2012 F1 SANTANDER BRITISH GP: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

+1 Exactly!

They gambled - Same as the other guys, and came up with 2nd & 4th. Only hindsight see's the strategy differently. And Clifford still doesn't like softs + weight IMO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I must have read the news reports incorrectly. Thanks for the update.

The Cars were set up for a wet Q so I assume that they were still on wet settings at today's start.

Nothing about this year's tires surprise me. Disappoint? Continually. Surprise? Never.


Wimbeldon.
Tell me that something in some British fans doesnt relate better to a good loss than an easy win.

 

Happy for Phil, I don't think it will save his seat, but very nice to see a smile on his face!

 

Alonso would agree =) He basically said if he had kept pushing the pace and stretched out his earlier stints on the hards he would've been able to cover the amount of time Webber gained on him in the last 4 laps.

Oh well, no point dwelling in a world of hypotheticals and what ifs. He & Massa raked in good points, I hope the next race in Hockenheim will be in consistent weather...want to really see what kind of pace Red Bull have gained with Newey's double-floor & rear aero updates.

 

+1 I was thinking the same thing watching today, why Alonso stayed out for such a short stint on the Hard Compounds in the first round, unfortunately, that cost him in the end, it was still nice to see Mark win, if Alonso could not.

 

how have you been Tony ?

I was expecting FA to do a 20-20-10 tyre strategy for the HHS tyres, the short first stint had me scratching my head .... he's seen this cliff for tyre performance before

 

Did FA's lap times actually drop off at the end? I must admit I didn't take any notice of that. SV wasn't catching him, was he? I think MW was just very very fast from the moment he put on that last set of tyres.

 

Alonso's tire strategy seemed to be based on an expectation of rain. Fox showed no weather radar (edited out?). Does anyone know how reasonable that expectation was?

 

Correct

 

While I agree with you I find this just another case of 20/20 hindsight. I don't blame Ferrari for getting this wrong. It could have worked. It is really hard to predict the drop off curve of the Pirellis. It is a bit of a lottery, which is fine by me

 

I can't remember when exactly (either right before or right after Fred pitted to softs) they showed one of the screens and it said no rain in the next 30 minutes. At that point, it looked like it would be a dry race.

This was on Fox during their mid day showing (11am-1pm CST)


I was hoping for rain so everyone would have to pit and the playing field would have been even allowing alonso to probably win. Oh well.

 

pitting short on the first set of hards didn't make sense

the soft guys were pitting at the same time

 

Hmmm.

You had to bring logic into this debate. Shame on you.

 

It did rain. About 30-60mins after the race ended

(was raining on BBC post race forum)

 

John, I was thinking the same way at the beginning of the race, it is just a shame that Alonso had the lead for so long and lost it with 5 laps to go, I personally thought we were going to have a rerun of the Canada situation about that time.

Andreas, hindsight is 20:20 but based on the others pitting on the softs at Lap 15 or so, Alonso should have had another 5 to 6 laps in those hard tires that seemed to work best with the Ferrari. Lets not forget that Silverstone seems to always suit the Ferrari chassis. Still as I mentioned before, I was happy if anyone else won it, it would be Webber. Nice to see Massa do decently for a change, I was hoping he would make the podium to give some more constructors points to Ferrari and taken away some more points from Vettel.

 

Thanks.

 

I hear you and moretti made a good point. But quite frankly I'm happy the team came this far. From a car that started as a turd at the first race to one that has now a realistic shot at the title. Still thinking it is RB's but a third Alonso crown is not out of the realm of possibilities.

 

20 laps on the hard tyres would have been enough I think but Webber was on a charge and like Aircon says, he was just faster today and Vettel wasn't making any ground on Webber

Webber does seem to be a confidence driver and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins a couple more races and give RB a real headache for Wunderkind

 

I don't see why you and others call the car a turd

it couldn't have been that bad as FA has a nice lead and if someone else was in the other Ferrari they would be leading the WCC as well.

I am wondering what has happened to JB as he is a damn good driver and is having a horror stretch currently, but always nice to see McClunken going backwards

 

Maldonado is easily the biggest clown that F1 has seen for decades. They need to revoke his SL pronto.

 

It was a turd when it first raced. It appears they have made massive strides, but it still appears to need rain or the hard tyre to be competitive. If Alonso had started on the soft tyres I think the first 10 cars would have passed him and then his race would have turned into a turd ... maybe. And of course a dry qualifying would likely have moved him back a couple of rows.

Yes I'm wondering too. Maybe a mean way of making LH look good by McLaren
Pete

 

All of the early-season errors hve destroyed their season as the car realy is 2nd- tier at this ooint, behind RBR, Ferrari and Lotus and longside Mercedes and Williams...possibly Sauber. JB can't seem to figure out the tires and the car seems to get worse every race. Conversely, Ferrari took a car that should have been nowhere near the points after three races and made it a legitimate contender. The tires are still the "lottery" element of the season, but Ferrari's done the best overall job of maximizing points in the face of uncertainty.

 

+1
He's under probabation now by the FIA. If he takes someone out again I'm sure they'll revoke his license. Result.

 

Massa was Ok with the softs at the beginning of the race, so I suppose that if Alonso had used the same strategy, he would have won.

Alonso said that, as they couldn´t test the softs because of the rain, they wanted to use them only in the few last laps, because if it rained they wouldn´t have to use them. But it didn´t rain and probably at the end of the race the track was not the same than at the beginning. Sh*t happens.

The really bad news of this GP is that, despite Silverstone being the most favourable track for the Ferrari, still it´s not quick enough. But there must be hope if even Massa can do something decent with it. Back to work.

 

Agree.

Pete