Spanish GP 2011 - Barcelona

[ringo]

The redbull still has the gap. Horner sort of implied that it was the hard tyre behavior that got them to mortal levels.

Q: Were you surprised by the pace of the McLaren?
CH: No, because these tyres are so sensitive. There is only one thing that’s consistent - we’ve been at the front. That is tremendously rewarding and in the end it’s the only thing that matters.

[Fil]

As exciting & tense as the race was at the front, the great showings were in the midfield. Namely Heidfeld & Kobayashi.


Heidfeld - 24th to 17th on the first lap! And then a battle all the way (past his teammate) to a solid 8th. With DRS having limited effect, his race highlights would be great to watch!

Kobayashi - puncture on the opening lap, a super long 24 lap Prime stint, followed by equally impressive 19- & 22-lap Option stints! And he still finished in the points! Incredible recovery drive!


Disappointments:
Force India - After relinquishing grid position for a stronger race, no points. Although they just about swapped positions with the Toro Rosso pair.

Maldonado - After claiming post-quali that Spain was not a one-off result, his race performance will leave him wishing it actually was.

Petrov - should've brought points home. To be beaten comprehensively in the race by his teammate (particularly when Petrov, unlike Heidfeld, had clear air in his first stint), is hugely disappointing. It was a return to the Petrov of 2010.

[djos]

The DRS Zone was badly botched by the FIA for the the Spanish GP, it didn't start anywhere near early enuf and as a result it cost Lewis the Win and Mark a Podium place - very disappointing imo!

[bidong]

I think bidong is talking about the camera director for the world feed, ringo

you're right raymondu999, sorry for the confusion. It was a pretty busy race in Spain though. If my memory serves me right, most often its a procession when it is a Barcelona GP.

Also, I was pretty impressed with the tires and the DRS. making overtaking possible but not easy. Good stuff from the rules. Now, removing that exhaust blown diffusers or controlled ECU map for everyone should be the next step.

[PlatinumZealot]

I wonder why a lot of you still reckon RedBull is faster during race day. Yes, it is faster in quali and that has been explained by James Allen (in his website). The RB7 has been heavily optimised for the DRS to be open on all possible areas of the track. Where as Mclaren is more focused on Race trim performance.

On hindsight, the most important reason why Vettel was able to stay ahead was that he made no mistakes and did the most appropriate thing at the right time. I strongly doubt that the RB7 was faster during the final part of the race. If Hamilton did overtook Vettel, he would have sailed away because of a faster car (with a 100% working KERS).
.

Lets get a few things straight first.

1. You don't overtake in Barcelona (see Alonso hold up the pack).
2. You don't overtake when you are on the same age and type of tyres
3. You don't overtake cars that are faster than yours through the corners
4. Vettel was in a car that is 1.3 seconds faster in qualifying trim.
5. The DRS zone was too short
6. Vettel's car could use KERS to exit the last turn.

Now unless Vettel really screws up, and make no mistake he, Vettel, had actually locked his tyres once or twice during the chase but that didn't slow down his rocket ship anyway, how was the Mclaren supposed to pass? Teleport infront? lol

God Bless Lewis Hamilton for making Vettel's win a little less boring. Looking forward to Monaco. The Mclaren seems to be equal in the slow turns.

[djos]

There would have been DRS overtaking had the zone started just after the exit of the corner instead of the start finish line!

[Jeffsvilleusa]

...
RedBull 1 second faster in qually -
about 30 points more of downforce in the race -
still had no KERS but could not be overtaken -
...

Q: (Oleg Karpov - Klaxon) Lewis, was it actually possible for you to go through the last corner with the wing open?
LH: No. Mark was just explaining that even though he’s got the wing engaged, it’s not that it’s too easy, but for us, we’re flat out without the wing engaged and it’s quite difficult. A slight difference in downforce but that’s actually good because it gives an indication of how much downforce they have, considering you generally lose 30 points or something when you engage the wing, something of that magnitude.

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a "point of downforce," is it the standard of measure for downforce? And if so, what does it represent?

[beelsebob]

I am not sure of why Macca's fans are too quick to celebrate that they closed the gap to RBR? Remember that only one a race ago in Turkey Ferrari was ahead. Things can turn around very quickly.

I don't think they were – I think a race ago Macca got their strategy very very wrong. The entire gap can be explained by ruined tyres and botched pit stops.

[beelsebob]

That doesn´t necessarily mean he´s the best over a championship, even Senna had two Championships decided at the last race but still managed to out qualify his teammate with 1.5 seconds or lap a whole field in the wet except for the runner-up.

Doesn't really matter how much you outqualify the field or your teammate when the winning move is to deliberately take out your rival on the first lap. Senna was dirty through and through. Lewis isn't. Why people compare Lewis, the best and cleanest passer in Formula 1, with someone who deliberately put his competitors at risk so he could pass them is beyond my understanding.

Because he himself likes to compare himself to Senna.

[beelsebob]

Even without that, I think we've seen that McLaren have pretty much caught RBR now – their Q pace is no where near, clearly RBR are doing something special there, but their race pace is right on them. Give it a race or two and I wouldn't be surprised to see McLaren having a clearly faster race car.

And when RBR have their KERS working at every race, on every lap, we'll see that McLaren don't have an equal car.

Read what I said again – Hamilton was a full second faster than Vettel closing him down – even with the most favourable estimates of KERS's advantage, that's still 0.5 seconds a lap faster

Vettel had a partially functioning KERS the last bit of the race and Lewis still couldn't pass him with KERS and the advantage of the DRS. The cars aren't equal obviously.

Hmm? Which other car that was only 0.5-1 second a lap faster did you see overtaking this weekend. Especially, which did you see overtaking another one that was so much quicker through the last turn.

The only reason Lewis was that close is because he drove his heart out.

Don't think that's the only reason, but he did a fine job, certainly.

[beelsebob]

As exciting & tense as the race was at the front, the great showings were in the midfield. Namely Heidfeld & Kobayashi.


Heidfeld - 24th to 17th on the first lap! And then a battle all the way (past his teammate) to a solid 8th. With DRS having limited effect, his race highlights would be great to watch!

Not that impressive... He overtook 6 cars without KERS and one with on the longest start/finish straight of the season. As we discussed re both webber in china and Kobayashi in Turkey, back to front races are entirely possible this season... Quite litterally -put the hard tyres on first and run the strategy back to front.

Kobayashi - puncture on the opening lap, a super long 24 lap Prime stint, followed by equally impressive 19- & 22-lap Option stints! And he still finished in the points! Incredible recovery drive!

Indeed, a very good one.

[kalinka]

When talking about Seb & Lewis fight, just a remainder : Even Webber wasn't able to overtake Alonso in that mighty RB7. I can't remember, but I think Webber was even on softs, and Alonso on hards ? The speed difference when Webber was closing in on Alonso was massive, and even with that advantage, Webber couldn't overtake. So it's just shows how much of a chance Lewis had. The McLaren was clearly better on hard tyres, but unfortunatley it's not enough here, it's really down to the track configuration. So yes, I think too that McLaren has a better race pace now, and Seb had a lucky escape.
It looked like McLaren is even better on softs too, because they could run considerably longer stints without loosing much time, and at the end of the day it allowed for Button to do a pistop less than other front runners too.

[Mandrake]

Given how button could reclaim 3rd position and mark not being able to bring the gap down, I think on the hard tire the McLaren was the fastest car in the race. Vettel would have built up a larger gap on soft tires to make it look easier, but Hamilton would still have caught him towards the end.

[CyleB]

Seb had a lucky escape??? really did you watch the race??? Vettel was alot quicker out of the final corner on to the straight and was able to pull a gap that Hamilton with DRS could not close I dont think that lucky. To me it sounds like the RB7 is much better in terms of down force the the MP4-26.... Luck? NO Mechanical dominance? Yes

[tok-tokkie]

I believe Seb won the race because he immediately got past the slower cars that he came out behind. Had he not done that then Lewis would have come out in front after his pit stop & the roles would have been reversed.

This track shows the limitation of a main straight that starts after a fast corner. It is then not about acceleration down the main straight as the cars enter the main straight at high speed. DRS is most effective when the cars are accelerating. You also need a slow corner at the end of the straight for a good overtaking opportunity. Red Bull having better downforce made Vettel quicker through the last bend so Hamilton was way behind entering the main straight.

It would have been different if the cars were reversed as Vettel would have been right on Hamilton's tail entering the main straight. Then what?