GPWizard F1 Forum
F1 News & Discussions => General F1 Discussion => Topic started by: Scott on May 06, 2015, 07:53:33 AM
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I will have the full intro up a bit later today...here are some pictures. :D :D
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The cars will never get round the fountain roundabout.....
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Just think of it as being a 360 degree version of Grand Hotel corner @ Monaco. ;)
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The European season begins…
Last year at this time, I was pretty excited about going to the Spanish GP. Only a few more days and I would fly into beautiful Barcelona and spend 4 days with our long lost friend Vintly and a couple of his buddies, one of whom lives in the centre of Barcelona.
Vintly has moved on to a fixation with Cricket, but is missed from the forum. The weekend was a bit of a party that I couldn't really keep up with, but we managed to make most of the sessions and ended up with a really nice spot in General Admission for the race. Shade, a 6 Euro lawn chair and 12 Euro beers helped make a memorable race.
Barcelona is my favourite European city, an artists city, best known for its most famous son Gaudi, the architect of more than a few highlights of the city. Capital of the Catalonia region, it is Spain’s second largest city with a little over 1.5million rimmed by beautiful beaches and spectacular harbours on the waterfront. A safe city, it’s most popular culprit are pickpockets and mobile phone thieves (posing as newspaper salespeople…they drop a few newspapers on your table, on top of your mobile phone while you are at an outdoor cafe. Then when you don't want any, they remove the newspapers along with your mobile phone. Long gone before you realize. No, Ian, it didn't happen to me).
The actual Spanish GP has been going on since 1913, with only an interruption of the World Wars. The track in Catalunya that they use today was built in 1991. It went through some hard times financially until Alonso joined the sport, and since then it has been near capacity almost every year since 2003.
Access to the track from Barcelona takes about 35-40minutes in comfortable trains from the edge of the city (with subway access). After that expect a short 20 minute walk through the charming town of Montmeló with many outdoor cafes and bars (where we enjoyed a few beers after the race). The facilities and layout for fans is top notch. Food fantastic, beer cold and tasty, plenty of shade if you don't need to be right at the fence for General Admission tickets, with friendly, well behaved and very polite fans. Prices for F&B are like those at any GP, insanely high, but quality is excellent. I easily spent 75Euros on F&B (maybe I bought the boys an extra round), but never regretted it.
Schumacher has dominated this track, with 6 wins. A handful of other drivers have recorded 2 and 3 each, but nobody close to Michael. Lewis won last year, while Ricciardo posted his first F1 podium (official - DQ’d in Oz). Hamilton's race win took him ahead of Rosberg in the standings.
Last year tires were hard and medium. I can’t seem to find what tires have been nominated for this race, but I imagine it will be the same. Weather is supposed to be perfect for the entire weekend (wish I was there). Will the Mercs be able to fend off the Ferraris is probably the biggest question. Kimi has had mixed results in Spain while Vettel has had some success.
I can’t wait to see RBR’s new nose which reportedly had to be crash tested 62 times before success. That’s an expensive nose job.
Here are a few pictures from near where we were sitting.
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Buen adelanto Scott. Siempre es bueno cuando uno ha estado en un circuito y puede agregar algunas anotaciones personales y opiniones.
Nice preview Scott. It is always good when one has been to a circuit and can add some personal notations and opinions.
Sorry, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to practice my Spanish. ;)
I lived in Spain for four years, but about as far as possible from Barcelona in el Puerto de Santa Maria. It was only a 40 minute drive to Jerez and so I did get to that circuit; although, never made a F1 weekend due to assignments . . . If I get the chance to return to Spain, I will do everything I can to make during this weekend so I can make this race.
You question regarding Ferrari and the Mercs is quite valid. It is not without hope or information that I think if conditions are right, Williams may be close to making it a three horse race. That would be fantastic. They didn't have very good luck here in 2014 though.
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'assignments'...were you a journalist by any chance?
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A little tidbit I forgot to add to my intro is that Kimi holds the lap record:
Lap distance: 4.655km. Total distance: 307.104km (66 laps)
Race lap record: Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari, 2008, 1:21.670
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No Scott, I was not a journalist. I was in the US Navy, stationed in Rota, Spain. I didn't get sent places often and did do a lot of traveling on my own, but it seemed I was always in the Azores, Sicily, or Germany every year when it was time for the Spanish GP.
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That's far more impressive than a journalist. Bet you've seen a Littoral up close and personal. I love marine anything...
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FP1 times:
Major issues for RBR and Ricciardo
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"Romain, where'd you forget your engine cover?"
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Some strange happenings in FFPs.
Ferrari look to have perhaps closed in a bit more on the Mercedes duo; although, Hobbs and company were discussing that the Mercs turn down the wick a bit in FFPs.
Williams, I hope are holding back a bit, but we shall see come tomorrow morning.
1. Hamilton Mercedes 1m 26.852
2. Vettel Ferrari 1m 27.260
3. Rosberg Mercedes 1m 27.616
4. Raikkonen Ferrari 1m 27.780
5. Kvyat Red Bull 1m 27.943
6. Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m 28.017
7. Button McLaren 1m 28.494
8. Bottas Williams 1m 28.525
9. Sainz Toro Rosso 1m 28.674
10. Massa Williams 1m 28.712
11. Alonso McLaren 1m 28.723
12. Grosjean Lotus 1m 29.086s
13. Ricciardo Red Bull 1m 29.098
14. Maldonado Lotus 1m 29.217
15. Nasr Sauber 1m 29.333
16. Ericsson Sauber 1m 29.361
17. Hulkenberg Force India 1m 29.601
18. Perez Force India 1m 29.707
19. Stevens Manor 1m 31.929
20. Merhi Manor 1m 32.751
Worthy of note perhaps is that Susie Wolff did relatively well in FFP-1 with a time only 1 second off from P5.
14. Susie Wolff GBR Williams-Mercedes 1m 29.708
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At least they got Ricciardo going finally.
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Ricciardo is now on his fourth (and last) powerplant in five races.
The Grosjean incident shown in Scott's picture was very odd, and worrying. His rear bodywork just exploded while he was running flat out down a straight. I hate to think what could result from that happening during a race with traffic close behind. I wonder if it was caused by:
a-A design flaw that would be common to all of them,
b-A manufacturing flaw that might effect some others, or
c-Improper attachment i.e. it wasn't properly fastened to the car
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Me parece bien que escribimos en español en este tema :). Me encanta escribir y hablar en español. No tengo tantas oportunidades de escribir en español hoy en día.
I'd best revert to English for my thoughts on the race though, I suspect ;). I'm not sure that it's going to be that much to write home about though. It will be down to the tyres. If they wear out, as has often been the case in the past on this track, then it could make the race a bit more unpredictable, otherwise, it will be a Mercedes versus Ferrari battle again, with Williams most likely to be best of the rest. I'm expecting it to be a bit of procession, unfortunately.
Espero estar equivocado y que sea apasionante e interesante.
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Irisado, me gusta ser capaz de practicar mi español de vez en cuando así que habrá tal vez dos oportunidades esta temporada - y México.
Sometimes this race has completely surprised me with some very good racing. I agree though on tires likely being foremost at this venue with regard to the outcome. The three top teams have so far this season shown an ability to manage the tires fairly well though.
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Tienes razón. Se me había olvidado que hay un Gran Premio en México este año. Necesito fijarme más a menudo en el calendario.
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There was me thinking a race back in Europe we were leaving artificially floodlit races behind. :confused:
Now we seem to have gone into a kinda Spanish twilight zone, ::)
- could someone switch on the lights please. :D
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There was me thinking a race back in Europe we were leaving artificially floodlit races behind. :confused:
Now we seem to have gone into a kinda Spanish twilight zone, ::)
- could someone switch on the lights please. :D
Share the laughter John, what are you on about?
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John and myself no speaka da Spanish. :DD
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Qualifying is just over an hour away.
Free Practice 3 is in the books.
1. Rosberg Mercedes 1m 26.021
2. Vettel Ferrari 1m 26.177
3. Hamilton Mercedes 1m 26.222
4. Bottas Williams 1m 26.682
5. Raikkonen Ferrari 1m 26.944
6. Ricciardo Red Bull 1m 27.048
7. Massa Williams 1m 27.109
8. Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m 27.132
9. Kvyat Red Bull 1m 27.313
10. Sainz Toro Rosso 1m 27.809
11. Button McLaren 1m 27.938
12. Hulkenberg Force India 1m 28.082
13. Nasr Sauber 1m 28.096
14. Alonso McLaren 1m 28.304
15. Grosjean Lotus 1m 28.578
16. Maldonado Lotus 1m 28.618
17. Ericsson Sauber 1m 28.788
18. Perez Force India 1m 28.996
19. Stevens Manor 1m 31.125
20. Merhi Manor 1m 31.749
The top eight are separated by only a second.
RBR & STR are both going to be in the mix with Williams, as they struggle to maintain third in the Constructor's race. I don't know, or understand Perez being so far off the pace of his teammate though.
Lewis not only slower than Nico, but Seb has inserted himself into the middle again, Ferrari are looking very good now.
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John and myself no speaka da Spanish. :DD
¿Que?
I think Hamilton is sandbagging Roseberg. He'll go out at the end of Q3 & grab the pole just to further mess with Nico's head.
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Only one Merc driver can smile...hehe. No point for me.
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It didn't work out that way Scott. I thought you were right, but . . .
1. Rosberg Mercedes 1m 24.681
2. Hamilton Mercedes 1m 24.948
3. Vettel Ferrari 1m 25.458
4. Bottas Williams 1m 25.694
5. Sainz Toro Rosso 1m 26.136
6. Verstappen Toro Rosso 1m 26.249
7. Raikkonen Ferrari 1m 26.414
8. Kvyat Red Bull 1m 26.629
9. Massa Williams 1m 26.757
10. Ricciardo Red Bull 1m 26.770
11. Grosjean Lotus 1m 27.375
12. Maldonado Lotus 1m 27.450
13. Alonso McLaren 1m 27.760
14. Button McLaren 1m 27.854
15. Nasr Sauber 1m 28.005
16. Ericsson Sauber 1m 28.112
17. Hulkenberg Force India 1m 28.365
18. Perez Force India 1m 28.442
19. Stevens Manor 1m 31.200
20. Merhi Manor 1m 32.038
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That's what I meant about me not getting a point - I chose Hammy :'(
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Oh no, did those pesky STR's outqualify both RBR's again?. Christian will not be filled with joy. :crazy: :crazy:
5th and 6th with that useless Renault lump, eh?
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Well, the race was run. It was fairly straight forward up front.
Hamilton messed up his start and Vettel took advantage.
Bottas drove a fantastic race to hang onto his grid position.
Kimi was stymied with a car he once again did not like.
Massa did well to get up to finishing in sixth. He probably had the best start of anyone, but getting forced wide and off track exiting turn 2, basically screwed his race. Too bad about his qualifying lap in Q3, in which he said the wind hit him in turn 3 and forced him off into the green and likely cost him .8 or better.
1. Rosberg Mercedes 1hr 41m 12.555
2. Hamilton Mercedes +17.5s
3. Vettel Ferrari +45.3s
4. Bottas Williams +59.2s
5. Raikkonen Ferrari +60.0s
6. Massa Williams +81.3s
7. Ricciardo Red Bull +1 lap
8. Grosjean Lotus +1 lap
9. Sainz Toro Rosso +1 lap
10. Kvyat Red Bull +1 lap
11. Verstappen Toro Rosso +1 lap
12. Nasr Sauber +1 lap
13. Perez Force India +1 lap
14. Ericsson Sauber +1 lap
15. Hulkenberg Force India +1 lap
16.Button McLaren +1 lap
17. Stevens Manor +3 laps
18. Merhi Manor +4 laps
DNFs
Rtd. Maldonado Lotus 45 laps
Rtd. Alonso McLaren 26 laps
Sainz should have been made to give back the lap to Kvyat, as he left the track to keep for losing the position back, or so it appeared to me. He argued that he made the pass and had to maneuver to avoid a collision, which is true, but undermines his own argument in my opinion.
So Rosberg has put his first win of the season in the bank, as we go to Monaco, a race he has won the past two times.
The gain Ferrari appeared in qualifying to have made relative to Mercedes turned out to be less than originally thought.
Williams appeared in the end to have closed on Ferrari more than Ferrari closed in on Mercedes. Of course, Williams (Massa was the fastest in the speed trap) is very slippery, but Monaco is a very tight circuit with a lot of low speed corners.
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Hero :
1. Without a doubt Nico Rosberg, he didn't put a foot wrong, made his team-mate sweat, struggle and eventually accept defeat. I could remember a race when Nico was this dominant, and Lewis looked second in every sort of manner.
2. Lewis, people may not agree with me, but he did keep me on the edge, and pushed really har. He might have stayed with the two stop strategy, but in the end took the plan B and made things interesting. If he had not botched the opening lap, he might have things a bit different, never gave up the fight.
3. Bottas, made good enough start to shoot himself around 4th and then keeping it till the end. Keeping Kimi at the bay for last few laps showed his abiliy to fight with big boys, and why there are rumors flying around that he might join Ferrari.
Zero :
1. With that much of budget, there is no way they could justify that pathetic display of McLaren. I expected some improvement from them as after spring break European season has began. But when a crippled Lotus can dispatch them so effortlessly, it just shows how dreadful the team has been.
2. Even though he could have been in the hero's zone, but due to some unlucky ball-bursting displays, eventually I have to putthis 2012 Spanish GP winner in th zero zone.
P.S Thanks Scotty :good:
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Heroes
Grosjean's front jack mechanic - keeping hold of the pit board when being struck that hard by Romain, then performing his duties like nothing had happened despite a sensitive part of his anatomy being in a lot of pain, is the performance of the race for me. Romain said he's paying for his race team's beers tonight and they deserve it!
Rosberg - Nice work from Nico to convert the pole to victory.
Alonso - it was good to see Fernando bring the McLaren into a points position it isn't ready for, even if the ungrateful steed let him down in the end.
Zeroes
The FIA - imposed a rule at about 9 am this morning that a minimum of 90kg/h of fuel must be used per hour. This was wrong on so many levels - the lack of notice, lack of consistency between sessions, lack of ability for anyone to react to it, unequal effect on competitors, the completely defeating the original point of the fuel flow rate rule... ...but none of these were the biggest problem. Let me demonstrate:
- Teams have 100 kg fuel maximum. That was laid down at the start of last year.
- 90 kg/hour of fuel as minimum burn limit
- 100 kg / 90 kg/hr = 1.11 hours (or 1 hour, 6 minutes, 40 seconds for those preferring it in clock time)
The Spanish Grand Prix this year lasted 1 hour, 41 minutes.
I trust you can see the problem.
As no cars stopped on track around lap 44 with zero fuel, the rule appears to have been quietly shelved. But if you thought what you saw today was a bit dull, just think... ...it could have been worse if the FIA had had its way.
Grosjean - I've heard of team-bashing but this is ridiculous. First Romain hit his team-mate then he hit his front jack mechanic. At least he apologised afterwards, more than I ever expect the FIA will do.
FOM camera direction department - There were so many pretty-but-completely-useless camera shots in there, not to mention missing potentially interesting parts of the race to look at Bernie's favourite people. It could have been the most exciting race of the decade but it would have been difficult to tell from FOM's inability to cover the race part of the race.
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I loved Hamilton's radio playback...'No, the question is, is it IMPOSSIBLE?'...'Yeah mate, it is'
It wasn't Lewis's weekend, that's for sure. He struggled at Barca.
During the Kimi/Bottas battle (if you can call it that), I noticed Kimi really had a hard time nailing any apexes, he always seemed like he had understeer and was late in and out of most corners.
Good race by Rosberg, Vettel and Bottas who did all they could, and all that was needed.
BD, are you talking about Red Bull or Mclaren in your 1. Zero? Both could apply.
Not a great race by any standards, the top 4 didn't even really change position. A few scraps in the midpack, but nothing outstanding. Poor Crashdor had another incident that probably wasn't his fault again.
I don't think I would want to be a front jack man in the pits these days. Brake problems seem to be fairly common.
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I was surprised to see how loosing one entire rear wing endplate didn't seem to effect the performance of Maldonado's Lotus. The rear facing on board camera showed the wing to be absolutely stable. Handling didn't seem to be effected, either. I'm sure the aero crews at Lotus (and probably several others) are giving that a hard look today.
I, too, wonder "what if" about Hamilton's extra pit stop, and also the problems with one rear wheel on that stop.
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What a terrible race, totally boring.
The only hope was to see Hamilton attack Rosberg but his awful start and botched pit stop made sure that we didn't even get that spectacle. Hamilton was clearly quicker than Rosberg in race trim but even if he had a better start or if they hadn't messed up the pit stop he could have caught Niko but I doubt he could have overtaken him.
Although beautiful, the Barcelona track has always resulted in boring races because it is almost impossible to overtake when the cars are evenly matched. Hamilton was so much faster than Vettel but he just could not get in a position to overtake. The only overtaking occurred when a car on good tyres caught a car on knackered tyres.
The less said about McLaren the better!
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I was surprised to see how loosing one entire rear wing endplate didn't seem to effect the performance of Maldonado's Lotus. The rear facing on board camera showed the wing to be absolutely stable. Handling didn't seem to be effected, either. I'm sure the aero crews at Lotus (and probably several others) are giving that a hard look today.
Yeah, that was quite something...I was surprised the pit guy just ripped off the bent upright. I also wondered if the DRS would still work, but it seemed to be just fine. I guess it is controlled by the middle upright. Maybe they'll go back to centre post wings ;)
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I read an article in Road & Track a loong time ago about how to "read" a track. The most important turn on any track is the one leading on to the longest straight; The last turn at Barcelona. I suspect Lewis was running more down force than Seb. But Vettel was clearly quicker exiting the chicane and through the last turn. He was always able to pull a gap on Lewis so that the DRS wasn't enough to get Lewis by. Got the most important turn right.
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To overtake on a straight you need to exit the corner before the straight quicker than the guy you want to overtake. Another good overtaking chance is in a heavy breaking point before a tight corner. Both of these strategies are more difficult if the aero is disturbed by the car in front. Generally the way to avoid this is to use a different line (approaching the corner or in the braking zone) but at Barcelona there is only one line. Therefore, at the corner before the straight the following cars were understeering and dropping away from the car they were trying to overtake and even with DRS they could only catch up with the car in front to have exactly the same thing happen to them when braking for the corner at the end of the straight.
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I think another complicating factor is strategic use of the ERS power when defending, the commentators made much of this when Bottas was holding Kimi back. Lewis needed to try and force Seb to use his electrical energy at other points in the lap.
However at Barcelona the car in front has no need to go ultra defensive at most places round the lap as there is really only one line as has been said by Monty.
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Fue tan aburrido que casi me acosté delante del televisor.
That was so tedious that I still can't quite believe it. I was expecting a procession, but when the only things that made the race at all notable were dangerous incidents in the pit lane, then it's clear that the race was very poor.
I'm not surprised that Rosberg won, once Hamilton had fluffed his start; indeed after the start, precious little happened for the entire distance. I hope that Monaco provides more entertainment and tension.
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Hamilton had fluffed his start
Just trying to be completely fair, Hamilton didn't fluff his start. The on-board clutch bite program failed.
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Hamilton had fluffed his start
Just trying to be completely fair, Hamilton didn't fluff his start. The on-board clutch bite program failed.
There is something so wrong about that. You should be responsible for your own start.
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Hamilton had fluffed his start
Just trying to be completely fair, Hamilton didn't fluff his start. The on-board clutch bite program failed.
There is something so wrong about that. You should be responsible for your own start.
Win as a team, lose as a team. We've seen that truly every member has to be spot on, from the guy attaching the wheels, calling the tire change, all the way to the guy working the steering wheel. One bad moment by any of them, and three weeks of prep goes no where.
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All that should be necessary is to let out the clutch.
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All that should be necessary is to let out the clutch.
Yes but which one Lonny? :D
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Remember, the driver doesn't determine how the clutch engages. The software does that now. F1 design today is more Rube Goldberg than it is Colin Chapman.
I've also read that Alonso's brake trouble was cause by a helmet visor tear off that lodged in a brake cooling duct. Ah, the marvels of these high tech regenerative brake by wire systems!
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/325426/visor-tear-off-caused-alonso-s-retirement/
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Just trying to be completely fair, Hamilton didn't fluff his start. The on-board clutch bite program failed.
True. I still remember reading reports from when drivers used to have to get the cars off the line themselves, and so phrases like that stick in my mind.
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All that should be necessary is to let out the clutch.
Yes but which one Lonny? :D
Exactly. And the problem in a nutshell.
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All that should be necessary is to let out the clutch.
Yes but which one Lonny? :D
Exactly. And the problem in a nutshell.
They need two clutches to get out of the pitlane. Everything else is done on the main clutch only (except the things that are done by electronic thingimajiggery)