Has GP2 begun?

Which side is the dirty side, Massa's or Lewis'?

You just made all that up. Do you really think out of everyone on the grid Heikki is the only driver who consistently wants to be heavier than his team mate?


Its because they are quite even in fuel loads. At Mclaren its 90%. Thats not even or fair.



Considering Heikki is heavier 90% of the time, its clear Hamilton does need and has help from the team. Its a fact.

Massa, Kubica and Kova on clean side.

Kimi and Lewis on the dirty side.

dudd dud.... duud dudd dud.... duud dudd dud.... duud dud dud ddduuuddd duddd ddudd dudud*





*Thats a broken record going round and round

The pole side was clearly better at GP2

STRs new car is the RB4.
Other than the engine and requirements to fit the engine the cars are identical

MW has said that the STR guys got a better setup AND that the engine is worth 0.4s

This is as close as you can get to a direct comparison in F1.

2 identical cars other than the engine.
Whilst you can debate forever the difference in driver speed its hard to argue that SV is 0.9s faster than DC and 0.8s faster than MW as that would have put him 1st in WDC standings for 08 if he was driving with RBR this year.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence for this engine disparity.
Indications are that the Ferrari engine has from 20-40kw more power than the Renault at this time.
This was unlikely the case at the time of the freeze when RBR made the move to Renault.

GP2

1 -> 1
2 -> 3
3 -> 2
4 -> 4

Oh yeah, Heikki starting 2-3 places further back is a lot of help to Hamilton

True, they must have been pretty similar, the top end Ferrari vs the top end Renault, I'd guess the Ferrari slightly ahead on power but the Renault had more usable torque

I remember reading at the time that Red Bull opt for Renault for packaging reasons aswell they felt Renault were more transparent and had a feeling that Ferrari customer engines were down on power compared with Ferraris own whereas with Renault they would get equal engines.

Yes, it was better because poleman start from 2nd spot

They moved the pole from Left to Right side of the grid for the race.. hmmm.. I wonder why it was so impossible for them to have done the same in Japan 90..

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/69984

I dont get to watch GP2... so what does that mean for tomorrows start?

the pole position is removed.. Massa will start the race from the 2nd place on the grid.. (right side)

Your team mate is the first car you must beat and just 1 spot behind is massive help.

F1 will start the same way, P1 will start from P2 and everyone moves 1 down

If they're going to always place the pole on the racing line, then they really should reduce the amount of stagger between the sides. It's really not fair to start second or fourth and be at a disadvantage to those starting third and fifth.

I wasnt that much of a disadvantage in GP2, 4th kept his place, 2nd and 3rd changed places but that wasjust a poor start

Yeah, Kimi outclassed by Massa again... on the option tyres and without knowing what fuel loads they had Just like in Hungary, where it turned out Kimi was 4 laps heavier

are you clampett?

Toro Rosso did great; Vettel is really good and I'm happy to see Bourdais finally making it to Q3 and showing good pace all weekend so far.

Renault; big dissapointment, Only a SC will save Fernando's day now.

Good job for Felipe in that Ferrari, let's see if he can keep it together and stay on track.
KR , I think it's fair to say now Felipe owns him in qualifying.

He probably thinks Renault were also biased against Alonso back then. After all there were reports about that in the spanish press back then.

That's why I don't believe a word of what they write about the treatment Alonso was receiving at McLaren last year: because I can't. But that's off-topic I guess. It's just that I like to give some insight about how is F1 perceived in Spain (although don't know where Arrow is from).

You are a true fan, in every possible way. Keep it up.

The thing with Kimi is that before Hockenheim he was beating FM easily in qualifying. A few races on and he has problems again.

In GP2, the dirty side had terrible starts, not too bad but everyoneon the clean side cut a few meters out of them. Turn 2 is a bottle neck and will be difficult tommorow.

Then qualify better. It's perfectly fair, as they all know the situation and have the same opportunities during qualifying.

Small problem with this theory. Heiki wasn't quicker in the low fuel sessions. Why would he suddenly be quicker in Q3 with the same fuel load? So giving him more fuel so you have 2 strategies in a race were safety cars are predicted is actually not that stupid.

Thats why you give him a lighter fuel load so he can qualify ahead of Hamilton. Either way its been the pattern all year to fuel him heavy in the first race of the season. No use trying to defend Hamiltons status when its so blatant. Even more than in the Schumacher days.

Who cares? certainly not Hamilton fans. Where did I say Alonso was never lighter than fisichella? Try to grasp the argument. The issue is Hamilton is always lighter.

Great effort from Massa. Have to admit I didn't quite expect him to pull himself together like that after the Hungary-dissapointment. But by now most of us are aware that he's a good qualifier, and he very often has something in reserve for Q3. He needs those ten points...

...but Hamilton wants them aswell. A clash between these two wouldn't surprise me.
Good to see BMW looking more competitive, so Kubica can stay in touch and have a mathcematical chance for a few more races.

Great effort from Vettel and Bourdais, but they're clearly helped by their Ferrari powerplant. Bourdais didn't nail it in Q2 and Q3, but there's not much between the two Sebs here. The French one is well used to these surroundings and tracks, from his champcar days.

DC fcuked up his last effort in Q1. Annoying, especially as he aborted a lap that was on course to be a 38.8. Seemed very fast but didn't make it through. Fill her up and hopefully do a Piquet then.

it seemed that the track conditions allowed for quicker times towards the end of Q1, whereas in Q2 just the opposite occurred.

with all the forecasts of SC periods and a track presumed to be prohibitive to passing, why in the world didn't someone in Q3 take a gamble and run light? ok, the top four guys in the Championship may be predisposed to play it safe; but, as for the other six, for the ones who did so, loading up on fuel may turn out to be the worst way to prepare for tomorrow's race. we'll know after the first handful of laps.

enjoyable team radio communique coming from NP, snidely advising the team about a vibration in the car he had apparently already warned them of.

that last ess is effing dangerous. where are the FIA safety standards on that one?

Well, likely SC periods would favor drivers with heavier fuel load, I think Rosberg, Vettel and Heidfeld all one stopping.

I agree.
One stoppers are a good choice if there is minimal difference in tyres, which they say is the case here.

Depends on when the SC comes out.

If it is needed after all the guys in front did stop, it doesn´t help the heavier fueled pilots.

Just can't see any more bias on this post.

Massa wasn't any happy with his pole, he seemed to have already known it, due to a lighter fuel load.

I'm pretty sure both Mclarens have at least 2-3 lapsof extra fuel rather than Ferrari. The only hope for Massa is that RK gets 2nd place at the start.

Kimi will enjoy another bad afternoon and on the last lap he will do the fastest lap and this BB will again complain about Ferrari tatics.

They may have extra fuel but Massa and Raikkonen might be gone by pitstops.

I have just watched the GP2 and it seems massa and kubica are in very good position for the start tomorrow. I think kubica might overtake lewis from the start as the clean side looked very good.

However except for the start and only one safety car at the beginning, once the track had rubbered in, the whole race became more of a usual procession and there were very little, very risky chances of overtaking Unless strategies come into place tomorrow, it will be quite difficult to overtake on this track.

Concerning the issue of lewis and fuel loads, it is my understanding that the driver who is quickest in q1 and q2, always gets the lighter fuel load for q3 and gunning for pole this season. That is a sensible strategy and the only time kova was faster was in silverstone where consequently he was given a lighter fuel load in q3. It would be utterly stupid not to follow such a strategy.

Is that correct?

Not 4 -> 5 and 6 -> 7?

It always help heavier fueled drivers, by reducing gaps between drivers. It's better to be 10th with 6 seconds gap to the leader than 10th with half a lap gap.

Great job by Massa, Hamilton, Kubica and Vettel. The Finns struggling again.

Oh and Arrow, do McLaren fuel Kovaleinen heavier in Q2 too?

Kimi said that its just luck when it comes to SC factor.

yes that may be true for a driver ... however Mclaren want to win the WCC which is far more important to them than the WDC, so having Heikki handicapped just to make Lewis look good is ludicrous

Ah leave him alone

He's probably smarting from his hero screwing up again in front of his home crowd.

Trulli once again delivered the goods. It's astonishing just how consistently he can put a lap together when it counts. Vettel has impressed once again and the sooner he and Kubica get into race winning seats the better.

Last year was clearly very traumatic for Arrow

Trulli

This track is a bad accident waiting to happen. FIA is nuts.

Everyone that is not defending the anglo-saxon superiority is called Arrow.
It's used by the people who do not like the opinions of others but do not have their own.

In one moment Nelson (or maybe it was Fernando) hit something what looked like a bird. Anyone else noticed it? I can't find any reports on that.

So? It's been clear for a long time already that Hamilton is their only chance to win the WDC. Why should they compromise his strategy?

It was Piquet, has has indeed ended life of a seagull in a rather spectacular manner, hitting it with his right tyre.

It is basically a luck factor.
But a SC in the initial laps goes better for cars with heavy fuel load. And at the beginning some drivers risk more than normal and therefore there are more SC (collitions with other drivers or just accidents).

So lighter is better? Heavier = less refueling time and opportunity to leapfrog lighter runners if you have the pace to keep up. You forgot to mention that Schumi used his heavier fuel load to pass in the pits many many times.

McLaren probably split the strategies slightly to account for a possible safety car. Given the points spread between Lewis and Heikki, it would make sense to give Lewis the safer strategy. Then again, what's to stop the safety car from benefitting Heikki? You just give two separate yet reasonably light strategies so that, whatever happens, the TEAM does not lose out.