"Cato Batista" 10/09/2011 23:47:05 ID #116
Ladies and Gentlemen:
He is unstoppable. He is running more downforce, has less horsepower, his chassis blisters the tires more than the others in this temperatures, but still Vettel conquered his 10th pole this year, 13th straight and first in Monza for Red Bull, and had almost half a second to spare even though he was all crossed-up at the Ascari chicane in his final flyer! We are witnessing one of those special times when a driver is at the very top of his game.
Our QF results were above our standard bad average, many ones and twos with only Ricky scoring plenum for huge 4 points in his cause. There were already many changes on top of the standings, but let’s wait until after the race to get to it.
The grid for tomorrow:
VET HAM BUT ALO WEB MAS PET SCH ROS SEN
With the double DRS activation zone (main straight and the shorter, narrow run between Lesmos and Ascari) the drivers concede that grid position will not be decisive for the race, overtaking will be possible and then there is tire management and its strategy to make up in race day. The key could lay in the white tires, the slower medium compound that they try to use as little as possible but that is providing the longer and most consistent degradation. It was no accident that most of the P3 this morning was concentrated in optimizing the primes. If the yellow options have a useful life of 10-12 and drop before a maximum of 15 laps, the top teams will have a problem implementing a 3 stopper for the 53-lap race. Among the top ten we can already see alternative strategies, like ROS starting in primes and with 3 brand new sets of options in the garage.
The plan for VET looks straightforward: push like crazy on the opening laps to keep the Mercedes-powered cars more than a second behind in the DRS detection zones. McLaren advantage relies on their mechanical grip, their suspension is working wonders climbing the kerbs with this minimum wing set up. A look into to the top speeds at the traps reveals exactly how much downforce is being used. The fastest is PER’s Sauber at 347kph, the slowest, VET at 327kph! Even with more wing incidence than anybody else the Red Bull marks the fastest laptimes- which translates to better grip in the corners and under braking but compromising tire wear and getting exposed for overtaking. It’s still a mystery how Red Bull makes this extreme configurations work so well every time! Among the top 3 teams Ferrari is running less wing: MAS & ALO are 4th & 5th at the traps with 342kph (can they use this in their favour tomorrow?).
Time to do your homework and cast your ballots – time to suffer, in other words...
Here we go
Cato – VET BUT ALO WEB HAM ROS (honestly I don’t think VET is going to pull this one out, but then I’m always wrong!, so...)
Enjoy, and cross your fingers the chicane after the start don’t ruin your hard work!
Good luck