Italian GP 2013 - QF
by Cato Batista, 06/09/2013 23:25:17
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 ...
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Italian GP 2013 - Preview
by Cato Batista, 06/09/2013 16:38:32
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are heading for Italy this weekend for the 12th GP of the season at the legendary Monza circuit.
By their own admission this race and the next in Singapore are Ferrari’s last chances to close the gap and challenge Vettel and Red Bull for the Championship. Same as in Spa 2 weeks ago, this high speed-low downforce track is suppose to play the strengths of Ferrari; the Italians will introduce several new parts for this and the next GP as the last resort before moving all their resources to the 2014 generation car. Mercedes declared they had given up 2013 same as McLaren. On the other side Lotus will bring their new long wheelbase chassis just on time for the second half of the calendar and its faster race tracks. And Red Bull? they are committed to get their 4th straight Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ Championships, they are not even talking about next year’s car...yet.
Our CFA Italian GP winner last year was Tim with 10 points. Let’s see what happens this time.
As we talked after the Belgium GP, I want to invite you to share with the rest of us your personal 5 all-time favorite driver’s list. I want you to include those drivers you had seen in action since you follow F1. In no particular order (if you prefer) with or without a personal comments. Following tradition, please allow me to start:
My top 5: 1- Gilles Villeneuve. He was in a different league, I’d never seen anything like him. 2- Jim Clark. He was a ...
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Belgium GP 2013 - Results -Curro is our 10th different winner
by Cato Batista, 25/08/2013 23:42:47
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The race was dry and Vettel had no problem imposing Red Bull’s superiority. Alonso came 2nd ahead of both Mercedes for yet another superb drive from 9th place. We were treated to numerous wheel-to-wheel battles up and down the field but the lead was never in question after the second corner. Let’s get used to the fact that Vettel is flying to his 4 straight World Championship. Raikkonen retired to end his record-breaking 27-straight races scoring points.
Curro is taking his first victory of the season with 9 points with a brilliant 1st -2nd forecast. He was tied by Erik who played ‘safe’ picking the Dark Horse (he’s traveling without connection) as it yielded a better than average result (3 pointers in 4th & 6th). Behind the winner 9 colleagues scored 7 points as the rest trailed within 2 points (one exception in 4 points). It was a difficult prediction therefore the very close spread. All the votes were divided between ...
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Belgium GP 2013 - Race
by Cato Batista, 25/08/2013 19:05:04
Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very exciting, frantic QF session. Changing conditions made Q3 a crazy game of tombola from which Hamilton emerged the last moment winner. This was the Mercedes’ driver fourth straight pole position surprising the dominant Red Bulls in the dying seconds as the track was becoming increasingly faster, but he concedes his W04 was unlikely to challenge the RB9s in the dry. Rosberg was clearly the quickest when the rain was at its worst to ultimately finishing 4th behind Vettel & Webber. DiResta almost produced the surprise of the day by setting the best time early on but eventually was pushed down the order to a respectable 5th. Button, astute as always in the adverse conditions beat the Lotus and Ferrari drivers to start 6th.
Us? well, we did pretty bad, as usual. Ricky was the exception with a solid 1-2 to beat us all. Single points were awarded to Fredrik, Lou (HAM 1st ) Ricardo, Tim (VET ...
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