Tag: Formula One

Oct 28 2012

F1 2012: Buddh

Ah, the simple pure meritocracy of sport.

Ferrari Move to Calm Navy Flag Row

By REUTERS

Published: October 27, 2012 at 7:15 AM ET

GREATER NOIDA, India (Reuters) – Ferrari moved to placate angry Indian authorities on Saturday with an assurance that a navy flag on their Formula One cars was not a political statement of support for Italian sailors detained for killing local fishermen.

Umm… so what is it then?

The Italian navy flag will, however, remain on the cars for the remainder of the Indian Grand Prix weekend.

…

The two sailors were detained in February on charges of killing two Indian fishermen while protecting a cargo ship off the Indian ocean coast.

Italy says the sailors, who were released on bail in June in the southern state of Kerala, mistook the men for pirates.

Ferrari issued a statement on Saturday saying they had put the flag on their cars as a tribute to “one of our country’s outstanding institutions”.

The declaration overwrote one published on their website (www.ferrari.com) earlier in the week that had also hoped the sailors’ situation would be resolved.

After all, they were brown people on a boat.  Who’s to know that they weren’t pirates, or illegal immigrants, or drug smugglers?

They’re brown.

And poor.

They have no rights a rich person is bound to respect.

Motor Racing: Mallya Flies In for Indian GP, Slams Critics

By REUTERS

Published: October 27, 2012 at 3:15 AM ET

The liquor and aviation tycoon, no longer a billionaire according to the latest Forbes list, flew in from London on his private Airbus after suggestions that he might stay away to avoid having it impounded.

…

Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines had its license suspended by India’s civil aviation authorities last week and has not flown since the start of October after a protest by employees, unpaid since March, turned violent.

The airline has never turned a profit and, according to the consultancy Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, has total debt estimated at about $2.5 billion.

…

Mallya is an important figure in Formula One, a longtime friend of F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and sitting on the governing International Automobile Federation’s world motor sport council.

He was also instrumental in bringing the sport to the country and co-owns the first and only Indian-licensed team.

…

“Kingfisher Airlines is a Plc. They (the local media) don’t understand the concept of a Plc.”

“In a Plc where is one man, who might be the chairman, responsible for the finances of the entire Plc? And what has it got to do with all my other businesses? I have built up and run the largest spirits company in the world in this country.”

Asked whether he had flown to India on his plane, Mallya vented more frustration.

“You are probably referring to my plane being seized? Wonderful. I don’t owe anybody money,” he said. “Why should my plane be at risk. It’s so stupid.”

Move along- no corruption to see here.

Despite Formula One, Jaypee’s balance sheet remains a big challenge

Ravi Teja Sharma, Economic Times

28 Oct, 2012, 09.17 AM

A few years ago when the Gaur family, promoters of the Jaypee Group, first talked about setting up a racetrack to host F1 in India, many scoffed. That changed in 2009, when the Gaurs signed a 10-year deal with F1’s controlling body, FIA, to build the circuit and hold the event and then followed it up by getting the track ready in two years flat.

However, since the inaugural race in October last year, the group has had to grapple with uncertainty and red tape as Uttar Pradesh voted out Mayawati, who was considered to be close to the Gaurs. With Mayawati’s bete noire Akhilesh Yadav at the helm of UP politics, the opening of the 185-km long, Rs 13,000-crore Yamuna Expressway – that connects Greater Noida with Agra – was delayed.

There is some history to that. Before the UP elections in early 2012, there was apprehension about the future of the group if Mayawati was ousted from power. Analysts tracking the company were worried about the impact of possible political change (and vendetta that follows with political change in India) on the business.

Soon after his election, Akhilesh Yadav referred to the expressway during a debate in the UP assembly as an “expressway of scams meant to provide huge undue favours to a select company”. Some of these fears seemed justified when the company was kept hanging for a completion certificate and formalities for the opening were completed in a hurry by the UP government only on the night before the opening. However, a behind-the-scenes rapprochement seemed to have been worked out as the expressway was opened to the public in August by Yadav himself.

…

The toll revenue from the expressway was never what attracted Jaypee to this project in the first place. To build the expressway, the company did not charge anything from the government, but was given 6,175 acres of land across five locations (1,235 acres each) along the expressway, which it will use to develop around 530 million sq ft of real estate over the years. The group has already sold 68 million sq ft of space in Noida and Greater Noida, with a sale value of over Rs 14,000 crore and the company has got advances of Rs 7,800 crore.

Yamuna Expressway, DND flyway to be toll-free for F1 final day

Economic Times

25 Oct, 2012, 07.21PM

GREATER NOIDA: Yamuna Expressway and DND Flyway will be toll-free on Sunday, the final day of Formula one racing event.

…

Commuters from Agra, Mathura and Noida will get signal- free and toll-free movement and they will be able to reach Buddh International Circuit to watch the Formula one car racing final, the Yamuna Expressway spokesperson said.

Mayur Vihar Toll Plaza will not be free, said Abbasi. Last year during the final day of the Formula one event, the traffic volume on DND was around 75,000 vehicles, he said.

And that has nothing to do with this-

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone unperturbed by smaller crowds at second edition of Indian Grand Prix

India Today

Greater Noida, October 28, 2012, UPDATED 13:13

It is an open secret that ticket sales for the second Indian Grand Prix at the Buddh International Circuit have been sluggish compared to last year, when a near full house welcomed the sport to country.

…

The Briton, who turns 82 on Sunday, feels his close friend and Force India chief Vijay Mallya should consider having an Indian driver in his team.

…

On the topic of Mallya and his troubled Kingfisher Airlines, he added: “I think what Mallya has done for India is super. Everyone should support him. His company has run into some difficulties, but so have many other companies because we are going through a recession.” Formula One makes its long-awaited return to the United States in three weeks’ time and Ecclestone is hopeful that the experiment won’t be a failure like in the past, when the public never warmed up to the twists and turns of an F1 circuit instead of their usual oval fare. But he couldn’t resist taking a dig at Americans.

“The trouble with doing anything in America is that they want to be guaranteed money before anything starts. The people in Austin have built a super circuit. Indianapolis did the same, but there was a bit of a family problem in the way it was run,” he said.

Let me be the first to say Happy Birthday asshole.

Bernie has this guy in mind-

India’s Unassuming Formula One Pioneer

By BRAD SPURGEON, The New York Times

Published: October 26, 2012

“I was the first guy from India to be in Formula One, nobody had been to this territory before,” he said in a recent interview. “So it was all inventing it myself. Being a pioneer is always difficult, and I’m glad to have got another chance to race in Formula One.”

…

The HRT team is one of the weakest – and newest – in the series. After almost three full racing seasons, it has yet to score a single point. But Karthikeyan says he knows his value as a driver.

…

(R)acing at all levels requires money from its drivers, and Karthikeyan said it was not easy to persuade Indian companies to pay for a sport so little known in his country. Still, early on he gained the support of the Tata group of companies, and Tata eventually supported his entry into Formula One.

…

Tata, based in Mumbai, grew as a global conglomerate at the same time as Karthikeyan’s career grew, and it helped him fund his second stint in Formula One as well.

Wouldn’t want anyone uppity like Hamilton after all.

Winning Is Always the Goal for Hamilton

By BRAD SPURGEON, The New York Times

Published: October 26, 2012

Winning is always the main goal, and that is the most exciting part. It is the most satisfying part of all the work that goes into it. But as you get to Formula One, you realize this is the pinnacle of the sport and winning tons of times is not that easy. So it makes you learn to appreciate them more. When you have a longer gap, when you have 20 races and you only have three wins, those wins you really appreciate, because it took a lot of effort from yourself and from all the people that are in the team. And of course you want to win as many titles as possible. But it is getting harder and harder to do so.

Besides, these 3rd world countries are always letting Rally Squirrels run around.

Indian GP Moves on From the Dog Days of 2011

By REUTERS

Published: October 27, 2012 at 5:03 AM ET

Last year’s inaugural race at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC) was dogged by feral hounds on the dusty track during practice and teething problems in a paddock that was far from finished.

…

There has so far been no repeat of last year’s canine interruption.

“Every single intervention post has a gate now. We learnt from mistakes. It was very well controlled by the volunteers last year. There was no panic, it did not cause any accident.”

“There’s a sucker born every minute”- P.T. Barnum

Formula One race in New Jersey postponed until 2014 because of organizational problems

By Associated Press

Oct 19, 2012 04:49 PM EDT

“The event is not going to happen” in 2013 as planned, F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone said Friday. “Everything is set up, but it’s now too late to finish on time.”

Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner earlier told The Jersey Journal the race would not proceed next year. The newspaper said Turner and another unidentified mayor contend organizers were behind on road repairs and permits.

“The reason is because they didn’t quite know what they were doing,” Ecclestone said. “They got all the permissions together. Everything was done, that was all fine, but then they missed the boat a little on some financing that was coming in.”

Motor Racing: French GP Could Return in 2013-Ecclestone

By REUTERS

Published: October 28, 2012 at 3:00 AM ET

GREATER NOIDA, India (Reuters) – The French Grand Prix could be back on the calendar next year for the first time since 2008, Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters on his 82nd birthday at the Indian Grand Prix, the Briton suggested France could fill a slot vacated by a postponed New Jersey race and bring the championship back to 20 rounds.

One month till Austin’s F1 race and still much to do at Circuit of the Americas

By John Maher, American-Statesman Staff

Posted: 6:33 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2012

A staggering amount of preparations already have been completed at the $300 million Circuit of the Americas, which two years ago was just scrub pastureland. On Wednesday, Braedon Box, project manager for the circuit, said, “Everything track-related is done. We could have a race right now. Everything else isn’t done … I’m certain everybody would like to be a little further along and putting their feet up right now.”

…

One of the biggest projects still unfinished is a three-lane extension of Kellam Road, which is still not paved.

The two-thirds of a mile extension will create a northern entry for the track off Pearce Lane and should help ease traffic flow. A graded dirt road was punched through weeks ago.

“They got some heavy iron and knocked that out in two weeks,” Box said. “(Then) there was a lot of start, stop and pause.”

He said the new road passed over three gas lines and a water line. Overhead utility issues also cropped up, and the last of those issues was resolved this week, Box said, adding that once paving begins it will take only a few days.

Racing?  Hards and Softs.

Buddh

Interactive Track

Official Sites

Pretty tables below.

Oct 27 2012

F1 2012: Buddh Qualifying

It’s only the second time we’ve raced at Buddh.  Motor sports history will probably not be kind to Herman Tilke, but this circuit is not quite as boring as most of his designs.

With a mere 4 races left in the season (including this one) Vettel and Alonso are about a mile ahead of everyone else in the Drivers’ Championship and indeed with the Prancing Pony fading down the stretch and the Caffeinated Bovine stampeding it seems likely the second winner in India will be the same as the first and this will be a yawning run away and hide race unless equipment failure or accident shuffle the deck.

On offer this week will be Hards and Softs and the 2 step difference may tempt daring pit stop strategies but since they’ve never been successful so far I doubt any excitement.

Bayern Bank wants its half a Billion bribe back from Bernie.  Good luck with that.  In a totally unrelated development (yup, fer sure) just about half that will be invested by the same Texas teachers who are seeing their jobs cut to pay for Perry’s Problem for the bankrupt Lehman stake in the now Moody’s B1 rated enterprise which marks to market the total value of Ecclestone’s CVC controlled property at a mere $7 Billion overall.

Surprised?  Not I.  I’ve saved the real thing for below provided there is any.

Interactive Track

Official Sites

Oct 14 2012

F1 2012: Yeongam

It seems the story of this and the last 4 races are going to be the Drivers and (possibly) Constructors Championships and if I say that with a sigh I’d much rather see some exciting racing.  Yeongam is fast enough, but like so many of the newer tracks with the current cars lead changes will only happen at the start, through accidents and mechanical failures, and through tire strategies.

Softs and Super Softs are on offer, most teams blew away 2 sets of the Super Softs during Qualifying (Ferrari saved a set) and all of the first five rows are on the Supers BUT…  depending on how used up they are it’s just barely possible that some drivers will try and stretch them out long enough before the first pit to run a one stop.  They will be aided by the fact that the track is so new and smooth.  Will this make much of a difference?  There is about 0.2 to 0.6 seconds lap time difference between the two compounds.

On the start everyone, particularly the even gridders will be looking for a fast one to keep Vettel from running away in the distance.  Look for any Team Order strategies at Red Bull to be designed around getting him in front of Webber in the first lap.

As far as mechanical failure goes, Pic had to accept a 10 Grid penalty for exceeding his engine allotment for the season and almost every team is on their last new one.

Schumacher can’t stay away from trouble.  After being reprimanded for impeding HRT (HRT!) in practice Mercedes will have to pay a 10,000 euro fine for unsafe release in front of Hamilton during Qualifying.

Interactive Track

Yeongam

Official Sites

Pretty tables below.

Oct 13 2012

F1 2012: Yeongam Qualifying

At least we have something to talk about other than Baseball, Politics, and Lewis Hamilton.

One thing that is interesting about Yeongam is they don’t use the track for anything except Formula One which means it’s dusty and slick until about halfway through the race.

But wait!  Don’t they sweep it and wash it?

Sure they do, but that’s part of the problem.

You see, heated race tires are like big gummy lint rollers and suck stuff up from the crevices of the asphalt that brooms and water can’t reach.  Also they lay down a sticky Rubber Cement-like layer in the racing line that’s similar to the floor in the first row of your neighborhood Bijou.

During what little I was able to see of Practice there was this constant back and forth of drivers wanting more downforce and engineers saying- try and make it work, you’ll change your tune on Sunday.

Speaking of tires, it’s Softs and Super Softs this week which means probably a 3 stop race and marginal lap time differential between the two, depending on fuel load.

But here’s the BIG news-

Formula One’s 17-year run with Speed channel ending after this season

Associated Press

Published October 12, 2012

Fox Sports Media Group, which owns Speed, confirmed Friday that the partnership will end after this season. The network indicated it was outbid for the U.S. broadcast rights by a “different media partner.”

Two people familiar with the negotiations tell The Associated Press that F1 was in talks with NBC for U.S. broadcast rights.

So that means a move to Vs. (now NBC Sports).  Is this a good thing?

Hard to tell.  It means some of the tools I rely on, like the Speed Racecast will be at best unfamiliar and at worst may omit essential elements.  Will there be conflicts during Le Tour?  What about America’s Cup?

Have I mentioned I hate change?

Oct 07 2012

F1 2012: Suzuka

When last we chatted about Hamilton’s prospects I was convinced he’d stay at McLaren and Mercedes wasn’t even on the chart.  Why?  Because they have a slow car, arguably 5th slowest out of 12 and some of the Sauber and Force India fans would contend lower than that.

What Mercedes does have is Ross Brawn (who also snagged Schumacher) and Nico Rosberg (Carting team mate) who are both very good friends.

I still don’t think this was a wise decision from a competitive standpoint, but the heart want’s what it wants and it’s not irrational at all for Hamilton to feel that McLaren’s track management mistakes were holding him back.

Schumacher was done anyway, he’s been driving like a man who just doesn’t care for the last two years.  This leaves an opening at McLaren with no obvious (or rather- too many) contenders.

Well we finally have an explanation of why Scuderia Marlboro UPC sucked so bad these past few seasons, their wind tunnel is a piece of crap.  Lotus is not going to get a chance to use their new wing, probably for the season, because there is just not enough track test time.

Hards and Softs, no Mediums.  What this means is there will be a very distinct performance/durability gap between them.  Pirelli is predicting a 3 stop race, but some teams may try for 2.

Schumacher penalized 20 positions for the collision at Marina Bay, Button and Hulkenberg lose 5 positions for a gearbox change.  Vettel escapes with a mere reprimand for blocking Alonso.  Hamilton qualified exceptionally poorly because he was behind the last lap crash of Raikkonen.

Suzuka is very fast, but doesn’t have a lot of passing opportunities.  This race will likely be won or lost on tire strategy and pit stops unless there are mechanical failures or accidents.

Interactive Track

Suzuka

Official Sites

Pretty tables below.

Oct 06 2012

F1 2012: Suzuka Qualifying

The last thing I want to talk about at the moment is Schumacher and Hamilton, fortunately Baseball has been very, very good to me.

Too good in fact and it’s been difficult to concentrate on anything else.

Suzuka is very fast and one of the few circuits with a figure 8 layout.  I’ve always been disappointed that they don’t run School Bus races there because there’s nothing like a good old figure 8 School Bus races for twisted chunks of flaming metal.

There have actually been a few crashes during Practice including Schumacher and di Resta.  Vettel led the last practice but there seems to be general agreement that Hamilton’s McLaren is faster than anyone.

We shall see.

Sep 23 2012

F1 2012: Marina Bay

During the boring parts today you can expect to hear lots of commentary about driver changes.  I’ve never been much of a believer in the ‘great man’ theory of history and I think most drivers with a Super License can be said to be reasonably competent while but a bare handful have any positive impact over and above the hardware they pilot and the management teams that support them.

There really is only one Alonso and he’s a perfect fit in Maranello where they can’t be bothered to produce a quick car because they’re so busy polishing their turds (Mythbusters have proven you can actually do this).

Hamilton is a good example of the other kind of driver, fearless and skilled, able to make fast hardware fast and not so fast hardware work at all, constantly thwarted and frustrated by decisions over which they have little control.

There has been a lot of talk about Hamilton changing teams that I’ve felt has been totally misguided.  Where would he go?  There are only 3 teams besides McLaren in the last 14 years that have produced a champion.

Scuderia Marlboro UPC might be interested in a Massa upgrade, but not necessarily in Hamilton.  Alonso doesn’t care much who he races with as long as they stay in the mirror which Hamilton would not.  Without Alonso, Maranello would have a tough time getting to Q3.  Why would Hamilton trade down hardware and put himself in an impossible situation?

Red Bull stands pat.  Why wouldn’t they?  Management and hardware is usually superior (not so much this year) and Vettel and Webber are good enough to win.

That leaves Lotus (Renault).  If Hamilton moves Grosjean is in his seat.

But it’s all mere speculation, Hamilton signed a 1 year extension yesterday.  Sinagapore also signed a 5 year extension of their race contract for a little more than $25 million a year.  While Bernie is being coy there is no doubt it’s a substantial discount compared to the $40 million charged Bahrain for the privilege.

And it has nothing at all to do with listing the now indefinitely postponed IPO on the Singapore exchange.  Nothing.

What about this race?

Twisty, bumpy, narrow, hard to pass… breakdowns, crashes, and tires otherwise they finish the way they start.  Fortunately for the entertainment value these are all likely to factor.  de la Rosa has already taken a gearbox penalty (to no effect since he was starting last anyway).  Vettel is complaining (with many others) about the curbing in the Turn 10 chicane launching cars and close wall encounters have been common.  Mercedes is taking a gamble with Softs (the harder of the 2 compounds this week) at the start instead of the 1 second a lap faster Super Softs.

Odds are it will be a soporific dronefest though not nearly as much as the Sunday Talking Heads.  It is the potential for excitement, change, and news that make it superior.

Pretty tables below.

Sep 22 2012

F1 2012: Marina Bay Qualifying

Next June 9th to 20th might be a good time to stay away from northern New Jersey and New York City as Bernie’s traveling circus comes to fat boy bully Chris Christie’s bond degraded New Jersey.  Bad news for Spain which faces secession by Catalonia AND the loss of the Valencia race.

Singapore next year is a provisional start as track officials argue that the expense of lighting the only night race and setting up the street circuit should merit a further reduction in the participation fee.  This is not good news for Ecclestone as the Formula One IPO has been postponed indefinitely while his company CVC has sold 50% of its once 65% share privately.

In another sign that the air is leaving the Formula One bubble, Speed’s Formula One Debrief is reporting that teams are moving away from schemes attempting to reduce costs through racing regulations in favor of flat expenditure caps.  I think this would actually be good as it would penalize diversity less and allow junior teams the track development time they so desperately need to be competitive.

Of course one of the problems is the expansion plans.  The inclusion of so many Asian events is driving up the costs of logistics and transportation, the question is whether the perceived value of name recognition and client relations from association with Formula One will be sufficient to continue to fund the lavish excesses of greedy parasites like Bernie.

Mercedes has a new exhaust.  Lotus a new wing.  We’ll be running Softs and Super Softs, the track won’t be helping them much as it will be hot and bumpy though it is a slow track, just slightly faster than Monaco.

How will the artificial lighting effect them?  Probably not much but if you’ve ever been night skiing you know it has a tendency to flatten out irregularities so what seems a minor mogul can suck your knees to your chest with compression or launch you unexpectedly.  More to the point is that the customary early evening showers are likely to wash off any ‘rubbering in’ and make the pavement slippery.  There’s not a lot of room for error on a street course, Caterham has already busted a suspension on the Jersey barriers bringing out a red flag that interrupted Friday’s second Practice.

Renault is having a real problem with their alternators in every engine they ship.  They made some modifications to give it a little more grunt that have proven disastrous from a reliability standpoint and unfortunately the defective AE35 unit in failure mode is little more than a chunk of twisted metal so post mortem diagnostics have so far been ineffective.

Race time tomorrow 7:30 am.  Any surprises below.

Sep 09 2012

F1 2012: Autodromo Nazionale Monza

A couple of stories emerged during Qualifying.  The first is Alonso who marched steadily backwards in the time charts due to what they are calling swaybar problems.  Monza is a bad place to screw up if you’re wearing red because it’s Maronello’s home track and the boys at Marlboro UPC are watching quite closely.  This is why Qualifying high was good news for Massa who is reportedly hanging onto his job by a thread.

The other is track condition.  There have been an unexpected incidents of mechanical problems, some minor and others (gearbox, engine) not so minor.  Speculation is the uneven new paving is stressing the components.

Grosjean was suspended for a race because he caused that 4 car pile up in Turn 1 last week with Alonso, Hamilton, Kobayashi, and Perez.  Some observers consider this harsh, me not so much.  Starts are the most dangerous time in the race and he plowed into Hamilton as if he wasn’t even there.  He’s being replaced in the Lotus by d’Ambrosio.  Maldonado jumped the start at Spa and has suffered a 10 grid penalty.  di Resta didn’t use his gearbox 5 races in a row and has suffered a 5 grid penalty.

Pirelli is offering Hards and Mediums and is predicting 1 stop racing which will minimize pit advantage.  These are not the same Hards and Mediums that started the season.  At Spa and now here Pirelli has gone with narrower tires and a different compound that doesn’t degrade quite as quickly.  This is tempting teams to push them harder which is creating a situation where they could drive the wheels right off and suffer blow outs.

Speed coverage starts at 8 am.  Repeat at 12:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

Sep 08 2012

F1 2012: Autodromo Nazionale Monza Qualifying

Monza is the fastest track on the Formula One tour and until recently was the personal testing ground of the Scuderia Marlboro UPC.  Now, except for this weekend, constructors are barred from using it at all.

There are a couple of angles to this.  First, the commentators have finally noticed what I’ve been pointing out for years which is that track testing, though expensive, is the only way for new teams to develop the engineering knowledge to become competitive.

You see it’s quite one thing to take your chassis and your aero bits to a wind tunnel and create a downforce/drag model and an entirely different thing to generate a table of tire grip and degradation under various track surfaces, temperatures, fuel loads, and driving styles.

Also tracks are losing revenue from admissions and rent and maintenance is neglected and untested since the circuits are not being used.  Monza used to rent out every weekend without an event to Maronello and people would pay to wander around and watch.  They’ve just repaved a section and it’s so ripply that people are in danger of losing their compliance boards (you can only scratch a millimeter or 2 off the bottom of your car when you bang the road or a curb).  The prancing pony people would have had that fixed.

Another issue is driver preparation.  Out of a limited pool of practice hours teams understandably devote the bulk to their primaries.  If by circumstance you are forced to start your substitute they will have very little experience in anything except a simulator.  GP 2s are a very different car and type of racing and graduates of that program still require 2 or 3 seasons of training in the F1 hardware to be effective which is why you’ll see so many ‘retired’ veterans make a brief comeback no matter how bad they were in their original stint in the big show.

As is happening this weekend, Grosjean is under suspension for taking out Alonso and Hamilton in Turn One at Spa last week.  His replacement?  d’Ambrosia of no particular reputation other than that of not gratuitously wrecking cars.

Lotus is particularly hard hit this year because after much development they’ve been forced to temporarily abandon their trick passive F-Duct for the 3rd race where it might have made a difference.  Europe has been rainy and race weekend practices inundated beyond the possibility of testing.  We may or may not see its debut in Suzuka, just in time to make no difference at all this season and legislated out of existence next.

Monza is very very fast and the operative elements are downforce and drag.  All the teams will be running the smallest wings they have in stock.  The tire compounds are Hard and Medium and at that they will probably go off quicker than you think because of the stress of braking and cornering without aero help.  Likewise engines and transmissions (Alonso has already gone through a set of each in practice).

While it’s fast, there’s not a lot of passing opportunities because the engines are so narrowly specified that there’s not a lot of horsepower difference on the straights.  Position changes under braking which means it will be a game of chicken in the corners with a lot depending on mechanical (tire) grip.  There will be 2 DRS Zones but the cars are already so light I don’t expect them to make much difference.

On form McLarens and Ferraris look slightly better because of beefier engines and because they have problems with getting enough downforce, not being fast in a straight line.  Pole will be particularly important though probably not decisive because the interval between the leaders will be low.  It will be difficult to get enough of a lead to pit without losing position and hard to regain that once lost unless in an advantageous tactical position (cleary better tires, opponent behind on pits, etc.).

Maldonado did jump start last week, unsure if there was any penalty since he eventually retired anyway.

Speed will repeat Practice and Qualifying starting at 2 am tomorrow with the GP 2 race starting at 6 am and the Italian Grand Prix at 8.

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