2012 US GP - Circuit of the Americas

[JimClarkFan]

In that case, if Ham gets up the inside turn one then I feel the red bulls will have a hard time passing. Do you know the top speed difference on the straights of Red bull vs Macca or Ferrari.

He'll have a fight on his hands to hold on to P2 - let alone taking P1. The dirty side is apparently like the wet.

Speedtrap: http://www.formula1.com/results/season/ ... _trap.html

I'd say so, however in FP3 several of the drivers were doing practicse starts on P2, 4, 6 and maybe 8. So there is some rubber down their and I don't think it will be as tardy in those position as people may expect.

[beelsebob]

exactly, Webber said it is a joke starting from dirty side
i think Lewis and Kimi will lose out and after first corner, it will be Vettel, Mark and Schumy 1,2,3

But then again, same was said about india and it didnt show in the end, vettel even managing to outdrag webber.

I think people were mistaken in Korea though. After Turn 1, every single driver starting on the inside line (which turned out to be grippier) overtook the guy starting 1 place ahead of them.[/quote]
Not sure it was that it turned out to be grippier, instead that it was grippy enough, and that the inside was a very significant advantage into such a tight turn 1.

[Gerhard Berger]

Massa is 2.3 kph faster in the speed trap compared to Alonso. Most of the other teammates are very closely matched in terms of top speed. Red bulls are at the bottom of the speed trap (unsurprisingly) but they are well down on top speed - some 6-8kph compared to the other front runners which is more than usual i think.

In that case, if Ham gets up the inside turn one then I feel the red bulls will have a hard time passing. Do you know the top speed difference on the straights of Red bull vs Macca or Ferrari.

from formula1.com :

1 17 Jean-Eric Vergne 12:17:52 320.4
2 15 Sergio Perez 12:11:11 320.2
3 14 Kamui Kobayashi 12:40:48 320.0
4 19 Bruno Senna 12:38:30 319.5
5 18 Pastor Maldonado 12:13:15 319.3
6 6 Felipe Massa 12:16:56 319.1
7 11 Paul di Resta 12:16:30 318.4
8 12 Nico Hulkenberg 12:40:33 318.3
9 7 Michael Schumacher 12:36:28 318.2
10 8 Nico Rosberg 12:13:56 317.7
11 5 Fernando Alonso 12:13:40 316.8
12 16 Daniel Ricciardo 12:16:01 316.6
13 10 Romain Grosjean 12:13:22 315.6
14 9 Kimi Räikkönen 12:14:19 315.4
15 23 Narain Karthikeyan 12:14:09 314.5
16 4 Lewis Hamilton 12:19:08 314.4
17 3 Jenson Button 12:14:05 314.3
18 22 Pedro de la Rosa 12:15:33 314.1
19 24 Timo Glock 12:19:09 313.2
20 25 Charles Pic 12:11:09 313.1
21 20 Heikki Kovalainen 12:17:47 312.5
22 21 Vitaly Petrov 12:19:26 312.3
23 1 Sebastian Vettel 12:38:24 308.4
24 2 Mark Webber 12:55:28 308.0

[raymondu999]

I think people were mistaken in Korea though. After Turn 1, every single driver starting on the inside line (which turned out to be grippier) overtook the guy starting 1 place ahead of them.

Not sure it was that it turned out to be grippier, instead that it was grippy enough, and that the inside was a very significant advantage into such a tight turn 1.

Fair point.

I'd say so, however in FP3 several of the drivers were doing practicse starts on P2, 4, 6 and maybe 8. So there is some rubber down their and I don't think it will be as tardy in those position as people may expect.

Yes - but none of the drivers who tried to start there got anywhere in any hurry. It was Massa and Hamilton that said starting on the dirty side was like a standing start in the wet.

[JimClarkFan]

I'd say so, however in FP3 several of the drivers were doing practicse starts on P2, 4, 6 and maybe 8. So there is some rubber down their and I don't think it will be as tardy in those position as people may expect.

Yes - but none of the drivers who tried to start there got anywhere in any hurry. It was Massa and Hamilton that said starting on the dirty side was like a standing start in the wet.

Lets hope they laid down some rubber though so the next launch of those spots won't be as bad.

[raymondu999]

Here's the Massa quote:

"I think it will be the biggest difference you ever saw at a start," said Massa.

"It will be massive. This morning I did the start on the left, and I was slower than in the wet."

In other news... Apparently both Ferraris ran in Q3 with scrubbed tyres for a better warmup. Interesting.

[siskue2005]

Michael Schumacher "I will most likely have Alonso in my mirrors sometime in the race tomorrow, since he has a stronger package. But I will not let him pass easily, as I drive the race for my team, and will try to get the best result possible."

[Jersey Tom]

I am no tyre expert, maybe JT could give some insights: wht if tomorrow is much hotter? would the car putting less heat into the tyres be more confortable (i.e. ferrari, lotus) with mclaren and redbull struggling for an excessive wear?

My experience with fresh pavement in this country (admittedly in different series) is that wear is a non-issue. You can double stint tires and barely wear any rubber off. With little wear, heat and durability do become issues... i.e. blistering.

If you believe what the drivers say that they can't get the tires hot enough (despite having blankets they can set to whatever temperature...), then a hotter day would level the playing field in having everyone's tires working properly.

If the track is just slick from being new (which I'd wager is the case), I think hotter conditions just make that worse. Those with a small edge in downforce then have rocket ships compared to the rest of the field. Little bit more downforce goes a long way to better car control.

You may see some tire selection and strategy tomorrow that by F1 standards seem odd or backwards.

[shelly]

Thank you JT!

[Gerhard Berger]

Alonso and Schumacher called to the stewards re: incident in Q2.

[McMrocks]

Alonso and Schumacher called to the stewards re: incident in Q2.

it was stupid from MSC but a penalty would be to hard.

[Forza]

Mark Webber given reprimand over weighbridge incident. No further action taken against Michael Schumacher for moment with Fernando Alonso in Q1

[GrizzleBoy]

I am no tyre expert, maybe JT could give some insights: wht if tomorrow is much hotter? would the car putting less heat into the tyres be more confortable (i.e. ferrari, lotus) with mclaren and redbull struggling for an excessive wear?

My experience with fresh pavement in this country (admittedly in different series) is that wear is a non-issue. You can double stint tires and barely wear any rubber off. With little wear, heat and durability do become issues... i.e. blistering.

If you believe what the drivers say that they can't get the tires hot enough (despite having blankets they can set to whatever temperature...), then a hotter day would level the playing field in having everyone's tires working properly.

If the track is just slick from being new (which I'd wager is the case), I think hotter conditions just make that worse. Those with a small edge in downforce then have rocket ships compared to the rest of the field. Little bit more downforce goes a long way to better car control.

You may see some tire selection and strategy tomorrow that by F1 standards seem odd or backwards.

Which imo, is maybe why Button didn't go for Q3.

And Perez qualified in one of his signature podium start positions lol.

[Forza]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Ih4xujsOE[/youtube]

[Richard]

Which imo, is maybe why Button didn't go for Q3.

Surely that was because his engine had a major loss of power?