Formula 1 CFA Comments
USA GP 2013 - QF
by Cato Batista, 16/11/2013 1:52:09
Ladies and Gentlemen,
No surprises on day one. It only took VET four attempts in the prime compound (Medium for this race) to top the charts. WEB confirmed Red Bull’s firepower in second place just 1 tenth slower than his teammate. There was not very much running on light tanks and medium tires after the halfway mark of FP2, the rest of the session was used by virtually every team to evaluate the longevity and consistency of the mediums, and guess what, Red Bull was the best also lapping uniformly in the low 1 minute 42 and high 41 seconds, about 4.5 seconds slower than the light-fuel lap times.
First session was delayed by fog and then by problems with the medical helicopter. ALO put the Ferrari on top but it’s clearly showing lack of traction out of the slow corners. Most of the session was used to collect data on high fuel loads with the hard compound.
P1- ALO (1.38.343) BUT BOT GUT ROS HAM MAS WEB HUL MAL
P2- VET (1.37.205) WEB ROS HAM KOV (Kovalainen’s Lotus) GUT HUL GRO BUT ALO
The Red Bulls look untouchable, and following the script of lately the Mercedes appear second best in single-lap speed. The Lotus of GRO was the closest any one could get to the RB9s in the long stint simulations and it could be even as fast as the Mercedes in qualifying by looking at his sector times. The surprise of the day was the consistency and speed of the Saubers particularly of rookie GUT; the Mexican was very quick on ...
USA GP 2013 - Preview
by Cato Batista, 16/11/2013 1:46:35
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are going to the US for the next-to-last GP of 2013 this coming weekend.
If we think we know who’s going to win the race, The Circuit of Las Americas will not disappoint as it’s one of the best in the calendar: fast, demanding, technically difficult and with plenty of good racing to offer.
After breaking every record Vettel and Red Bull are now aiming to get one of the few marks still standing in the way of the 4-times World Champion: 8 wins in row in a single season, and he could equal Schumacher’s 13 wins in a season also (he's got 11 right now). You can make sure they’ll try hard to achieve both records, forget the rumor they may want to give Webber a retirement present. I don’t think so.
The driver’s market is far from settled. McLaren is getting rid of Perez for 2014 to be replaced by their protégé Magnussen; Massa is going to Williams where Maldonado is taking his petro-dollars somewhere else; RAaikkonen (his cheque's still in the mail) will conveniently sit out the rest of the season to have back surgery, Kovalainen will take his place after Hulkenberg declined the Lotus offer to drive for them the last 2 races (he doesn’t want to be compared with Grosjean without familiarizing with the car, fair enough).
And of course we’re looking forward to the CFA challenge: there are 4 associates in commanding position to take the 2013 crown – Manbos, Santi, Rocco & Curro-. and there are five others from 5 different ...
Abu Dhabi 2013 - Race
by Cato Batista, 02/11/2013 23:51:15
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Mercedes put up a fight but in the end Red Bull was faster to take yet another front row this time with WEB ahead of VET. Nico was faster than Lewis in row 2, Kimi was as quick as the Mercedes (5th)but will have to start last due to technical infringement (more of that in a second). One Ferrari (not ALO), one Sauber (not the Mexican), one McLaren (the Mexican), one Toro Rosso, and the sister Lotus made it into the shoot out. ALO(11th), who didn’t pass Q2 for the first time this year, will now be promoted to the 5throw.
This officially our worst CFA qualifying session ever. Ever. Lou won the honours with 1 point (ROS/ 3rd), the rest, I mean all of us, zero. Enough said.
The grid for tomorrow:
WEB VET ROS HAM HUL GRO MAS PER RIC ALO
It was a very demanding QF session in Yas Mariana, as the track temperature dropped the set up on the car was very difficult to guess. Much of the same is expected for the race tomorrow.
Red Bull is not showing any weakness either on the med or soft compounds, only Lotus looks stronger managing its prime tyres in the long-runs and high fuel load, that’s how GRO has got the last 3 straight podiums. RAI opted to use the older short wheel-base E36 chassis as it drives more to his liking, but it was found to vertically deflect its floor past the allowed 5mm. The stewards did not accept ...
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Abu Dhabi GP 2013 - QF
by Cato Batista, 02/11/2013 0:06:31
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The only driver capable of getting near the Red Bulls seems to be GRO; the sister Lotus in RAI’s hands was the best chassis managing tyres on long runs, but in general VET looks unstoppable in every area: prime or option compounds, one-lap pace or long run simulations. Not only is the RB9 far superior to anything else, the four-times World Champion is comfortably quicker than teammate WEB.
P1- GRO (1.44.241) HAM VET WEB ROS RAI DIR BUT MAL PER (ALO 12, MAS 17)
P2- VET (1.41.335) WEB HAM RAI ROS PER BUT ALO HUL MAS
Pirelli chose the same compounds as last week’s Indian GP: medium (prime) soft (option). Although the excessive wear from last Sunday is not apparent in Abu Dhabi, the question remains how the temperature dropping 15 degrees from the start of the race to the sun going down will affect their performance.
In pure one-lap speed HAM was spectacular closing to within 0.3 secs. of VET, but the Mercedes driver was 1 second slower on the long runs on the options and at least 1,5 seconds slower on the primes. GRO had a brake failure early in P2 that sidelined him most of the session, but there are other problems creating tension in the Lotus team with RAI arriving late to Abu Dhabi and now the popular Finn is considering to skip the last 2 races of the season if he doesn’t get his overdue salary.
Copyright 2001-2024 MANBOS