2010 Formula 1™ Spanish GP THREAD **SPOILERS**

Superb from Webber! In his previous wins he wasn't really up against Vettel due to Seb's bad qualifying and being stuck behind Kovalainen, but this time he beat him in both the important sessions over the weekend.

Solid drive from Schumacher. Obviously Mercedes don't quite have the pace yet, but he still did a fairly good job, and was faster than Nico all weekend.

Not great for Massa, but he probably could have finished 4th if Ferrari had kept him out a bit later instead of pitting him with Schumacher. He was lucky to survive the Chandhok incident. He does need a good result fairly soon though, even though the car doesn't seem to be suiting him at the moment.

Nice work from Sutil as well to hold off Kubica.

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X (@ed24f1)

Awesome from Webber, did everything that was needed, managed the race brilliantly and generally drove immaculately. Thoroughly deserved the win.

Shame for Lewis to have an identical failure to the one Kovy suffered in 2008, as he'd driven his ass off all afternoon. A double whammy too, as all the guys he's up against for the Championship(except Webber) would've finished behind him and all benefited from his retirement.

Good solid drive from Alonso.

Vettel unlucky again, and managed his brake problems pretty brilliantly I thought.

Think Schumacher deserves a mention too. Looks like he's slowly but surely starting to be his old self again. A much stronger weekend, outperforming Nico, and did everything that could've been expected of him, including a trademark leap-frogging of Jenson at the stops.
This weekend highlighted that Merc still have a long way to go to reach the ultimate pace though, and their new updates seem not to have moved them forward much.


Speaking of which... Vettel. It's astonishing how quick that thing was with him barely touching the brakes at all! That's just goes to reinforce how quick that thing is.

Yeah, but it also shows how well Vettel could drive around pretty extreme problems IMO.

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I think Monaco should be absolutely epic this year. Monaco will bring the Mercedes and Renault even closer to the main three teams, and it will be fascinating to see all the big guns going head to head.

Based on his improvement in Barcelona, and considering his success there in the past, this will easily be Schumacher's best hope of a podium so far.

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X (@ed24f1)

The dream scenario for Monaco would involve some rain! Ooh... that would really make it an epic. :D

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DaiMOn Wrote:
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> It's quite intersting the the aero package of the MP4/25 is not symmetrical around the exhaust tips. As far as I remember they played it a few times last year as well, but I can't understand why is this worth it.
>
Great photo,
I believe it’s something to do with harmonic imbalance. When the engine is getting peaky, if it can be smoothed out, not only makes for a reliable engine also makes it fast.

schumi will fly in Monte Carlo. no f duct advantages for Ferrari and MCLAREN,
no advantage for R.Bull in the fast corners (because there are no fast corners in monaco :D )
i might put some money on him winning

^Btw Merc has the f-duct as well.

For a spanish GP it was not to bad.

Vettel done well to get to the finish, Webber totally thrashed him though.

For the 2nd time this year we got to see how the team mates compare at Mclaren and Ferrari. Lewis trashed Button all weekend and the same goes for Alonso on Massa.

Lewis was so unlucky in the race he done everything right not take a risk at the start and just push when he needed to. Will be interesting to find out what did go wrong, if you look at the reply something flew off the wheel before it went flat.

Monaco next a track that webber goes well at, vettel has yet to really show that well on. I do expect Lewis and button to shine there though as a driver can make up the difference. Will be interesting to see how MS goes there, I do think spain was a fake result as he had tested there during the winter so I think this was a one off better performance.

As for MS better than as of late but I do not see how he can be happy, the car has been changed for him and they have still made zero progress apart from make nico slower.

Button to me was a let down, yes he had a dashboard problem but he should have just dived down the inside there is no way Lewis would have sat behind for 50 laps. As for moaning about the MS move, well Button you can now see why the guy has won 7 world champs and you have 1.

Roll on Monaco.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 12:13AM by marcl.

Jenson's dry-weather performances so far this year have been pants. A combination of weather conditions and relatively good luck have so far outweighed his failure to get on terms with Lewis in dry races. It's ironic really that he's now leading Lewis in the Championship by over 20 points.

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Reading some quotes from Massa, it seems that some of his problems since Bahrain have been the harder tyre sets. It will be interesting to see how close he is to Alonso on the softer tyres in Monaco then.

If there is any order left in F1, he will surely win Turkey again after that


EDIT: I think Massa is struggling to come to terms with Alonso's amazing consistency. Kimi would have good days and bad days, but Alonso has much fewer bad days (e.g. Canada 2007), and it will be a big challenge for Massa, one of the most hot and cold drivers on the grid, to match him.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 08:38AM by SchueyFan.

On the Nico vs Schumi debate, I think these updates they brought have only really kept them in contention, as most other top teams also brought updates. Maybe if they used the same car as with the first 4 races, Rosberg would have qualied 10th, not 8th, with Michael still behind him.

But wow that Merc has no straight line speed. FDuct or not, they should really be faster than that, if you take how fast that engine was last year compared to the Renaults. Coming out that final corner, it looked like it was looking for a parking spot, never mind accelerating.

Well, ... well, ... well. It's all happening now. Great result for Webber and Vettel did very well to nurse the car to the finish. I know I am not a Button or Hamilton fan but it was unlucky for Hamilton can't imagine the frustration he must have felt. As for Button I agree, that it has been a combination of events that has given him the result he has in the Champion ship but that's what it's all about unfortuneatly, a little luck some consistancy and drive the best you can. Can't knock any one for that. Comments about M.S and his maneuvers a little childish ... Button should have gone for it it's a race after all??
Regarding M.s. some progress for him, .... no real progress for Mercedes they need to pull thier finger out. Some say the car was set up for him ( M.S ) this time so Nico was in the shade. Well we don't want either driver to be in the shade because of design biased. I think Mercedes need to spend some more money and time and get the thing right the car is slower than paint drying in a straight line. Traction is good out of corners but other than that those guys may as well drive a bus.
Alonso is doing what he always does, ... working magic. And Massa is letting the whole thing get to him, .... no good for a driver, he needs a stronger head.
Still a long way to go, really interested to see how this one will pan out. Monanco should be an absolute blast I hope that none of us are dissapointed.


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

Member of R.S.C.T Group



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 02:03PM by Isaint.

Isaint Wrote:
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> Alonso is doing what he always does, ... working
> magic. And Massa is letting the whole thing get to
> him, .... no good for a driver, he needs a
> stronger head.
> Still a long way to go, really interested to see
> how this one will pan out. Monanco should be an
> absolute blast I hope that none of us are
> dissapointed.

i LOL at Isaints comment on alonso, You're right his a magic driver, i remember people saying magic senna haha. And for massa, think we will see a developing rubes look alike performance at ferrari.

Apparently Rosberg likes his car similar to MS and they said that both drivers have been talking together about the best way forward, both before and at Barcelona, so while it seemed it was hurting Rosberg, maybe his side of the garage just weren't as quick to extract the pace from what will be a pretty significant change to the balance.

You always have to question how fairly a teammate of Schumacher is being treated, but then he's rarely had a teammate as strong as Rosberg. Mercedes would have to be nuts for developing a car around a driver with 10 points to the detriment of a driver on 50 points and 2nd in the championship. It's not going to happen.

More worrying will be how far they've dropped back from Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

Isaint Wrote:
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> Well, ... well, ... well. It's all happening now.
> Great result for Webber and Vettel did very well
> to nurse the car to the finish. I know I am not a
> Button or Hamilton fan but it was unlucky for
> Hamilton can't imagine the frustration he must
> have felt. As for Button I agree, that it has been
> a combination of events that has given him the
> result he has in the Champion ship but that's what
> it's all about unfortuneatly, a little luck some
> consistancy and drive the best you can. Can't
> knock any one for that.

yeah, i degrate comments about him being where he is just because of luck....... no one has gifted him the points, he earned them all, and all the drivers chasing him have all finish the same races... true, he didn't had the same speed Lewis had all weekend, but this race doesn't dictate what the order should be in the standings

Comments about M.S and his
> maneuvers a little childish ... Button should have
> gone for it it's a race after all??





i'm a Button fan, and i've always support him, but he's so wrong on that, he was asleep, and Michael woke him up... he was very very far behind yet he still managed to overtake him.. Jenson's comments are a bit of a frustration sign of loosing a position to a much slower car

> Regarding M.s. some progress for him, .... no real
> progress for Mercedes they need to pull thier
> finger out. Some say the car was set up for him (
> M.S ) this time so Nico was in the shade. Well we
> don't want either driver to be in the shade
> because of design biased. I think Mercedes need to
> spend some more money and time and get the thing
> right the car is slower than paint drying in a
> straight line. Traction is good out of corners but
> other than that those guys may as well drive a
> bus.

Michael seemed as he was his old self, the whole weekend he was solid, everytime he aimed to put a hotlap he did it, he didn't needed 2 attemps to extract the best from the car, i hope he keeps it up but yes, Mercedes needs to step it up a lot

imo, Nico's performance the whole weekend in a car he doesn't like was worse than michael's performance in the car he didn't like

> Alonso is doing what he always does, ... working
> magic. And Massa is letting the whole thing get to
> him, .... no good for a driver, he needs a
> stronger head.
> Still a long way to go, really interested to see
> how this one will pan out. Monanco should be an
> absolute blast I hope that none of us are
> dissapointed.

being a Massa fan you would expect me to find excuses but unfutonately it's not the case, it's proven that brinign Alonso in was the best choice Ferrari could've done, where would they be now?
Massa can be very fast and he can fight Alonso but as you mention, he doesn't seem to have the mental strenght to perform in a damage limitation level when things doesn't go his way, he just makes it worse



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/10/2010 05:43PM by Slash.

Yes I agree, I have no idea why Button just let him pass was rather silly and that probably cost Button 3rd place in the end. He then went on a rage about MS, well what was MS supposed to do not pass lol. They were also no where near crashing like button said.

Agreed.

And the worse thing was after his comments, I bet he got told to go watch the video of Hamiltons pit exit !

Bad speakings from JB on that one. And I am of the opinion that he should have binned up the inside, Schumacher needed a result and would have moved/given him room imo.

Even I cant defend JB on that one.

He's in for a bad weekend at Monaco too imo. He was epic last year, but so was Lewis, and I just got a feeling even with the narrow boat that Mclaren is, Lewis will take a win here with JB no higher than 5th on merit ! But I am looking forward to watching Lewis navigate that Mclaren round the tight corners of Monaco. Will it get round the lowes hairpin I wonder :p?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Have RBR said what actually happened to Vettels car? I was wondering if it had anything to do with him bouncing over the humps in T1 when he decided to take a shortcut to avoid Lewis. An action which was unrequired in my view.

An unlucky weekend for Vettel in a way. Extended pit stop due to another car in the pit lane approaching the box costing him a position, then being unable to challenge Lewis. Not his usual standards at all.

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Button's a chump if he thinks MS did anything dangerous or out of order in the move posted above by Slash. i feel embarassed for him if he's now seen the clip and realised there was nothing wrong with it, after he acted like a crybaby about it.

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael

F-Duct









LS's Tip of the week
ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

There has been no news what caused Lewis or Vettels problems.

I think Vettel broke the front wing adjust going over the curbs but if you watch I dont think he went over them as bad as the STR driver.

Is it true that Massa did not use the f duct?