Formula 1 CFA Comments
Belgium GP - Preview
by Cato Batista, 26/08/2011 20:03:41
Señoras y señores:
We spent 4 very long weeks in limbo, but the wait is over, we return to Formula 1 racing this weekend at the great Spa Francocharms for the Belgium Grand Prix.
Looking at the results from the last 3 races we find no Red Bull & VET at the top of the podium. ALO, HAM and BUT had beaten the reigning Champ and if it seems almost impossible that the young German will not win the title again at least it’s clear that we’ll have a real fight for every GP until the end of the season between the top 3 teams.
Spa marks the beginning of the end of the 2011 season, a run of 8 races to decide the Championship, followed by Monza, two seriously fast tracks where Red Bull could be particularly vulnerable.
McLaren is not very optimistic for this race, their chassis excels in the tight layouts but top speed stability is not their forte, but then there’s the unpredictable Ardennes forest micro-climate that has made this place famous – I’m sure BUT is rubbing his hands.
Ferrari announced their intention to concentrate on next year’s car, but they know the next 2 rounds will be decisive for their 2011 aspirations, and ALO has been the driver with the best results in the last part of the season (4 straight podium finishes). They have new both front and rear wings for this circuit (so much for the ‘holidays’, nobody really stops working in F1) The mid field battle between Mercedes, Renault and now Sauber is heating up too; the Germans are faster in single-lap qualifying, but the French are much better on race trim and the Swiss are specially good at conserving tires. We ...
We spent 4 very long weeks in limbo, but the wait is over, we return to Formula 1 racing this weekend at the great Spa Francocharms for the Belgium Grand Prix.
Looking at the results from the last 3 races we find no Red Bull & VET at the top of the podium. ALO, HAM and BUT had beaten the reigning Champ and if it seems almost impossible that the young German will not win the title again at least it’s clear that we’ll have a real fight for every GP until the end of the season between the top 3 teams.
Spa marks the beginning of the end of the 2011 season, a run of 8 races to decide the Championship, followed by Monza, two seriously fast tracks where Red Bull could be particularly vulnerable.
McLaren is not very optimistic for this race, their chassis excels in the tight layouts but top speed stability is not their forte, but then there’s the unpredictable Ardennes forest micro-climate that has made this place famous – I’m sure BUT is rubbing his hands.
Ferrari announced their intention to concentrate on next year’s car, but they know the next 2 rounds will be decisive for their 2011 aspirations, and ALO has been the driver with the best results in the last part of the season (4 straight podium finishes). They have new both front and rear wings for this circuit (so much for the ‘holidays’, nobody really stops working in F1) The mid field battle between Mercedes, Renault and now Sauber is heating up too; the Germans are faster in single-lap qualifying, but the French are much better on race trim and the Swiss are specially good at conserving tires. We ...
Hungarian GP 2011- Results
by Cato Batista, 01/08/2011 14:50:08
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Fabulous, wild race. Rain came unannounced and Button was once again the master of the adverse conditions. We were treated with yet another display of supreme skills and wheel to wheel racing, ‘each race is better that the one before’ wrote Santi when publishing the official results. Red Bull has no longer the fastest car and looks like we’ll be treated to 3-way battles among the top teams for the rest of the season.
In situations like this with many dissimilar predictions the outcome is one winner by a large margin with many losers miles behind. Ian scored 4 triples (1-2-5-6) to reach 14 points and his first victory of the year, our tenth different winner this season. The best results after that were 12 points for me (3 golds) and 10 points each for Alberto, Curro and current championship contenders Joe, Uwe & Tim (2 positions each).
Only two colleagues correctly anticipated Button and Vettel on top of the podium, winner Ian and Rodrigo. Our favourite driver to win this race was VET with 14 votes with only 5 for Hamilton and just 1 for Alonso. Our best results came from Massa in 6th with 8 picks, Alonso’s 3rd with 7, Webber’s 5th with 6 and only one (Alberto) had Hamilton in 5th.
The Championship race is more like a mad game of ‘serpents and ladders’, we are swapping positions from top to bottom. Uwe has regained the lead and has a 2-point breather to Tim and Rocco (102-100); Joe keeps climbing and now has taken Manbos 3rd place (98-97), Curro (95) has done the likewise to Erik who’s now sharing 6th with Ian (94). Lou (93) and Fernando keep ...
Copyright 2001-2025 MANBOS
Fabulous, wild race. Rain came unannounced and Button was once again the master of the adverse conditions. We were treated with yet another display of supreme skills and wheel to wheel racing, ‘each race is better that the one before’ wrote Santi when publishing the official results. Red Bull has no longer the fastest car and looks like we’ll be treated to 3-way battles among the top teams for the rest of the season.
In situations like this with many dissimilar predictions the outcome is one winner by a large margin with many losers miles behind. Ian scored 4 triples (1-2-5-6) to reach 14 points and his first victory of the year, our tenth different winner this season. The best results after that were 12 points for me (3 golds) and 10 points each for Alberto, Curro and current championship contenders Joe, Uwe & Tim (2 positions each).
Only two colleagues correctly anticipated Button and Vettel on top of the podium, winner Ian and Rodrigo. Our favourite driver to win this race was VET with 14 votes with only 5 for Hamilton and just 1 for Alonso. Our best results came from Massa in 6th with 8 picks, Alonso’s 3rd with 7, Webber’s 5th with 6 and only one (Alberto) had Hamilton in 5th.
The Championship race is more like a mad game of ‘serpents and ladders’, we are swapping positions from top to bottom. Uwe has regained the lead and has a 2-point breather to Tim and Rocco (102-100); Joe keeps climbing and now has taken Manbos 3rd place (98-97), Curro (95) has done the likewise to Erik who’s now sharing 6th with Ian (94). Lou (93) and Fernando keep ...
Hungarian GP 2011
by Cato Batista, 30/07/2011 18:55:28
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Now it seems that McLaren has the faster car in qualifying, but somehow Vettel did his old trick to preserve Red Bull’s supremacy on poles this year. All it took for Alonso was a slow sector 1 to drop to 5th, the first time he’s behind teammate Massa. Webber hasn’t been on the pace since Friday but is still half a second quicker than both Mercedes –Rosberg a of Schumacher as usual-. The surprises were Sutil in a superb 8th and rookie Perez in 10th. The Mexican, by not completing a single lap in Q3 leaves him with flexibility on tires for the race.
We were a total disaster in qualiying scoring only 10 points collectively. The best we could do was 2 points for Matias (2-3) and me (1-2). In fact, we broke our futility record with 13 colleagues going blank -ouch!
Here is where the thinking process starts: VET HAM BUT MAS ALO WEB ROS SUT SCH PER
More than any other circuit, the left row with all of the rubber build up represents a big benefit when the lights go green, particularly in this tight layout where is easier to defend position from a faster car. So, that is VET BUT ALO ROS & SCH with a better chance of a jump start. After that crucial moment the possibilities to overtake will be the short (and only) start-finish straight-line where the single DRS zone is, and of course strategy.
According to Vettel both DRS and KERS will not have such a big effect on the outcome, it would be getting the most out of the tires.
The challenge the drivers are facing is to look after their tires when new (particularly on full tanks) and then anticipating the ...
Now it seems that McLaren has the faster car in qualifying, but somehow Vettel did his old trick to preserve Red Bull’s supremacy on poles this year. All it took for Alonso was a slow sector 1 to drop to 5th, the first time he’s behind teammate Massa. Webber hasn’t been on the pace since Friday but is still half a second quicker than both Mercedes –Rosberg a of Schumacher as usual-. The surprises were Sutil in a superb 8th and rookie Perez in 10th. The Mexican, by not completing a single lap in Q3 leaves him with flexibility on tires for the race.
We were a total disaster in qualiying scoring only 10 points collectively. The best we could do was 2 points for Matias (2-3) and me (1-2). In fact, we broke our futility record with 13 colleagues going blank -ouch!
Here is where the thinking process starts: VET HAM BUT MAS ALO WEB ROS SUT SCH PER
More than any other circuit, the left row with all of the rubber build up represents a big benefit when the lights go green, particularly in this tight layout where is easier to defend position from a faster car. So, that is VET BUT ALO ROS & SCH with a better chance of a jump start. After that crucial moment the possibilities to overtake will be the short (and only) start-finish straight-line where the single DRS zone is, and of course strategy.
According to Vettel both DRS and KERS will not have such a big effect on the outcome, it would be getting the most out of the tires.
The challenge the drivers are facing is to look after their tires when new (particularly on full tanks) and then anticipating the ...
Copyright 2001-2025 MANBOS