Is it really the tires..or even the cars?

Just driving down the highway today and I got wondering......

I've had it in my head that the reason ferrari isn't doing very well this year is that the bridgestone tires just aren't as good as the michelins (USGP aside).

But driving along today it occurred to me that if Alonso could just walk away from the field, why was Fisichella in the exact same car so slow, not even close? RB was always right behind or even in front of MS, it was clear they had great cars the last few seasons. But I don't see that with Alonso and Fisichella.

If Kimi could charge through the field, why not JM? He did well befoe the mechanical failure, but he wasn't slicing though the pack and reeling in Alonso.

What about the other michelin teams? The honda and toyota cars are fast and williams, they just look awful.

Why did MS, and RB too I guess, turn good qualitying laps and then look totally out classed by Alonso and Kimi who ran the race close to their qualifiing time when MS and RB never came close?

Why could Sato turn in a handful of hot and very competetive laps before sliding of the track trying a stupid pass?

The only thing I can think is that maybe the brigdestone tires change completely afer a heat cycle or go off quickly if pushed? Or maybe they just drive and feel completely different than last years tires and the other drives just haven't addapted like Alonso and Kimi have?

 

Funny, I ran a very custom XR harley in the Battle of the Twins series for several years. I was never good enough to win, but almost always top ten. I Auto-cross these days and win about 1/2 or 1/3 of the events I go to. So I have raced.

Having raced both, I am sure that racing motorcycles is very very different for cars. To your point a great rider will put a second or even 2 a lap on a good rider on the the same equipment.

I've never seen that with cars, it's usually just a few tenths of a second, like MS to RB.


You guys are still missing my main point though I think. The qualifying lap times were really close, I expected a great race since they are racing the car/setup they qualified with. Alonso and Kimi went out and raced the whole race very near their qualifying times. Sato and JM put a only a handful of laps together near their qualifying times.

The rest of the feild, including MS ran the race 2-3 seconds off qualifying pace. Last year that didn't happen, at least not that I recall. MS is out driving the whole rest of the feild on a regular basis just like always....but Alonso and Kimi are destroying him....that didn't come close to happening last season. It's just those 2.

Last season second place maybe, but certainly third was anyone's guess who would take it. The field was pretty even, there were maybe 6 or 8 cars that had a good shot at a podium finish in P2 or P3 with MS in front by 15 seconds?

Sunday I watched Alonso and Kimi LAP the whole field except MS who would have fallen had the race run another 5 or 10 laps. They Lapped up to P3! That's not a race. When I first sarted racing, a novice race I was in with about 20 bikes we lapped up to P4....but that was a novice race for god's sake. I can understand that in endurance racing were it only takes 1/2 a second per lap to end up a lap down. But if F1?

I just don't get it. I just don't see how is could be the equipment because the equipment because Alonso lapped his team mate, who did win a race his year and did well last year and JM (who was always a podium contender last year) and MS seemed to be running pretty close to each other.

I don't get it.

 

I'll add this, I'm thinking the new tires just don't let the car feel like the drives are used to race cars feeling and are comfortable with. In qualifying, when it really matters, the drives push the cars hard, really hard....they need thatr grid position.

During the race, most of the drivers push until they reach their comfort level, knowing it's a long race they need to finish. The new tires are alot harder than they are used to racing on, maybe the car moves around a lot more than they are used to? Sato turned in some great laps in the race until a poorly planned pass sent him off the track and he backed off.

I'm wondering if it comes down to Alonso and Kimi just being more comfortable with the way the cars feel on the new tires than the other drivers?

 

I haven't watched it that much, so I just went and checked the results. You're right that lapping up to P3 does happen, but not very often. The French GP historically seems to be one of the most competetive, with lapping in the P6-P10

Oh well, I guess it's just me who finds it odd.

 

I didn't catch the problem with Rubens, but I thought I saw fisi lose what, 6 or 8 secondss in the pits? If that was all it was he would have taken P2.

JPM was just ahead of MS fighting for P3 when he went out wasn't he? Not really in contention.

Every race (ecept the usgp) has cars with problems, some lose almost 1/2 the field, but it still ends with 5-10 cars on the lead lap.

It just seems different this year to me. Last year I'd watch MS take pole by 1/2-1 second and go out in the race and put 1/2-1 second on the field. That makes sense to me. But when I see 7 cars that qualified within 1/2 second of each other, and then watch 2 of them put 2 seconds per lap on the field by running laps a second or 2 slower than qualifying times I find it odd. It just doesn't seem to make any sense.

 

One of the Renaults, the second car isn't and one Mclaren....you might sell me both McLarens.

But in qualifying this year BAR/Honda, Toyota and Ferrari are also on pace as are both Renaults and both McLarens.

I could understand the big change from qualifying times to race in the old days when engines, tires, fuel all changed. But when 13 cars go out and runs a 1:15s or better in qualifying. In the race only 3 cars got into the 1:16s and 12 did 1:17s of better. So about 2.5 seconds off qualifying pace for the race

Last year in France 12 of the cars qualified with 1:14s or better. Then 5 cars turned a 1:15s in the race and 14 did 1:16s or better. so about 1.5 second off qualifying pace.

There seems to be a bigger difference between qualifying and race pace then there used to be....with the exception of Alonso and Kimi, they both seem to be doing about what they did last year, about 1.5 seconds. I'd have to past it all into excel to see if it's a real pattern, but it looks real.

 

Why are 17 or 18 drivers, not 20?