2012 Canadian GP - Gilles Villeneuve

[Hail22]

I would have to say that race was good...but the 2011 race...had that dramatic appeal to it.


Race notes:

Red Bull - Great at one lap pace (Quali) still a lot slower than Ferrari, Macca with regards to front grip, straight line speed and handling (shocking right?).

Ferrari - They had a great car bar the strategy, i believe Massa dropped as far as 13th and finished 10th? not too shabby, Alonso was happy regardless of Strategy, Pat Chip Fryer seemed to have a smile for once at the end of the race? interesting...

Mclaren - A bit worried about Button having the ultimate say with regards to setup which in fact hurt his race weekend...they have over 40 analysers, engineers, monitors in the back of the garage...trust in them Jensen....trust them...

Hamilton had a good race from start to finish, seems he has received a jolt of positive energy which in turn made the Formula 1 season a lot better/happier rather then a script of Vettelmania from pole to finish (Although he started from pole last year and didn't win).

Mercedes - Is it me or do Mercedes have Schumacher driving a test dummy car? if its not mechanical fault, poor pitstop, hydraulic failure or being hit by other drivers then this bloke for the life of him can't seem to get a break (if we do the math and he had a flawless car he may be leading the WDC at the moment...no joke).

Rosberg - Despite being in the midst of the rat pack Rosberg did what he could in order to maintain the gap and technically with plenty more races to go...he isn't out of the championship hunt.

The rest of the teams...can't be bothered to type up

If anyone would like to correct me/add to my notes it would be much appreciated!

[beelsebob]

Did anybody else see the massive boner Hamilton had when getting out of the car? He looked down, hesitated for a second and then probably thought "I don't care" and ran towards his crew jumping into them like a horny dog

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was morning glory – the poor guy probably just needed a piss!

[Hail22]

Did anybody else see the massive boner Hamilton had when getting out of the car? He looked down, hesitated for a second and then probably thought "I don't care" and ran towards his crew jumping into them like a horny dog

To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if it was morning glory – the poor guy probably just needed a piss!

I agree...I've done plenty of endurance races and i'm quite surprised some Formula 1 drivers just don't let it rip...then again they don't have to suffer as much as Le mans, endurance drivers have to deal with.

[raymondu999]

Red Bull - Great at one lap pace (Quali) still a lot slower than Ferrari, Macca with regards to front grip, straight line speed and handling (shocking right?).

Front grip? How so?

[fritticaldi]

As we saw in the Canadian GP, the outcome of the races are a lottery. The Lotus or Sauber could have won that race.
As for Felipe Massa, it was said that the Brazilian could not afford any mistake. Massa spun out in the Senna curve. His poor performance is costing Ferrari dearly in the Constructor's Championship.

[beelsebob]

As we saw in the Canadian GP, the outcome of the races are a lottery. The Lotus or Sauber could have won that race.

What's lottery like about that? The lotus and sauber have both shown strong nearly-there-but-not-quite pace all year.

[Cam]

This graph shows the laps times of Massa, Alonso and Vettel. Massa came in about 7 laps earlier on the first stint and it's quite clear how his tyres completely fall away - he pits and is significantly faster. Ferrari had 5 laps of seeing this before Vettel pitted. They also could see Hamilton was doing 77.5 sec laps on the new rubber too. Alonsos lap times curve at about the same rate as Massas did earlier, so Ferrari had data showing Alonsos tyres were going to drop off and considerably, base that with the significant lap time improvements on fresh rubber and the laps remaining, why they didn't pit him is astounding. Even doing basic sums, the math and trend was clear he was never going to win. Gamble or not it's weird.



Unlike the top 3, Sergios times didn't curve up and drop off at all, in fact he just got quicker. I'm starting to see that Sauber in a new light.

[Gridlock]

Did anyone else think of Jackie Treehorn and his doodle in The Big Lebowski when they saw Newey hurriedly hiding his notebook?

I've only been saying it for 2 years now, but if the FIA want us to believe that DRS is an ongoing experiment then they need to run a race (other than Monaco) without it enabled at all. Imagine the block passes and out braking attempts we'd have seen yesterday without the drivers having the safety net of waiting until the DRS zone and powering past anyone.

[myurr]

Did anyone else think of Jackie Treehorn and his doodle in The Big Lebowski when they saw Newey hurriedly hiding his notebook?

I've only been saying it for 2 years now, but if the FIA want us to believe that DRS is an ongoing experiment then they need to run a race (other than Monaco) without it enabled at all. Imagine the block passes and out braking attempts we'd have seen yesterday without the drivers having the safety net of waiting until the DRS zone and powering past anyone.

The De Resta train in the opening stint had the benefit of DRS and cars that were able to go a second a lap faster once he pitted, but they still couldn't make it past. I agree that it looked easy when Hamilton breezed passed Alonso and Vettel, but then he was 2 - 3 seconds a lap faster at that point - the overtake **SHOULD** have been pretty easy with that kind of pace differential. The fact that on some tracks you can be 3 seconds a lap faster than another car and yet still cannot get past is a fundamental problem with F1. The DRS may be a sticking plaster over that, but until they can address that fundamental problem then F1 is better for having DRS than not.

[beelsebob]

Did anyone else think of Jackie Treehorn and his doodle in The Big Lebowski when they saw Newey hurriedly hiding his notebook?

I've only been saying it for 2 years now, but if the FIA want us to believe that DRS is an ongoing experiment then they need to run a race (other than Monaco) without it enabled at all. Imagine the block passes and out braking attempts we'd have seen yesterday without the drivers having the safety net of waiting until the DRS zone and powering past anyone.

The De Resta train in the opening stint had the benefit of DRS and cars that were able to go a second a lap faster once he pitted, but they still couldn't make it past. I agree that it looked easy when Hamilton breezed passed Alonso and Vettel, but then he was 2 - 3 seconds a lap faster at that point - the overtake **SHOULD** have been pretty easy with that kind of pace differential. The fact that on some tracks you can be 3 seconds a lap faster than another car and yet still cannot get past is a fundamental problem with F1. The DRS may be a sticking plaster over that, but until they can address that fundamental problem then F1 is better for having DRS than not.

Yeh, this highlights something Coulthard was saying about DRS – it can make overtaking harder. If you have one guy trying to overtake, getting the benefit of DRS, who can't get past because he hits the rev limiter, then similarly no one can get past him, because they will all bump the rev limiter as he has his DRS open... result, a trulli train... or in this case a DiResta train.

[fritticaldi]

@ beelsebob I agee that both the Lotus and Sauber have been quick. Either of them could win races at any moment. The point I was making is that Grosjean started the race with SuperSoft and then went to soft. Perez had the reverse strategy. Perez easily could have been second. Hamilton had the best strategy but only by a whisker. By the way, Button has returned to his performance level he displayed during his Honda years.

[beelsebob]

@ beelsebob I agee that both the Lotus and Sauber have been quick. Either of them could win races at any moment. The point I was making is that Grosjean started the race with SuperSoft and then went to soft. Perez had the reverse strategy. Perez easily could have been second. Hamilton had the best strategy but only by a whisker. By the way, Button has returned to his performance level he displayed during his Honda years.

Sure, any of them could have won – this doesn't make it a lottery, it makes it a difficult to predict race based on who has the best pace and strategy – great stuff!

[myurr]

Yeh, this highlights something Coulthard was saying about DRS – it can make overtaking harder. If you have one guy trying to overtake, getting the benefit of DRS, who can't get past because he hits the rev limiter, then similarly no one can get past him, because they will all bump the rev limiter as he has his DRS open... result, a trulli train... or in this case a DiResta train.

Yup, we've seen this a couple of times this year. Once you get into a train it's up to the guy who is second in line to make his move. All the others are stuck in formation, all using DRS.

To me this highlights two very important points. With everyone having DRS it's pretty much the same as no one having DRS, there's a slight field spread because of the extra 10kmph and that also extends the braking zone slightly and some cars will be limited by their gearing; but all in all it's not dissimilar to not having DRS. Around the entire rest of the track no one had DRS.

In those circumstances then none of the protagonists were able to overtake any of the others, despite it being a track with several overtaking opportunities, despite other cars being held up by the car in front, and despite different strategies being employed. Without DRS it probably would have been a pretty boring race, something F1 needs to take another really hard look at.

[beelsebob]

To me this highlights two very important points. With everyone having DRS it's pretty much the same as no one having DRS

Not at all – it means that you're much closer to the rev limit, so overtaking is *harder* because you can't get a significant overspeed.

In those circumstances then none of the protagonists were able to overtake any of the others, despite it being a track with several overtaking opportunities, despite other cars being held up by the car in front, and despite different strategies being employed. Without DRS it probably would have been a pretty boring race, something F1 needs to take another really hard look at.

I disagree – for the above reason. Without DRS, the cars would be geared for a slight overspeed to allow for some overtaking (instead of being geared for exactly the overspeed DRS will provide), hence more overtaking would occur with no DRS.

[myurr]

Fair enough. Doesn't negate the other point that the rest of the track was still DRS free.