2012 British GP - Race Thread

[Corey]

[sav_pap]

the team seem to be actually supporting him..

:eek::confused:
Sorry but i couldn't resist...

[mostar red army]

Great race for red cars, both of them, Alonso and Mark showed how much respect they have, unlike Pastor....I think we will have some trouble in Germany (my money is on Kimi, it is about time for win again), but Hungaroring should suit us, like Monaco....

regards

[Stormsearcher]

Great Race for the team, maybe not so much for Nando! He should have won, but once again the tyre ghost comes back to haunt us.

But all in all, a good points haul, Felipe is looking good and we dont seem to have lost ground to the bulls in terms of pace. Good season in the offing.

[Rob]

Ferrari hail performance step
Team boss upbeat despite Alonso's late surrender
By Mike Wise at Silverstone. Last Updated: July 8, 2012 9:28pm

Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali was upbeat despite Fernando Alonso's late surrender at the British Grand Prix as he thinks they have made a definite step forward.

Having led for the vast majority of the race from pole position, Alonso was passed by Red Bull's Mark Webber just five laps from the end of the race at Silverstone.

The Spaniard retains the lead of the Drivers' Championship in spite of his disappointment but with team-mate Felipe Massa finishing fourth - his best result since 2010 - Domenicali himself was far from unhappy.

McLaren struggled in what, surprisingly, turned out to be a dry race, with Ferrari jumping to second place in the Constructors' Championship behind Red Bull.

Lotus remain third overall but McLaren have dropped to fourth after Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button finished eighth and 10th respectively.

After their difficult start to the season, the result was the Scuderia's best so far. Domenicali acknowledged as much, yet he remains wary of the competition.

"It's very tough but it's great to see Fernando still in the Championship battle. From the sporting point of view, it's good to see Lewis losing some points, (third-placed) Sebastian (Vettel) too.

"But it is also good to see Felipe having a good performance today because we have jumped the classification on the constructors' side and that is very good.

"If you look at the situation of the day with the first four cars, we have done a step for sure in the right direction from the performance point of view.

"But it is a very open Championship. I don't believe honestly that the others will stay behind. McLaren will come back, the others were very close today - I was impressed by the pace of Lotus, it was very, very quick.

"The competition is very high but the more we go ahead in the Championship, the more drivers are falling behind.

"If you are able to keep that pace in terms of scoring points in each grand prix, it's all open at the end."

Alonso appeared in control for most of the race but was hauled in and passed by Webber after changing to soft compound tyres at his final pit stop.

The double World Champion was alone among the top seven qualifiers in starting on hard tyres but struggled with understeer after the mandatory switch to the option rubber.

Domenicali defended the decision to start Alonso on the prime, even though the trouble he had at the end of the race confirmed a problem they had first encountered in practice on Saturday morning.

That was the only chance teams had to evaluate slick tyres after the first two sessions on Friday were washed out.

"The thinking was because we had Saturday morning, when we found with Fernando some problems with the soft tyres with much lower fuel," Domenicali explained.

"We wanted to make sure that the first stint was not too short, that was the thinking behind that choice. And I think it was correct because it was really a great pace with the hard."

The Ferrari boss revealed that they had considered keeping Alonso out as long as possible on the hard tyres but had to change to softs to try and cover the Red Bull drivers.

Despite both now being on the hard tyre themselves, both Webber and Vettel were starting to make up ground - with the Australian in a position to do something about it.

"We discussed it but we wanted to 'mark Mark'," Domenicali added. "Because in this situation you never know what is going to happen.

"Then, because we had calculated the length of the stint, it would have been okay because considering what Felipe had in the first stint, we were assuming that length was all right.

"We wanted to first of all mark Vettel, that was our primary objective. Then also there was Mark - we had trouble with Mark."

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/...rformance-step

[F2002]

"We wanted to first of all mark Vettel, that was our primary objective. Then also there was Mark - we had trouble with Mark."

Great.

We can't continue 'marking Mark' like we did on that afternoon in Abu Dhabi...................

[rico]

After all there were two bad calls. We could lengthen either the first or the second stint by some laps. All in all it was a good result. Very happy for Felipe. Hope to see him in the podium in the next race

[red power]

Shame wrong tyre call, Great race anyway. Go Nando.

[giodap]

felipe to win hockenheim!! like he did last time

[Stormsearcher]

After all there were two bad calls. We could lengthen either the first or the second stint by some laps. All in all it was a good result. Very happy for Felipe. Hope to see him in the podium in the next race

I dont know why anyone is saying the tyre call was bad. If you listen to what Nando said about it, makes perfect sense. They were anticipating rain towards the end of the race and never wanted to use the softs. And as we all know, we cannot influence the weather gods (above our pay grade) ... we got caught out on a strategy that was a calculated risk. Happens!!

[Infi24r]

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

[racingbradley]

I have just watched the race again. Oh I do hate DRS.
Nando has enough race craft and cunning to have kept Mark behind him.
DRS just makes it too easy. Anyone can overtake within the 1 sec gap.
It robs us of a battle between two top drivers racing wheel to wheel over several laps.
No nail biters anymore---it's just a foregone conclusion once DRS is in operation.
Reminiscences of Sienna v Pros
Even Ralf v Michael.............................
I have had my rant.

[Nick Singer]

Great day - and great weather after a cool start!

Good result for us and delighted that Massa seems to have got off his backside - or is it 'got the monkey of his back'?!

Roll on Hockenheim..

[Greig]

The only people going home unhappy yesterday was the McLaren mob so all in all a good result on reflection lol

[Hornet]

"We wanted to first of all mark Vettel, that was our primary objective. Then also there was Mark - we had trouble with Mark."

We need to mark Mark more seriously next time in the next race.

But in all seriousness, I think RB will still continue to develop the car to make sure they maximize Vettel's ability. It has been said that Vettel performs well the car behave like it does with the blown diffuser. We can see RB continue to push the blown diffuser concept and they will never rest easy until they get their blown diffuser right.

[Red passion]

I have just watched the race again. Oh I do hate DRS.
Nando has enough race craft and cunning to have kept Mark behind him.
DRS just makes it too easy. Anyone can overtake within the 1 sec gap.
It robs us of a battle between two top drivers racing wheel to wheel over several laps.
No nail biters anymore---it's just a foregone conclusion once DRS is in operation.
Reminiscences of Sienna v Pros
Even Ralf v Michael.............................
I have had my rant.

Fans and drivers complained about the lack of overtaking before that is why pirelli fall apart tyres, DRS, KERS were introduced.
it does take from the epic passes of long ago which were pure bravery not a gadget in the car

[Hornet]

Fans and drivers complained about the lack of overtaking before that is why pirelli fall apart tyres, DRS, KERS were introduced.
it does take from the epic passes of long ago which were pure bravery not a gadget in the car

Well, you're right, the DRS was a response to driver's complain which specifically was about the lack of front end grip when following another car, the height of this issue was the last race in 2010, which we all remember Alonso getting stuck behind Petrov. The problem here is the twisty part before the straight causes the driver behind to fall back due to lack of front grip. So Alonso cannot stay close enough to overtake on the straight.

I'm not sure if it was the solution the driver wants. Maybe they like it, or not, I don't know. But my opinion is that its still not perfect. It indirectly compensates the time lost due to that front grip problem. But IMO, we need to directly address that front grip problem. We need to give the drives back the front grip so they can fight their race on their own without any DRS gimmick.

One such proposal that was shot down was to introduce shaped bottom (or shaped floor) and minimize the wing, which will transfer back the downforce to the floor rather than the front wing. Too bad we're moving in the opposite direction.

[Infi24r]

Thats a few years old yeah?

McLaren definetly wanted him for 2010, but they got Button instead.

Not that I think Button is on Webbers level.

The only drivers I really rate ahead of Webber from the current crowd are Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel.

[Red passion]

Webber is good enough to win the title, i will pay more attention to him at the next few races to where he qualifies and his performance in this races.

Webber did very well in 2010.

I would prefer to be against him than SV or LH though.

[sav_pap]

We are the best !!!!
FORZA FERRARI!!!!!!
I would prefer P1 but also P2 is a great result (for the WDC).
We must not forget that also P3 was possible (Vettel was reducing the gap).

So we lead 13 to Webber, 29 to Vettel, 37 to Hamilton, Button is not a worry!

General Conclusion : TIME for CELEBRATIONS!!!!

[Red passion]

So we lead 13 to Webber, 29 to Vettel, 37 to Hamilton, Button is not a worry!

[Hermann]

It probably contains subliminal messages to spread their evil throughout the world. Do not watch.

[Red passion]

It probably contains subliminal messages to spread their evil throughout the world. Do not watch.

I would love to see the episode where they explain to kids that stealing Ferrari documents to cheat in racing is a good thing.

[Dino]

I would love to see the episode where they explain to kids that stealing Ferrari documents to cheat in racing is a good thing.

[Nova]

Hey infi24r, Massa will be staying at Ferrari, no offense to Mark, I like him.
Great racer. So just hang out n root for Ferrari.

[Infi24r]

Hey infi24r, Massa will be staying at Ferrari, no offense to Mark, I like him.
Great racer. So just hang out n root for Ferrari.

I agree with you actually.

I don't see Mark leaving RBR when he's beating Vettel, to be beaten by Alonso.

Massa has looked pretty tidy lately too, it wouldn't surprise me if he gets a good result in one of the next few races. He has had alot of bad luck and unnecessarily collisions, but if not for getting stuck behind Schumacher I think he had better pace than Alonso at Silverstone, equal to at very worst.

[DIEK]

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

Thats a few years old yeah?

McLaren definetly wanted him for 2010, but they got Button instead.

Not that I think Button is on Webbers level.

The only drivers I really rate ahead of Webber from the current crowd are Alonso, Hamilton and Vettel.

Yep, but my point is that personnel from different teams talk all the time and one picture doesn't prove anything. I'd love to see Mark at Ferrari though.

[Greig]