (as proved by Jenson). This could make things hard for the Red bull team if one of the others has a major upgrade that gets them ahead (think McLaren).

Reubens lost the race for himself by simply not driving fast enough or consistently enough. Webber won the race with a drive through penalty (well deserved I might add, it is not bumper cars after all) If reubens could have pulled out in that first stint, he would have been in with a chance, but due to his lack of speed, he came out behind Massa.

 

[Galahad]

When he was in clear air and not sitting behind another car, he was consistently faster than Reubens.

Well, he was in clear air from laps 25-30 and couldn't keep pace with RB (there wasn't much in it, admittedly). Obviously he was in traffic throughout the first stint but neither of us have any idea whether he would have been a match for Rubens in clear air or not. Personally I suspect not.

 

[bogaTYR]

so, if this rig issue had not occured, rubens most likely would not have had to make this third pit stop and drove him 25 secs ahead of where he finished now? which means he was in contention for a win or a podium at least.

 

[RickD]

Well, he was in clear air from laps 25-30 and couldn't keep pace with RB (there wasn't much in it, admittedly). Obviously he was in traffic throughout the first stint but neither of us have any idea whether he would have been a match for Rubens in clear air or not. Personally I suspect not.

As you say, we'll never know, but I suspect the opposite to you, simply due to how quickly he closed RB down before that final stop, he was obviously faster than Ruebens, evenm to the point where he was asking the team what was going on as he wanted to get ahead of Rosberg and was being held back.

The team were obviously expecting Reubens in the lap before he came in as they had his tyres out already. The only reason I can think that he didn't come in was that he was arguing with the team, fair enough, but a bit risky, especially as no-one knew how much fuel the team managed to get in on the 2nd pit stop, especially Reubens himself, I think he wouldn't have been able to say much worse about the team if he HAD run out of fuel though.

 

[Galahad]

so, if this rig issue had not occured, rubens most likely would not have had to make this third pit stop and drove him 25 secs ahead of where he finished now? which means he was in contention for a win or a podium at least.

I don't think the tyres would have lasted long enough to make that a credible option for him.

A better strategy might have been to fuel him for another 7-8 laps at his first stop - since he was going to come out behind Massa anyway he might as well maximise his time on low fuel once Massa had pitted, and this would have given them the option of fuelling to the end at his second stop.