"Cato Batista" 09/07/2011 13:48:56 ID #77
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Hard to believe but we’re getting to the half way point of the season. The British GP is the 9th of the 19 rounds at Silverstone this weekend.
Will this be another Vettel / Red Bull-steamroller show? probably, but no doubt the gap to his pursuers is closing. Adrian Newey has gone public saying that the new regulations starting with this GP to restrict the flow of exhaust gasses ‘off-throttle’ into the diffuser will diminish their downforce advantage. He reckons his cars (and Renault’s) were the only ones specifically designed with this purpose, something the rest of the top teams tried to copy without results. How much time this may represent? He doesn’t say, but it could as much as .5 seconds per lap.
It’s clear that Alonso and Webber are getting closer to Vettel. Ferrari keeps improving by the hand of Alonso, and now Webber admits his recent improved form comes from his understanding of the Pirellis (it only took him 8 races...) The questions mark is McLaren, this is their race (team & driver’s) and they have several upgrades and a lot of pep-talk for the weekend.
Pirelli will bring hard & soft compounds for this race, which could be bad news for Ferrari. The last time the hard compound was used (Spain) the Italians finished the race a lap behind, but their chassis is the best of the lot on race trim on the soft compound. We shall see.
In last year’s British GP our illustrious association had the worst results of the season. Tim won it with 6 points, the average was a disastrous 3.2 and 4 members scored only 2 points! ouch! But let’s not panic, we will do better this year...hopefully.
And before we get into action tomorrow, I’ll like to give an update on our youngest honorary member Joe Soranno’s karting career. After a very successful ‘trial’ season in 2010 he is now competing in various championships and in two classes against the elite of the upcoming drivers this part of Canada, and I’m very happy to report that he is one of the top guys in Micro-Max including the super competitive Rotax series. He is just a natural, in no time he adapted to the faster Rotax engines (5 secs. plus a lap) coming from the Honda power, a difficult jump to a more technical power delivery (especially when you are 9 years old!). I’ll keep you posted.
So, stay tuned for the first day of practice from Silverstone tomorrow. We are so used to have good races that many us (I heard) are still complaining about ‘boring’ Valencia, but I think we are for another thriller on Sunday.
Cheers
Cato