Japanese GP 2010 - Suzuka

[MikeFromCanada]

Rain forecast!!

Yep, as of today there is a 95% chance of rain for both Saturday and Sunday. It is still early though.

I agree 100% with Wesley. Suzuka 2005 was a classic race, one of the best I've witnessed. I watched it a few times over, and it never ceases to amaze

[Mr Alcatraz]

There is probably no chance that the F10 (the most versitile car on the grid in Fred's hands
who goes quite well at Suz. and does those high speed corners exceptionally well)
will be able to be set up to be competative with the bulls at this race :-"

[Shrieker]

Rain ? Semi wet race, and I dare say Hamilton ftw ! Just like Spa ! It's somewhat similar to Suzuka, isn't it ?

[raymondu999]

Somewhat, except that the straight line isn't contributing as much to the laptime. More of the laptime comes from the superfast twisty bits, which is a Red Bull walk. I don't expect anything other than a Red Bull to be within 0.5-0.8 of the pole position time.

[ringo]

I think the Mclaren can come within 0.2s of redbull. There are 3 straight sections here, and i'm sure they can find the best compromise on df and topside out of the 3 top teams.
Remember they have a new package coming too. We don't know what to expect; supposed they become the best car?

[raymondu999]

While that is a POSSIBLE outcome, I don't think that's very probable. The straights aren't very long, and I can only think of 2 straight bits? :s (pit straight and the run from spoon through to the chicane). Which other straight did you have in mind?

And we said that Spain and China would be an f-duct walkover due to being able to put on downforce but not sacrifice the long straight. Malaysia too, but we couldn't see it happen due to the qualifying botchup by McLaren and Ferrari. They seem to be struggling with their new mech package too... it seems to hurt their tyres massively. But we'll see.

[djos]

I think the Mclaren can come within 0.2s of redbull. There are 3 straight sections here, and i'm sure they can find the best compromise on df and topside out of the 3 top teams.
Remember they have a new package coming too. We don't know what to expect; supposed they become the best car?

Mclaren proved at Singapore that they still arent as fast as the RedBull or Ferrari!

[raymondu999]

@Djos - to be fair, Singapore brings entirely different demands to Suzuka. Suzuka is an out-and-out aero circuit where mech brings little or no impact, and Singapore is a mechanical circuit. Sure, downforce helps, but it's not crucial.

[djos]

@Djos - to be fair, Singapore brings entirely different demands to Suzuka. Suzuka is an out-and-out aero circuit where mech brings little or no impact, and Singapore is a mechanical circuit. Sure, downforce helps, but it's not crucial.

If they where behind in Singapore which is High DF with slow corners, what makes you think they'll suddenly be back on top at a Medium DF track that has fast flowing high speed corners that RB has traditionally outpaced them on?

RedBull's advantage is that their supple suspension combined with very efficiently generated Down-force (w/ minimal drag)lets them blaze through those super fast sweepers at full noise and MacMerc have imo shown no signs of matching them in these conditions.

[raymondu999]

I don't think they'll catch RB, and neither did I say that. However what I'm saying is I don't expect McLaren to be as far behind as they were in Singapore... I expect them to be more on the pace. Macca this year have made full use of their f-duct to boost their cornering speed in the high speed sweepers, and we haven't had a fast, sweeping high-df circuit since Macca have sorted their ignition overrun and blown diffuser.

This year's Macca seems to be better on a high speed sweeper + straightline circuit rather than a fiddly point and shoot anyways... Monaco and Singapore vs Spain and China?

[ringo]

While that is a POSSIBLE outcome, I don't think that's very probable. The straights aren't very long, and I can only think of 2 straight bits? :s (pit straight and the run from spoon through to the chicane). Which other straight did you have in mind?

And we said that Spain and China would be an f-duct walkover due to being able to put on downforce but not sacrifice the long straight. Malaysia too, but we couldn't see it happen due to the qualifying botchup by McLaren and Ferrari. They seem to be struggling with their new mech package too... it seems to hurt their tyres massively. But we'll see.

I'm looking at out of turn 9 to 11. That section can be considered an F duct section.
The fduct works pretty well on subtle kinks too.
The tyre wear is a mystery, i don't know if it was any worse than the others, or if the others were so good, their slower times didn't look as bad as the Mclarens.

This track is like turkey, only more high G turns, but we have to consider the nature of the high G turns. Not all of them are overbearing high g loading like turn 8 in turkey, just flickers of high spikes. Neither are they tightening. Mclaren could get away with this with decent enough downforce, as long as they dont have to brake too much in the esses like truli is doing here.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMZYszf_ZFE[/youtube]
there are many little opportunities to use the F duct, even in turn 12 before spoon curve.

But i gotta admit, redbull is going to dominate turns 1 and 2 and gain a lot of time in them, in fact i think only sectors1 they'll dominate.
But do they have the engine to climb the esses?

I think we can expect another china. Hard fought pole position with a 6 way fight to boot, (Massa included).

[PlatinumZealot]

It seems the S's has the most sustained g-fore. Spoon curve and 130R don't look like trouble to me. The other major G-force part is before the hairpin. Other than that It doesn't look to bad. Many places to use F-duct as well, even before the 130R and right after you can use F-duct. (RedBull has f-duct too!)

[raymondu999]

Well Dengers look like good RB territory too

[vall]

it is funny how everyone is talking this RB territory, that is McLaren track, etc., but at the end of the day, the last two races were won by Ferrari... I would not be shocked if Ferrari does well at Suzuka as well. Alonso has had good drive there, no?

[MikeFromCanada]

it is funny how everyone is talking this RB territory, that is McLaren track, etc., but at the end of the day, the last two races were won by Ferrari... I would not be shocked if Ferrari does well at Suzuka as well. Alonso has had good drive there, no?

Though I agree noone should forget about Ferrari, I think the Singapore track really suited the Ferrari's great traction ability. McLaren, on the other hand, IMO are not as far off as Singapore showed. They should be right up there, certainyl within a couple tenths of the RB and Ferrari at the worse case.

This track has a nice flow overall, and I'm just looking forward to this weekend greatly