Indian GP 2013 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

There’s no doubt Red Bull is the faster car any day in any track, but this time there’s a glimpse of trouble for the all-mighty team in the form of the option Pirelli rubber.

Vettel-Webber grabbed their customary 1-2 places at the top of the sheets on both today’s sessions, but there’s a serious concern that their front-right tyre is suffering an excesive rate of wear. The problem is so bad that Vettel shredded his F/R tyre in only 3 laps, Webber in 4. This year Pirelli brought the Medium/Soft compounds for this race, that’s 2 steps softer than last year’s making the car with the most downforce (the RB9) susceptible to early degradation and increased wear as their closest competitors seem to be doing fine.

P1- VET (1.26.683) WEB ROS  GRO  HAM  BUT  PER  MAS  HUL  BOT

P2- VET (1.25.852) WEB  GRO  HAM  ALO  ROS  MAS  RAI  PER  BUT 

Ferrari is showing good form this time, they are in the mix with Lotus and Mercedes in general if not on one-lap pace.  Alonso was running stints of 14 laps with the soft tyre very consistently. On the hard compound Lotus is closely matching Red Bull’s speed but they are enduring similar problems with the soft ones. Mercedes, as Ferrari is OK on the options but slower on the primes, which points to make them fast in QF but not so much for race.

The focus of attention zeroes on Pirelli once more. Their intention was to make this GP a 2 stopper with 3 stops as a close alternative, but the time differential between the 2 compounds is too narrow (about 1 second) to opt for the conventional method of qualifying on options because the first stint will be too short. The tyres are graining very early on their life cycle, but good management (careful, smooth driving, not pushing) will get over the graining period (5 laps) for the rubber to stabilize.

To recap: Red Bull might be in trouble utilizing their superior downforce; the chasing pack – Mercedes, Lotus & Ferrari- are evenly matched and have an advantage on the options over RB as they closer than ever on the primes on long stints. Lotus looks faster in single–lap form but Mercedes and Ferrari are stronger on race trim. Do not be completely surprised if Red Bull sacrifices qualifying position in order to start the race on the more durable medium compound.

After all, this GP is looking a lot more interesting that we originally thought

Time for the lucky charms: QF picks- Cato  VET  WEB  GRO

Good luck, (we need the points!)

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