2013 Spanish Grand Prix - Barcelona

[ringo]

Completely pedestrian race.
What's the point with not having refueling when the tyres are so crappy the race is basically in the pitstops?
In fact there was nothing entertaining today. Cars driving around slowly, saving tyres, no late brake overtakes, not racing basically.
Just musical chairs with the strategy. I literally was half asleep through the race with eyes closed. I only needed to hear who was where. No reason to see what's going on on screen, just a bunch of cars going round, no clue who's where in the standings. Why lay eyes on such a thing?
FIA need to do something about this, if i don't need to watch the race; if live timing is good enough or just audio, then there's something really wrong.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Alonso had a slow puncture in the last set of tyres.

[enz0]

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

Well red bull were the ones bullying for tires like these, so I'm guessing they're not too happy when it's not going as planed

[zeph]

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

This sums up today's race perfectly. Ferrari's lightbulb moment: "Hey, let's just schedule an extra stop and race the crap out of these tires." And it seems to have worked pretty well. Alonso from P5 to P1 and Massa from P9 to P3, which, incidentally, makes you wonder where he would have been if he had started from P6.

Of course, I suspect that the others will have caught on by the next race and we will see more 4-stoppers this season.

[Guisson]

Pirelli have succesfully applied their secret plan : " Destroying Qualifying" in a Circuit where the pole sitter has at least 90% chances of winning it.. 12 laps on the "HARD" compound is just a joke ! I won't be surprised if in Monaco the poleman won't win it !
I do believe that The Red Bull and the Mercedes are the quickest cars of the grid but somehow " handicapped by these tyres !
Next Race will be the 2013 Monaco Qualifying ! not the Gp !

Anyway , Kudos to Alonso El Rey de Espana ! Beautiful drive , master control
Good to see Massa on the podium again !

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Andrea Stella said they have the choice to be conservative and do 3 stops, or made quali stint with a 4 stops, they prefer the latter.

In fact, this year, Ferrari always choose the later, and i think, unless Lotus who could run the medium tyres like others use the hard tyres ( insane !!! ), it's the better choice. These tyres are so soft that it's better to be very hard on them and do a stop more, than a stop less strategy ( unless you have a lotus )

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Paul Hembery ‏@PaulHembery 1m
We aim for 2-3 pit stops. Today was too many, we got it wrong, too aggressive. We will make changes, probably from Silverstone.
3:30 PM - 12 May 13

[Ozan]

I'll listen next race from radio =D>

[Steven]

You know, there has always been this idea that track position gets the upper hand, pointing towards strategies with less stops, and then trying to keep your opponents behind. The thing is that this is not valid any more, as keeping anyone behind is virtually impossible when you're aiming to run longer on your tyres.

Instead, it's now simply a matter of judging how fast you can go for which stint length, and then calculate which would be the quicker strategy. One could also consider more stops less risky, knowing that these Pirelli tyres are quite fragile with flat spotting or delamination throwing your strategy around. If you're already targeting more stops, you can just move the moment of the stops and reduce the disadvantage.

It's special, but teams need to adapt. Doing long stints is just not paying off anymore (except for Lotus who are exceptionally well at keeping degradation under control).

[GrizzleBoy]

Completely pedestrian race.
What's the point with not having refueling when the tyres are so crappy the race is basically in the pitstops?
In fact there was nothing entertaining today. Cars driving around slowly, saving tyres, no late brake overtakes, not racing basically.
Just musical chairs with the strategy. I literally was half asleep through the race with eyes closed. I only needed to hear who was where. No reason to see what's going on on screen, just a bunch of cars going round, no clue who's where in the standings. Why lay eyes on such a thing?
FIA need to do something about this, if i don't need to watch the race; if live timing is good enough or just audio, then there's something really wrong.

I just hope that the regs changes for next year allow Pirelli or anybody for that matter to make tyres that drivers aren't actually scared to race on.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Paul Hembery ‏@PaulHembery 2m
It is not always easy, cars develop, we cannot test with current cars, no in season testing either.

On this point he is right. They had to make 2013 tyres with a 2010 Renault. It's stupid.

[ESPImperium]

As i have pointed out in the Pirelli 2013 thread, the tyres need sorted for Quali and the race. It may not be the compound that needs sorted but the construction. The Pirellis need to give 2 or 3 consistently fast laps in Quali, however also need to to also last long enough so that most races are 2.5 to 3.3 stoppers on average. In other words, the primes need to last on average 23 to 27 laps and the options need to last on average 12 to 15 laps in the race and have a decent half to three-quaters of a second step between them as well.

DRS id like to be de-restricted as well, these stupid rules about zones are boring. The only rules id have is 100 seconds of DRS in Quali and 600 seconds in the race, and only activated in 5th, 6th and 7th gear.

This race was a borderline joke, a race ruled by tyres once in a while yes, but not every race. Not going to be happy at Monza if this is still the case, i will need to come home and re watch the race to find out WTF happened in the race, ill be one customer that may want his money back after watching a bus race.

I could have started the race at the same time today in F1:CE and with a Super Aguri SA05 pushed for 66 quali laps and finished the race with 5 laps to go. A Joke!

[fiohaa]

when you have brundle saying 'when you have alonso or raikonnen just doing this (does steering wheel turning slowly motion)...........i could drive that'

(this is from someone whos been a strong supporter of this tyre racing).

Horner: 'i challenge you to find anyone in pitlane who is actually enjoying this'
kravitz: 'well alonso will be pretty happy?'
horner: 'he will feel exactly the same as vettel did in bahrain'

even the anchor asking questions to his fellow presenters questioning the racing........on a pay channel which has to give the impression that f1 is the best thing ever...........

how can people on here still be defending this 'racing'?

vettel: 'i was driving to pace of tyre, not the car'
hamilton: 'i cannot drive any slower'

drivers unsure whether to overtake or hold station. What a fail.

[JamtriX]

Its the same for everybody. Come on. Ferrari just did a great job today. Its just that. Don't blame the tires, haters..

[enz0]

Its the same for everybody. Come on. Ferrari just did a great job today. Its just that. Don't blame the tires, haters..

If Vettel won I'm thinking that some would say that the tires have gone 2012 again, and that the bulls will take the title