2013 F1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA: RACE *** SPOILERS ***

It's with Stepney at McClunken

 

They won't finish higher than 5th (yes I changed from 6th ). As soon as they pit early (which they will) the rest will fly. I'm unsure what Lotus can do there...obviously few stops is very good at monaco .

The reason they do this is so that no foreign objects (weight) can be added to the car thus increasing it's weight to escape a penalty if this weight just manages to get the car over the bare minimum limit.

Splitting image is he not?

Hmm not so sure I agree with that.

Most naturally beautiful IMO (speaking from personal experience):
Spain
Brazil
Denmark
Sweden
Italy
Israel

Not necessarily in that particular order.

American women put way to much cake on their face.

 

"Gladiator, come over here. Are you the one they call The Spaniard?"

Good show Fernando.

Feff

 

Who has said that? Every race FA has finished this year he's gotten 1st or 2nd. He could have easily won in Malaysia and Bahrain too...

 

The best news from this race is that Massa got 3rd. The car is WORKING guys

 

Lotus' Fric system is great for tires, and only fair for mechanical areas. They'll be somewhere in the top 10 is my guess, simply due to qualifying prowess of the car and how difficult Monaco is to pass.

Even last year with W03 which had even more serious tire issues Mercedes was far and away the quickest car at Monaco during qualy and race. The issue with Merc's tires wear is overheating in heavy aero sectors, the suspension simply works too well and pushes them over the limit very quickly and the tires simply cannot cope with it. Merc were a full half second quicker in the mechanical sector in Spain, Monaco will be a laugh fest for Dr. Z, I can see him twirling his moustache already. Alonso has picked Merc as the favorite.

The big problem is even if they do finish 1-2 in Monaco it won't matter a bit as that's the only place at this very moment their car will be very very fast unless they deduce these tires.

If I had to guess, I would say Costa is going to have to collectively devise a way for their suspension system to not be quite so soft in the heavy aero sectors because that is precisely how those tires are getting killed IMO. The car looks super stiff in mechanical, and very soft in heavy aero areas which is placing too much stress/heat on the tires. They'll have their hands full deducing hydraulic rates at each corner vs. load and stress and heave functions. And a huge problem with these Pirelli's is once they've been overheated once, they don't come back even if you bring the heat back to optimal levels. The old Bridgestones could come back if they went a few degrees over, not is the case with these. When they're done, they're done.

 

I would actually say the W04 has worse tire issues than the W03. Last year's car never faded as bad as both Mercedes did yesterday

 

It's been done a few times when the guy that has fewer stops in Monaco wins. Look at Vettel in 2011 I think when he did fewer stops and still managed to win. Yes his tires where shot to bits and he was hounded by 2-3 others...but this is monaco. Make your car as wide as possible and you'll keep them behind (I'm also aware of the 'free tires' they all got for the last few laps after the red flag).

I still don't think Mercedes can podium here. Yes they can keep some behind when their tires are ruined but the way mercedes eats through tires I seriously doubt they can do something similar to Vettel 2011.

To quote Ian ''this is why we watch''.

 

completely agree.

 

Matchet was mentioning that it looked like the R/R had to much positive camber. I hope Merc gets this issue resolved asap because it is so disappointing watching them fade after so much promise.

 

As a Ferrari fan I loved it.

Seriously, has there ever been a more irrelevant front row lockout in the history of F1?

 

haven't seen any mention of Webber on the grid, as in several cars just went by him like they EXPECTED him to have a slow start! Or (serously) did he have a mechanical issue?

 

+1
Sure seemed that way, or plus the fact that a Merc front row lockout and then gradual progression backwards certainly highlighted it.

 

Last year they had zero tires problems in Monaco. It's not the type of circuit this car eats tires on.

W03 faded everywhere except China and Monaco. It was so bad they had to ruin its qualifying pace and raise the ride height just to make the tires play somewhat nice, W03s system was immensely more complicated with actuators at every corner as I have heard rumored, no roll bars either. Costa calmed down the amount of 'stuff' on W04 and they have managed some podiums so far, but the system is still immensely active and hard on tires as Kimi pointed out the other day. Still, they will go well in Monaco as it's simply not the type of circuit that will eat tires. Turns 3, 4, and sort of 9 are the only aero turns, all else is mechanical grip.

 

If there was, surely it involved Jarno Trulli

 

They simply set the car up for max qualy attack to impress Merc's big cheeses on Saturday.

With their levels of spending and staff turnover, compared to Brawn, no sympathy here whatsoever.

Worse still they desacrated Schu's myth, and badly.

 

A pretty safe bet right there!.....

His usual moonwalk was mentioned briefly earlier in the thread, but it's hardly newsworthy these days!

AFAIK, no "complaints" about bad bite points etc this time - He just sucks getting off the line.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I beg to differ - The big cheeses are very aware that no points come from qualy, they're not silly....

+1

Even with their monster brain trust (because of?) they appear to have got it very wrong. Can't blame Pirelli as many others didn't moonwalk half way back through the field.

Huh? Sorry, not following your thinking here? The Schu's myth is safe forever IMO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Well the big cheeses ended up with egg on their faces.

Quiche anyone?

 

http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff96/ryanwood4/trullitrain.jpg

 

I have to say all of this talk about Pirelli changing the tire structures really annoyes me. The teams tested the tires, designed the cars around the tires, and have set up their cars around these tires. Lotus and now Ferrari are doing a better job at managing the tires/creating race pace. All of the teams were given the same rulebook and the specs to develop their cars and whoever does the best job wins. I find it absurd that F1 is going to cater to Red Bull and adopt new tires which will better suit that team. If that happens and Vettel wins a fourth championship, ... arggggh!

 

If there tires were of consistent spec that might be true.

 

But they are!..... As you well know, there's 4 different specs of which 2 come to each race.

One idea I mentioned before is that teams 'pre-order' whatever 2 of the 4 they want ahead of time. Then if they fall apart, or prove to be wooden, it's their problem......

Changing (predicted for Silverstone) needs unanimous approval from the teams & I'm not 100% sure that will happen.

I know I too will be major league pissed if the 'new' stuff puts the Cans back at the front.

Cheers,
Ian

 

That's the party line. As we're learning its not always the case.

 

If I was running Lotus or Ferrari there's not a chance in hell I'd vote for new tires.