Italian GP 2013 - QF

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It was looking promising for Ferrari and Mercedes in P1, but then Red Bull bolted the white Pirellis in P2 to blow everybody away by over half a second.  They tried to downplay their superiority saying it’s only Friday and they still have to work on the long runs, but the lap by VET 6 tenths of a second clear of the field certainly demoralized the opposition.

Ferrari and Mercedes were trading top places with the option tyres on P1 with Vettel and Raikkonen in the new long wheelbase Lotus E21, in fact 9 tenths separated the top 14 drivers in the opening session. On P2 to incline things even more on Red Bull’s favour, the RB9s were consistently quicker on both compounds during the mid & long run simulations.

P1- HAM  (1.25.565) ALO ROS VET RAI PER BUT WEB MAL VER

P2- VET (1.24.453) WEB RAI GRO ALO HAM ROS MAS BUT PER

Analysing the speed traps something became clear: Red Bull is dialing its cars for a front row starting position; their top speeds are at the bottom of the chart -328 kph vs 334kph for the top cars. Their gearing for 7th gear is shorter than the rest which translates to an strategy based on taking off from the front and to build a gap of more than a second to avoid being chased down on the DRS zones. This, as in Spa, was supposed to be a track that does not suit the RB9, instead they are using their superior downforce to exit the quickest corners like the Parabolica at a higher speed rate so the faster cars will only catch them by the end of the straights. Now the battle seems to focus on the ‘the best of the rest’ were Lotus is looking better than Ferrari. After trying the 10cm longer wheelbase on the FP sessions the team will revert to the older cars since there not was much difference between Grosjean and Raikkonen as they tested both configurations. Mercedes is struggling with braking stability, a critical factor in this circuit where you have to stop hard four times every lap from 320kph.

The polesitter in Monza has won the last 3 events, 10 of the last 13. Alonso has been out of the front row in 21 consecutive Qualifiying sessions. So far this year in 11 races this year Vettel has been on pole 3 times, Rorberg 4 times and Hamilton the last 4 in a row. Vettel is the 3rd all-time pole position record holder with 39, only behind Schumacher with 68 and Senna with 65.

So far this year we had obtained 1 QF plenum which was myself in the first QF in Australia. Yes, that bad it has been. The best marks so far after 11 tries are Manbos & I with 11 points and 10 for Ricky. Officially, our worst year ever!

Let’s try again: Cato VET  ALO  WEB

Good luck!

 

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