"Cato Batista" 05/07/2012 20:08:41 ID #215

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Is the party over?  We had been treated to eight fabulous GPs so far this season, but last race’s sight  of Vettel disappearing into the distance in the newest Adrian Newey’s creation presages the possible end of the surprising results.  The heavily revised RB8 was 4 tenths faster than anybody else in QF and over a second a lap during the race.

The best hope for the remaining 21 teams is that round 9 in Silverstone this weekend is a completely different king of track where efficiency in high-speed downforce is the key, like Barcelona that favours teams like McLaren, Ferrari, Sauber and Williams. If Red Bull can translate their impressive pace on the slow corners of Valencia to the fast Silverstone sweepers they will walk away with this ampionship.

Tyres could decide this race too, as has been the case all along this year. But what has produced the incredible close racing was the ban on blown diffusers at the end of 2011 effectively leaving all the F1 cars in the same playing field. It’s a phenomenon that repeats in GP racing when the rules remain unchanged for a few years; all the teams catch up in development and the field closes up. Let’s hope Red Bull won’t crash the party...

The most interesting stats for this weekend: The poleman has won only 4 of the last 17 editions; Red Bull has been on pole the last 3 races this year as well as the last 3 years in Silverstone; Vettel has been out of the podium the last 4 races; Alonso has scored points in the last 20 consecutive GPs, the record is in Schumacher’s hands with 24 in a row (seven and a half years ago).

Question (the Mexican contingent is going to love this one):  Who are the drivers with the most overtaken manoeuvres this season? 1- Perez 51, 2- Raikkonen  32, 3- Di Resta 29.

Our GP Trophy winners in 2012 so far: Two wins: Uwe. One: Maria, Manbos,  Joe, Matias, Rocco & Fredrik. We still have 12 opportunities to write our name in the golden book, our quest continues tomorrow in qualifying.

Until then

Cheers

Cato

PD-  I strongly recommend this youtube video as the perfect warm up for this weekend Grand Prix . It’s made by one of our illustrious colleagues in love with the noise of the F1 engines...