Apr 17 2011

F1: Shanghai

About tire strategy

It was odd last night to watch pretty much everyone except McLaren and the one Red Bull left sit in the pits until there was only 2 minutes left in Q3 (time enough for one warm up and one hot lap).

They are very concerned about having enough Soft Pirellis and those are going off quickly, particularly if abused from the start which is, unfortunately, typical.

Tyre allocation has been reduced for 2011, with 11 rather than 14 sets of dry-weather tyres available to each driver per race weekend. Drivers will receive three sets (two prime, one option) to use in P1 and P2 and must return one set after each session. A further eight sets will then be at their disposal for the rest of the weekend, although one set of each specification must be handed back before qualifying.

So in total you have eight sets of Softs to get you through the final 2 practices (one before the Qualifying and ‘Warm Up Laps’ pre-race) and 3 rounds of Qualifying and then the race.  Some desperate soul sometime is going to make themselves famous by running an all Prime strategy but it hasn’t happened yet though some of the also rans have attemped it.

KERS you!

Mark Webber is pretty pissed off today.  In a car supposedly identical to pole sitter and Championship leader Sebastian Vettel’s, his KERS software is sucking power like a broken air conditioner at all the wrong places.

Speaking of Red Bull, Scuderia ‘I’ll have a cigarette with my espresso’ will start surprisingly strong.  Michael Schumacher once again under performs, his team mate Nico Rosberg is driving a contender.  Scuderia Marlboro UPC is over rated.  Paul di Resta impresses, Petrov couldn’t even put it back on the track.

It’s still very early in the season, this is only the third race of 19 and there are lots of points out there, but like The America’s Cup and Le Tour, Formula One tends to magnify advantages.  As a die hard McLaren fan I’m really satisfied with their performance this year, but Red Bull doesn’t seem to be suffering from their hardware failures.

Re-broadcast Monday at noon.

Pretty tables below.

The Q-Laps field gives an indication of tire and engine wear during qualifying.  Petrov did not take the track for a timed lap during Q3 even though he advanced, his best Q-Time was 1:35.149.

Starting Grid

Grid Driver Team Q-Time Q-Laps
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 1:33.706 14
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.421 13
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.463 11
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.670 19
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.119 18
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.145 18
7 Jaime Alguersuari STR-Ferrari 1:36.158 16
8 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:36.190 17
9 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 1:36.203 16
10 Vitaly Petrov Renault no time 11
11 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:35.874 14
12 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:36.053 16
13 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:36.236 11
14 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:36.457 16
15 Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:36.465 15
16 Nick Heidfeld Renault 1:36.611 11
17 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1:36.956 17
18 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 1:36.468 8
19 Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1:37.894 7
20 Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1:38.318 10
21 Jerome d’Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.119 8
22 Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:39.708 8
23 Vitantonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1:40.212 9
24 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:40.445 9

Driver Standings

Rank Driver Team Points
1 Sebastian Vettel RBR-Renault 50
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 26
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 22
4 Mark Webber RBR-Renault 22
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 20
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 16
7 Nick Heidfeld Renault 15
8 Vitaly Petrov Renault 15
9 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 6
10 Sebastien Buemi STR-Ferrari 4
11 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 2
12 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 2
13 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 2

Constructor Standings

Rank Team Points
1 RBR-Renault 72
2 McLaren-Mercedes 48
3 Ferrari 36
4 Renault 30
5 Sauber-Ferrari 6
6 STR-Ferrari 4
7 Force India-Mercedes 4
8 Mercedes 2

rustymancuso581

29 comments

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  2. bmaz doesn’t seem to be keeping up his trash talk as well as I am.

  4. it’s amazing how different these cars are in detail.

  5. Like he needs any more bad luck.

    Fuel leak, must fix in 4 minutes.

  6. At the last minute and great expense.

  13. Button

    Hamilton

    Vettel

    Rosberg

    Massa

    Alonso

    di Resta

    Sutil

    Schumacher

    Alguasuari

  14. Garble Garble.

  15. Renault used to be so reliable.

  16. Caught up.

  17. No change indeed.

  18. Webber pits.

  20. Letting Vettel pass Button in the pits.

  21. Update after the race stabilizes.

  22. Rosberg

    Vettel

    Massa

    Hamilton

    Schumacher

    Button

    Alonso

    Heidfeld

    di Resta

    Sutil

  27. Vettel

    Massa

    Alonso

    Rosberg

    Button

    Hamilton

    di Resta

    Sutil

    Kobayashi

    Petrov

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