Spanish GP Thread will contain Practice,Qualifying and Race spoilers

[Fernando]

First topic message reminder :



The Circuit de Catalunya plays host to the fifth round of the 2012 FIA Formula One World Championship with the teams returning to Europe after four fly-away events.

The circuit to the north of Barcelona is the closest that F1 has to a home track. The Spanish Grand Prix has been held here since 1991 but the track is also a favourite testing venue. Its popularity stems from the excellent facilities and a high-downforce layout that features a long straight and a combination of high-speed and low-speed cornering but otherwise provides medium tyre wear, medium brake wear and cooling, medium kerb sizes etc, This year F1 held two of its three pre-season tests at the circuit and the consensus is that a car that goes well in Barcelona will go well at most circuits.

Barcelona is a tough place to overtake, a characteristic demonstrated by the fact that the winner has only once come from beyond the front row and never during a dry race. Even with a reconfiguration in 2007 aimed at encouraging overtaking, this track still has a reputation as one of the most difficult permanent F1 circuits on which to pass. In 2011 the circuit was one of the most resistant to DRS-assisted overtaking, hence for this year the DRS zone has been lengthened.

F1 comes to Spain with Sebastian Vettel leading the Drivers’ Championship with 53 points and Red Bull Racing in front in the Constructors’ Championship with 101. The first four races of the year have been won by four different drivers from four different teams. While not unprecedented, the last time this happened was 1983, when the first four races were won by Nelson Piquet (Brabham), John Watson (McLaren), Alain Prost (Renault) and Patrick Tambay (Ferrari). The fifth race was won by Keke Rosberg for Williams and only at the sixth round did the Championship have a repeat winner.


CIRCUIT DATA

Circuit de Catalunya

Length of lap:
4.655km
Lap record
1:21.670

(Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari, 2008)
Start line/finish line offset
0.126km
Total number of race laps
66
Total race distance
307.104km
Pitlane speed limits
60km/h during practice;
100km/h during race

CHANGES TO THE CIRCUIT SINCE 2011

A one-metre strip of artificial grass has been installed around the last part of the verge in Turn Three.

The kerb on the exit of Turn Five has been extended by 50 metres.

Spanish GP
Fast Facts
► The Circuit de Catalunya became the home of the Formula One Spanish Grand Prix in 1991, taking over from Jerez (1986-90). Only five circuits on the current F1 calendar have enjoyed a longer continuous run (Interlagos, Silverstone, Budapest, Monza, Monte Carlo). The race has also been held at Jarama (1967-8, 1970, 1972, 1974, 1976-80), Montjuïc (1969, 1971, 1973, 1975) and Pedralbes (1951, 1954).
► Despite occasionally being referred to as the ‘Circuit de Barcelona’, the the Circuit de Catalunya is not within the City of Barcelona. It is located approximately 25km north of the Catalan capital in the municipality of Montmeló.
► Only once has a grand prix at the Circuit de Catalunya been won from beyond the front row. Michael Schumacher started third in 1996. The race took place in heavy rain and was Schumacher’s first win for Ferrari. There have been four wins from second place on the grid and 16 from pole position.
► This circuit has been kind to the reigning world champion. From 21 events, the man with the number one on his car has won 11 times.

► This is a bellweather venue: on 14 occasions the victorious driver has gone on to the win the Driver’s Championship and 16 times the winning team has gone on to lift the Constructors’ title at the end of the season.

► Ferrari are the constructor with the best record here. They have won at this track seven times, Williams have five victories, McLaren four, Red Bull and Benetton/Renault two each and Brawn one. For drivers, Michael Schumacher (1995. 1996, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004) is out in front with five victories. Mika Häkkinen (1998, 1999, 2000) has three wins, Kimi Räikkönen (2005, 2008) and Nigel Mansell (1991, 1992) two each. The race has also been won by Alain Prost (1993), Damon Hill (1994), Jacques Villeneuve (1997), Fernando Alonso (2006), Felipe Massa (2007), Jenson Button (2009), Mark Webber (2010) and Sebastian Vettel (2011).
Räikkönen is the only multiple winner to not have back-to-back victories. Both Mansell and Prost previously won the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez.

► Kimi Räikkönen’s lap record of 1:21.670 was set during 2008 – this, however, is considerably slower than the times achieved by drivers prior to the chicane being inserted before the final corner. In its previous configuration, when the lap ended with two fast sweepers, Giancarlo Fisicella’s 2005 lap time of 1:15.64 held the record. The other major event held at the track, the Catalan MotoGP race, still uses the old configuration.
► In the last decade, the Spanish Grand Prix has been particularly susceptible to immediate form: only once (2008) has the winning driver in Spain failed to win either the preceding or the following race.

Spanish GP
Race Stewards
Biographies
GERD ENNSER
MEMBER OF THE DMSB’s EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE FOR AUTOMOBILE SPORT, FORMULA ONE AND DTM STEWARD
Dr Gerd Ennser has successfully combined his formal education in law with his passion for motor racing. While still active as a racing driver he began helping out with the management of his local motor sport club and since 2006 has been a permanent steward at every round of Germany’s DTM championship. Since 2010 he has also worked as a Formula One steward. Dr Ennser, who has worked as a judge, a prosecutor and in the legal department of an automotive-industry company, has also been a member of the steering committee of German motor sport body, the DMSB, since spring 2010, where he is responsible for automobile sport. In addition, Dr Ennser is a board member of the South Bavaria Section of ADAC, Germany’s biggest auto club.

TOM KRISTENSEN
EIGHT TIMES LE MANS WINNER, GERMAN F3 CHAMPION (1991), JAPANESE F3 CHAMPION (1993) ALMS CHAMPION (2001)
Denmark’s Tom Kristensen is the most successful driver in the history of the Le Mans 24-Hour race. He has won the classic endurance event eight times, racing for Porsche, Audi and Bentley. Kristensen, 44, has a broad racing CV, having competed in single-seaters, touring cars and a range of sportscars. He has also tested in F1. A popular and respected figure, this year he is competing in the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship, driving for Audi Sport Team Joest. Along with long-time team mates Dindo Capello and Allan McNish he won the first round of the championship at the 12 Hours of Sebring, making him the first man to win that famous race six times.


RADOVAN NOVAK

SEC. GENERAL OF THE ACCR (AUTOCLUB OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC); WORLD MOTOR SPORT COUNCIL MEMBER
Radovan Novak has been actively involved in motorsport since 1963 and rose to become Secretary General of the ACCR in 1990. Since 1991 he has held the role of President of the FIA Central European Zone and over the past two decades he has acted as a steward and observer in WRC and ERC rallies, EC autocross and rallycross events and WTCC and GT races. He has been a Formula One steward since 1994. From 1994 to 2006, he was a member of the FIA Off-road Commission and was made a member of the World Motor Sport Council in 1998. In 2000 he became a member of the Sport Commission at the Ministry of Sport of the Czech Republic. An avid racer and co-driver, Radovan Novak has won a number of Czech rallying events.

Source: FIA

[liverbnz]

Interesting point about the tyres actually preventing real duels John. It's something that Webber mentioned in his post-race comments also. On the one hand the pirelli tyres have thrown the grid all out of sync but on the other are destroying any chance of actual racing. Once you get behind a car on a similar strategy your tyres degrade at an alarming rate. So should you try and stay in the 1 second window and get past on DRS and risk increased tyre degradation or leave a gap, conserve the tyres and try and make a jump on strategy?

Knowing all this, Red Bull made a fair few bad calls this weekend. Firstly the risk with Webber having one run in Q2 to conserve a set of tyres and secondly to have Vettel parade round the circuit in Q3. Surely it would have made more sense to get as high up as possible in quali and avoid the midfield squabbles and increased trye wear, especially given that Hamilton (hardly renowned for being easy on his rubber) showed that the harder compund could last 25+ laps, therefore less requirement for as many fresh sets for the race.

And what happened to Button this weekend? Too much oversteer? Understeer? Helmet too tight? Upset tummy?

[Belgarion of Riva]

And what happened to Button this weekend? Too much oversteer? Understeer? Helmet too tight? Upset tummy?

Jenson does love his excuses

[Critical_mass]

The DRS and tyres contradict eachother. Like Liverbnz said, you try to stay within one second of the car infront to allow you to use the DRS. However in doing so youre in the dirty air and using the grip of the tyres.

[dyrewolfe]

The DRS and tyres contradict eachother. Like Liverbnz said, you try to stay within one second of the car infront to allow you to use the DRS. However in doing so youre in the dirty air and using the grip of the tyres.

That happened anyway pre-DRS. Its just more pronounced with the Pirelli tyres.

I think it was most noticeable after Alonso made his final stop and charged right up to Maldonado's gearbox, but then dropped back after several laps.

Back to my original point however, drivers have always experienced loss of downforce when closely following another car, which causes their car to slide around, increasing tyre wear. Using harder / more durable tyres would probably allow you to stay on a car's gearbox a bit longer, but ultimately you would still suffer higher tyre wear than the car you were trying to pass.

[dyrewolfe]

Yes was a great race and congratulations to Maldonando for a fantastic drive all weekend.

@dyrewolf, I know we've had our differences but i'm glad your coming round to the fact that McLaren are simply embarrasing.

The difference is you said they have been embarrassing for years, but gave no reasons to substantiate your opinion.

I'm only being critical of their recent pitstop performances and the fuelling mistake that cost Hamilton his pole.

[Guest]

The difference is you said they have been embarrassing for years, but gave no reasons to substantiate your opinion.

There has been some appaling decision making and bad mistakes from this team in the last two seasons and a clear and steady decline in performance evident. Maybe labelling them 'embarrasing' was too strong a word for previous seasons issues but there is no doubt that this season the word 'embarrasing' is suitable. The mistakes we've viewed this season have just been appaling and the team has looked incredibly amateurish within the highly professional world of F1. I mean there was a full investigation into the pit-stop catastrophe of previous races, yet even yesterday there was a foul up and it was only pure luck that no serious damage to Hamiltons car occured. We thought we'd seen the end of the woes but up pops the fuelling issue and once again the driver is punished for a team mistake. If this form continues, I wonder how many points in total would of been lost altogether because currently there's quite a sackful of points that have vanished. Very Costly.

On another note dyrewolf your right about this issue of losing downforce behind a car happening before, however the pirelli's have just enhanced the problem. Something needs to be done also with the Q3 problem of non-runners. These are the issues....

[Fernando]

There's an easy solution to stop people not running in Q3.

If they don't take part in Q3 by not setting a time their start from the back of the grid, They would also take a place at the back of the grid if they were not within 4 seconds of Pole position

[Fernando]

Also in other news Michael Schumacher has been given a 5 place grid penalty for the Monaco GP after his incident with Bruno Senna

[liverbnz]

Idiot

[Fernando]

Anyone else starting to worry for Schumi ,

Rosberg finally gets his 1st win in a competitive car and with Kimi coming back doing well it's starting to show how bad he's become especially with only 2 pts.

[Guest]

That 5 place penalty was well deserved. I bet others are glad aswell because being stuck behind that Mercedes in Monaco with it's extremely good traction off slow corners could end up being a long afternoon for someone. I do worry for Schumacher immensely, what is it 2pts out of five races? unnacceptable. Fully expect Di Resta or Sutil to replace him come 2013.

[SteveG]

On another note dyrewolf your right about this issue of losing downforce behind a car happening before, however the pirelli's have just enhanced the problem. Something needs to be done also with the Q3 problem of non-runners. These are the issues....

Precisely.

Plenty of overtaking but alot of it is between cars in different tyre phases which now is 'the show'. To its credit it has so far produced a very open WDC (Mclaren will be thanking Pirelli for that one) which, after last years borefest can only be good for the sport. But we don't want to get to a point where not setting a Q3 time becomes the norm or where even DRS is deemed too much of a risk with tyres becoming the be all and end all in the F1 universe. Afterall we still had a good 2010 season. It wasnt perfect (Bahrain) but it had a WDC in the balance right to the end and enough rubber and true racing to keep the purists happy. FIA take note.

[Critical_mass]

Its simple really, though others may disagree, that all Pirelli need to do is make the tyres more durable, little by little, until they hit a balanced point between longevity and performance. Then maybe back it up a bit.

But that could be me thinking about it a bit too simply.

[Guest]

That probably is looking at it too simply but I agree making the tyres more durable would be sensible. The tyre lottery or window is quite ridiculous in my opinion and getting them to work seems to be quite frankly yet to be anywhere near understood. This has resulted in five different winners.

http://www.totalf1.com/full_story/view/417121/Webber_concerned_at_number_of_winners/

Webber has stated he's concerned about the number of winners in F1 currently and I am beginning to agree. He's states people would enjoy a fascinating rivalry between two world class drivers rather than a lucky, tyre related win. I mean in all seriousness we could have a world champion at the end of the year who probably in many people's eyes is non deserving or may of only won one or two races all season. If you look back over the history of the sport it is decorated and remembered mostly for its world class drivers and fierce rivalries e.g Senna/Prost, Lauda/Hunt & Schumacher/Hill......

Thoughts?

[SteveG]

Agree. It's been a novelty having different winners but give me a season any day where Ferrari and Mclaren both have great cars, plenty of rubber and Alonso and Hamilton dicing wheel to wheel at every circuit in a neck and neck battle for the title. Hell I'd even go PPV to see that - something I'd never do!! And therein lies the difference.

[dyrewolfe]

I think we need to stop looking to the past, at how F1 used to be and accept we are in a different era with different rules that are going to produce different results.

While I have enjoyed seasons where there has been a season-long battle between 2 or 3 contenders, I am equally enjoying the new randomness of this season.

In the past, we would have expected the same names on the podium at virtually every race. Under the new regs, teams' dominance seems to be shifting on a circuit-by-circuit basis and is creating a previously unseen level of diversity on the winners' podium.

Its not often I find myself agreeing with Eddie Jordan but I think this new uncertainty makes things much more interesting. So what if the eventual champion has only 3 or 4 wins over the season? If they score more points than anyone else, they have still done better than the rest and so deserve the title.

I also think its great that other teams are getting a look-in. The fact Mercedes, Lotus and Williams have all had drivers on the podium will hopefully be an incentive to the other teams. Any sport needs diversity to thrive. I would hate for F1 to become the Oxford - Cambridge Boat Race on wheels.

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