Nurburgring - German Grand Prix 2009 - Race 9/17

It is strange that the Ferrari engined cars of Bourdais and Buemi are doing so much worse than the Renault engined cars of Webber & Vettel; Ferrari must be delighted ;)
 
Go on then stockhausen, I'll bite - why is it strange?

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Seriously. The STR cars don't get a trick diffuser until Hungary, the car is based on a start-of-season RBR5 that has seen next to bugger all in the way of upgrades and was designed around a different engine. I don't get why it's strange that the car isn't doing too well?
 
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Over Clocker said:
Lewis seems to be doing something VERY special in the 3rd sector.
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That, or he was running on the smell of an oily rag and hanging on for dear life....it might not be an indication of sustainable pace just yet. Much as I think we'd all like it to be (even those of us who are accused of hating the guy :rolleyes:).
 
JRS said:
That, or he was running on the smell of an oily rag and hanging on for dear life....it might not be an indication of sustainable pace just yet. Much as I think we'd all like it to be (even those of us who are accused of hating the guy :rolleyes:).
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stop hating JRS :D




















:p
 
It's quite likely, almost certain in fact, that he was running on fumes, but fair play, mercedes home track and they topped the timesheets in one session at least.

But even before that he was consistantly in the top 10, looks like the upgrades have moved the mclaren up a little bit at least, my guesstimate for the race is that he'll be racing for the lower end of the points (6-8th basically)...
 
As much as I doubt that Hamilton is genuinely quicker that the Red Bulls and Brawns, it does look to be a significant step forward in pace. He should be top 10 in qualifying, hopefully.
 
The whole on fumes argument is an odd one though, Hamilton is making his time up in the short end sector. I'd say it is far more likely he is cutting the chicane more than running on fumes. Surely the first sector would be the one where much lower fuel plays the big difference.
 
I think people will find that the car is better than people think and LH will improve race by race.

The team spent far to long sticking to Kers while everyone else dropped it far earlier. THe car has speed but anyone can see LH slipping around corners all year long, he simply has no downforce. The biggest difference between kers/non kers is being able to distribute that 50kg in weight where its needed.

Give it a few races for McClaren to practice/test/race with new weight distribution and find ways to increase downforce and optimise for non KERS setup and I think they'll improve, a lot. You've also to a certain degree got to give the drivers time to adjust. For what 7 races LH had to ease off in the corners so as not to, die, and press the button down the straights. AS the car gets better, grip comes back they have to get back to racing the corners.

You've got to remember, he was always a VERY agressive driver and run the car ragged through corners. As the car gets more grip and he gets better at handling the corners, that aggressiveness will start to gain that time he used to have over other drivers in the harder corners.
 
the reason he is so fast in the last sector is mostly the chicane i reckon, in practice 2 they showed a ghost of vettel and hamilton taking the same corner. hamilton braked a lot earlier and carried a lot more speed out of it so had more speed going into the next corner
 
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Highlights - Hamilton tops German GP practice
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton sets the fastest time in the second practice session for Sunday's German Grand Prix, ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Brawn GP's Jenson Button.
 
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