Spanish GP 2011 - Barcelona

[atanatizante]

On the contrary, we're likely to see him drop positions on the start – he'll likely start on hards. ...

... The question will be for how many laps the teams are planning with the primes.With 2 seconds per lap disadvantage there is not much sense in doing a lot of laps with them -if you have enough softs at your disposal.
So maybe a set of sticker primes for a short but hardly contested first stint maybe a good idea and still dive into the pits as one of the first..?

He`ll will start on prime because of the rules for Q3 ... but this could be useful in case of a SC phase, which we saw many times after the start, even today in GP2 series ...

I`m pretty sure it was a strategic move with a presumably KERS related issue ... knowing the fact that there will be big problems with the hard tyre tomorrow with the track never ever rubbers in ...

[ell66]

cany anyone tell me, how the top 3 teams are looking for race pace going off practice times?

[HampusA]

I just don't see why any driver would want to spend much time on the super hard?

It´s a long race, the further you can go on hards without losing to much time the more performance you have in the soft stints because of the shorter laps.
You don´t have to try and save them as much if you have 4-5 laps less to go on them.

[HampusA]

cany anyone tell me, how the top 3 teams are looking for race pace going off practice times?

Hard to tell, we have no idea on what fuel load they run.
But in the race we know sort of that everybody is filled to max.

[Phillyred]

Vettel is now in the fortunate position of being able to be happy with second places on the weekends he can't secure the win. If those around him (Webber, Hamilton, Alonso) share wins between them with him getting seconds/thirds each time then he's ok. He won't be happy if one of them (presumably Webber) starts to get a number of wins in a row though.

In summary, Vettel can afford to not fight too hard for the win so long as he's still getting good points each race. He will get further wins anyway so he's pretty comfortable up front now.

I don't see him being too aggressive tomorrow off the start unless Webber cocks up his own start. Hamilton/Alonso might be helped by this too.

I can see Vettel being quite aggressive for the first couple laps.. He pretty much "has to" since Lewis will be on the charge.. Vettel is pretty stubborn and is a racer's racer and once DRS is activated he's gonna need a good distance between himself and Hamilton. Alonso will be the wild card too...

[Max Speed]

It will be interesting to see if the new regs allow Barca to actually have some excitement in its GP this year. Seems ironic to be saying this about the same track that provided the iconic sight of Senna and Mansell going side by side playing who dares wins in 91!

[simon174]

Has anyone a onboard video from alonso`s Q3 lap?

[beelsebob]

On the contrary, we're likely to see him drop positions on the start – he'll likely start on hards. ...

... The question will be for how many laps the teams are planning with the primes.With 2 seconds per lap disadvantage there is not much sense in doing a lot of laps with them -if you have enough softs at your disposal.
So maybe a set of sticker primes for a short but hardly contested first stint maybe a good idea and still dive into the pits as one of the first..?

He`ll will start on prime because of the rules for Q3 ... but this could be useful in case of a SC phase, which we saw many times after the start, even today in GP2 series ...

I`m pretty sure it was a strategic move with a presumably KERS related issue ... knowing the fact that there will be big problems with the hard tyre tomorrow with the track never ever rubbers in ...

The rules for Q3 say he needs to start on the tyres he set his fastest Q3 lap on. He didn't set a Q3 lap, so he doesn't *have* to start on hards. He probably will though.

[ell66]

cany anyone tell me, how the top 3 teams are looking for race pace going off practice times?

Hard to tell, we have no idea on what fuel load they run.
But in the race we know sort of that everybody is filled to max.

its not hard at all, once they do there low fuel run, they then go onto full tanks at the end of practice.
i just havnt seen any times and wandered if anyone else knew how the top 3 were lookinf for race pace.

[Gaara]

Alonso Onboard Lap

http://www.f1arab.com/2011/05/21/alonso ... fying-lap/

[volarchico]

I think webber is one of the hardest guys to overtake and vettel knows this.
So Webber might run away with this one if he can keep ahead in the pitstop game.

Vettel is quick but he's not a brawler. Webber will back up the pack and vettel will bunch up till the stops.
Looks like hamilton has a good chance of a win tomorrow.

I think it might be hard to back up the pack with the use of DRS available this year... Webber can try to fight him off with the KERS advantage but with such a long DRS zone, it might not be enough.

[CHT]

There is really nothing much for Vettel to gain by going aggressive on webber at the first corner. And with his speed advantage over Mclaren and Ferrari, I am sure he wont be too worried if LH or FA outrun him to first corner as well.

[marcush.]

Schumacher did not set a Q3 time so he can start on WHATEVER set of tyres he likes to given they are allowed (dry race).So he can start on brand new primes ,or used options or sticker options ....the question is what does net the biggest benefit?
Rarely you can make full use of the tyres in Stint one due to traffic...and you are very likely to abuse them.The soft tyre is loosing a lot of performance under those conditions..so could be as slow as the prime after very few laps ..so the variant with new primes only used for a short first stint could potentially open the road a race with an additionaltyre stop (if you got enough softs to cover the whole distance sensibly)..let´s wait and see ...Mercedes are quick ,very quick with their stops all year...

[myurr]

Personally I think starting on the primes would be suicide - they have so little grip that off the line he'd lose three or four places if those behind him start on options. If they all start on primes then it could be a smart thing to do, so it's highly dependent on the rest of the field.

Brand new options could be worth a place or two off the line, particularly with the long run down to turn one, but from there on in I agree that they'd be wasted.

Tough call.

[HampusA]

its not hard at all, once they do there low fuel run, they then go onto full tanks at the end of practice.
i just havnt seen any times and wandered if anyone else knew how the top 3 were lookinf for race pace.

Then you don´t have a problem showing me the source of all teams that state how many litres the guys filled up the cars with or just a line from all the team chiefs saying they were on full fuel load?

They might aswell simulate a halfway stint with the primes etc.