2011 European GP **spoilers**

And now he can't go any faster. Funny how that works.

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What a terrible race, what a terrible circuit.

Kudos to Vettel AND Alonso. Vettel is like a cat with a mouse right. He is easing his way to a second world championship. Still, makes up for the sh*t he got last year with bad luck etc.

But yeah, awful race. Valencia, f*ck off please .

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

I can agree that it wasn't the best race this season, but that's partly because this season has been so exciting, rather than because this race was so dull. Only 1 overtake last season i think brundle said? That was easily beaten today, and it may well have beaten some of the races last season to be fair. Whilst the leaders didn't really provide much action, the midfield battles were great to watch, with the overtaking back there. Im satisfied with that race

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Actually I felt well entertained. Hamilton's remarks were hilarious imho.

If that's the worst race of the year, then we should be overjoyed at the state of F1. If you're complaining, you're not an F1 fan. So GTFO.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> If that's the worst race of the year, then we
> should be overjoyed at the state of F1. If you're
> complaining, you're not an F1 fan. So GTFO.

Purely subjectively, that was still the worst race of the year.

It was very processional just like the first Valencia race (which I also remember being particularly dull) and for this reason I would also point to the circuit being not great.

So I agree with Chet on both points.

I'm a massive F1 fan, but that race was as boring as hell.

It was very processional just like the first Valencia race (which I also remember being particularly dull) and for this reason I would also point to the circuit being not great.

Processional except for the 2nd place changing 3 times, and all those other passes.

It wasn't a good race by 2011 standards, but boring? @#$%& me, some people are spoiled. We had more action in that than the entire 02, 03 and 04 seasons combined.

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Tbh, I think that this race would have been called a pretty dull one even in the early 2000s. Maybe not as quite as terrible as some people are making out, but still not as good as most.

I enjoyed the short-lived battle between Buemi, Kobayashi, Di Resta and Petrov. Button almost did a Webber when overtaking Rosberg (?). Schumacher overtaking without a front wing was pretty amusing. And, although we didn't see it, I was cringing at the thought of Schumacher taking sector 3 with a broken front wing...

I think Valencia is a wasted opportunity, really - I think the track looks very ideallic in the spanish beach setting. If only the layout was a bit more inspiring, I think it could have been a great circuit. My suggestion? Make all of the sectors similar to the last one, or remove the unnecessary chicanes.

And kudos to Martin Brundle for the quote of the weekend - getting muddled over which finger Vettel uses in his celebration

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

Yeah, it was a pretty good race. I agree that some people now have too high expectations, and this will be a big challenge for Pirelli and Bernie to adapt to as the strategies become more predictable.

A pretty fair result, but it would have been nice to see Massa get 4th, which he should have done without the awful pitstop, or being used as a pawn to block Webber - which ended up hurting Alonso more than Webber.

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X (@ed24f1)

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> If that's the worst race of the year, then we
> should be overjoyed at the state of F1. If you're
> complaining, you're not an F1 fan. So GTFO.


Abit OTT?

The Webber action was good, and I enjoyed seeing Vettel playing with them but the rest was just ... ordinary. Maybe it was the TV coverage...

Maybe your right. We have been spoiled this year with some amazing races but this race would have been considered boring by last years standards too imo. As much as it is a pleasure to watch Sebastian dominate there was no real chance for a battle for the lead, and there was little coverage of rest of the field other than a grumpy Lewis, and pointless onboards of Jenson with nobody in front or behind listening to drone like Mclaren engineers on the radio.

I cant remember the last time I was falling asleep during a race.

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

Last year there were 12 overtakings at Valencia. This one was better.

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

Abit OTT?

Nope. You said it yourself - the race was ordinary. It wasn't riviting. It wasn't a classic. But it also wasn't dull and boring and it was certainly a metric @#$%& tonne better than a lot of races last year, and much better than most of the early 00s.

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DaveEllis Wrote:
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> it was
> certainly a metric @#$%& tonne better than a lot
> of races last year

I'm not so sure about that, I thought last year was pretty good, there was Abu Dhabi which wasn't great but it was at least tense as there was a championship at stake, I don't recall any being as bland as this one.

Come on - there wasn't much to write home about in this race. The track is crap, and whilst being fun to drive on games and simulators and suchlike, doesn't seem to produce very interesting racing. Barring Webber's accident last year, I recall that one being a bit boring too. It was boring Dave, it doesn't matter if it was better than races in the early '00s (although I do agree there were some massive borefests there too) to have a race like this among a season of gems is a bit baffling when you consider how great the rest of the year has been. F1's current format doesn't produce enough excitement at this circuit to keep me and a lot of other people interested.

Oh and one more thing, making a statement about people who exercise their right to complain about a boring race and calling into question their love or respect or knowledge of the sport and implying that they aren't a proper fan is horseshit!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2011 06:49PM by loque.

Just on a tangent, does anyone know if the new 2014 regs affect PURE coming into F1?

Back on topic, I can't say I enjoyed the race too much...the track seemed to suit nobody except Ferrari and Red Bull. Still, Alguersuari had a good race.

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loque Wrote:
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> I thought last year
> was pretty good, there was Abu Dhabi which wasn't
> great but it was at least tense as there was a
> championship at stake, I don't recall any being as
> bland as this one.

I remember Bahrain alone being much duller than this was.

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I tend to agree that this was an okay race rather than a really exciting one. These things will happen, no safety car for instance on a street track.

The biggest issue for me is the role of the DRS. To some extent this worked quite well - it was a bit more difficult to overtake, which it should be. I have no idea of the potential of this but if cars had Kers for every other lap say and DRS for 1 lap in 4 (which could be used for attack and defence) along with refueling and the current tyres - we would have a big strategic and driving challenge.

In a way, I think reliability has a part to play in this. If I'm right, there were no retirements in the race (Martin Brundle said so ). It shouldn't be like that IMO. Especially on a street track.

As I said before, it is my opinion this track should be replaced. I'd go with Imola, but any track better than Valencia tbh.

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Talking of retirements, I think that this track would be slightly better if they allowed the cars to drive closer to the walls. It would be more challenging, and we might even get some retirements (but maybe that's exactly what the fia DOESN'T want?).

On a street track, I don't want to be seeing corner exits like this...



...when they could be like this:



I don't know why they don't go as close to the walls in Valencia. Is it the artificial grass? Is it the kerbs? Or maybe the shape of the corner? Whatever it is, I'd like to see it changed. I think Tilke tried to make a track like Canada when he made Valencia, but he failed miserably...

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Tilke fails miserably every time he makes or modifies a track (with the exceptions of Shanghai, Istanbul and Yeongam, IMO)



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

One of the many problems with Tilke tracks is the constant pointless jinks and curves here and there. Those that aren't a challenge in any car, and nowhere is it more in evidence than in Valencia. They're fine if they've got a purpose, such the first part of Blancimont at Spa (where Burti crashed, where they can't change it due to a ravine on the other side, and it used to be @#$%& scary, as well as the 2nd part of Blancimont), or the kink at the bottom of the hill at Istanbul (where they needed it to create a straight without running through the back of the pits). Valencia looks bollocks. It was probably OK in a sketch of idea, before any calculations where done, but that's it. How could it become a race track looking like that? Valencia has about 15 corners in total, and the other 10 are just random kinks.

Another issue is the lack of challenge. They're all billiard-table smooth. Valencia has 2 good corners (at the end) and possibly the double left-hander on full tanks.

Arguably the best new F1 track of recent times has been Singapore. It's bumpy, it's a proper street course, it's got armco right next to the track, and to my knowledge, it's the only one which Tilke didn't design (though apparently he did propose one).

Finally, and I said this in Abu Dhabi last year, yes, slow corners leading on a straight are technically the best when it comes to overtaking, yet in practise that's seldom the way it works. In a corner the driver behind will always be on the throttle more than a car length behind - yet in a slow corner, the time travelled over a car length is greater than say a 2nd or 3rd gear corner (like in Istanbul).