Spanish GP 2012 - Barcelona

[raymondu999]

2011




Strategy
2012 tyres - hard (prime, silver) and soft (option, yellow)
2011 tyres - hard (prime, silver) and soft (option, yellow)

2011 pole lap:

[Maelstrom]

Mark and Kimi have done pretty well on this track in the last few years. Should be an exciting race. But firrrrrst... testing!

[raymondu999]

Mark is mighty in the last chicane. Didn't Massa generally outdo Kimi here though? Other than his 08 victory (to which Massa finished 2nd) I don't think Kimi's ever been mighty special here. I mean Kimi's a special driver anyways, but I don't think this is one of his supercircuits if you like.

Having said that this is as far off a driver track as you possibly could go IMO. Car is the primary determinant here. It's basically just a massive test of the car's L/D ratio. The Mercedes F-duct could see them in good stead here because of the fact that in qualifying it basically makes the L/D of their car so mighty.

[mike]

Kimi won here in 2005 as well and he had a problem in 07, 08 was a dominant win from him as of 05 so ill say hes pretty good at this track

[Nando]

Finally we might see part 2 of the Vettel/Hamilton battle we saw in 2011.

Bit more equal cars now though

[raymondu999]

My point was - this track is 99% dominated by car. There's very little scope of a driver making a difference here. There's no way for a driver to really pick up a car and carry it through if you know what I mean.

@Nando-The McLarens were a bit quicker on the prime tyre towards the end last year though. Vettel may have been quicker on the options - but it didn't have much effect as they were bottled up behind Alonso then anyways.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

My point was - this track is 99% dominated by car. There's very little scope of a driver making a difference here. There's no way for a driver to really pick up a car and carry it through if you know what I mean.

@Nando-The McLarens were a bit quicker on the prime tyre towards the end last year though. Vettel may have been quicker on the options - but it didn't have much effect as they were bottled up behind Alonso then anyways.

I'd expand on that....I think the car that uses its tyre the best will probably win

[raymondu999]

Yes tyres are playing two big a factor for my liking this year. It seems a midfield team that uses its tyres well will do better than a top team that hasn't.

Having said that - tyre deg is always a massive issue here. Especially on the front left. The circuit is definitely front limited too. Last year after this race some teams were setting up their car with less-than-optimal-laptime wing AoAs because they saw from Barcelona that if you had too much downforce - you'd eat into the Pirelli tyres in terms of degradation.

[Batu]

DRS is not as efficient as last season so I think we will see overtakes less than last year.

[raymondu999]

There were only a few DRS-based overtakes last year. Everything happened into Turn 5, 7 and 10. Welcome to the forums btw

[Maelstrom]

How many pit stops last year?

[alelanza]

Last year after this race some teams were setting up their car with less-than-optimal-laptime wing AoAs because they saw from Barcelona that if you had too much downforce - you'd eat into the Pirelli tyres in terms of degradation.

Is this a fact? i remember speculation about this last year but it seemed rather counterintuitive.

[raymondu999]

4 stop winning strategy - OOOPP. Jenson managed a 3 stop for OOOP though. Or it could've been OOPP - I don't quite remember.

Last year after this race some teams were setting up their car with less-than-optimal-laptime wing AoAs because they saw from Barcelona that if you had too much downforce - you'd eat into the Pirelli tyres in terms of degradation.

Is this a fact? i remember speculation about this last year but it seemed rather counterintuitive.

Yes - if you have less downforce; you carry less speed through the sweepers, and there is less downforce pushing the car too. It will reduce degradation, which is perfectly logical.

I think the reason some might find it counterintuitive is that people say put on more downforce to preserve tyres. Downforce helps protect against wear and graining; but not degradation.

[alelanza]

I was more talking about this:

Last year after this race some teams were setting up their car with less-than-optimal-laptime wing AoAs

Is that a fact?

Yes - if you have less downforce; you carry less speed through the sweepers, and there is less downforce pushing the car too. It will reduce degradation, which is perfectly logical.

Well, your 'perfectly logical' here differs from mine in many ways, but let's leave it at that, i'm only interested in your above statement concerning teams angle of attack approach.

[Maelstrom]

Hmm.. might definately be a four stopper this year then considering the tyre wear is more.