2012 German Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

Do we know where the DRS zone is?

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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

It's down the curved straight towards the hairpin, activation just after turn 4.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

oooh, this is sad to hear. I was really hoping for a more "exotic" a.k.a uncharacteristic place for the DRS zone. In my view the whole short straight just after turn 1 could have been a great choice. Or the start finish straight as well.

Allright its home grandprix time!!!lol

Fp1&2 were quite useless with lots of rain. This morning Fp3 i think it was quite interresting up there. Luise didnt set his lap on softs but he wasnt that much quicker with em either but rain ruinded the lap so we never know lol. Ferrari looks competitive here and Red Bull seems mighty in the last sector. They always gained (at least webber) 0.2 back there so be great to watch quali. Kimi and Perez up there aswell just Mercedes seems quite slow??

Hope its dry for quali but dosent look like it as its raining all around the region of hockenheim right now.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO !!! Schumacher !!! balls of CARBON FIBER !!! Now that was class, sorry, MEGA CLASSS !!!

Am I the only one who can't find the F1 on Radio 5 Live?

THey seem to be broadcasting some talk about the golf, even though the schedule and the links all point to the F1...



RedSam
Winner: Not the Nickv Comment of the Year 2009
Due to the voting system in Germany, Governments are always made up of coalitions of different parties. At the last election, an almost unprecidented result saw the CDU/CSU (rough equivilant of the Conservatives) go into Government with the SPD (rough equivilant of Labour)

mitadumapaga Wrote:
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> oooh, this is sad to hear. I was really hoping for
> a more "exotic" a.k.a uncharacteristic place for
> the DRS zone. In my view the whole short straight
> just after turn 1 could have been a great choice.
> Or the start finish straight as well.

The DRS needs time at high speed to be effective = high speed straight. Putting it in an "exotic" place would just render it useless.

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

Another disappointingly quiet thread. Where's the love for F1 right now?

Great wet/dry quali. Brilliant performances from Alonso and MS! Plus we've got some quick cars which will be coming through from near the back once the race starts.
Looking forward to this one, hopefully there can be more rain tomorrow.

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vettel did pretty well too. i ve always considered him a slow driver in the wet (silverstone 2012, hungary 2011 etc.) But today he showed class. and as for qualyfing... EPIC !!! simply epic !! but no moreso so, than the ms's -0.055 at the end of q1 !!!

and btw both, vettel and schuey, seemed pretty unhappy with their starting positions (2nd and 3rd)

Quote
EC83
Another disappointingly quiet thread. Where's the love for F1 right now?

Yeah, it's quiet, but I don't mind. I've no interest in reading posts which simply say "that was excellent", which it was, so I'm not going to post it myself. Unless there's something specific I'd like to make comment on, I'm not going to bother.

The general quality of posts here is still well above every other motorsport forum I've come across, so I'm happy reading a few quality posts rather than people complaining, again, about McLaren and how the Brits should be 1-2 in the championship and leaving everyone else in the dust and that it's the fault of the cleaners in the factory that they're not. I don't mind a more constructive approach to patriotism, but I've not been able to find it in another motorsport forum yet, so I'm quite happy to have the fewer posts of a decent standard here.

That and I've no @#$%& idea what's going to happen tomorrow.

Yep quality always better than quantity.
I'm not at my computer but after that post by EC83 felt a bit lazy& guilty so borrowed daughters lap-top.
Well, think that the rain again played huge part as at Silverstone ( what's up with the weather these days ) but got very intersesting toward the end.
Right of the bat 'Props' to Fernando ... not a Ferrari fan but damn this guy has matured into such a warrior.

I'm always surprised at how well the Mclaren team always seem to go in practice especially Lewis but come Quali .... well, they just seem to slide down the order.
They don't seem to be doing anything wrong but it just seems that that is the way of things. In retrospect the Bulls who always look like they are just just on the edge of things just seem to come back so strong in the Quali.
I guess it's just the a measure of how close everything is these days.
Quiet a mixed bag of nuts up the front due to the grid penalties, should be an interesting start.
All geared for a dry race set-up but I hope for rain at some point because at the moment I think that is the only thing that really puts every one on a level playing field and just gives a better show than constantly worn out tyres.
I think you got to look at Fernando for this one as well, if he makes a gap at the start and has a good Strategy will be hard to overcome If Michael was in any other car I would say watch out but I think he is already doing more than the car is capable of so, even if he gets a blinding start expect to see him fall down the order. ( Barring rain that is. )
Could yet be a few surprises with stronger teams at the back through grid penalties, surging forwards but expect to see one or two incidents because hairpin seems to be about the best for overtaking.
DRS zone a dissapointment but in away good because I really dont see how much of an advantage it will serve to teams that are more evenly matched.

That's it over and out enjoy the race everyone.


" Perfection is not a gift ....... it comes with practice."

Member of R.S.C.T Group



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2012 06:14PM by Isaint.

1) Alonso has matured into a warrior? I can't have been the only guy to have seen this in 2008 and 2009, when was putting that Renault in places it never should have been. The guy never, ever gave up, driving every lap as though his life depended on it. Even the whole crashgate race in Singapore, he was on another planet before his gearbox failed in qualifying. Frankly his only poor season in F1 has been 2007, and who would have been able to keep focussed when almost entire the entire team was rooting for your team-mate? The guy is immense, but he always has been.

2) Perhaps McLaren just don't have a good car. They went conservative and reaped the rewards at the start of the season, but now others are honing their more aggressive cars, they're leaping ahead. Perhaps McLaren are in a similar place Ferrari were post-Schumacher - expected to sweep all before them, but incapable of living up to that mantle.

Yes Gav, I totally agree about Alonso. What I should have said is that Fernando seems on a totally different planet even for his level. As you rightly pointed out he has always been pretty awesome I just think his driving of late has compounded quiet a lot about him as a person and dble world Champion.
Maybe you are correct too on the Macca's very good points made.


" Perfection is not a gift ....... it comes with practice."

Member of R.S.C.T Group

I also think Mclaren played it to safe this year due to the problems last year. The probably should have won the 1st 3 or 4 races and thats probably what they counted on.

Alonso is on another level out there, but maybe the ferrari never was as bad as we were all told? Its probably level with the best out there now and the whole team supports just one driver where as the other teams don't.

Unless I saw wrong, Alonso ran very wide before the final corner on his fastest/last lap. I was quite surprised that the stewards did not disallow that lap for exceeding the track limits. I'll download a replay later to confirm, just for interest. Also, maybe they decided to let it go because of the conditions and the number of other drivers that were regularly running off the road.

Either way, i'm hoping for a cracker of a race tomorrow.

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marcl Wrote:
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> I also think Mclaren played it to safe this year
> due to the problems last year. The probably
> should have won the 1st 3 or 4 races and thats
> probably what they counted on.
>
> Alonso is on another level out there, but maybe
> the ferrari never was as bad as we were all told?
> Its probably level with the best out there now and
> the whole team supports just one driver where as
> the other teams don't.

The Ferrari wasn't fundamentally a bad car, it's just that because they had problems during winter testing they weren't able to fully understand the pull-rod suspension and diversion of exhaust gases. Everyone was quick to judge them for it, but now they understand it they're able to set it up with greater knowledge, in the process helping Felipe.

Alonso flattered the car somewhat because he has a good technical intimacy with his cars and is able to push them to the limit. For example, the Renault R29 was a heap of junk, but Alonso still did rather well in it.

I believe McLaren DID have a good car, and that did seem to change as they raised the front nose. As this would raise the frontal CofG, it would make the handling very different than the more planted lower front end. Button struggled with this initially.

Another thing to point out is that McLaren have been quite quick in practice sessions, but have worked less well in qualifying and the race where time is more at a premium. Button has struggled to switch on the tyres, which is something Heidfeld (who also was a smooth driver) used to have problems with in qualifying a few years ago which is why he was outqualified by Kubica so often. Hamilton's been good in qualifying, as he can bring the tyres in quite quickly and then hot-lap with them. Problem is, he complains quite early on that the tyres are gone, suggesting he gets too much out too early.

One surprise is the Lotuses; the car looks really nervous this weekend despite the fact they're not using the double DRS system they've brought out. I think this because their car works very well in hot conditions and because it's been cool and rainy in Germany it's not been conducive to good results. If it's warm tomorrow, then the car might work a little better. Especially as medium tyres seem to be the ones to go with and Lotus are pretty handy with these.

Lastly, Perez has been given a 5-place grid drop for allegedly impeding Raikkonen and Alonso.

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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

I think people are often too quick to jump on the bandwagon with many things. It was the overwhelming concerns based upon initial results that the Ferrari was a utter dog and nearly everyone were predicting total gloom.

I was one of the few to say well hang on a minute, this is Ferrari, huge resources, they have Alonso, they won't be as bad as they look and they'll improve and now by the evidence of the current championship standings refusing to write Ferrari off wasn't too foolish!

The car, certainly wasn't perfect to begin with but it wasn't as bad as people made out. And it's problems have wrong attributed towards it's pull rod front suspension, which had worked pretty much as intended from fine word go. It was the rear of the car and the aerodynamics around the exhausts which posed some difficulties and in fairness even Red Bull took a while to get the exhaust areo working well.

J i m Wrote:
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> I think people are often too quick to jump on the
> bandwagon with many things. It was the
> overwhelming concerns based upon initial results
> that the Ferrari was a utter dog and nearly
> everyone were predicting total gloom.
>
> I was one of the few to say well hang on a minute,
> this is Ferrari, huge resources, they have Alonso,
> they won't be as bad as they look and they'll
> improve and now by the evidence of the current
> championship standings refusing to write Ferrari
> off wasn't too foolish!
>
> The car, certainly wasn't perfect to begin with
> but it wasn't as bad as people made out. And it's
> problems have wrong attributed towards it's pull
> rod front suspension, which had worked pretty much
> as intended from fine word go. It was the rear of
> the car and the aerodynamics around the exhausts
> which posed some difficulties and in fairness even
> Red Bull took a while to get the exhaust areo
> working well.

Surprisingly enough, I think Sauber were the first to get the exhaust design right.

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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