2013 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona

[Forza]

Race Live timing

[thevlack]

ROS with 3 stops? ... I guess something else besides the tyres failed at merc today.

[henra]

Well, that was some racing, not as boring as it used to be in Barcelona.

Honest question: Did we watch the same race?
Where did you see close ongoing fighting and drivers continuously driving on the edge (not the tyres' edge!)?

Here was hoping that tyre stupity would reduce a bit. Instead, one gets the feeling the tyre trouble is even getting worse.
Even Kimi had difficulties sticking to a 3 stop strategy (!!).

[Bomber_Pilot]

Why Mercedes even thought of trying to do a 3 stopper is beyond me.

[Pierce89]

I hate Pirelli. Absolute rubbish. The sport is going downhill fast with this crap rubber. No one pushing, no one fighting, people letting cars past because its better in the long run. Bring back the bridgestone's and keep DRS.

no because i want to see hamilton trying to drive as slow as he can, this is what i enjoy from my motor racing
also then it makes it unpredictable so this means it is good racing.

If they had the balls to run the same strategy as Ferrari, they could push. I didn't see Alonso dicking around saving tires.

[Rikhart]

Cant help feeling that 4 stopper was faster today, and Lotus should have done so...

[iotar__]

I agree with the above that the Pirelli's are making the races boring. I felt asleep half way through the race.

Huh? What kind of a disease is this to "blame" tyre manufacturer for just about anything? Blame DRS for boring Barcelona too and feel like an old school connoisseur. Guess what? Monaco is going to be boring, too.

Apart from that:
- You've got to love those one/two stops predictions
- Alonso peerless
- !!! team orders at McLaren !!!
- Lotus - more pace again than result suggests. Here as well as in any other race they should be challenging for wins. Instead it's game over v. early.
- nice drive by Roberg, somehow ended up sixth

Also as predicted Ferrari/Lotus better than RB. It means we're going to hear nauseating whining from Marko/Mateschitz about real racing. Since when Red Bull salesman became authority on racing? I don't recall him complaining when their inept, paper champ messed up everything in Brazil and five drivers ahead of him let him pass. Just like that, what a display of racing that was.

[turbof1]

Tire failure on 4 different cars on 2 different tracks, totally not the tires at fault then...

Paul Hembery gave a critical piece of information earlier this weekend. They have moved to using stainless steel for the tyre belts. That means that debris on the track does not puncture the belt any more when you run over it. That in turn means that we don't see a traditional tyre deflation when a tyre gets punctured by debris. Instead, the rubber on the belt sheers off.

What we're effectively seeing here is debris punctures, not the tyres randomly failing.

That said – I do think the tyres are much too soft here. We're not seeing any real racing at all.

That is PR talk obviously. I've seen more tyre debilitations during 2 race weekends then punctures during 2 weekends last year. Last year we were in most cases able to visually identify what caused the puncture. This year in all cases that the contact patch exploded, we've seen no visible debris on the track.

Moreover, this is effectively more dangerous. such big pieces of rubber can effectively knock out cold a driver who is unfortunate to drive right behind it. And it obviously damages the car. A deflation is much better.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Andrea Stella have just said that it's better nowadays to drive at a target lap time, than a driver speeding.

EDIT : i'm consufed, he said Alonso didn't drive at a delta time it's all about feeling

[SilverArrow10]

That race was all about tires. Interestingly the ones that complained the most about the tires suffered the most. Red bull just weren't there and Mercedes was a complete disaster. I also found that I didn't enjoy it and find it exciting. Mind you im completely biased and my driver had a very bad race so my opinion doesn't hold much weight.

[zeph]

Alonso's move on Hamilton in lap 1 was great, but the best moment for me was Raikkonen's move on Vettel.

[gandharva]

Pirelli, thanks for ruining another race in 2013. Race was over after the first pit stops. ~50 ultra boring laps watching the drivers managing that shittastic tires. Think I'll skip the next race, because there are better things to do than sleep on my couch during a F1 race.

[JimClarkFan]

I agree with the above that the Pirelli's are making the races boring. I felt asleep half way through the race.

And this thread in only 15 pages long, which tells me that it is not only you which is getting bored with these tyres.
I know I have been finding it harder to tune into F1 recently, whereas last year I would never miss a second of quali or race.

[Redragon]

I agree with the above that the Pirelli's are making the races boring. I felt asleep half way through the race.

And this thread in only 15 pages long, which tells me that it is not only you which is getting bored with these tyres.
I know I have been finding it harder to tune into F1 recently, whereas last year I would never miss a second of quali or race.

I think it might be the F1 technical chat the cause of this lack of comments. Because most it is said there. Don't know if you have been part of it but you can be part next race weekend

[Joie de vivre]

Niki Lauda stated this is not formula anymore it's a joke. Horner agreed that those tires are complete joke.