gr@v1ty
12-06-2011, 09:59 PM
I had some time to write while waiting for the race to end... :whistle:
The Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix started with slightly shuffled grid after qualifying. With some drivers choosing a wet setup, expecting rain and the top qualifiers going with a dry setup, the question was whether grid position was more important than driver control (and if you believed in weather reports). Would it rain on Sunday or not?
Tyres for dummies:
The rules for qualifying are that the cars can play around with their setups all weekend up until the start of qualifying. Once the driver pulls out of his pits and takes to the track on Saturday afternoon, the cars are "locked" until the end of the race.
Starting Position:
Qualifying on Saturday normally covers 50% of the race. The fastest drivers start at the front and pull away from the slower drivers. Formula 1 can be boring when a weekend goes like this. But this race had a bit of everything we need. And we love a spanner in the works (like a shuffle in grid position). Some drivers chose to change their setups for wet weather but they were qualifying in the dry. Those drivers could have faster setups than the drivers ahead of them if it rains.
Current world champion, Seb Vettel, got pole position for the 6th time out of 7 races this year. The two Ferrari's managed 2nd and 3rd on the grid, splitting the Red Bulls for the first time this year keeping Mark Webber down to 4th. Lewis Hamilton started first of the "wet setup" runners in 5th.
The race didn't start from a standing start as per normal. They had a rolling start from behind a pace-car due to the heavy rain. Formula 1 runs like clockwork and they do not delay! The pace car led them around for 10 minutes. A disappointing sight for Formula 1. No passing allowed and cars cruising around at pedestrian speeds. But the stewards seem to be worried about loss of life etc.
When the race got started, everyone seemed to be struggling for grip, having their cars skip and slip across the track as the drivers tried to find what was possible without. Imagine trying to drive your car on ice for the first time, and still trying to beat the guy next to you. How fast do you both go into the unknown?
The field spread out after a couple laps with the only noticeably fast driver in the pack being Lewis Hamilton. In the 3 laps that he stayed on track, he was being his aggressive self. He was moving left and right, diving up next to cars and making a race of things. The problem was that he was up against 3 world champions themselves. All from an era when passing was considered impossibly hard.
Lewis managed to get himself alongside every one of them before being pushed off the track. Cleverness of being a World Champion keeping a competitor behind him at all costs? Or does Lewis Hamilton live in a dream world where passing is maybe possible in Formula 1?
The way things are going this year, passing is back, and Lewis has had more meetings in the Stewards office for on track incidents more often in one weekend than most drivers have had in their careers.
The first incident came when Lewis attempted to pass Mark Webber. Mark went into the corner from a wide angle and spun around when Lewis clipped his back wheel. While Lewis drove around Mark's spinning car, he rejoined behind Michael Schumacher. Michael went into the hairpin corner on a tight line, forcing Lewis around the outside, then moved back into him, forcing him on to the grass and further back. In Michael's defence, the track was wet and his car was skating all over the place and the last "twitch" towards Lewis' direction might have been attributed to this.
Lewis then rejoined behind his team mate, Jenson. Jenson had been keeping position but not showing any serious speed. It was very likely that Lewis was going to be all over him too.
Another incident as Lewis moved around the slow Jenson. Jenson checked his mirrors before moving across the track and into Lewis. Lewis moved alongside Jenson at about the same time as Jenson looked in the wrong mirror and headed across the track. Lewis was squeezed against the wall and out the race. Jenson continued without damage and cried over the radio, "What is he doing?!", suggesting that he had no idea where Lewis was at the time.
Lewis tried to drive around on a damaged car for a few more corners before parking it on turn 5. The pace car headed out again while the abandoned car of Lewis Hamilton was hoisted away to the safety of the barricades.
Weather conditions and tyre choice:
There are 3 categories of tyres for Formula 1. Wet, Intermediate and Dry (and there are 3 compounds of dry too, but that's for another day).
The wet compound has the deepest tread and the smallest amount of surface space. The tread blocks are designed to displace as little water as possible to avoid aquaplaning at high speed.
The intermediate tyre has more grip but will still displace a small amount of water (normally for light rainfall and a damp slippery track). The problem is that it gets too hot to run on a dry track and it doesn't displace enough water if the rain gets heavier.
Teams and drivers try make as few as possible pit stops to change tyres because of the time it takes to pull over and change your tyres.
You lose time because you're standing still and everyone else is driving flat out. When you're that much faster on a new set of tyres that you can make your time up it becomes worth while.
Everyone takes advantage when the pace car is called onto the track as the pace car runs that much slower than a Formula 1 car and it takes under a lap for the driver to be behind the pace car again.
While the pace car was out, some drivers took advantage of a slow moving field for just that reason. The track was starting to dry out. It's just what the drivers don't like. Tyre choice becomes a gamble.
The intermediate tyre was easily the fastest choice at the time but heavy rain was predicted. It was a close call between the Wet and the Inters.
While the Intermediate runners were going faster and faster, everyone was asking when the leader would change too. Crying out for him to change tyres. Seb Vettel was way out front and now, running slower than the Inter drivers, but keeping his own against his nearest rival.
His decision to stay out on the full wet tyre was vindicated when the rain started bucketing down. And again, the pace car was called out due to the track being too wet to control a Formula 1 car on. Yawn!
To keep within the spirit of the race weekend, they're about to restart with Kobayashi, (a relative unknown in the rain) starting in 2nd place. Of the top 5 Massa is the highest regular rain-spinner. Watch out for flying bits of red car and how Mark Webber tries to pushes himself onto a podium.
The Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix started with slightly shuffled grid after qualifying. With some drivers choosing a wet setup, expecting rain and the top qualifiers going with a dry setup, the question was whether grid position was more important than driver control (and if you believed in weather reports). Would it rain on Sunday or not?
Tyres for dummies:
The rules for qualifying are that the cars can play around with their setups all weekend up until the start of qualifying. Once the driver pulls out of his pits and takes to the track on Saturday afternoon, the cars are "locked" until the end of the race.
Starting Position:
Qualifying on Saturday normally covers 50% of the race. The fastest drivers start at the front and pull away from the slower drivers. Formula 1 can be boring when a weekend goes like this. But this race had a bit of everything we need. And we love a spanner in the works (like a shuffle in grid position). Some drivers chose to change their setups for wet weather but they were qualifying in the dry. Those drivers could have faster setups than the drivers ahead of them if it rains.
Current world champion, Seb Vettel, got pole position for the 6th time out of 7 races this year. The two Ferrari's managed 2nd and 3rd on the grid, splitting the Red Bulls for the first time this year keeping Mark Webber down to 4th. Lewis Hamilton started first of the "wet setup" runners in 5th.
The race didn't start from a standing start as per normal. They had a rolling start from behind a pace-car due to the heavy rain. Formula 1 runs like clockwork and they do not delay! The pace car led them around for 10 minutes. A disappointing sight for Formula 1. No passing allowed and cars cruising around at pedestrian speeds. But the stewards seem to be worried about loss of life etc.
When the race got started, everyone seemed to be struggling for grip, having their cars skip and slip across the track as the drivers tried to find what was possible without. Imagine trying to drive your car on ice for the first time, and still trying to beat the guy next to you. How fast do you both go into the unknown?
The field spread out after a couple laps with the only noticeably fast driver in the pack being Lewis Hamilton. In the 3 laps that he stayed on track, he was being his aggressive self. He was moving left and right, diving up next to cars and making a race of things. The problem was that he was up against 3 world champions themselves. All from an era when passing was considered impossibly hard.
Lewis managed to get himself alongside every one of them before being pushed off the track. Cleverness of being a World Champion keeping a competitor behind him at all costs? Or does Lewis Hamilton live in a dream world where passing is maybe possible in Formula 1?
The way things are going this year, passing is back, and Lewis has had more meetings in the Stewards office for on track incidents more often in one weekend than most drivers have had in their careers.
The first incident came when Lewis attempted to pass Mark Webber. Mark went into the corner from a wide angle and spun around when Lewis clipped his back wheel. While Lewis drove around Mark's spinning car, he rejoined behind Michael Schumacher. Michael went into the hairpin corner on a tight line, forcing Lewis around the outside, then moved back into him, forcing him on to the grass and further back. In Michael's defence, the track was wet and his car was skating all over the place and the last "twitch" towards Lewis' direction might have been attributed to this.
Lewis then rejoined behind his team mate, Jenson. Jenson had been keeping position but not showing any serious speed. It was very likely that Lewis was going to be all over him too.
Another incident as Lewis moved around the slow Jenson. Jenson checked his mirrors before moving across the track and into Lewis. Lewis moved alongside Jenson at about the same time as Jenson looked in the wrong mirror and headed across the track. Lewis was squeezed against the wall and out the race. Jenson continued without damage and cried over the radio, "What is he doing?!", suggesting that he had no idea where Lewis was at the time.
Lewis tried to drive around on a damaged car for a few more corners before parking it on turn 5. The pace car headed out again while the abandoned car of Lewis Hamilton was hoisted away to the safety of the barricades.
Weather conditions and tyre choice:
There are 3 categories of tyres for Formula 1. Wet, Intermediate and Dry (and there are 3 compounds of dry too, but that's for another day).
The wet compound has the deepest tread and the smallest amount of surface space. The tread blocks are designed to displace as little water as possible to avoid aquaplaning at high speed.
The intermediate tyre has more grip but will still displace a small amount of water (normally for light rainfall and a damp slippery track). The problem is that it gets too hot to run on a dry track and it doesn't displace enough water if the rain gets heavier.
Teams and drivers try make as few as possible pit stops to change tyres because of the time it takes to pull over and change your tyres.
You lose time because you're standing still and everyone else is driving flat out. When you're that much faster on a new set of tyres that you can make your time up it becomes worth while.
Everyone takes advantage when the pace car is called onto the track as the pace car runs that much slower than a Formula 1 car and it takes under a lap for the driver to be behind the pace car again.
While the pace car was out, some drivers took advantage of a slow moving field for just that reason. The track was starting to dry out. It's just what the drivers don't like. Tyre choice becomes a gamble.
The intermediate tyre was easily the fastest choice at the time but heavy rain was predicted. It was a close call between the Wet and the Inters.
While the Intermediate runners were going faster and faster, everyone was asking when the leader would change too. Crying out for him to change tyres. Seb Vettel was way out front and now, running slower than the Inter drivers, but keeping his own against his nearest rival.
His decision to stay out on the full wet tyre was vindicated when the rain started bucketing down. And again, the pace car was called out due to the track being too wet to control a Formula 1 car on. Yawn!
To keep within the spirit of the race weekend, they're about to restart with Kobayashi, (a relative unknown in the rain) starting in 2nd place. Of the top 5 Massa is the highest regular rain-spinner. Watch out for flying bits of red car and how Mark Webber tries to pushes himself onto a podium.