2011 British GP **SPOILERS**

No-one has started this thread and free practise has already begun! Poor...
Anyway slight change to the layout this year with a new pitlane in a new place, will this affect the start much tomorrow? Maybe a few front wings lost?
Can anyone dislodge vettel, will a brit win? I for one doubt it but still
Will hamilton move to red bull?
Ricciardo first time in HRT


Track map:



On a note about the track, ive just seen the pitlane, and the gap between the guys on the pitwall and the actual lane is a quite a big grass stretch, atleast compared most tracks in the calendar that i've seen. Just a random point.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/08/2011 10:47AM by truecrysis.

New layout is weird, really weird to watch the old pit vacant.


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

ye looks weird to be honest and i have to say i like the old layout much more but the new isint too bad.

Not much to say about practice as it was wet and only some spins and off track moments.

Kobayashi`s crash was kind funny as he went airbourne of the grass.

Renault either had heavy fuel on board or they look serious in trouble wich i dont hope.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"

yeh its strange to see that old pitlane so empty especially after all the years it has been there, webber clearly forgot though

Im slightly surprised that the grass was such that kobayashi's car could be launched slightly, did they not learn from malaysia + petrov

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I didn't find it too weird as I watched the MotoGP race there and kinda got used to it...

Hopefully the start will be more mental, and that Vettel won't win. We know that he will, but we can hope.

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Well Webber has some form here and he's been quickest today, so there's a glimmer of hope for him. But we know how expert Vettel is at coming good when it matters.
The best chance of an exciting race is rain on one or both days IMO.

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The way he's been driving this year... if Vettel wins it... he's generally deserved it.

Allright quali over and finally vettel aint on pole but he was already moaning that he isnt on pole.

Ferrari looks like they finally got em due to the rule changes and some updates.

Button is ok in p5 but bit dissapointing. Dont know what happend to hamilton as he only was p10.

Well done by kobayashi,Maldonado and Di resta for 6,7,8

Very dissapointed by Renault looks like they dropped massively. Schumi destroyed his tyres as he went out to early.

Gotta say it was good quali and quite exciting hope tomorrow will be a classic.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"

Watch out for the two Ferrari cars tomorrow... I would boycott the British GP (like in US several years ago)

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Mclaren have really made themselves stupid this weekend and I am fed up with them now.

1st off sending Lewis out on used tyres in quali 3 knowing it was going to rain, this is not the 1st time they have done stupid things.

2nd all the botching about banning this and that and its in fact them that have lost out big time.

Watch the Ferraris off the line, I think they will get past one of the RBR cars for sure.

People do seem to think Mclaren have gone for a wet setup, but it did not look it from the pictures shown. Tbh I think it is more of the case that this was the pace of the car over winter testing before they copied RBR and now they cannot use it they are back where they started.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 06:56PM by marcl.

Cracking quali with a perfect level of interference from the rain showers, although no real surprises at the front end of the grid. Brilliant effort by di Resta, stunning lap, and great attempt by Rosberg right at the end too.

Hope the Ferraris can both get great starts tomorrow and both get ahead of at least one RedBull. Then it should be a good race. Also, if there's the same kind of rain as there was during quali, that would be pretty awesome.

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^Yes as long as they let them race in the rain lol

Good point, well made.
Maybe a dry start with a shower early on would be ideal(though it's a bit picky of me to ask for that, think we've been spoiled with the way in which rain has affected races over the last few years), hopefully any rain might stay light enough to avoid the SC being deployed. If it falls like it did during quali, we might avoid the SC situation.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/09/2011 08:14PM by EC83.

marcl Wrote:
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> Mclaren have really made themselves stupid this
> weekend and I am fed up with them now.
> 2nd all the botching about banning this and that
> and its in fact them that have lost out big time.


The choice was between supporting the ban, and getting it enforced, or risk being protested by the Cosworth teams, and be disqualified from every race where the cold-blown diffuser was used. Make no mistake, that is what would happen, as the FIA is of the opinion, quite rightly, that cold-blown diffusers are illegal.

If the choice is between:

A) getting thrown out of the next GP, and then being forced to totally drop the cold-blown diffuser to participate in the next GPs;

or

B) support the ban, hence get influence and concessions on the limits of the usage of cold-blown diffuser, and participate in every GP legally, knowing your rivals have to abide by similar restraints;

then what would you chose?

I'd say, you would have to be pretty moronic not to opt for B, even if it hurts you more than your rivals.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Sorry if this has already been discussed (I've not read the thread) but the position of the start-finish straight now makes for a bollocks first corner, copse was always high-speed and exciting.

Love the new grandstand and I do like the layout and know it's something to be proud of and was a necessity yada yada but I'll miss the fast opening corner!

loque Wrote:
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> Sorry if this has already been discussed (I've not
> read the thread) but the position of the
> start-finish straight now makes for a bollocks
> first corner, copse was always high-speed and
> exciting.
>
> Love the new grandstand and I do like the layout
> and know it's something to be proud of and was a
> necessity yada yada but I'll miss the fast opening
> corner!

Well isnt the new first corner just as fast if not faster? The cars take new abbey absolutely flat out especially at the start, the same as copse? Whereas village gives more of an overtaking hard braking zone compared to becketts. Just saying that the first corner is probably just as fast on the new layout

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For a list of EVERY download for GP4, look here: [docs.google.com]

Oh yeah. For some reason I thought Village was T1. I'm an idiot - appologies.

loque Wrote:
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> Oh yeah. For some reason I thought Village was
> T1. I'm an idiot - appologies.


Well, you're not the only one. I thought Brooklands was T1 now. So LOL x2



Stats: 139 Starts / 7 Wins / 9 Poles / 5 Fastest laps

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Morbid
The choice was between supporting the ban, and getting it enforced, or risk being protested by the Cosworth teams, and be disqualified from every race where the cold-blown diffuser was used. Make no mistake, that is what would happen, as the FIA is of the opinion, quite rightly, that cold-blown diffusers are illegal.

We'll see. It seems that from Germany, the FIA will allow them to go back to Valencia spec engine maps, where they were allowed off-throttle exhaust blowing, but had to use the same engine maps for qualifying and the race (whereas previously some teams were using more aggressive maps during qualifying, but had to scale back during the race - presumably for reliability or fuel conservation purposes).

It can't be as clear-cut as 'that's illegal', otherwise this would be an instant protest and disqualification from certain teams. They seem confident that can be avoided, whether that's because it's a grey area, through political reasons or whatever, I don't know.

It's farcical. It has to be clear-cut - either ban it for everyone or allow it for everyone. They're supposed to be cost cutting at the moment, yet everyone had to change engine maps for Valencia, presumably the top teams came to Silverstone with different components for whichever scenario they had to race, and now we've got some cars allowed to use 50% of off-throttle exhaust blowing and others allowed only 10% or whatever it is. If the Mercedes engines didn't like to be used without off throttle revving, then what have they been doing during the rest of engine homologation period - surely they can't have been using 50% of off throttle revving for 3 and a half years?

Personally, I don't see why they didn't just leave it until the end of the season. We know some teams had them last season, yet they weren't banned for this season. It's not like gallons of fuel was being used... to me, the only real negative is that the engines sound crap off throttle.

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loque
The cars take new abbey absolutely flat out especially at the start

I'm not sure any of the cars were flat during qualifying. Webber's pole lap might have been, but it sounded like he had a tiny confidence lift. Sometimes it's hard to tell whether it's the friction and compression dulling the revs or a tiny breather on the throttle.

Either way, I'd not heard anyone flat before that, and they certainly won't be in the race with fuel on board. They may be able to on lap one if they've got a clear track.

gav Wrote:
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> We'll see. It seems that from Germany, the FIA
> will allow them to go back to Valencia spec engine
> maps, where they were allowed off-throttle exhaust
> blowing, but had to use the same engine maps for
> qualifying and the race (whereas previously some
> teams were using more aggressive maps during
> qualifying, but had to scale back during the race
> - presumably for reliability or fuel conservation
> purposes).
>
> It can't be as clear-cut as 'that's illegal',
> otherwise this would be an instant protest and
> disqualification from certain teams.

It is illegal. Why do you think, that the FIA will only allow this, if ALL teams agree to it? Because that is the guarantee that no one will protest it!

> It's farcical. It has to be clear-cut - either ban
> it for everyone or allow it for everyone.

Agreed. But it became farcical when the affected teams began to whine about it, and claimed that their engines would explode if they had to run without off-throttle exhaust. That is why all the exemptions where made. What was the FIA supposed to do?

> Personally, I don't see why they didn't just leave it until the end of the season.

Not possible. As I said in my post, it would have ended in disqualified cars. See next post for citation evidence.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2011 12:26PM by Morbid.