Formula 1 CFA Comments

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Hungarian GP - Qualifying

by Cato Batista, 28/07/2012 6:23:19

Ladies and Gentlemen,

McLaren was the quickest car today with HAM fastest on both sessions and BUT 2nd and 6th respectively. Ferrari was closer to them in general but it was RAI in second in P2 in the Lotus that is looking stronger as the track builds up rubber and temperatures climb up. Rain hit P2 and most teams sent their drivers to explore the track in both inters and full wets in case the showers forecasted for race day are correct although QF is expected to be dry tomorrow.

Red Bull didn’t show their single-lap potential as is their customary style, using both sessions instead to evaluate the medium compound/heavy fuel on long stints. The prime white-tyres most likely will be choice for at least 2 stints during the race, and VET was only 0.8 seconds off HAM’s pace (the McLaren on options) which is very telling because the primes are only about 1 second slower than the options around here.

P1- HAM (1.22.821) BUT ALO ROS GRO SCH MAS RAI BOT (Bottas, Williams reserve driver) PER – WEB 13th, VET 15th.

P2- HAM (1.21.995) –temperature was 8C higher that P1- RAI SEN MAS ALO BUT DIR VET GRO SCH

The overall view is that McLaren is very quick on softs and single-lap trim but may struggle again on tyre temperatures; Ferrari is the best balanced on the different compounds and is well adapted to all the sectors of the circuit; Lotus has the best chassis for ...

Hungarian GP 2012 - Preview

by Cato Batista, 27/07/2012 6:01:01

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We are heading to Hungary for the 11th round. After completing the first half of the season I think it’s a good time to reflect on our 2012 performance.

And thanks again to Santiago for the labour of love all these stats represent.

We’ve been as competitive as the guys on the track with 9 of you winning the 10 GPs of the year so far with only one, Uwe scoring 2 victories (Australia 12 points, Monaco 13) as well as leading the championship race since day one. The other names in the record book are: Maria (China, 11), Joe (Spain, 10), Matias (Bahrein, 9), Manbos (Malasya, 8), Ian (British, 8), Rocco (Canada, 8), Alberto (Germany, 6) and Fredrik (Europe, 5). Four more shared GP wins but had to give in after the rules were applied: Uwe (Bahrein), Erik (Bahrein), Tim (British) & Ian Mac (Germany).

It is not surprised to confirm that forecasting this F1 season has been the most difficult in CFA history. It’s painful I know, but let’s review as well our worst marks of the year: Carlos twice with 2 points, Ricky once with 2 points; Uwe, Cato & twice with 3 points, Ian Mac once with 3, and the dubious honor of the worst score ever goes to...Tim with 1 point in the European GP (happy, Lou?). There are only six members that had escaped from the last place in any of the 10 GPs so far: Fredrik, Joe, Lou, Matias, Rocco and ...

German GP 2012 - Alberto wins, controversy or not

by Cato Batista, 23/07/2012 10:18:51

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Great victory by Alonso. Second was Vettel but he was given a 20 seconds ‘drive through’ penalty for illegally passing Button two laps from the end. The World Champion “left the track and gained an advantage when he rejoined. Breach of the article 20.2 of the F1 Sporting Regulations”. He ended 5th promoting Raikkonen to 3rd and Kobayashi to 4th. Ferrari nor Red Bull were the fastest cars today -they were McLaren and Sauber- but Alonso drove a faultless race to preserve his tyres under constant pressure to win his 3rd GP of the year.

With our without Vettel’s penalty and subsequent change in the final positions Alberto emerged our 9th different winner of the season, his first GP victory in a very long, long time. He tied rookie Ian Mac at 6 points (finally a good result from the newcomer) but Alberto takes the overall thanks to his selection of Alonso in 1st.

Results were very tight as you’d expect in such low scoring race, in fact 13 members finished just behind Alberto and Ian in 5 points.

Our overwhelming favorite to take the German GP was Alonso with more than double the votes over Vettel, 15 to 7. The only other 3-pointer collectively achieved by the entire group was Ian Mac’s Button in second place; we left the 3rd to 6th columns empty to mark another CFA futility record. It is pretty clear that this is the most difficult F1 forecasting season we had ever faced in our illustrious history.

Rain or shine ...

Germna GP 2012 - Race

by Cato Batista, 22/07/2012 7:19:13

Ladies an Gentlemen,

Another lottery QF under treacherous conditions, another pole for Alonso. It was a matter of hitting the track at the right time, but it was apparent that under the rain both Red Bull cars plus Alonso & Schumacher were the best suited for the challenging conditions. Several regular names were left out of Q3 like Grosjean, Massa, Rosberg and both Saubers, instead both Force India and Maldonado will start in the top 10. There are many drivers taking 5 grid-position penalties: Webber, (from third to eight) Grosjean & Rosberg (gearbox change), and Perez (for blocking Raikkonen & Alonso).

Our performance in QF was pretty much average, that is, poor. Ricky & Rocco correctly predicted Alonso-Vettel 1-2 for 2 points, besides them 9 other members scored single points.

http://f1.manbos.com/userbets.asp?t=2012&gpn=Germany&nevent=qualifying

The final grid for tomorrow (after penalties applied):

ALO VET SCH HUL MAL BUT HAM WEB DIR RAI

The weather forecast for Sunday is cloudy, 22C, dry. Nobody really knows what to expect since there was so little running in the dry, maybe the best reference up this point (the only one) was P3 this morning where they lapped in this order: ALO, HAM (+.077) PER (+.188) RAI (+.224) WEB (+.433) VET (+.461) MAL (+.650) MAS (+.757) KOB (.793) ...GRO 11TH (+.916) SCH 15th (+1.252). BUT was last with technical issues.

As you can imagine, there’s not an ideal strategy for the 67 laps without relevant dry-running data, the ...

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