Rd1: 2010 Bahrain Practice 1/2/3 ***Spoilers***

Surprised to see Alonso so low.
All his yak about sandbagging.
Tomorrow is when the BS stops.
The biggest single day in a F1 season; First day of qualifying for the first race.

 

PS; Anyone else notice Hobb's calling N Rosberg in a Williams ?
Maybe the ultimate "DOH !" of the year.

 

FYI,

Speed is showing Practice 1230-200am Central time. It doesn't specify if it is P2 or P3. I imagine it will be a re-broadcast of P2 due to the timeframe.

Speed is showing Qualifying 500am-630am Central time.

Frank

p.s. Get your popcorn ready!!!!!

I am really looking forward to this year. Several top dogs in with a shout this year. Several up-and-comers (such as RedBull and Vettel), other older competitors attempting to regain past glory at the top (Ferrari, Alonso, Schumi, McLaren) and others trying to prove that recent successes were not a fluke (Button, Brawn aka Mercedes)...and we have several mobile chicanes made to order to throw a fly in the ointment...

IMHO, a major factor to success this year for the drivers will be the ability to conserve tires (which will reward the smooth drivers such as Button and others) and the ability to carve your way through traffic and backmarkers Senna-like.

For the manufacturers a lot of the success will be the initial design right out of the box, since the limited testing slows the rate of improvement. Look how long it took for Ferrari and McLaren to get on the pace last year, and that was with virtually unlimited budgets available to them.

Another crucial issue will be the fuel efficiency of the engines and the ability of the drivers to smoothly drive and conserve fuel.

Too bad Prost is no longer racing. Smoothness allied to his ability to conserve tires and fuel saw him win victory after victory with these conditions as others used up their cars in the race. He was custom made for these regs. The 2010 championship would have his name all over it.

2010 season ready for takeoff...I can't wait! Bring it on!!!

Biggest story of the year will be:

2010 The Return of the King

 

I hope we aren't disappointed this year.

I too think it sounds like a very exciting year, but eveyrone I talk to says the same thing... I hope we're not hyping ourselves up too much for it. Maybe McLaren runs away with it, or Red Bull does... after 4 races we have someone way out in front or something.

What I think will be interesting is tire strategy. With fuel, there was a theoretical optimum strategy that balanced time lost to pit stops with the average weight of the car (which would be lower with more pit stops). It was calculated such that if you ran 1 lap beyond your calculated limit, you would run out of gas on the track.

Not so with tires. You can come in when they start to go off... or you can stay out and run them ragged and even though you are losing time per lap, if you can do 1 less pit stop than the others, that's maybe 30 seconds of time overall... so even losing 2 seconds a lap may be worth it to have one less stop.

This applies to driving style too. Today, Lewis Hamilton killed a set of tires in 4 laps. So a driver can really push and burn through tires quickly but put in fast laptimes. Or they can conserve tires and be slower per lap but make their tires last longer and perhaps get away with 1-2 less pit stops.

Same with fuel... you can run hard and burn through it and have to fill up heavy when you start... or you could take a more gentle approach and fill your car lighter and ask your driver to drive gently and burn less fuel per lap but with an overall lighter car.



All of these strategies could either converge into really exciting racing with strategies changing in the midst of a race if Hamilton gets into a battle with Alonso, and they both ruin a set of tires in the process and require an extra stop.

Or it could make for incredibly boring racing with everyone trying to conserve tires and fuel and not wanting to use up their resources lest they have to come in for additional pit stops.

We may also get a lot more strategic stuff from the pits... the teams possibly advising their driver not to try to pass the car ahead because they have calculated he is due another tire stop and if they can drive gingerly they can do without that stop.

I think it will be either very exiting or very boring. I just hope it's the former. And I hope we're not psyching ourselves up for nothing

 

Excellent post as always Mike!

I agree it has the potential to fall either way.

I myself predict several surprise results resulting from drivers using up their fuel and/or tires. The current rules remind me of the turbo era, when drivers were limited on their fuel and tire conservation was critical. The critical strategic considerations will be on the compound used for the various segements of the race.

A slower car that is able to do a 1 stopper while everyone else is making multiple stops has been known to throw a surprise result from time to time. I remember Senna chasing down Nannini in the Benetton in Germany years ago for example, where Nannini did a 1 stop and just managed to hold off Senna with his tires in tatters...many other examples come to mind as well.

Looking forward to a wonderful season!

Frank

 

Good morning everyone - 5 minutes to P3 - anyone have video links?

Carol

 

Good early early morning Carol... I'm attempting to use Speedy's earlier links , to no avail ..

 

Good morning to you too Isobel - we must be the die-hards ! ! I'm still searching for links too. Luizzi first out. I'm on autosport, f1 live timing and following Jon Noble's twitter group - there's bound to be something somewhere


Isobel - try this link http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/f1-information/f1-faq/watching-listening-to-and-following-f1-live-online/

watching P3 live here http://www.ilemi.com/522/2/Watch-F1--GP-Bahrein-Practice-3/

 

Hey guys, late evening here in nz, and time for some f1!

I'm using p2p4u.net at the moment, not an english stream but still useful

 

Morning everyone!

I'm watching this feed, but there is no one talking. That's not a bad thing either because you get to hear the cars!

http://www.p2p4u.net/watch/13631/3/watch-gp-bahrain--formula-1-practice-3.html

 

good morning Speedy - Isobel and myself are on - glad to see you too

Carol

 

Thank you, Carol....very much appreciated!!!

 

Mornin' Speed....

 

Mornin' Enzo

 

Nice lap by Webber...

 

The feed froze, but I seen a tire go rolling past the screen XD

EDIT: Glock

 

fyi the p2p feed is different than the one I found - I'm watching both feeds side by side - Schumi to P2

 

Wheels are still falling off in 2010?

 

Hey, it's only a wheel....

 

it's interesting watching two feeds side by side with the lag time ! ! Massa P1

 

I cannot get live timing to work on F1.com

I have Java installed.