European GP 2011 - Valencia

[ESPImperium]

God awful amount of chalk/concrete dust on the track from the GP3 sprint race. The GP2 sprint race should start to get some of the stuff up, unless some oil is left by those guys of Porsche Super Cup guys.

[fenix4life]

rather interesting start from grosjean

[ESPImperium]

GP3 race was dog eat dog at one point. GP2 race is full of incident so far.

[Mr Alcatraz]

From the post Q interview on th F1 site....

Q: (Alvaro Faes - La Nueva Espana) Sebastian, when you got out of your car, you took a look in the cockpit of the other cars.
SV: No, you obviously can’t see much. I was having a look at the steering wheels of the other cars.

Bro-dude, how lame is that comment?

"It's about my eyes you fool, It's about my eyes.

The psychedelic voices say
That I should give the game away
Two and a dog can be so cruel
But I won't give up like a fool
I'll give my all and keep my cool
'Cos I'm as stubborn as a mule
............

[doink]

Unless weather intervenes I suspect this will be a carbon copy of previous races. Vettel blasting away into the lead and taking a comfortable win, but at least from p2 down there will be some exciting races.

Vettel's wins in Barcelona and Monaco were anything but comfortable. And he was looking comfortable in Canada when Button came from out of nowhere to beat him. Unless Red Bull improve their race pace relative to Mclaren, Seb will have to fight for his wins now.

Canada was down to the changeable weather conditions and the Macas taking a gamble on setup. Monaco was a safety car fest. And I've already forgotten what happened at Barca

Given normal race conditions: good weather, minimal safety cars, Seb should have an easy day of it. I hope that I'm wrong, but it always seem to be the case that Hamilton gets stuck behind a slower car and Seb blasts away in the opening laps. If Hamilton can overtake Webber without crashing, then we might have a race on our hands. In fact, I don't think we have seen that this season, when Lewis has had an out and out chase on Seb over the opening laps?

[jamsbong]

One thing I thought the Overtaking Work Group or the Technical Group of FIA should discuss is rear view mirrors.

Mirrors should be banned and be replaced with wide screen LCD that connects to a HD camera at the back. This way, many accidents can be prevented and the drivers no longer can use the excuse of not seeing the opponent behind.

To be fair, FIA will supply this system to teams with identical specs, kinda like the Standard ECU thing that FIA has on every F1 car.

This is relevant to safety and relevant to road cars as well, So Todt would love this idea!

[Just_a_fan]

If Hamilton can overtake Webber without crashing, then we might have a race on our hands. In fact, I don't think we have seen that this season, when Lewis has had an out and out chase on Seb over the opening laps?

I have a feeling that Hamilton will lose places in the first lap by trying to not crash in to people. He's usually pretty strong in the first few corners even whilst other "safer" drivers trip over each other but I fear the last few weeks will be in his mind. He needs to get some strong points finishes if he's to prevent his team mate getting away from him in the points table. I think he has the pace to beat Webber if he can stay clean in the start but Seb will romp away whilst that battle is going on. He'll have a pitstop in hand within 15 laps...

I think, although they may publically say otherwise, that the McLaren drivers and Alonso all know that Vettel is unstoppable without external assistance (bad luck in effect). The RB7 is too good. Even if the other teams can match it, Vettel still has the the points in the bag. It's like 2009 all over again but this time I can't see RBR slipping back in to the pack like Brawn did.

[ESPImperium]

One thing I thought the Overtaking Work Group or the Technical Group of FIA should discuss is rear view mirrors.

Mirrors should be banned and be replaced with wide screen LCD that connects to a HD camera at the back. This way, many accidents can be prevented and the drivers no longer can use the excuse of not seeing the opponent behind.

To be fair, FIA will supply this system to teams with identical specs, kinda like the Standard ECU thing that FIA has on every F1 car.

This is relevant to safety and relevant to road cars as well, So Todt would love this idea!

Yes mirrors break and fall off the cars, but are generally fine as a bit of technology.

The rear view camera and LCD TV in the wing mirror is not only bulky and adds weight, but the engines resonant peak is the same as a LCD screen, and pixelates the screen.

The main problem with mirrors is how rigid they are, some teams make them as light as posible in terms of the stalks, whitch makes them vibrate in the air due to turbulance. There is one easy way to make them rigid, and thats by performing a deflection test on them. Or make the mirrors a standardised bit of the car with a standardised cross section and bulk and the stalks are standardised as well.

Yes they moan about mirrors, but they are fine as mirrors.

The real problem is that drivers dont look in them often enough, or not at all. You can do all of this and that, but the driver ultimatly has to look in a mirror, and how do you police that. Answer is you cant.

[doink]

I think, although they may publically say otherwise, that the McLaren drivers and Alonso all know that Vettel is unstoppable without external assistance (bad luck in effect). The RB7 is too good. Even if the other teams can match it, Vettel still has the the points in the bag. It's like 2009 all over again but this time I can't see RBR slipping back in to the pack like Brawn did.

Agreed, Brawn didn't have the funds to continue developing the car over the remainder of the season, which allowed everyone to catch up. This season Red Bull have the resources to keep the pace of development. Even if if the gap is closing, he's got a load of points in the bag and Lewis' DNFs have made it easier.

I'd love to be proved wrong.

What is going on with Webber though!? He's really being shown up this season.

[djos]

What is going on with Webber though!? He's really being shown up this season.

It's the tires, he's not adapted to them as well as Boy Wonder for whatever reason.

[andrew]

From the post Q interview on th F1 site....

Q: (Alvaro Faes - La Nueva Espana) Sebastian, when you got out of your car, you took a look in the cockpit of the other cars. Were you looking for any kind of new engine mapping or new innovation?
SV: No, you obviously can’t see much. I was having a look at the steering wheels of the other cars. There are no secrets but maybe there is something you can learn, so that’s why I had a look.

I remember another driver used to do this a lot. I always thought it was a piss take by them and Vettel looking n the cockpits is just another piss take.

[spacer]

I thought it wasn't all that weird for Vettel to look at the back side of those steering wheels. As we know, the steering wheel is adapted to the driver's preferences of where to put all of the buttons and knobs. Especially this year with the addition of kers and DRS activiation functions, why not have a look at how the other guys are activating those?
Some drivers use additional pedals at the back of the steering wheel, whereas Barichello for instance is said to activate his DRS by foot (prob cause he's the only right-foot braker in the field).

[fenix4life]

One thing I thought the Overtaking Work Group or the Technical Group of FIA should discuss is rear view mirrors.

Introduce BLIS

[zgred]

[Giblet]

That Renault exhaust is pretty good at clearing the track of oil absorber.