Abu Dhabi GP 2010 - Yas Marina Circuit

[marcush.]

I don't follow Marcush. The two Red Bulls were stuck right behind Hamiltonfrom the start, Vettel passed him in the pits and Hamilton had no chance and did not have 'bases covered' - the point being that the Red Bulls are likely to go well at this circuit as they did at Brazil twelve months ago.

No
Webber tangled with Barrichello after the start and was under pressure from Button,wheras Vettel followed Hamilton closely , thats true.
Hamilton was in the lead when he pitted but already had brake issues but still managed to do 1.40.3s .when Hamilton was pitting Vettel was not able to go quicker than that ,in fact his fastest time was barely a tenths quicker than Hamilton did.

[GTO]

I think the car characteristics req'd. for this track matches that for Singapore. Except for the 2 main high speed (+300kph) straights, it's basically a point, squirt & heavy braking with mainly right angle turns requiring medium/high downforce setting. In Sing. this suited the Ferrai of Alonso. Thus, I'm predicting Alonso will qualify on pole, place 1st or 2nd in the race & win the WDC. [-o<

[siskue2005]

I think the car characteristics req'd. for this track matches that for Singapore. Except for the 2 main high speed (+300kph) straights, it's basically a point, squirt & heavy braking with mainly right angle turns requiring medium/high downforce setting. In Sing. this suited the Ferrai of Alonso. Thus, I'm predicting Alonso will qualify on pole, place 1st or 2nd in the race & win the WDC. [-o<

The thing which made Ferrari faster in Singapore is the bump nature of the track, thats why they were as fast as RBRs there.
But Abu dabi is smooth as silk.

[GTO]

Sing. track was resurfaced for 2010. It was not as bumpy as previous years.
http://motorsport.nextgen-auto.com/Twea ... rcuit.html
Alonso wasn't just faster, he dominated quali & race.
Brasil is notoriously bumpy too. This didn't translate to Ferrari superiority there.

[gary1203]

to be honest, if we assume vettel and webber are gonna get p1 p2 at qualifying
it would be very fun to predict alonso's tactic
consdering red bull's current form, it should be safe to say alonso can't touch them,
but on the other hand...if alonso allow himself to go down to p5 and stick close to the guy at p4, he might have a bigger chance as vettel won't yield to webber in that case

[Goran2812]

I can't believe that I am saying this, and even giving tips, but Hamilton has a real shot at winning the WDC. He has nothing to lose, and sometimes just that is a powerful weapon. The top three have all to lose and much to gain too, so the name of the game should be play them against each other. Worth of the soap opera that F1 is. So I'll try to suggest a possible scenario:
LH qualifies on the hards, and comes 4th, or 5th behind Button, or even 6th behind Button and Massa. We have SV, MW and FA in the top three, pick your order. Now comes the most difficult part: stay close enough to get ahead after those three pit. Difficult but not impossible, possibly helped by a safety car. And then, stay ahead, just stay there, driving slowish, for ever (that is, as long as neccesary). Let SV, MW and FA get close to each other, pack them within 3 seconds and in dirty air, and there is a good chance that two will take each other out fighting for position between themselves. Then there is only one left to have bud luck and go out in smoke...
OK, enough crazy underdog strategies, but he IS in the chase, and at the very least, he might mess up with the fight between the top three.

really? you really think this is what's going to happen?

to be honest, if we assume vettel and webber are gonna get p1 p2 at qualifying
it would be very fun to predict alonso's tactic
consdering red bull's current form, it should be safe to say alonso can't touch them,
but on the other hand...if alonso allow himself to go down to p5 and stick close to the guy at p4, he might have a bigger chance as vettel won't yield to webber in that case

Alonso will be charging like a bull at who ever is infront of him and on what ever position he is in... You can be sure of that my friend...
Only a fool would yield, and pray to God that those two knock each other out...

[Gerhard Berger]

I think the car characteristics req'd. for this track matches that for Singapore. Except for the 2 main high speed (+300kph) straights, it's basically a point, squirt & heavy braking with mainly right angle turns requiring medium/high downforce setting. In Sing. this suited the Ferrai of Alonso. Thus, I'm predicting Alonso will qualify on pole, place 1st or 2nd in the race & win the WDC. [-o<

The thing which made Ferrari faster in Singapore is the bump nature of the track, thats why they were as fast as RBRs there.
But Abu dabi is smooth as silk.

That's true, but it's not only this. The Ferrari is very good in terms of precision braking and traction - 2 very important things at Singapore (and Abu Dhabi).

[segedunum]

No Webber tangled with Barrichello after the start and was under pressure from Button,wheras Vettel followed Hamilton closely , thats true.
Hamilton was in the lead when he pitted....

As I recall Vettel passed Hamilton in the first round of stops after pitting later. I don't recall what happened to Webber but the net effect was that the Red Bulls finished 1-2. Hamilton was never going to win that race, but that isn't the point here. You're arguing something that not only isn't true but is immaterial.

The Red Bull car as it has evolved has form at that circuit, as it did at Brazil.

[marcush.]

I checked the times ,he was within a tenth of Vettels best time in that race ,only buemi in between these two..so he was on the pace ,not holding up the RBs.
Hamilton drove it like it was stolen :YES
KERS it helped Macs in the second part of the season as it was slowing them down in the first races if you remember..so to call this an advantage is maybe a bit too cosy.

[godlameroso]

Abu-dhabi is basically straights and slow second gear turns, most if not all the fast bits are done flat out. I think Mclaren will win here, this track seems made for their car

how so?

Obviously the McLaren is very fast in a straight line there are 4 places on the lap where seventh gear is reached, the only braking spots are chicanes and near 90 degree turns. In terms of layout the only spots where downforce becomes a factor in the turns is on turn 2 and 3, easily flat for most cars. And in turns 15 and 16 both flat out for most cars. Turns 19 and 20 are the only ones that could potentially favor Red Bull. Korea proved that McLaren had the best top speed, they were fastest in the first sector, Spa Canada and to a certain degree Istanbul also proved that under normal downforce configuration they had the fastest package, where top speed was concerned.

[godlameroso]

Pos No Driver Time of Day Speed
1 1 Jenson Button 10:31:10 310.3
2 11 Robert Kubica 10:33:36 309.8
3 3 Michael Schumacher 10:17:40 309.0
4 4 Nico Rosberg 10:07:35 308.6
5 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi 10:42:22 308.3
6 8 Fernando Alonso 11:00:23 307.4
7 14 Adrian Sutil 10:07:41 307.1
8 2 Lewis Hamilton 10:41:06 307.0
9 7 Felipe Massa 10:09:22 306.7
10 12 Vitaly Petrov 10:17:18 306.7
11 17 Jaime Alguersuari 10:19:24 306.2
12 6 Mark Webber 10:18:02 305.6
13 23 Kamui Kobayashi 10:17:43 305.4
14 16 Sebastien Buemi 10:09:04 305.0
15 5 Sebastian Vettel 10:54:34 304.9
16 20 Sakon Yamamoto 10:09:40 304.4
17 9 Rubens Barrichello 10:08:43 303.8
18 22 Nick Heidfeld 10:20:51 303.7
19 21 Bruno Senna 10:20:57 303.7
20 10 Nico Hulkenberg 10:17:55 302.5
21 19 Heikki Kovalainen 10:20:07 302.5
22 18 Jarno Trulli 10:17:38 298.7
23 25 Lucas di Grassi 10:21:08 298.3
24 24 Timo Glock 10:19:03 297.4

Speed Trap for Suzuka Qualifying, I won't use Brazil because of the conditions, notice Button was 5kph faster than Webber, who was the fastest of the Red Bulls

[djos]

I checked the times ,he was within a tenth of Vettels best time in that race ,only buemi in between these two..so he was on the pace ,not holding up the RBs.
Hamilton drove it like it was stolen :YES
KERS it helped Macs in the second part of the season as it was slowing them down in the first races if you remember..so to call this an advantage is maybe a bit too cosy.

Correct, in the 2nd half in particular Hamilton's aggressive* driving + KERS meant that he was usually able to make up several places before the 1st corner which made up for the poor qually positions - he was then able to use KERS to keep faster cars behind him by using his KERS straight line speed advantage.


*and impressive

[marcush.]

I might add he wrestled a time out of it to be on pole with only a lap or two less in fuel than Vettel whereas kovalainen was 1.3seconds slower in Q2 ...so I ´d say the car was not really top notch probably....

[SiLo]

For me I don't like Webber to win the WDC because he's just there because of his fast car.

Aren't they all? No matter how good you are, having a crap car will get you nowhere, especially when they are talking hundredths of a second sometimes.

[feni_remmen]

I don't think this will happen but...

It will be funny to see the last lap in Abu Dhabi, Vettel leading Webber, leading Alonso. 2 seconds covering all three of them. Then watching Alonse trying to dive into the same gap that Vettel has left for Webber.