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Formula One, 2012 Season

Discussion in 'All Other Sports' started by SALFORD RED, Feb 24, 2012.

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    • Staff Member

    SALFORD RED Moderator

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    The annual Formula One phoney war was in full swing at the second pre-season test at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya this week.

    Fernando Alonso was talking down Ferrari's form, Lewis Hamilton was talking up McLaren's - as, intriguingly, was Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel. And the unlikely combination of Kamui Kobayashi and Sauber set the fastest time of the week.

    As ever, the headline lap times were a poor guide to the order of the grid that can be expected in Melbourne at the first race in just three weeks' time.

    But look behind the fastest laps, and there is usually a way of gleaning at least some sense of form ahead of the season.

    I'll preface what follows with a major caveat - this has been one of the most difficult tests to read for some time. But here goes.

    Red Bull, as ever, looked especially strong. Vettel was fastest of all on the first day of the test, and throughout the four days he and team-mate Mark Webber set consistently formidable-looking times.

    On Wednesday afternoon, Vettel and Hamilton set out to do race-distance runs at more or less the same time. Both did 66 laps - the length of the Spanish Grand Prix, which will be held at the track in May.

    Vettel did five pit stops; Hamilton four. Discount laps on which they went in and out of the pits and they both managed 55 flying laps. Vettel completed his more than two minutes faster than Hamilton.

    If that was repeated in a race, Hamilton would be lapped by the end.

    And the pattern was repeated on Thursday with Mark Webber and Jenson Button, although the margin was reduced to about half a minute.

    Of course, this is very far from an exact scientific comparison.

    They didn't use the same tyres as each other - although they don't necessarily have to in the race either.

    We don't know what they were doing with fuel loads - although it would be counter-intuitive to start putting fuel in at pit stops because it would provide the team with data that was never going to be relevant to competition.

    And it's an especially confusing situation because only the day before Vettel was saying how impressed he had been with the McLaren's pace on the longer runs.

    But there was more - none of it especially happy ready for those hoping for a close season.
    On the Wednesday, Vettel's fastest time of all was nearly a second faster than Hamilton's on the same type of tyres. Although both were set on very short runs - suggesting a qualifying-type simulation - that's still potentially meaningless as there is no way of knowing the level of fuel on board at the time.

    Nevertheless, if you then look at the lap times both were doing at the start of their race-distance runs, they were about the same margin slower than each driver's fastest laps as you would expect given a full race fuel load.

    That suggests that the headline lap times of those two drivers could be a reasonably accurate indicator of form - again worrying for McLaren.

    Of course, this is only testing, and teams have updates to put on their cars before the first race - as Button pointed out. And everyone expects McLaren to be a close to challenger at the front come Melbourne. Nevertheless, few are under any illusions about Red Bull's strength.

    "You're old enough, Andrew," one senior insider said to me during the test, "to know that Red Bull look very strong. McLaren and Ferrari are a bit behind. Force India look like they have a quick car, too."

    He might have added that the new Mercedes looks quite decent as well.

    But few teams are as difficult to understand right now as Ferrari - who have not done any race simulations to compare with their main rivals.

    The messages coming out of the team have all seemed pretty negative.

    There has been a lot of attention put on technical director Pat Fry's remark at the first test in Jerez that Ferrari were "not happy" with their understanding of the car.

    Start raking through the time sheets, though, and you begin wonder what's behind all the negativity.

    On headline lap times, Alonso was less than 0.3secs behind Vettel. And on both his days he started 10-lap runs with a lap in the region of one minute 24.1 seconds.

    If you take 10 laps' worth of fuel off that time, you are left with a lap in the low 1:23sec bracket - again, not far off what Vettel managed. And you can bet the Ferrari was running with more than just 10 laps of fuel anyway; most top teams routinely test with 60-80kg of fuel on board.

    In other words, the Ferrari actually looks reasonably fast, and an insider did admit: "The car is not as bad as a lot of people think."

    If - and it's a big if - Ferrari can start to extract that potential before the first race of the season, Red Bull might just have a serious fight on their hands. And that's without even considering what McLaren might be able to achieve.
    BBC - Andrew Benson: Reading between the lines in a phoney war


    All the latest news can be found here on the link below.
    BBC Sport - Formula 1
    SALFORD RED, Feb 24, 2012
    #1

    KaizerSauzee Regular Members

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    Get your money on Force India getting a good few podiums this year, they have made huge strides with their car. Di Resta is playing it cool on t.v but is hugely impressed with the car they have produced this year.
    KaizerSauzee, Feb 24, 2012
    #2

    SimplyGiggs The voice of reason

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    Should be a great season. Renault/Lotus would have an outstanding team with Kubica & Raikkonen. Shame that Kubica broke his leg again.
    SimplyGiggs, Feb 24, 2012
    #3

    MikeyM Big Daddy

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    Looking forward to seeing Williams get a much needed boost with Renault engines. Plus a Senna at the wheel again. Think at the top end it's going to be the usual suspects, though hopefully Red Bull don't have the huge advantage they did last season with the blown diffuser.

    Shame most of the cars look like Lego models with the stupid step noses.
    MikeyM, Feb 24, 2012
    #4

    Moon Utd Statto

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    Interesting driver and team line-ups this year. I think of them in four 'divisions', with the top 3 teams predominantly competing for the podium, the next three teams trying to get in the points, the teams 7-9 wanting to be in Q2 each race, and the bottom three hoping to get to the chequered flag!

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    RED BULL - Sebastian Vettel & Mark Webber

    McLAREN - Jenson Button & Lewis Hamilton

    FERRARI - Fernando Alonso & Felipe Massa

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    MERCEDES - Michael Schumacher & Nico Rosberg

    LOTUS - Kimi Raikkonen & Romain Grosjean (this is the renamed Renault team)

    FORCE INDIA - Paul Di Resta & Nico Hulkenberg

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    SAUBER - Sergio Perez & Kamui Kobayashi

    TORO ROSSO - Daniel Ricciardo & Jean-Eric Vergne

    WILLIAMS - Pastor Maldonado & Bruno Senna

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    CATERHAM - Heikki Kovalainen & Vitaly Petrov (this is the renamed Lotus team)

    HRT - Pedro de la Rosa & Narain Karthikeyan (this is Hispania Racing)

    VIRGIN - Timo Glock & Charles Pic

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Robert Kubica is still out injured, and it remains to be seen whether he will ever get back in to an F1 car to race competitively.

    Also without a seat right now are:

    Nick Heidfeld
    Jarno Trulli
    Adrian Sutil
    Karun Chandhok
    Jaime Alguersuari
    Sebastien Buemi
    Vitantonio Liuzzi
    Jerome D'Ambrosio
    Moon Utd, Feb 29, 2012
    #5

    ClamBuster damn sh*t's changed since back in the day...

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    just so we're clear going into the season... im am a long and loyal scuderia ferrari fan, and proud member of the accompanying tifosi

    i hate mclaren with every single bone in my body! (note: everybody loves button, and yes, so do i... (actually, he can come and replace massa for 2013 if he wants))

    no beef with vettel or red bull

    going down the grid i still say watch out for force india over the next couple of seasons

    ill be whoring it on sky

    and... ive walked the entire track at monaco (on a normal day that is), and lounged by 'the pool'


    see you all next month... come on alonso!
    ClamBuster, Feb 29, 2012
    #6

    ClamBuster damn sh*t's changed since back in the day...

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    just for you...

    [IMG]
    ClamBuster, Feb 29, 2012
    #7

    JJtheRed F*ck your stats....

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    What's the split between Beeb' / Sky coverage?
    JJtheRed, Feb 29, 2012
    #8

    hdcantona Member of the Year 2012

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    sky have all of them.

    BBC will ALSO show, the big ones (monte carlo, silverstone etc)
    hdcantona, Feb 29, 2012
    #9

    JJtheRed F*ck your stats....

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    Meh....

    Streams it is...
    JJtheRed, Feb 29, 2012
    #10

    ClamBuster damn sh*t's changed since back in the day...

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    sky have all of the races, and the bbc has 10 races (including all the big ones)
    ClamBuster, Mar 1, 2012
    #11

    Dr Hugh Jardon Proud hater of Scousers since 1979

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    Here here

    Its amazing how they get away with so much, especially the little rat b'stard media darling Hamilton.

    I'll be cheering on Alonso as i do every year but it already looks like Red Bull have the upper hand and probably will have all throughout the season.
    Dr Hugh Jardon, Mar 1, 2012
    #12

    ClamBuster damn sh*t's changed since back in the day...

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    it annoys me how so many people just default to mclaren purely because they are 'british'... and the media constantly rams down our throats they are 'british'... and they have 'british' drivers... and all that other 'british' nonsense (yes, im british)

    think for yourselves for f*ck sake


    ferrari is the very 'essence' of motorsport... purists know that
    ClamBuster, Mar 1, 2012
    #13

    MikeyM Big Daddy

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    I'm McLaren, they're 10 miles down the road from me and of course Ayrton Senna was at his greatest in the red and white. I'm not blind to the huge pull that ferrari has, but I've always been a McLaren boy (well aside from Mansellmania of course!!)

    I miss the Marlboro livery though - just them going back to white and red would be cool.

    Plus Jens is my boy.
    MikeyM, Mar 1, 2012
    #14

    JJtheRed F*ck your stats....

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    Also McLaren...

    I like how dominant Vettel is, but I hope this year is more competitive...
    JJtheRed, Mar 1, 2012
    #15

    Dr Hugh Jardon Proud hater of Scousers since 1979

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    I grew up a Senna fan myself and i think 93 demonstrated how much of a God that man was. Bog standard McLaren and he still got 6 victories from it. Remarkable. Greatest driver i have ever seen in my lifetime.
    Alonso was almost comparable two seasons ago when he was oh so close to being champion in that poor Ferrari. Ive watched and admired Alonso since he first came into F1 and followed him ever since. I was delighted when he finally got a move to Ferrari, just a shame they havent yet provided him with a truly competitive car.

    I lost any respect i had for Mclaren the season of spygate...mainly because of the cheating but also the way they treated Alonso over their darling rookie. Ron Dennis was guilty of some disgusting favouritism right from the start and you could see it in hugs for Hamilton and slaps on the back for Alonso. I also got sick of Hamilton having sly digs in the press at Alonso yet the pres wanted Fernandos blood and everything was down to him. Still, nice to see Button kicking the arrogant tax exiles arse last season.
    Dr Hugh Jardon, Mar 2, 2012
    #16

    ClamBuster damn sh*t's changed since back in the day...

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    my dad always detested Senna (cause my dads just like that), so naturally he loved Prost to bits... and as a wee boy what your dad says is gospel

    around 90'ish (when i was 10) and my brain was really starting to 'get' formula 1, Prost was at Ferrari and so was Mansell (so the british media was all over the team)... also, all my Scalextric was Prost/Ferrari whereas my brothers was Senna/Mclaren

    been a fan ever since


    ps. and yes, the Red Baron is my hero... and always will be

    pps. also, im a bit of a ferrari enthusiast away from F1
    ClamBuster, Mar 2, 2012
    #17

    fordie THE walking dead>breaking bad.

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    always been about McLaren for me,not sure what year i started watching f1 at but one race always sticks in my mind when mansell senna was battling at monaco really got me into it and have not missed many races since.
    fordie, Mar 5, 2012
    #18

    MariaG mancs

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    Any new rules this season?
    MariaG, Mar 5, 2012
    #19

    MikeyM Big Daddy

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    I will be honest and say as a kid I saw Senna as the villain of the piece, always thwarting "our Nige" (Until he was invincible in 1992 - But still couldn't get past Senna at Monaco) Then once Nigel retired I followed him (Senna), and have become more of a fan from what I learned about him from books following Imola. My bond with McLaren is strengthened through that.

    Regarding Hamilton, I found him too arrogant and as you say, a media darling - however more recently my stance on him has mellowed. Jenson however is my boy - and has been since 2003. I was looking forward to seeing Nando dominate with the McLarens too.

    Speaking of arrogance - I can't stand Paul De Resta, he has far too much to say for a rookie. He actually reminds me of the F1 equivalent of Andy Murray!!

    As I said, I like and revere Ferrari - but on the grid, I'm a Woking man.
    MikeyM, Mar 5, 2012
    #20
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