2012 Italian Grand Prix - Monza

[zyphro]

Red Bull will be Murdered they don't have EBD anymore to save them this time !

I agree, I predict a very tough race for them.

[zyphro]

I´m almost sure this will be a Mercedes weekend .Only two medium speed corners Lesmo1 entry into Parabolica and a very good top speed ...I have a good feeling .
Schumacher will eat Rosberg for breakfast there.Schumacher pole and win -my prediction. (fanboy dream but then who cares)

I'm quietly happy as a Merc fan, that the next visit is Monza. At the same time, I'm quickly losing faith in this team anyway.

[raymondu999]

I would wonder is Macca will short shift their can again like last year making them bounce the limiter before enabling the DRS.

I hope they give Hamilton the right gearing and wings this time. He never won at Monza.

Well to be fair, had Hamilton not been out of position (ie had he been with Alonso/Vettel up front, rather than with Schumacher) then they would've been the "right" gearing and wings.

[godlameroso]

If it's a dry weekend the result will be very different to spa, to be honest there is a lot of optimizing that goes on between FP1 and Q1, it's not just trying out new parts but also parts get changed throughout the weekend based on driver input and data collected.

[beelsebob]

Now here I'd suspect we might see Kimi get his race win... I think the McLarens will be there or there abouts though.

[Lurk]

Only if Lotus stops beating around the bush with there DRS...
Several times this season Raikkonen got stucked by other cars & loose time because of insufficent top speed. Same this afternoon.

They have the car to do it, he has more than enough talent to do it but they have to stop shoot themselves in the foot

[raymondu999]

Now here I'd suspect we might see Kimi get his race win... I think the McLarens will be there or there abouts though.

Without technical backing behind my opinion - I have lost faith in Lotus. I've certainly grown to like the team this year - but after so many near misses, I fear they may be remembered as 2012's nearly-men.

I didn't see how far down Vettel was after the first corner, but I did see Webber jump from 12th to something like 8th or so.

Vettel had an awful start from P10 - he dropped something like 5 places at the start (before any crashes) - then due to navigating the wreckage better, Vettel ended the first lap in P12. To memory only Kovalainen was a numpty ahead of him - ie he was practically in P11.

[beelsebob]

Now here I'd suspect we might see Kimi get his race win... I think the McLarens will be there or there abouts though.

Without technical backing behind my opinion - I have lost faith in Lotus. I've certainly grown to like the team this year - but after so many near misses, I fear they may be remembered as 2012's nearly-men.

It's not really been near-misses... Just not the perfect combination of circumstances yet. They have a good car, not the best, that needs the right circumstances to win.

The circumstances it needs to win as far as I can see are 1) a hot track 2) a high speed circuit 3) the "device" to be working. Monza is likely to provide all of those things and give them a very competitive car.

[SamH123]

Really fancy the red cars for Monza as well as Mclaren
Massa was bombing it down the straights in Spa and still was decent in sector 2

Reckon Alonso would have pushed Button today, don't think he would have beaten him but he would have made it interesting

[zyphro]

It's not really been near-misses... Just not the perfect combination of circumstances yet. They have a good car, not the best, that needs the right circumstances to win.

The circumstances it needs to win as far as I can see are 1) a hot track 2) a high speed circuit 3) the "device" to be working. Monza is likely to provide all of those things and give them a very competitive car.

They could've won in Hungary, if Raikkonen had Grosjean's qualifying position . And certainly in Bahrain, had Kimi's qualifying been better.

[RB7ate9]

Notice to MODS:

Approximately 2 pages of thread have disappeared. Has this been done on purpose? Do I contact them directly?

[Richard]

A bunch of posts about Spa went to the Spa thread.

You can report threads to mods using the posts using the little ! in a yellow triangle on every post.

[Hail22]

I sense a very strong race from both Alonso and Hamilton both of them have something to prove after they were robbed of a possible podium at Spa.

Qualifying for Gran Premo di Monza:

1. Hamilton
2. Alonso
3. Button
4. Massa (weird but I have a feeling he has something to prove).
5. Raikkonen

Race Standings:

1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Massa
4. Button
5. Perez

I don't rate Red Bull for this circuit due to the lack of EBD.

[raymondu999]

I foresee first corner carnage, considering last year's Grand Prix, and the last Grand Prix. My crystal ball isn't getting very good reception right now and I can't really see who gets caught up in it - but I fear at least 1 car out of the WCC top 5 will be taken out, and another will be wounded..

As such I am refraining from making any predictions

[Hail22]

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