Spanish Grand Prix 2012, Catalunya - Race 5/20
- Thread starter Duke
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You could do that for any driver though. I'd rather that Button didn't have the sidepod cooler left in last year at Monaco, or him hitting the HRT a few races ago etc but points make prizes at the end of the day.
LOL ok then, so Schumacher's development skills are worthless, seems you are good at reeling out a whole list of excuses why he is not winning to me really
so you think schumacher could possible have done something different and not had
faulty gearbox
faulty drs
a mechanic not tightening a wheel nut
?
you could argue schumacher could have took a different line in the corner with grosjean hit him from behind but schumacher was already as far left as he could be and the only option would be driving off the track and losing a ton of places.
Soldato
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McLaren has been consistently fast, as have renualt and even williams in the hands of Maldonado when he's not crashing or suffering a failure.
Williams seem to have taken over the position that Force India have been in for the last few years. Consistently in the top ten with the chance of podiums if others falter. Its a massive turn around for them and one that I am very happy to see.
i wonder if force india will remain in the sport for long tbh.
and his liquer company is losing ground to rivals although still making a lot of money.
I expect they will stay, but with large chunks of the team sold off. They are already 50% owned by the Sahara group aren't they?
Its not the end of the world though. McLaren went a number of years with Ron only owning 15% of the team or something.
Its not the end of the world though. McLaren went a number of years with Ron only owning 15% of the team or something.
and yet the other year, pretty much everyone supported webber, who almost did it again this weekend.
Soldato
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If you think the computer is perfect and gets the right answer every time you are very, very wrong.
Computer modelling is still in early days. Complex aerodynamic simulations at the eddy level takes DAYS around a simple part, let alone the weeks or months around a dynamic thing like a car on a track!!! Setup includes that of the aerodynamics.
The drivers feedback and testing is extremely valuable. At the very least testing confirms what the computer says.
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Shame that, precedent should have put it down as a racing incident and MSc shouldn't have been given a grid drop. Annoyed me a bit that they appear to have given MSc a grid drop more for being in denial of it being anything other than Senna's fault...
Indeed. These days much of the on-track testing revolves around calibrating/corroborating the results of the computer simulation with what actually happens on track.
I know McLaren spend a big percentage of their time doing this. This may be one of the reasons why they tend to start off slow and then finish the season strongly (by then they have managed to get their computer modelling as good as it can realistically be).
With this year's tyres though, I think that computer sim programs for every team is stumped. As of yet, no team has truly been able to grasp the full characteristics of the tyres and accurately predict how they will behave on any given day. It's almost like rolling a dice.
A few weeks back, Sauber could've won. Ferrari did win (in a really bad car) and now Williams (out of nowhere). It's almost as if somebody is rolling a dice and deciding which team will be fastest on race day.
One thing's for sure though, this year, driver skill is more important than ever. What we are seeing is that the top drivers (who may not necessarily be winning every race), are scoring consistent points and ranking high up on the championship leaderboard.
Soldato
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I don't think that is true at all. I think they know perfectly well under which situations the tyres work. Just that they are unable to artificially manufacture those situations. e.g when track temp is low, there is only so much they can do to do to create heat. When track temp is high there is little they can do to prevent overheating.
which is odd considering everyteam has a sensor pointed at the rear tyres.
you would think the teams that have showed fast pace at a race weekend would be able to get the tyres switched on by now..
someone from an f1 team said its the temprature of the carcass that seems to matter asnd not the temprature of the actual rubber on the outside though.
Ok. Lets assume that what you say is correct.
Then, why are teams performing so erratically? In the case of Button (in the last GP), for reasons unknown to anybody, he just couldn't understand why his car was behaving like it was. His team-mate's car was fine, but his was "off". McLaren didn't know what to do to sort out the problem (ie. they had no solution to the problem).
If teams have now understood how the tyres are working and are able to predict how they will work under certain conditions, then surely they should be able to fix problems (as their computers will have proposed setup changes, which will solve a particular handling problem).
I do understand your argument though and can see where you are coming from.
And if what you say is correct, how the hell has Hamilton switched them on every race.
Button also is not a good example. It's well known he needs the car set up and it's an area he struggles in. This isn't the first time he's failed to set the car up.
Button also is not a good example. It's well known he needs the car set up and it's an area he struggles in. This isn't the first time he's failed to set the car up.
It is odd because if it was just a case of driving more like Hamilton, to get the heat in the tyres then why is Hamilton driving more like Button and saving the tyres
I hope the teams work out how to use the tyres properly as although being mixed up is entertaining, I'd rather not watch a complete lottery either.
How's it Odd? It's typical button. A couple of times a year he totaly fails to set up car. That's nothing new.
The lottery is more through other stuff though. Like hamiltons messed up pitstop and penalty, Alonso rain and now massively updated car. Mercedes doing well at low downforce tracks, again we've seen this before.
The lottery is more through other stuff though. Like hamiltons messed up pitstop and penalty, Alonso rain and now massively updated car. Mercedes doing well at low downforce tracks, again we've seen this before.
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Your memory is very selective here. Were you watching F1 through the 80s or are you basing this on highlights of a few famous races?
Senna actually won many of his races as he went with the strategy of preserving his tyres to make them last the race distance, where someone like Mansell had to make more than one stop. This set up some of the amazing finishes to races where Senna was leading but being hunted down at 2-3secs per lap by a driver with new tyres.
Sounds similar to what we have today?
If you read full race reports from the 60s there is plenty of discussion of drivers having to preserve their tyres over the race/them not lasting the distance.
This romantic idea of what F1 used to be like is not based on fact.