Tag Archives: tyre wear

Mar201031

Rob

0

Looking ahead to Malaysia – what’s in store at the next race?

The Malaysian Grand Prix has had a few shows in the past and has been a Ferrari stronghold at times but it’s the torrential rain that it’s famous for. Last year was the worst rain in recent history though for race day and the race had to be abandoned after just 36 laps with the win eventually going to Jenson Button though he only got half points.
The race retains it’s late afternoon start time so we’ll be hoping that the rain we had last year doesn’t make a reappearance on Sunday. The forecast doesn’t look that great though with Sunday having the least chance of rain at only 80%. If it does rain all weekend then the track is likely to be very green and the tyres will have a hard time, though if it rains in the race this won’t be an issue.
McLaren are trying to manage expectations ahead [...]

Mar201024

Rob

0

Alonso and Ferrari – Set to dominate in Australia?

Who’d bet against Alonso taking another victory in Australia? Apart from Sebastien Vettel that is. Alonso showed in Bahrain that he’s got the pace in the Ferrari to challenge anyone this year. He might not have it all his own way this year but he’s going to take some stopping.
In Australia though what are his chances? He has a fast car, but maybe not the fastest given that Sebastien Vettel grabbed pole from the Spaniard – was that because of the car or was it an inspired lap? Well if you look at the race it seems that it may have been the car, as he was outpacing the Ferraris for a good part of the race though they were reeling him in went the spark plug went and caused him to drop down.
It seems that these first few races will be contested by the Ferrari and the Red Bull [...]

Mar201019

Rob

0

What happened to BMW Sauber Ferrari in Bahrain?

In pre-season testing the Sauber cars were quick, they weren’t the fastest but they showed a turn of pace that was going to challenge for those last points positions and maybe the big four on occasion. However they turn up at Bahrain and were nowhere – were they running light in testing, and if they were why?
Some of the problem may come from the fact that the weather was so different at the two venues that tyre wear would have been very different and the cars would have required a completely different setup. Which leads into the first option – the car is very difficult to setup. This would explain some of the lack of pace as they have much less time at a GP than in testing to optimise the settings, and know the trade offs for the race.
Another option is that the team were simply running light in [...]

Mar201015

Rob

0

On the ’second’ drivers and what a difference a year makes to F1

With the first race of the year now behind us and the first points on the board it seems that Michael Schumacher may be wishing he’s driving a Ferrari this year after all; I’m not sure that he’d want to be up against Alonso though as he struggled to keep pace with Rosberg.
The second set of drivers – by this I mean Massa, Rosberg and Webber though unless he improves will soon include Button – put on an interesting show on Sunday, Rosberg beat Schumacher, Webber was beaten by Vettel and Massa out-qualified Alonso but was beaten down to the first corner.
Nico Rosberg seems to have had the measure of Michael Schumacher all weekend and underlined that by beating him in the race. There is more to this though, firstly Michael Schumacher was some 0.5s off Rosberg’s pace in qualifying but only finished 4s behind him, there are two other [...]

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