Belgium GP 2013 - QF
by Cato Batista, 23/08/2013 22:19:35
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Red Bull emerged alone at the top of the timesheets but as usual the picture of who’s fastest is not quite clear.
The first session was wet and only past its half way mark the dry slicks came out to start preparations. In the mixed conditions Alonso was fastest but the track was still about 5 seconds slower to come to any conclusions.
Looking at the forecast a typical Ardennes Forest weather is brewing up for the weekend, which means unpredictable showers coming down at any time! Despite the threat of thundershowers all the teams focused their time in P2 to comprehend Pirelli’s chosen rubber for this race: hard/prime, medium/option, their two hardest compounds to cope with the very high lateral loads of this high speed layout.
The most concerning issue on Friday was the identical rear-right tyre sudden deflations that affected Alonso and Vettel in exactly the same part of the track. Pirelli ‘is analyzing’ this situation and so far they don’t think this will affect safety, but definitely there’s a sense of concern hanging in the air.
P1- ALO DIR SUT PER ROS VET GUT HUL RIC BOT
P2- VET (1.49.331) WEB GRO MAS VER RAI ALO PER ROS DIR
The Red Bulls were separated by 6 hundreds, and even though Grosjean was 8 tenths behind his Lotus was just as fast in the long run simulations on both compounds. Mercedes disappointed as they had the ...
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Belgium GP 2013 - Preview
by Cato Batista, 23/08/2013 5:18:40
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Our patience will be rewarded. After a month in the dry we are going to F1’s favorite circuit this weekend: Spa Francorcharms for the 11th round of the Championship.
The attention in the last weeks has been on the driver’s market with Kimi at the center of the 2014 driver move speculation. Rumor was he was going to Red Bull, then Ferrari but now it seems he might just stay put at Lotus. With Alonso publicly showing his displeasure at Ferrari’s poor form the gossip was that he will join Vettel at Red Bull, although the German made clear he doesn't like the idea at all. Alonso is signed to 2016 but in F1 contracts are just expensive pieces of paper, they don’t really mean a lot. For next year the most coveted openings will be Red Bull’s and Ferrari’s number 2 seats, or possibly Lotus if Raikkonen takes one of those, and from the available drivers’ market the best offer is Hulkenberg, so in the end we may not see drastic changes except for ...
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Hungarian GP 2013 Race
by Cato Batista, 28/07/2013 7:17:17
Ladies and Gentlemen,
His team was surprised, he was even more surprised than them. HAM continues Mercedes formidable QF pace to claim his third pole in a row. VET conceded that “Lewis was exceptional” in beating him by 4 hundredths of a second. Mercedes gave notice of their potential by leading Q1 & Q2 but VET had the speed to cover them, the Red Bull driver was so confident that he sailed through Q2 in used option tyres and was the only driver in Q3 left with 2 new sets of soft compound rubber. Team-mate WEB continues to monopolize for himself all the team’s bad luck, this time he was sidelined with KERS and gearbox problems. As I write this there’s no news of his team replacing the gearbox, but we could see him doing the change and taking the penalty to start dead last*. The Lotus are handling beautifully around here, GRO has been among the top all weekend although RAI is complaining the new Pirellis are “not ideal for me”. As every other driver he’s struggling with understeer with the primes. Ferrari was better than expected as QF is definitely not their forte this season. ALO was happy with fifth, “a little miracle” he said and watch out, he is starting on the left side ...
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Hungarian GP 2013 - QF
by Cato Batista, 26/07/2013 23:52:22
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Usually Red Bull hides its cards on Fridays FP sessions, this time either they forgot or simply they are too fast to pretend. Even Vettel was surprised how much ahead of the opposition they are. “I think this track suits our car” he said. The bad news (for the rest of the competition) is that Webber even conceded they hit “a bit of traffic...” Lotus was the best of the rest with Grosjean lapping one and a half tenths behind the RB9s. He was relaxed though, their confidence based on tyre wear on Sunday which is normally better than anybody else’s. Ferrari didn’t bring anything new in development parts but so far they look competitive. Mercedes is not is the same league this time, the lack of miles with the new Pirellis on last week’s testing at Silverstone seems to be affecting them, both their drivers already ruling out victory –“I don’t think we have the speed this weekend” said Rosberg.
P1- VET (1.22.723) WEB RAI ALO GRO BUT SUT ROS PER MAL
P2 - VET (1.21,264) WEB GRO ALO MAS HAM ROS RAI BUT SUT
Even though the Hungaroring has this well earned reputation of a place where it’s impossible to pass, the pole sitter has only won 2 of the last 8. Hamilton was on the pole the last 2 times, the only driver in the current field with 3 victories in Hungary, although this time looks very unlikely.
Let’s try to get some points now. My turn – Cato – VET WEB GRO
