So Turkey is 58 laps, thats 2 more than the last 2 circuits. It has short straights so where will DRS be permitted? Does the reduction in top speed mean cornering is even more important. Looks like Red Bull will love this circuit. They have the best downforce and KERS will have smaller effect. Turkey may mean Christmas has arrived early for RB. Put your bets on Vettel, Webber, Hamilton now.
Turkey may mean Christmas has arrived early for RB -- Please tell me that was a gag, comedy genius if it was.
It'll be on the straight down to turn 12 I think, pretty sure that's the longest and it will be harder for cars to get within 1 second on the straight before because it's hard to follow closely round turn 8.
Both Ferrari and Mercedes will be looking for better pace. Mercedes surprised themselves yesterday, Ferrari are dropping back and need something special ahead of Turkey.
Google translating this interview of Alonso seems to show that Alonso is not so sure about having a major update for Turkey. He seemed quite downbeat, but that could have something to do with the translator as well. Any idea's of when Ferrari may get a major update? Spain? Monaco?
FA on twitter saying that the Turkey update will carry the base for future developments (plan B?) and that the "Red Championship" will start at the Spanish Grand Prix
How much do you think they need to make up to challenge at the front? They didn't seem a million miles off with race pace on Sunday. Still a good second(?) or so off in qualifying though.
We can see in the races that the car has speed, but poor strategy and slow pit stops means Ferrari aren't getting the results they could get. Twice this year Massa has missed out on a podium because of Ferrari's mistakes. In addition their car needs a lot of work. I think the first thing they need to do is make changes to the suspension, or make other changes so that tyre warm up is no longer an issue. Alonso said after practice that tyre temps were no longer an issue, but qualifying showed this to be incorrect. Perhaps this was because track temperatures were lower at qualifying, but regardless, it highlights the fact that Ferrari have work to do in order to get the most out of the Pirelli tyres. The second thing is aerodynamics. Lack of overall downforce in my opinion is not the issue, because the rear looks very good (although improvements could be made to diffuser, exhaust). The problem is the lack of front downforce relative to the rear, which causes aero balance issues - making the car understeer and difficult to drive. Solving these problems have been difficult due to wind tunnel calibration issues. Marc Gene on the Spanish commentary said that Ferrari have identified the problem and fixed it. I look forward to seeing what Ferrari can bring to Turkey. I remain convinced that a strong front end, with the addition of a flexi wing could be enough to leapfrog Red Bull on race pace.
why is it that Ferrari's in-Lap/Pit stop so slow? They seem to look like they might get ahead but come out of the pits miles behind
Unless Ferrari are up to some smoke and daggers then maybe they haven't, Autosport: Its worrying times for Ferrari, they have been here before so I'm sure they'll be back before long, but if they leave it much longer they'll be to far behind. The car isn't bad at the moment so if they can fix things and get developing I think they could be chasing wins by Canada. If thy can't get the car working for Spain then Monaco is not a place to develop a new car.
The Merc would of been further up the grid if the car didn't have fuel problems for half the race. You could clearly see Nico in the interview with the BBC that he was pissed off, I reckon he believed he could of won that race. I say don't write off Mercedes yet for the WDC or WCC, when they get all those problems sorted they'll challenge McLaren/Red Bull for pace. 3 weeks and waiting lol...sort it out Hague
Smoke and daggers? In other news, Red Bull are confident they'll have Kers sorted by Turkey. I'd post the link to Autosport but their site appears to be down. I hope this is pretty much the last we see of Red Bull's Kers gremlins. I don't think losing the boost is the ned of the world, but if they have to keep piling resources into it they might lose aero development.
Nico should remember he would have been carrying a few Kg of extra fuel for the whole race. 50 odd laps multiplied by some time.
