- Login or Register
No account yet? Sign up
Kimi Raikkonen has converted a brilliantly working 2-stop strategy to a race wing for Lotus, immediately confirming the long run pace of the E21. Fernando Alonso finished in second place, 10 seconds behind while Sebastian Vettel completes the podium in third.
Basically i think the grid will be so tight that the guys who shine are the "top of the line" drivers.raymondu999 wrote: Wow. Interesting. Don't think I've seen a prediction for a while that doesn't feature teammates at all. In the name of curiosity, Nando - are they by any chance, your top 5 drivers too? ie the drivers you consider the "5 best" of the grid.
Not sure I agree on this one Nando, especially not the first couple of races. Sure, the teams have a better understanding of the tyres than Melb 2012, but no-one really knows how they're going to perform until they race on them. This will bring a huge amount of luck into the results. Once the teams have data from a few races and can then compare that to the test data, we'll see it settle down. Being a 'top of the line' driver means nothing when you don't have the car under you. The opposite is also true, anyone can win if you fluke the setup and the conditions fall your way - See Nico, Maldondo, Button.Nando wrote:Basically i think the grid will be so tight that the guys who shine are the "top of the line" drivers.raymondu999 wrote: Wow. Interesting. Don't think I've seen a prediction for a while that doesn't feature teammates at all. In the name of curiosity, Nando - are they by any chance, your top 5 drivers too? ie the drivers you consider the "5 best" of the grid.
Assuming top 5 is separated by something like 3 tenths.
I think the difference from last year will be, proper tires, no "lottery", no massive exhaust regulation change like last year.Cam wrote:Not sure I agree on this one Nando, especially not the first couple of races. Sure, the teams have a better understanding of the tyres than Melb 2012, but no-one really knows how they're going to perform until they race on them. This will bring a huge amount of luck into the results. Once the teams have data from a few races and can then compare that to the test data, we'll see it settle down. Being a 'top of the line' driver means nothing when you don't have the car under you. The opposite is also true, anyone can win if you fluke the setup and the conditions fall your way - See Nico, Maldondo, Button.
I think beasue tryes will be the deciding factor that we will see a rough team order, some of the fancied teams will have problems with tyre wear and are in for a rude awakening.Nando wrote:Basically i think the grid will be so tight that the guys who shine are the "top of the line" drivers.raymondu999 wrote: Wow. Interesting. Don't think I've seen a prediction for a while that doesn't feature teammates at all. In the name of curiosity, Nando - are they by any chance, your top 5 drivers too? ie the drivers you consider the "5 best" of the grid.
Assuming top 5 is separated by something like 3 tenths.
Its a Front tyre limiting track therefore a strong front end is required for aggressive turn ins which gives the best lap times but most importantly the balance of the car should be excellent so that even tyre wear occurs on all corners .gray41 wrote:What car characteristics are good around Melbourne?
).