Korean GP 2010 - Yeongam

[MikeFromCanada]

I also think in outright pace, Hamilton in the MP4-25 is quicker (albeit by not much) than Alonso in the F10. We need to remember where Hamilton qualified at Suzuka, in comparison to Alonso. Not to mention the pace Hamilton had prior to lsoing 3rd gear.

Korea looks like it won't favour the RB6 as much, however those 2nd and 3rd sectors (especially turns 7,8,9 and 12,13,14) look to have the Red Bull labelled all over them.

It's certainly an odd track, looks more like a random set of turns just connected by 2 straights.

[ringo]

ferrari is third best now. The Mclaren seemed to improve since suzuka.
. . .

Odd comment, given the results of the last few races?

I do hope you are correct about this NOT being a Red Bull parade. I'm looking for Newey to make whatever changes required to keep RBR at or near the front from here on out. And I don't see Webber being beaten for the WDC. (What WILL RBR do about driver ranking then?)

make no mistake webber is champion already. Horner isn't so foolish as to give vettel, who is on equal points with alonso, a chance.
Alonso and Vettel are in the quick sand, webber is on solid ground. If horner extends a branch to Vettel to give him a chance, Alonso might grab for it and pull himself out; Once he's on land with webber, he'll beat him to a pulp; if you get my anology.
Alonso is not to be underestimated, and i would rather sink Vettel with him than risk Webber's chances with treating them equally.

The car rankings change every race, in singapore the ferrari was better, in suzuka the mclaren of Hamilton. Remove Button from blocking Hamilton, then remove the 3rd gear failure and look on that as a whole race. The ferrari would be on defense.

Redbull will be fastest, but it looks twisty enough to fluster Webber. I am not too sure about Vettel. But with Alonso or Hamilton behind him, he can make errors.

[Just_a_fan]

In sector 1 in Japan - the bit everyone thought would be where RB walked away from the others, Webber's fastest lap was only a tenth quicker than Button's. Same in Sector 2. Sector 3 had Button 2 tenths quicker than Webber. The difference over the lap was 0.055s.

Red Bull's qualifying pace is their best weapon. In race trim, the McLaren appears to have been right there with the RB6. Just before his loss of 3rd gear, Hamilton was catching Alonso at over a second a lap too. I feel that, had he had a full box of cogs, Hamilton might have pipped the RBs to the fastest lap although Button was admittedly showing a rare turn of speed in the last few laps - shame he's not that quick all the time.

SECTOR 1
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 32.744
2 5 S. VETTEL 32.851
3 1 J. BUTTON 32.882
4 8 F. ALONSO 32.921
5 23 K. KOBAYASHI 33.304
6 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 33.319
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 33.362

SECTOR 2
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 42.466
2 5 S. VETTEL 42.516
3 1 J. BUTTON 42.536
4 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 42.566
5 8 F. ALONSO 42.726
6 23 K. KOBAYASHI 42.773
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 42.880

SECTOR 3
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 1 J. BUTTON 18.090
2 8 F. ALONSO 18.139
3 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 18.179
4 16 S. BUEMI 18.197
5 3 M. SCHUMACHER 18.198
6 5 S. VETTEL 18.261
7 6 M. WEBBER 18.264

[Just_a_fan]

@ringo

I think you have a good point. Webber's best hope for the title is Alonso and Hamilton attacking Vettel. I think Button will only play a part if the others drop the ball. FA and LH, however, might well take points off Vettel sufficiently that Horner has no choice but to favour Webber. Vettel seems to be best when he starts from pole and is unmolested in to the first corner. Take that away from him and he can seem a little fragile.

Webber just needs to win a race and then podium the other races with the others trading positions around him and he should make the crown. Vettel needs to win the next two races to force the issue with Red Bull. Thing is, if Webber wins one and seconds the others whilst Vettel wins two and is second the third race, Webber will win on count back. I think.

Hamilton needs to win all three and hope the rest have DNFs. This makes him very dangerous for the Red Bull boys because he really has nothing to lose in going for every point. I can see Alonso sneaking in for the title by virtue of the others squabbling amongst themselves. It'll be 2007 all over again but with Alonso in the red car this time.

I wonder how many people will still say "2010 was a boring season" in November...

[747heavy]

South Korean GP preview by RBR:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KcAKTstGqc[/youtube]

[WhiteBlue]

There will be no Red Bull team order in Korea I think. Vettel will be the faster of the two Red Bull drivers again on this new for all track. Webber will have no advantage from his experience. Both Alonso and Hamilton should be closer to Red Bull in qualifying than they were in Suzuka. This could see Webber qualifying as low as P4 and Vettel in P1 ideally. If this is the qualifying order and the race is dry we could see Webber loose much of the advantage he gained by his lucky finishes.

[Sean H]

In sector 1 in Japan - the bit everyone thought would be where RB walked away from the others, Webber's fastest lap was only a tenth quicker than Button's. Same in Sector 2. Sector 3 had Button 2 tenths quicker than Webber. The difference over the lap was 0.055s.

Red Bull's qualifying pace is their best weapon. In race trim, the McLaren appears to have been right there with the RB6. Just before his loss of 3rd gear, Hamilton was catching Alonso at over a second a lap too. I feel that, had he had a full box of cogs, Hamilton might have pipped the RBs to the fastest lap although Button was admittedly showing a rare turn of speed in the last few laps - shame he's not that quick all the time.

SECTOR 1
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 32.744
2 5 S. VETTEL 32.851
3 1 J. BUTTON 32.882
4 8 F. ALONSO 32.921
5 23 K. KOBAYASHI 33.304
6 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 33.319
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 33.362

SECTOR 2
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 42.466
2 5 S. VETTEL 42.516
3 1 J. BUTTON 42.536
4 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 42.566
5 8 F. ALONSO 42.726
6 23 K. KOBAYASHI 42.773
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 42.880

SECTOR 3
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 1 J. BUTTON 18.090
2 8 F. ALONSO 18.139
3 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 18.179
4 16 S. BUEMI 18.197
5 3 M. SCHUMACHER 18.198
6 5 S. VETTEL 18.261
7 6 M. WEBBER 18.264

Button's race pace at the end was artificial at best. Remember he was low on fuel with newer option tires compared to the others well worn primes. There is a reason why he finished well behind the top 3.

[Giblet]

Keep in ind everyone was driving balls out to keep up with Seb and Webber. Seb was simply controlling his pace and gap, so the sector times are not indicative of what they can do if they have to push.

[raymondu999]

Wouldn't it be great if it turns out they've bought asphalt that was especially smooth, and there would be such a low coefficient of friction in the tarmac that they had the same grip problems as Canada? Not saying it's desirable, but it'll certainly be fun.

[CHT]

In sector 1 in Japan - the bit everyone thought would be where RB walked away from the others, Webber's fastest lap was only a tenth quicker than Button's. Same in Sector 2. Sector 3 had Button 2 tenths quicker than Webber. The difference over the lap was 0.055s.

Red Bull's qualifying pace is their best weapon. In race trim, the McLaren appears to have been right there with the RB6. Just before his loss of 3rd gear, Hamilton was catching Alonso at over a second a lap too. I feel that, had he had a full box of cogs, Hamilton might have pipped the RBs to the fastest lap although Button was admittedly showing a rare turn of speed in the last few laps - shame he's not that quick all the time.

SECTOR 1
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 32.744
2 5 S. VETTEL 32.851
3 1 J. BUTTON 32.882
4 8 F. ALONSO 32.921
5 23 K. KOBAYASHI 33.304
6 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 33.319
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 33.362

SECTOR 2
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 6 M. WEBBER 42.466
2 5 S. VETTEL 42.516
3 1 J. BUTTON 42.536
4 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 42.566
5 8 F. ALONSO 42.726
6 23 K. KOBAYASHI 42.773
7 3 M. SCHUMACHER 42.880

SECTOR 3
POS NO DRIVER TIME
1 1 J. BUTTON 18.090
2 8 F. ALONSO 18.139
3 17 J. ALGUERSUARI 18.179
4 16 S. BUEMI 18.197
5 3 M. SCHUMACHER 18.198
6 5 S. VETTEL 18.261
7 6 M. WEBBER 18.264

Should also look at the tyre mileage and fuel load for comparison.

[Just_a_fan]

Button's race pace at the end was artificial at best. Remember he was low on fuel with newer option tires compared to the others well worn primes. There is a reason why he finished well behind the top 3.

Umm, Button and Webber both set their fastest laps on the last lap so the fuel element is irrelevant.

Tyres, I agree, were different although we have no indication of how the primes and options compare at their respective "ages" in the race. Button was on the softer tyre but it had done 15 laps where Webber was on the harder tyre with 28 laps on them. We know the softer tyre lasted longer than expected so that may have helped Button but the harder tyres seem to be able to deliver lap time for many laps - that's one of the things being discussed elsewhere hereabouts.

It's possible that the Red Bull is still 0.5s better than the McLaren / Ferrari but that's a small enough gap to be easily removed by other factors. That's the way of racing.

[forty-two]

Mods, shouldn't this thread be renamed "South Korean GP 2010 - Yeong-Am"

Sorry to be pedantic.

[forty-two]

Webber will have no advantage from his experience.

I don't think that claim can be supported. True, he might not have the benefit of having driven there in the past, but he definitely will have the advantage of more hours at the wheel of an F1 car.

This could see Webber qualifying as low as P4 and Vettel in P1 ideally.

Surely the addition of the word "ideally" at the end of your statement is something which depends upon which driver you happen to like, Vettel in your case presumably?

If this is the qualifying order and the race is dry we could see Webber loose much of the advantage he gained by his lucky finishes.

I think "lucky finishes" is something which could be levelled at a number of drivers depending on which driver you like.

Rather than being a technical discussion about the forthcoming race, this post sounds worryingly like a description of what the poster would like to happen. I'm not criticising that, far from it in fact. But I think it's important to note nonetheless.

[forty-two]

Keep in ind everyone was driving balls out to keep up with Seb and Webber. Seb was simply controlling his pace and gap, so the sector times are not indicative of what they can do if they have to push.

You're probably right.

But if the RBs had found themselves tucked up behind a slower JB after pitting, I wonder how much of a lead LH might have been able to pull out, given the apparent disadvantage the RB6 suffers when not in clean air?

[Gerhard Berger]

Back on topic, Marko has said he is worried about the long straights at Korea.