Formula 1 General Chat & Discussion

If this tire tactics is the future in Q3 and it has success tomorrow I will prefer to change the rules !
I want to watch fast cars in TV - otherwise I can look out of the window !
Such a Bullshit-Quali ! Racer Hamilton please go for victory and give Red Bull and Co a kick in the arse !!!

This is how the top 10 finished today and should look on the grid tomorrow, unless theres any changes

Pole: Hamilton 1:21.707

2: Maldonado 1:22.285

3: Alonso 1:22.302

4: Grosjean 1:22.424

5: Raikkonen 1:22.487

6: Perez 1:22.533

7: Rosberg 1:23.005

8: Vettel (No Time)

9: Schumacher (No Time)

10: Kobayashi (No Time)

Jenson Button is the main loser

Pastor Maldonado - the hero of the day!

Lewis Hamilton is the winner and the main contender for tomorrow's victory!

There is still a tricky Fernando Alonso!

Sebastian Vettel - I do not understand!

Here are the times of the 3rd session that just ended a 1 hour ago :

1. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull : 1:23.168 - laps 13
2. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:23.336 + 0.168 laps 19
3. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:23.350 + 0.182 laps 19
4. Mark Webber : Red Bull : 1:23.578 + 0.410 laps 16
5. Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:23.742 + 0.574 laps 22
6. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1:23.807 + 0.639 laps 15
7. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:23.833 + 0.665 laps 14
8. Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:23.909 + 0.741 laps 13
9. Kimi Räikkönen : Lotus : 1:23.936 + 0.768 laps 16
10. Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:24.070 + 0.902 laps 24
11. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:24.179 + 1.011 laps 16
12. Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:24.323 + 1.155 laps 17
13. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:24.331 + 1.163 laps 15
14. Bruno Senna : Williams : 1:24.409 + 1.241 laps 18
15. Paul di Resta : Force India : 1:24.599 + 1.431 laps 15
16. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:24.778 + 1.610 laps 15
17. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:24.825 + 1.657 laps 17
18. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:25.911 + 2.743 laps 20
19. Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham 1:26.587 + 3.419 laps 20
20. Charles Pic : Marussia F1 Team : 1:27.469 + 4.301 laps 18
21. Timo Glock : Marussia F1 Team : 1:27.689 + 4.521 laps 16
22. Narain Karthikeyan : HRT : 1:28.207 + 5.039 laps 24
23. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT : 1:28.373 + 5.205 laps 13
24. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : no time - laps 2

Comment of 3rd session :

Sebastian Vettel denied Pastor Maldonado a shock timesheet-topping performance in the final seconds of the third practice session for the Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona. Most of the hour had seen a variety of surprise underdog names taking turns on top, before reigning champions Vettel and Red Bull re-established the expecting order with the German's final lap. It was Sauber's Sergio Perez who led the way for most of the morning, setting the quickest time of the first half hour on the harder tyres, then being swiftly usurped by first Nico Rosberg, then Jean-Eric Vergne as the Mercedes and Toro Rosso tried softs. Once Perez was on softs too, he was swiftly back in front, lapping in 1m23.742s.
That held until the final two minutes, when his team-mate Kamui Kobayashi jumped to the top, followed by Red Bull's Mark Webber. But before this pair could get to the pits, they were being usurped as Maldonado came through to put his Williams on top with a 1m23.336s. The Venezuelan would not stay there, as with seconds left on the clock, Vettel edged him out by 0.168 seconds.
Maldonado, Kobayashi, Webber and Perez found themselves pushed back to second through fifth places, ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Vergne, and fastest McLaren driver Jenson Button. The sister McLaren of Lewis Hamilton looked poised to grab first place on the Briton's soft tyre run, only to encounter heavy traffic in the middle of the chicane, leaving Hamilton an unrepresentative 16th. Romain Grosjean did not complete any flying laps after a fuel pressure issue stranded his Lotus at Turn 10 early on, while Timo Glock was the other man to park trackside following an apparent issue at the final chicane in the closing minutes. The German stopped his Marussia just past the pit exit.

Kind Regards
Shaky

At 14.00u CET will be the qualification !

And the times ofthe 2nd session :

1. Jenson Button : McLaren : 1m23.399 laps 38
2. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull : 1m23.563s + 0.164 laps 38
3. Nico Rosberg : Mercedes : 1m23.771s + 0.372 laps 41
4. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1m23.909s + 0.510 laps 32
5. Kimi Raikkonen : Lotus : 1m23.918s + 0.519 laps 32
6. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : 1m23.964s + 0.565 laps 37
7. Mark Webber : Red Bull : 1m24.065s + 0.666 laps 34
8. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes : 1m24.080s + 0.681 laps 36
9. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1m24.214s + 0.815 laps 41
10. Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1m24.365s + 0.966 laps 22
11. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1m24.418s + 1.019 laps 35
12. Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1m24.422s + 1.023 laps 32
13. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1m24.468s + 1.069 laps 40
14. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1m24.600s + 1.201 laps 33
15. Paul di Resta : Force India : 1m24.688s + 1.289 laps 30
16. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1m24.733s + 1.334 laps 34
17. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1m24.769s + 1.370 laps 37
18. Bruno Senna : Williams : 1m25.047s + 1.648 laps 42
19. Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 1m26.296s + 2.897 laps 36
20. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1m26.740s + 3.341 laps 35
21. Timo Glock : Marussia : 1m27.314s + 3.915 laps 27
22. Charles Pic : Marussia : 1m27.664s + 4.265 laps 30
23. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT : 1m28.235s + 4.836 laps 26
24. Narain Karthikeyan : HRT : no time : laps 2

Comment 2nd session :

Jenson Button overcame understeer issues with his McLaren to post the quickest time of the day in second practice for the Spanish Grand Prix. The McLaren driver used Pirelli's soft tyres to set a best time of 1m23.399s - enough to beat world champion Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull by 0.164 seconds. Nico Rosberg put Mercedes in third position, with Button's team-mate Lewis Hamilton in fourth and Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen completing the top five, albeit over half a second off the pace. Raikkonen's team-mate Romain Grosjean was sixth ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, with Michael Schumacher, Kamui Kobayashi and Nico Hulkenberg completing the top 10. This morning's pacesetter Fernando Alonso had to settle for 14th position in the Ferrari. With the track temperatures rising to 43 degrees Celsius, Sergio Perez was the early pacesetter for Sauber with a lap of 1m25.532s, but the Mexican was demoted around eight minutes into the session, when Vettel stopped the clock at 1m25.000s. Schumacher was the first man to lap in the 1m24s in the afternoon session just moments later, the German jumping to the top with a 1m24.859s, still some four tenths of a second off Alonso's best from the morning. The Spaniard returned to first position at the 18-minute mark with a lap that was still around three tenths off his best, but 0.120s faster than Schumacher. Jean-Eric Vergne relegated the local hero to second three minutes later with a fastest lap just 0.006s better than Alonso's. A few minutes later, Vettel flew to the top of the times in his first run on Pirelli's softs, the world champion's 1m23.563s the best time of the weekend until that point. Sauber's Kobayashi moved into second position, albeit over six tenths off Vettel's best, by also running with the softer compound. Hamilton first and Webber later also completed runs on the soft tyres to move to second and third behind Vettel. With 35 minutes gone it was Button's turn to go out with softs, and the Briton made good use of them to spring to the top of the times with a 1m23.399 despite having complained of severe understeer earlier on.
Alonso went out on softs with some 41 minutes to go, but the Spaniard aborted his first flying lap after a first split that was slower than his rivals. He completed the lap in the next attempt, but was only 13th quickest.
Webber was the protagonist of the first incident of the session when he went off the track at Turn 4, the Australian leaving a lot of stones on the circuit as he made his way back to the asphalt. Webber's move was mirrored by Perez later on, the Sauber driver also having a trip across the gravel at the same corner. As teams worked on longer runs, the times at the top stayed mostly unchanged for the last 30 minutes of the session. HRT's Narain Karthikeyan, whose car was driven by Dani Clos in the opening session, failed to set a time in the afternoon, the Indian stopping on track with a problem. He had spent nearly an hour in the garage waiting for his mechanics to solve an electrical issue.

Tomorrow ( saturday ) at 11.00u CET wil be the 3rd session ,followed at 14.00u with the qualifying !

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

Sorry for the delay ....here are the times of the 1st practice session :

1. Fernando Alonso :Ferrari 1:24.430 - laps 20
2. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull Racing : 1:24.808 + 0.378 laps 18
3. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:24.912 + 0.482 laps 28
4. Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:24.996 + 0.566 laps 24
5. Valtteri Bottas : Williams : 1:25.120 + 0.690 laps 24
6. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:25.187 + 0.757 laps 15
7. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : 1:25.217 + 0.787 laps 16
8. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:25.252 + 0.822 laps 20
9. Kimi Räikkönen : Lotus : 1:25.285 + 0.855 laps 29
10. Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:25.339 + 0.909 laps 24
11. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:25.367 + 0.937 laps 22
12. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:25.433 + 1.003 laps 21
13. Mark Webber : Red Bull Racing : 1:25.539 + 1.109 laps 23
14. Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:25.607 + 1.177 laps 20
15. Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:25.918 + 1.488 laps 19
16. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:26.226 + 1.796 laps 24
17. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:26.297 + 1.867 laps 18
18. Jules Bianchi : Force India : 1:26.630 + 2.200 laps 21
19. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:27.475 + 3.045 laps 20
20. Timo Glock : Marussia F1 Team : 1:28.267 + 3.837 laps 21
21. Alexander Rossi : Caterham : 1:28.448 + 4.018 laps 25
22. Charles Pic : Marussia F1 Team : 1:28.633 + 4.203 laps 22
23. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT: 1:29.107 + 4.677 laps 19
24. Dani Clos : HRT : 1:31.618 + 7.188 laps 19

Comment of the 1st session :

Fernando Alonso gave the upgraded Ferrari an encouraging grand prix weekend debut as he went fastest in the first Friday practice session at Barcelona.

Although the home favourite did not go for a flying lap until over an hour into the morning, Alonso was immediately quick when he finished his data-gathering runs - knocking Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull off the top spot with a 1m24.754s lap 21 minutes from the end of the session. Alonso then improved again on his next run and lapped in 1m24.430s, giving him a 0.378-second cushion over Vettel, who remained second to the finish. Before Alonso started setting the pace, Vettel had enjoyed a 15-minute spell at the head of the order, having usurped long-time first-place man Kamui Kobayashi. The Sauber stayed near the front, though, holding third place at the end of the session. McLaren's practice activities included evaluating its new nose and checking sight lines with a bar across the top of the chassis. Jenson Button was fourth quickest, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton eighth. Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas spent a while in second before ending up fifth in Bruno Senna's regular car. Michael Schumacher and Romain Grosjean were next up in the best Mercedes and Lotus respectively, with the latter's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Force India's Nico Hulkenberg completing the top 10 behind Hamilton. Bottas was one of four reserve drivers in action during the morning. Jules Bianchi was 18th in Paul di Resta's Force India, and there were debuts for Caterham's Alexander Rossi and HRT's Dani Clos, who were 21st and 24th respectively. Clos' car developed a problem near the end but he was able to crawl back into the pitlane before coming to a halt at the end of the pit entry.

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

11/05/1965 stefano domenicali ferrari general manager
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Good Idea how to create your next holydays ! Simply rent a car in Amerika !


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Mechanics McLaren train before Grand Prix of Spain!

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jacques villeneuve on ferrari
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This week end there will be the Spain grand Prix: 42 th edition
In the past the Spanish Grand Prix was run also at Jerez de la Frontera, Jarama and Montjuich. Since 1991 it runs at the circuit de Catalunya (Barcelona-Montmelo) The circuit is often home of the winter testings and so is well-known to the teams and drivers. The track layout is characterized by long main straight, and a continuous sequence of corners quite fast. There are also some medium-slow curves. Over the years the track has changed little. The only important change was the introduction of a chicane between the last two curves. Nevertheless the overtakings remain difficult, and the best possibility is at the first corner after the pit straight. If a car is quick here, it should be competitive on the majority of the circuits. This track is a severe test for tyres(in particular the front left) and car's aerodynamics. So the choice of Pirelli for this race is: hard (prime, silver) and soft (option, yellow). Pirelli tires will be a key factor to make the difference in each GP. The performance window of the tyres is very narrow, and also a small change of temperatures and track conditions are important for the lap time. This F1 season seems closely fought, and in every race there could be surprises. For the Spanish Grand Prix that opens the European season, teams often have relevant updates to improve the performance of their cars. Something new has already been tested last week on the Mugello circuit, for sure a great track much better than many other Formula 1 current circuit. At Barcellona in 1993 there was the podium most titled of all time: Prost, Senna and Schumacher. A total of 14 world championships. This is one of the favorite circuits from Schumacher: 6 wins, 7 pole position and 12 times on the podium. Here in 1996 there was his first victory at the wheel of a Ferrari, in pouring rain.
Podium 2011:Vettel – Hamilton – Button – fastest lap on race: Hamilton – pole position : Webber 1'20''981
Podium 2010: Webber – Alonso – Vettel – fastest lap on race: Hamilton – pole position : Webber 1'19''995
Podium 2009: Button – Barrichello – Webber – fastest lap on race: Barrichello – pole position : Button 1'20''527
Spain GP: victories for current pilots: Schumacher(6) Raikkonen(2) Alonso, Massa, Webber, Vettel, and Button (1). Hamilton: best finish 2°place.
Spain GP: pole position for current pilots: Schumacher(7), Webber and Raikkonen(2) Alonso, Massa, and Button (1) A little bit strange but Hamilton, and Vettel: never in pole position here.

Finaly there is this weekend again F1 , this weekend it will be the GP of Spain at the Circuit de Catalunya :

Friday :
1st free practice session : 10.00u - 11.30u CET
2nd free practice session : 14.00u - 15.30u CET

Saturday :
3rd free practice session : 11.00u - 12.00u CET
Qulification : 14.00u - 15.00u Cet

Sunday :
Race : 14.00u

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

What was before is this the prelude! But in Sunday begins the real race! Which excludes any accidents and surprises! Let the best win!

Nick Heidfeld 10th May 1977
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Happy Birthday to your 35th anniversary

On this day in 1982: Gilles Villeneuve killed at Zolder
1982 Belgian Grand Prix flashback , Final Part :

Villeneuve’s legacy :
F1 lost the most popular driver of the day on May 8th, 1982. Villeneuve lived for racing, was revered by fans and loved by many journalists who found his plain-spoken style a refreshing antidote to the caustic political environment in early-eighties Formula 1. The terrible circumstances of his death and the events of Imola two weeks earlier meant he was deified after the crash that claimed his life. The number 27, which his Ferrari bore for 19 of his 67 race starts, became a frequent sights on flags and banners at F1 tracks around the world in the years that followed.
Even Enzo Ferrari admitted the effect Villeneuve had on the Ferrari brand: “He made Ferrari a household name and I was very fond of him,” he wrote. Over 5,000 people attended his funeral, including the prime minister of Canada.

The cause of the crash :
Inevitably, some sought out a scapegoat for the crash and blamed Mass – though others were quick to defend the March driver. “I was going down the middle of a straight and saw Villeneuve in my mirror coming up,” was Mass’s account of the crash. “I moved right to let him through, but he came in on the right as well. He touched my right rear wheel and somersaulted.”
Cooler heads divided the blame between both drivers. Niki Lauda saw the accident as follows: “To my mind, when you are coming in, you should either edge out towards the grass verge or clearly adhere to the ideal line, so the the driver coming up behind you knows what’s what. Moving over at the last moment simply takes the man behind by surprise.
“I don’t think Jochen Mass did the right thing but, having said this, I must say that Villeneuve was perhaps the only driver around who would have chosen the risky option of overtaking a slower car going flat out off the ideal line.”
The sport’s governing body FISA saw things differently in a statement issued 13 days after the crash: “The cause of the accident was attributed to driver error on the part of Gilles Villeneuve. No blame is attached to Jochen Mass.”
A hue and cry went up for qualifying tyres to be banned. Villeneuve himself had spoken out against them in the past, and warned of the risks involved in trying to set a fast time on a busy track with two sets of tyres which were only good for one lap. FISA initially appeared to go along with this view, stating: “The enquiry calls for immediate action to reduce the risks posed by qualifying tyres.” But qualifying tyres remained in use during subsequent seasons with multiple tyre suppliers, and were still in use in 1991. In that time there was no repeat of the accident that befell Villeneuve. So how were repeat accidents avoided? Had there been too many cars on too short a track at Zolder? The circuit was longer than most on the 1982 schedule and 30-car qualifying fields were commonplace in the eighties, so we can discount that too. Nor did the performance of the slowest cars relative to the front-runners improve. Mass’s qualifying time was only 5.4% slower than the pole sitter’s – two years later at the same track the back row were over 7% slower.
The narrowness of Zolder was a contributing factor, and the track only held one more F1 race after 1982. Other tracks have had blind crests and corners eased, and new, wider circuits were built with better sight lines.
Better pit-to-car radio communication has also played a role: listen to the team radio channel during a qualifying session today or watch McLaren’s Pitwall transcript on their website and you’ll see how drivers are fed information about the cars around them.



Car and driver safety
Car and driver safety
One week after Villeneuve’s crash, IndyCar racer Gordon Smiley lost his life in a ferocious crash during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. A month later, Riccardo Paletti was killed in a start-line accident at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Later in the F1 season, crashes involving Arnoux at Zandvoort and Mass and Mauro Baldi at Paul Ricard put spectators’ safety at risk. The spotlight turned to the high cornering speeds created by the cars using skirts (such as those on the Renault RE30B, pictured) to create ‘ground effect’, sucking the cars down onto the track.
After the 1982 season, both F1 and IndyCar announced ground effect aerodynamics would be banned for 1983. In order to give F1 teams time to redesign their cars, the South African Grand Prix was moved from the beginning of the new season to the end. Regulations changes and advancements in car design improved the chances of drivers surviving similar accidents in the future. McLaren had introduced all-carbon-fibre construction the year before which offered improved chassis rigidity which benefited performance and safety.
Ferrari were working to catch up and the Harvey Postlethwaite-designed 126C2 raced in 1982 used Nomex honeycomb wrapped around carbon fibre bulkheads. Following the crash Ferrari impact-tested another of the cars plus a 1981 126CK to understand how the structure had deformed. At the Hockenheimring Pironi suffered a similar aerial accident to Villeneuve’s but, crucially, landed with the rear of the car first. He survived the crash, but suffered horrific leg injuries and never raced in F1 again.
By 1983 Ferrari had their own autoclave at Maranello for building a full carbon-fibre chassis. This was used for the 126C3, introduced at that year’s British Grand Prix. While all-carbon-fibre construction became the norm in car design, the sport’s governing body raised safety requirements including requiring the drivers’ feet to extend no further than the front wheel axis.
Villeneuve paid the price for a split-second misjudgement with his life. Today there are several reasons why that error would not happen to begin with, and several further chances to save a driver’s life in the event their car is launched into the air. Mark Webber’s escape from injury in a violent aerial crash at Valencia two years ago demonstrated the progress that has been made.

R.I.P Gilles Villeneuve

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi