Lots of passing this year

I personally think the casual fan probably doesn't even know who Pirelli is, let alone care ...

Pete

 

In that case Pirelli is wasting a boat load of money. F1 sponsorship is about commercial exposure.

 

Actually it's not about the fans, it is about wining and dining your customers at F1 events. That is what Pirelli has bought.

They can now bring their customers along to an F1 event, point at the tyres and say they are ours and impress the cr@p out of their customers with canapes and champagne, and waiters/resses and all the razzle dazzle.

They can also take fancy photographs and put them in fancy magazines ...


The results don't matter a damn ... except to us fans, and Pirelli and the rest of the companies involved in F1 could not give a flying fnck what we think. They are too busy having another glass of champagne .
Pete

 

nice insight, you are turning out to be very accurate about the tyres and I think the KERS/DRS will play their part.

I wonder if any of the top guys would risk starting from the rear on hards and then having excelelnt sets of tyres for the remainder ?


Oh wait, someone did !!

And look what happened, 18th -> 3rd

 

That is a key part of the "sponsorship experience" but just one component.
One thing's for sure. We wont be seeing any Pirelli ads touting how racing improves the breed.

 

Before the season started some of the analysts were suggesting that given the Pirelli wear characteristics, there might be an advantage to sacrifice grid position for the sake of race rubber. Looks like they were on to something.
Now that Webber has shown what's possible will we see more of it?

 

If we do then Ferrari's management would have been correct in their statements that quali wasn't the deciding factor of the race. Perhaps... perhaps Ferrari have been toying with this strategy and haven't gotten it quite right yet. Of course this strategy would only work if SV doesn't keep the lead after turn 1.

 

Not sure if I buy your qualifier. We'll see.

 

I'm not sure I do either

 

Good Q. My 02c;

- Not from Ferrari (at least deliberately ) They're too conservative to try such a "risky" strategy IMHO. [Can you imagine the *howls* for Stefano's head if it didn't work!? ]
- Renault, and likely Sauber (Williams?) OTOH may be willing to give it a go - We've already seen a one stopper for example.
- MW drove maybe the best race of his life (?) - How many times is it all going to fall into place so nicely?

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Thinking about MW drives - I guess it's still got to be his debut 6th place in the Minardi - He's leveraged an entire career from that debut

 

I guess that's why the ponies run at Aqueduct.

 

We might see ads saying how Pirelli improved the racing and overtaking issues in F1 and taking extra care to go slow and look after your tyres thus saving money making roads safer and you win thinking of the environment..... and and and and forget it!!...

IMO after the last race in China how anyone can honestly say KERS and DRS and the new Pirelli tyres make for a bad racing is beyond me.

Besides Lucas whining (which I take as Ferrari not getting it right) I haven't read anything else.

 

I could see teams getting to Q3 then running Q3 on hards.

 

Only on certain tracks IMO; use that strategy in, let's say, Monaco, and you'd be kicking yourself in the nuts .

 

I've tried that.
I don't recommend it.

Thing is that on a track like Monaco where passing happens in the pits this strategy might work.
We'll see.

 

I'm thinking that Monaco will be a 1 stop race for everyone (except Hamilton of course, after he chews out his team when they tell him he has to conserve tires). There's just no chance for passing, so we won't run into a situation like China where those on fresher rubber could race through the pack.

 

If it is a one stop race the majority of it will be run on the harder compound. Not sure how well that will work.

 

Hasn't been relevant since Bernie took control and made it a soap opera TV show.

Pete

 

Bernie has indeed turned it into one big commercial.
Which is my point

 

But for that soap to really foam we need more water...from sprinklers

 

Or Webber's tears...

 

Corrected.

As did Alonso as he started in Minardi, that is how racing driver careers normally work ... unless your name is LH and then you can start in the best car on the grid and have to prove nothing.

Pete

 

We have something better: tyres that require a driver and team to think .

Pete