No predictions from me as yet but I'd like to pick up on the discussion about KERS and Red Bull. Adrian Newey will have calculated the relative benefits and drawbacks according to his own car, regardless of the preferences of other teams. KERS is most effective at slow speed, since the extra power improves acceleration far more than it affects top speed - which is almost entirely governed by air resistance (or 'drag'). But the extra acceleration only improves a lap time if the slow speed corners are followed by sufficiently long straights. This is for two reasons: 1/ The quicker a car can approach its top speed, the longer it will be at top speed on a straight, relative to slower accelerating cars. 2/ More straight means less bend. One of the biggest dilemmas presented by KERS under the current restrictions is that it compromises the balance of a car relative to the benefit in power, so this becomes a bigger consideration with twistier tracks. There is a point at which these two competing philosophies become greyed; a point at which they are very close to equal with neither having a clear advantage over the other. This is where Adrian Newey is at his best: he seems to excel at finding the right compromise according to his own design. To recap Fast, flowing circuits are not KERS friendly since the advantage of acceleration is negligible and the balance of a car is very important. However, KERS is king when there are very slow corners followed by long straights. One further point is that extra power at slow speed burns even more of Pirelli's rubbish. This forms another parameter which needs to be factored in and may induce an extra pit-stop over a race distance. (Oops, I mean Pirelli's rubber of course)…
Vettel again for me, have changed my name from Nick h4:lo for the time being so that would be where my point goes, cheers! I posted before about how this could be a one horse season unfortunately and I've seen nothing to make me change my mind yet, has to be Vettel for the win.
I agree with Harper here. Vettel is looking very very handy indeed. His car is working beautifully and he is getting the 5 star treatment from Christian Horner (as usual). Mark Webber is being deployed as a spoiler, whether he likes it or not… Hamilton and Button closely matched with Button doing a better tyre job, but the pair of them were only a quarter of a second quicker than Vettel when they were running light on Options, whilst Vettel was heavy on Primes and apparently not using KERS. Difficult to see a real contest for the win unless Vettel makes a big error in Qualifying, which I very much doubt. Like Harper (above), I also wrote that this year could be an almost unchallenged cruise by Vettel. There can be no doubt Newey has once again produced the best car and Vettel is favoured within the team. (Don't deny it Horner; it doesn't wash with me). Nothing I have seen since winter testing began has changed my mind about the most likely winner and I fully expect it to be wrapped up with two races still left.
rightttttttttttttttt..... Changing my answer after those practices. Vettel all the way. Has the pace and the tyre management this weekend. Edit: Looks like I can't change, oh well
Eventhough I picked Lewis, somehow from looking at practice it looks like it will be another vettel double. It's looking like only Jenson can get close to his pace and keep his tyres going as long as seb. Lewis might get pole, but I doubt he'll hold first place when it comes to the finish line since he looks to really hate those tyres at the moment.
I've got a fiver on Button at 7/1. I want Vettel to win, but if he doesn't it'll almost certainly be Button who wins so I get ã40. Either way I'll be happy on Sunday.
*sigh* Jenson is 8/1 now, if I wasn't strapped for cash I would bet on that. But knowing my luck Vettel would just cream him if i did.
