European GP 2009 - Valencia

[bhall]

I don't know who thought a 25-turn street course was a good idea - Tillke? - but I'd like to buy him a beer or two and politely ask him to watch flies copulate for an hour-and-a-half or so as a lesson in futility and boredom. What a dull race.

Don't get me wrong, the circuit and surrounding area are gorgeous. Perhaps I'll attend a GP there and fall asleep in-person rather than on my couch, watching it on TV.

The results were interesting, as it's always interesting to see different teams improve and struggle from weekend to weekend. And I suppose the strategy was interesting. (Though, publishing the weights of the cars has ruined a lot of that for me.) Otherwise, I was less than thrilled.

But, I'm just complaining.

Badoer was fun to watch. Did anyone else notice his interview with Peter Windsor before the race? The man's even slow when he talks. But, cheers to him. After a decade of service to his team, he deserves his just reward.

Just next time, Luca, let's try not to cede a position in the pitlane.

[Gonner]

What a boring race. I doubt that Lewis would have been in front of Barrichello after the second stop, but this error ruined the end of the race.

Anyway, good to see Rubens on top again. And to all people complaining about BBC speakers, watch a race in French, you can't guess how much you'll love BBC then.

I'm fed up with having an update on Renault's drivers' pace every minute, and adds during pit stops. I still haven't seen any picture of what happend in the pits for Hamilton. And what they said was totally wrong all along the races.

Anyway, I stop complaining. And, as I'm french, I have to underline the good race of Grosjean who could have done even better if he didn't hit a car at the second corner. Also, I have to admit that Alguersuari is really faster than Bourdais... Or not.

[Vasco]

Did lewis end up racing with the front wing that he broke in fp2? From the press conference it seems that he struggled a bit with the tires during the race...i think the lack of running during fp2 and fp3 might have been the reason why they seemingly made the wrong decision to use the super softs for the first 2 stints

[Roland Ehnström]

And I can agree with Ray, I cannot stand Hamilton's dad, why is he there? He wont have any impact on the race at all, we havent seen John Button for a few races now, well not on TV, yet at every race we see Mr. Hamilton stood there salking.

I don't understand why everyone is bitter about some drivers (Lewis, Massa, Button, etc.) having their dads in pit-lane. Why does that matter? If my son was in F1 I sure as hell would like to stand right there in the pit box shouting for him! And if I was racing myself I would also be happy to have my dad watching me, along with my wife or girlfriend. Especially considering that what I would be doing would be very risky, and if something bad were to happen to me I would like to have my loved ones there beside me.

Do you guys all hate your dads, or what?

As for the producer choosing to show the dads/wives/girfriends faces in TV every race, well, that's hardly their fault, is it? What do you expect them to do, kick the cameraman in the balls? Sue the producer?

Stop complaining about stupid things, you just come across as jealous because you don't have a dad that cares and a wife/girlfriend that approves of your job!

Rant over, I'll shut up now.

Great drive from Rubens by the way! =D>

[andartop]

I don't mind dads being around in the pits, but I as well feel sick of watching their faces every time something happens on track: I'd rather watch the thing that's actually happening on track! Girlfriends I don't mind that much, at least most of them don't look that bad!

As far as the race is concerned, I'm very happy Rubens won for two reasons:
a) He would start moaning again and threatening to write a book.
b) I had advised a good friend of mine to bet on him, and he did, so I got a free beer!
Seriously though, he truly deserved it, and I believe he would still have won regardless of the McLaren screw up. Well done, easily man of the race, especially if you consider Button's weekend.

I was quite shocked Kimi did so well with Schumi present: I guess it's because Kimi knew that this time Schumi would be watching closely at Luca rather than him, so the Evil Eye spell didn't work on Kimi. Can someone who managed to stay awake during the whole race please explain to me how Kimi ended up in front of Heikki? I didn't see that and I'm still wondering..

As for Luca, I don't feel like blaming him at all, but I really think there are a few guys out there who might have actually managed something more. I'd give Bourdais a chance...but it might be reasonable to allow Luca at least one more race. Anyone knows what the Italian media think?

[Miguel]

This circuit would be more suited to GT cars. But in reality, what makes it a boring circuit is that it's stuck in limbo - it's neither a road circuit or a full-blown racing track. It contains virtually none of the features of a road track:

-No manhole covers
-No kerbs
-No big bumps
-No "whitelines"
-No tight track
-No lack of run off (excuse the double negative)

It's just a normal track that they've stuck walls around, really. There's no problem with the circuit itself that stops overtaking - in fact, it should promote a lot of overtaking...but these monstrocities that we call F1 cars just aren't capable of doing it.

OWG, get back to work.

To top that off, because the promoter can't find enough money to pay Mr. E, the local government will sponsor the event the next 4 years or something. This means that some of my tax money will be spent in a kerb somewhere in Valencia instead of, I don't know, vaccines for children, or basic research or, what the heck, charity.

Anyway, I'm starting to think that there is indeed something wrong with Valencia... but it's not the layout. I'm starting to think that the walls are really bad for following cars, because the wake can't freely expand. I remember when they slightly changed the swimming pool for the Sydney Olympics, they made it deeper and the swimmers went immediately faster.

Similarly, the walls may encourage the accumulation of dirt, dust and marbles off the line. In a normal track, off line dirt can actually go off track. Not here. Thus, as the weekend progresses, the racing line gets cleaner and faster while the rest of the track keeps accumulating the dust that went off the racing line.

Hypothesis 1: The walls increase the wake energy

Hypothesis 2: The walls cause the dirt to accumulate off the racing line

Having only 0+ knowledge of aerodynamics and CFD software means I can't prove Hypothesis 1, which seems feasible to prove or disprove with the necessary software and knowledge. Hypothesis 2 seems harder to prove, although as some confirmation one could ask the drivers for comparison with other tracks.

[timbo]

I think the main problem with Valencia is that there's no proper straights - they are actually curves, and although g loads are small if a car takes inside line and you want to overtake it, you have to go outside and travel a longer distance.

[PlatinumZealot]

Valencia track sucks.. Might as well call it a Formula 1 car parade.

[gibells]

I dislike it because they're running through an industrial harbour. It is so far removed from what Formula 1 should be. Right now it just looks like an embarrassing display of politicing (getting votes by arranging a race). There's no reason you couldn't change it. I'm sure you could get it to work. There must be better parts of Valencia that they could run it through?

[ds.raikkonen]

Valencia track sucks...

Some people like Steve Slater call Valencia - Bahrain with walls ...yeah, right.

[Ciro Pabón]

Well, I think the layout is good, under the circumstances. Open Google Earth and I think you will agree with me on the fact that is hard to find through the entire city "straights" like the one at the harbour, after the bridge.

The entire section after that "backstraight", ending in the main straight, was demolished to make room for the track. I think that was one of the reasons to pick the harbour: a city renovation project became intermixed with the design of the track, or so says the Major's Office (if I remember well what I read when the track was in the design stage).

The kerbs are interesting. They are 10 cm (4 inches) high, but they can help you, if you are smart.

From the inner side to the outer side of the track they are like this: at the track inner side they are flat with the asphalt surface. Then they rise slowly, up to the 10 cm I mentioned. At the "external edge" they "fall" abruptly. The end result is that they have a sideslope that helps you, BUT if you put the wheel outside of the highest point of the kerb then you "bottom out", because the kerb is 10 cm high and the cars are like 3 or 4 cm high, so you lose traction. They are metallic. I've never seen kerbs like that.

The walls are NOT close to the track, no matter what you say: there is only ONE wall where you can crash, at the end of the main straight, if I'm not mistaken. If there are too many debris, I think it would be feasible to raise the walls to make room under them for the debris to be expelled, if that were the case (I mean, to support them on small "columns").

I imagine the "noise laws" prevents the use of some sectors of the city for the track: from that point of view, the harbour is the ideal site. Thinking as a father, I believe that around the docks there are few babies trying to sleep (if you don't count McLaren pit crew).

What I complain about is not the layout: I think is the best you can do under the circumstances.

I complain only about having three non-permanent tracks in the calendar. The cost is high for the promoters, the tax payers and, in the end, the spectators. I think that was the reason for the demise of Canada: you cannot pay for all the installations and dismounts every year and get a decent profit.

About the comments on how boring the race was, I agree (if I were a Hamilton fan I would be really, really bored ). Rubinho victory made it quite interesting, specially because it would be a miracle if an old timer, the guy with more races under his belt in history, ends this year as WDC. I think he deserves the championship much more than Jenson Button: while Button was sort of pampered by Honda, Rubens has been mistreated by his teams, the press and many fans.

[The FOZ]

The image Anthony Hamilton projects is not a pleasant one - he radiates agitation.

Parents have their place in their children's life, and I'm certain managing one's professional career is not that place. Especially if he's pulling a percentage, which he most certainly would be.

[noname]

(...) If you want to view leading edge technology in action, go to the airport and watch the airliners take off. (...)

as the one who spent most of his professional life working for aviation (currently on A350) I have to disagree. I would rather point to smaller machines (business jets , for example), or even forget flying ones and look at super cars. personally I consider them much more advanced then wide body monsters.

as for the tracks. what's makes me tick is what happening between armcos, or walls, rather than the surroundings.

regards

[nipo]

A lot of people (in particular Ferrari Fans) thought that to see Luca being 1.5 - 2s off the pace was unacceptable.

Others are quick to point out he's been out of the business for so long and he's already done a pretty slick job avoiding any major accidents.

The first is more of a sentiment and the other is an objective observation, and IMO they don't necessarily conflict each other. I, for one, understand that Luca probably couldn't have done any better, but seeing him, for example, concede a place to the Renault at the pit exit still hurts pretty bad.

After all, it's very sad to see Ferrari like this.

So it's time to discover the real problem! Personally, the biggest, most unacceptable thing that has driven Ferrari into this situation is not Luca's race readiness.

It's also not Schumi's health/guts.

Nor Ruben's loose spring.

It's the ridiculous situation that Ferrari has had no official reserve driver, year after year.

There you go... Can someone explain how they manage to keep it that way

[The FOZ]

It's the ridiculous situation that Ferrari has had no official reserve driver, year after year.

There you go... Can someone explain how they manage to keep it that way

By definition, a race-ready reserve driver would be someone who's in shape, in practise, and current in the car they would theoretically have to drive in a situation such as we find ourselves in.

The in-season testing ban pretty much negates the teams' ability to do that.

Every other team is this bad, and actually, Renault are far worse, because they just called up their reserve driver to replace Piquet, Jr.