Hello everyone and welcome to the first edition of Lorca's observations. Expect to see a thread like this posted by me on a daily basis. So today, we saw Alonso set the quickest lap time at Valencia - and no doubt tomorrow track conditions will be even better and lap times will get even faster. The real highlight of tomorrow (in my opinion) will be what sort of lap time Felipe Massa is capable of. He claims to be very comfortable with the Pirelli's while Alonso has recently been critical of them. Alonso said "they degrade quite a lot, especially the rears, and the lap times are not consistent." With Pirelli tyres that degrade so quickly, strategy and tyre management will be crucial. Along with tyre management, consistency will be key. Consistency is a major part of being complete as a driver - Fernando Alonso (being the most complete driver) is very consistent - just like our Jenson Button MBE. We know how Alonso can consistently finish races in high positions - he proved that in the first 9 races of 2006. Along with this, Fernando has the ability to deliver consistent lap times. Here are the lap times of one of his runs today: 1:18.969 1:18.848 1:18.599 1:18.964 1:18.952 1:18.881 1:18.821 1:21.901 1:18.827 1:18.646 1:18.807 1:19.585 1:19.346 1:19.960 1:20.028 Whether Felipe sets a faster time than Fernando is yet to be seen, but I doubt he will achieve such high levels of consistency. But whatever happens, I genuinely hope that two very high calibre drivers find their form, get their confidence back, and silence their critics: Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa. Good luck to both of them! Your thoughts?
Yeah ok, today's observations is mainly about Alonso - but that was to be expected, as he set the fastest lap times today, he was the only person to comment on the Pirelli tyres, and he is the most consistent driver on the grid. It all links in with the points I was trying to make - the importance of consistency, and the fears of immense tyre degradation.
He was the only person to comment on the new tyres? What is wrong with you? "Now it looks like there is a quite a big difference between compounds, or so it seems for some people and for us I don't know if there was too big a difference. But obviously last year we had one pitstop and now the degradation is massive on these tyres and it might be for some people that they have to do two or three pitstops – which I think is quite good. I didn't actually like doing one pitstop last year, I didn't think it was as exciting as it was in the past when we did two or three. I'm hoping that we have to do more this year, because it adds more excitement." Alonso said that did he? Liarca?
