Formula 1 CFA Comments
Brasil GP 2012 - QF
by Cato Batista, 23/11/2012 23:15:29
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Fastest on both sessions was Hamilton, marginally ahead of Vettel and then Webber. Those times were in low-fuel & option tyres, but Ferrari was the best car in every other parameter: driveability (very bumpy track), consistency (long run simulation) tyre management (less degradation on primes) and the quickest on the hard compound. But of course all the tyre talk will be irrelevant with a 90% chance of rain for Sunday.
P1- HAM (1.14.131) VET WEB BUT ALO MAS GRO DIR MAL HUL
P2 – HAM (1.14.026) VET WEB MAS ALO SCH ROS BUT GRO DIR
McLaren was focused on getting Hamilton’s car at its best for QF, he was running a bigger rear wing than BUT who was getting the highest numbers at the speed traps but this is a circuit where the best lap time comes from the having a good set up for the interior sections, not the outside straights. Both Red Bulls were fast as usual thanks to their efficient downforce, but they chassis is not coping well with the bumpy surface, climbing the kerbs (crucial to save tenths here and there) and it's showing premature tyre wear. In this race, more critically than any time in the past, Red Bull wants to get Vettel on pole to keep everybody behind his spray under the rain, their problem is that Hamilton is more motivated than ever and has a very fast car.
The latest forecast model calls for a dry QF session and a wet, maybe very wet GP for Sunday.
So let’s get ...
Brasil GP 2012 - Preview
by Cato Batista, 22/11/2012 19:18:43
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is it, our last assignment of 2012. We’re heading to the Brazilian GP for the 20th round of what’s been a fantastic season. All eyes will be on Vettel and Alonso to crown the new Champion, however with 13 points advantage the odds stack on Vettel’s favour. The scenario is like this: for Alonso there’s only one option, he has to finish in the podium; in Vettel’s case all he needs is a 4th place finish. Since his first Brazilian GP in 2008 Vettl has been 4th or better in Interlagos each time; Alonso has never won here. Either way, the winner will be youngest triple World Champion in history.
There are no improvements or new parts expected on the cars since they were shipped from Austin on Sunday evening. The new rear diffuser Ferrari tried on Alonso’s car made him slower than the old-style used on Massa’s so the team will revert to setting both F2012s with the old spec. Red Bull main concern will be facing another alternator failure, like Webber last weekend or that of Vettel when he was leading in Valencia. They have been using the 2011 alternators as opposed to Lotus and Caterham, but now they’ll switch to the new 2012-spec for this last race as advised by supplier Renault. They admit having another reliability concern in the form of faulty KERS systems, something that seems to affect Webber frequently but never Vettel. How curious.
And then comes the weather. Interlagos has the most unpredictable micro-climate from all the circuits in the calendar, famous from ...
U.S. GP 2012 - Results - Rodrigo's first
by Cato Batista, 19/11/2012 3:14:56
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We were treated to a fabulous race. Hamilton chased Vettel relentlessly to score his fourth victory of the year, the 2 leaders pushing each other to their absolute best to finish 40 seconds ahead of 3rd place Alonso who drove the wheels off his Ferrari to keep his Championship hopes alive until the last GP of the season this coming Sunday in Brazil. Massa and Button made up 7 positions each to take P4 & P5 respectively demoting Raikkonen to 6th. So much for the ‘no-passing’ predictions, it was a spectacular GP filled with wheel-to-wheel racing and battles across the field. The track is fantastic as confirmed by our special envoys Maria & Fernando reporting from the field, although it should be renamed the Mexican Grand Prix by the number of Perez supporters taking the vast majority of the sold out capacity.
Rodrigo has won his first GP of the season with 9 points, same number as Rocco but he is taking the overall as the only associate to hit 3 triple targets. Santiago got 2 golds (as did Rocco) to finish next with 8 points as the rest us had a frankly bad day. Six, five, many 4s and even 3 point marks were the norm today. In fact 13 of us didn’t even score a single correct driver/position...
Ample favorite was Vettel with 15 votes, only Fredrik, Matias, Ricardo, ...
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U.S. GP 2012 - Race
by Cato Batista, 18/11/2012 0:04:46
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On top in every session, Vettel will start from the pole, but it was Hamilton who came very close to end Red Bull’s domination on the closing moments of Q3. Webber was half a second off in third ahead of both Lotus. Ferrari struggled when it matter the most, Alonso even more than Massa, they finished 7th & 9th. Schumacher surprised in 6th; Hulkemberg 8th & Maldonado 10th completed the top 10. Grosjean will take a 5 grid position penalty for a gearbox replacement dropping to 9th.
The grid for tomorrow:
VET HAM WEB RAI SCH MAS HUL ALO GRO MAL (BUT 12th)
Our QF marks were above average, with Matias and I taking 4-point plenums plus 10 members with double points.
In such a tight championship race, every point is making a difference in the standings, check it out.
The compound selection for this track is too hard and has produced a situation never seen before: the tyres just can’t reach working temperatures, in the words of one driver “if Red Bull needs 8 to 10 laps to heat them up, what hope is there for the rest of us?” and that’s on the primes! This brings an interesting development: cars ...
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