May 12 2012

Formula One: Catalunya Qualifying

Richard (my Dad) tells me that McLaren sending out their test drivers instead of their race drivers means big changes, not mere tweeking and I suppose we shall see.  They come to Barcelona with a new nose and most teams have made at least some changes though many are complaining that in-season testing is a huge waste of time.

Personally I think that attitude means your team is under-organized or capitalized or both.  If you don’t have the chance to react to innovation you might as well write off your season and if you choose not to…

Well, you’re the Washington Generals now aren’t you?

Teams and drivers are closely matched after 20% of the season with the biggest ‘surprises’ being Scuderia Marlboro (they suck and have a slow car too, the surprise is that they are doing as well as they are) and Lotus (which shouldn’t really surprise anyone since they’re the Renault team renamed).  Mercedes (Brawn) is incredibly unhappy with the new Concorde which leaves them out of the $50 Million bribe club (Red Bull, McLaren, Marlboro) and has scheduled a vote on their participation next year even though they’re showing improvement.

Schumacher is also upset with Pirelli, complaining that so much attention is going into tire wear that that it’s like “driving on raw eggs” and there’s no opportunity to test the other aspects of the cars or the aggressiveness of the drivers.  This week we are using Hards and Softs with a 1.3 second per lap differential between them and no indication yet how long they will last on track.

After the Bahrain avalanche I suppose any amount of news would seem slight and I’ll try to delve a little deeper for the race tomorrow, but they’re still fussing with setups in Practice and we won’t actually know anything until after Qualifying.

Repeat tonight at 1 am.  The actual race is a 7:30 am start tomorrow on Speed with a repeat at noon Monday.  GP2 starts at 6 am.

Surprises below.

rustymancuso581

23 comments

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  2. I suppose someone thought it was funny.

  4. Tire wear indeed.

  5. Whatever soccer is, it’s not motorized or fast.

  6. Oh, it’s a Faux thing.

  8. 8 to play.

  11. So now we know- 2 hot laps on the Softs and then they go off.

  12. Senna

    Petrov

    Kovalainen

    Pic

    Glock

    de la Rosa

    Karthikeyan

  14. In the garage, as usual, yawn.

  15. Cars on track now.

    What they should do is provide an extra set of race tires.

    They last as long as they do, which penalizes you a pit stop, and yet you can run hard.

  17. Big surprises!

  18. Button!

    Webber!

    di Resta

    Hulkenberg

    Vergne

    Ricciardo

    Massa

  19. Low temperature == fast lap.

  20. Duh.

  21. Good for him.

  22. Hamilton

    Maldonado!

    Alonso!

    Grosjean!

    Raikkonen!

    Perez!

    Rosberg!

    Vettel!

    Schumacher!

    Not so much that they made it (though some) but the positioning.

    Hamilton is the only usual suspect.

  23. They always do.

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