Turkey twizzlers

[Ian]

Grand Prix preview!

Can Jenson make it 6/7 race wins? There is some nice footage on the BBC website from previous Turkish GPs, including the 2005 race and Jenson drafting the champion that year, Alonso, to take third place, eventually to finish 5th.

Massa has won all but the first Turkish GP, so can he do it again now that the Ferraris are improving? I think the Red Bulls shouls be very competitive here - if they aren't, there will be some very long faces in the RBR team as they have to break the Brawn strangle hold now if they are to have any realistic chance of challenging for the title.

Again - can it be Rubens race? His time must come, surely?

I think Turkey has to be one of the most dynamic of the tracks this season - it should be a very interesting race.

Ian

[Ian]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

The weather for the Turkish GP looks to be showery on Friday but hot and sunny for the weekend.

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

Great qualifying session!

For a moment it looked like the usual repeat of Button hanging back and then throwing in a stonker right at the end, but Vettel did the same trick and pipped him at the post.

What will delight Brawn is that, according to this http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/6/9460.html, Button is one of the heaviest cars in the top 10. How on Earth did Button turn in that stonker of a lap weighed down like that? Vettel needed to go a good 6Kg lighter (649.5Kg) just to beat him by 0.1s.

Sadly, for those thinking Barrichello might be right up there, he's lighter than Button as well. Usually they're quite equal, but this time Barrichello is 3Kg lighter than Jense.

Button is the same weight (within a half-kilo) of Webber in 4th. Truli in 5th is light but not significantly so - he's roughly on a par with Barrichello which suggests the Toyota might have some pace to give in the race.

Raikonnen is in the right place - 2.5Kg heavier than Button isn't going to rock his world, but he's 4Kg heavier than Massa behind him. Anyone who might have thought that Kimi's not prepared to fight is sorely mistaken.

The lightest man is Alonso in 8th - a full 5Kg lighter than Vettel and a staggering 11Kg lighter than Button (is Alonso three-stopping?). At 10Kg lighter than Massa and 14Kg lighter than Kimi, is he going to throw a spanner into Ferrari's day and leap-frog the two red cars off the start? He'll have a sad afternoon if he doesn't jump at least 2-4 cars in the first lap.

Back in 16th place, Lewis Hamilton is running really quite heavy - almost 700Kg (nearly 50Kg more than Vettel). Is he one-stopping? Only one man is heavier - last-place man Bourdais with 701Kg to drag around underneath him. Sticking with McLaren, Kovalainen is quite light for the midfield (he's 665Kg while those around him are 680Kg-ish). He'll be hoping to catch Glock, Nakajima, and possibly Heidfeld out early on.

If Button gets ahead of Vettel off the start, Vettel will have a troubled afternoon but if Vettel stays ahead and pulls away then it could be a different kettle of fish.

Can't wait for it to start! Anyone who said it's getting boring with Button always winning clearly needs to see the cars around him catching up real fast. It could be anyone's race. Yes, Button's in a good place but no one's going to make it easy for him.

[Ian]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

Jenson's lap wasn't particularly good, so in theory he could have gone faster. Or maybe he was beyond the limit and so there was no extra speed left - who knows!

I don't think the Brawns are as well prepared for the race as in the past. Jenson says he did less long runs than he would have liked.

Rubens qualifying lap was on the third of three laps and on the harder tyre - pretty impressive after having traffic problems on the first two laps. I wonder how he would have done on the softer tyre, though Jenson is probably better at making softer tyres last through the lap.

Basically the Brawns have to stay in touch with the Red Bulls and then make their extra laps work to leap frog into the lead at the first stops or to consoliodate their lead if that's where they are anyway.

Ferrari don't look that impressive here - disappointing for them I think. Barring incidents, and the first corner is a bit dodgy, I think the race is between the Brawns and the Red Bulls.

Can't wait!

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

Jenson's lap wasn't particularly good, so in theory he could have gone faster.

Clearly he had more in the bag. Another perfect drive by Jense.

Even if Vettel hadn't been on a three-stopper, I don't see that Red Bull had any answer to Button's fantastic drive. Sure, Vettel's mistake on the first lap made Jenson's job a little easier but even without that mistake, I don't see Vettel making the win. Somehow I thought they'd be a lot closer this week.

So that's 6 wins out of 7 races. Lewis only needed 5 wins last year to be crowned WDC. What does that say about Button?

Another sad day for Barrichello. He had some good wheel-to-wheel action as a consquence of that disastrous beginning. I'm still not sure I understand how he had such a terrible start. I had expected a bit of Brawn-to-Brawn tussle for second place behind Vettel, I didn't expect Rubens to go backwards.

If Rubens had brought his car home with some good points, Brawn GP would have had over 100 constructor points after just seven races.

[peter]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

Super race it had me on the edge of my seat a few times. They let EJ in the McLaren garage after yesterdays comments ?. Maybe DC was hoping that he was going to get a slap or two from them. Lewis well say no more

[devilgas]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

i thought the grid walkabout was pretty good this week with DC and MB double-teaming. the bit where they were both sat on the track must've looked surreal to those not knowing what they were doing.
great drive again by jenson. the brawn certainly suits JB's driving style and is clearly streets ahead of most of the grid. rubens had a shocker - they happen from time to time - but i was bemused by his "i don't have 7th gear" comment when his laptimes (and the in-car) suggested otherwise.
as DC said afterwards, it's not boring as a long as a brit is winning
good to see webber take 2nd and glad that red bull didn't apply team orders as he deserved it.

[Ian]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

I think Ferrari and McLaren fans are now feeling what it was like for Honda/Button fans in recent years

Qualifying has been more exciting than the races, I have to say. Normally I would be too wound up before a race to be cleaning my fish tank at the time of the start of the race. I took a short break to watch the start (I was jumping up and down half way around the first lap - Elizabeth pointed the webcam at me to show how mad her Dad is to one of her friends at this point), but most of the time I was pruning the plants in the tank and glancing over at the TV every now and again - pretty relaxed now once Jenson is in the lead

I think the championship is far from over - Rubens could easily win three races in a row while bad luck could mean 3 DNFs for Jenson and suddenly Rubens could be leading. If Jenson gets a 30+ points lead after Silverstone, I think that will be hard to beat, but I can't see Brawn losing the constructors now though.

The Red Bulls are quick and but need to improve their strategy and consistency. I think they have done remarkably well all things considered - they had to totally re-design the gearbox casing and rear suspension, let along the diffuser itself, and had no testing. I think their car will get better faster than the Brawn will develop at this point, so Silverstone - which should suit them perfectly - may be Red Bull's race.

Ian

[JSR]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

I think Ferrari and McLaren fans are now feeling what it was like for Honda/Button fans in recent years

I don't find it boring. Those who do are, I think, just upset that their favourite team/driver isn't doing well.

I did find it a little repetitive in the Schumacher years because it wasn't that every race was the same, it was that every year was the same. The two teams with the most money (Ferrari & McLaren) were constantly playing ping-pong with the championship and no other team (with less money) could even attempt to get close. Once a back marker, always a back marker.

This year isn't like that. Brawn GP have pushed the usual teams onto their back foot and now it's great to see how soon they can get back up to speed. What's boring is hearing from those who say that the other teams should give up and look towards 2010. If the main F1 teams give up the fight, then that's when you get boredom settling in.

I don't necessarily agree with DC's comment that "it's not boring so long as a Brit is winning" because the whole Hamilton-fever stuff was getting monotonous. What's prevented the monotony from continuing is to see last year's WDC well down the field and fighting to regain places. After the race this week, Lewis' was fantastic. There's a driver who's stopped feeling sorry for himself just because he's not winning, replaced by a driver that had a fantastic time driving what he felt was his best drive all season. That's the kind of thing we've seen many times from Jenson in the past whenever he was towards the back. I just wish Hamilton's father would cheer up a bit and be a little bit more pleased for anything his son achieves, rather than standing there for the entire duration scowling at everything and everyone.

I think the championship is far from over - Rubens could easily win three races in a row while bad luck could mean 3 DNFs for Jenson and suddenly Rubens could be leading. If Jenson gets a 30+ points lead after Silverstone, I think that will be hard to beat, but I can't see Brawn losing the constructors now though.

I agree entirely. Let's not forget that Button is doing the triathlon again this year. That's the same event that Lewis was going to do last year before his father threw a spanner in the works and told him to concentrate on the championship instead of being active for charity.

Although I truly hope nothing does go wrong, it is conceivable that it could - and that, in itself, would pretty much destroy Jenson's WDC dreams in this, the only year he's likely to achieve it. It takes some kind of bottle to go ahead with this in the knowledge that this is very likely his only chance to win the WDC title. Hamilton has many years ahead of him and will win again, even if he hadn't won last year, but this may well be the only chance Button will get. By next year, all the other teams will have caught up and it'll be a much tougher fight.

Having Red Bull beating Jenson down to second or third place every race would be a lot less painful than a bunch of DNFs due to an injury.

so Silverstone - which should suit them perfectly - may be Red Bull's race.

I hope it's Button's race again at Silverstone. This will be the last and only chance for him to win here. It'd be a great send-off for the track to have its last F1 race won by Button.

[Ian]

Re: Turkey twizzlers

A big difference between Brawn dominance and Ferrari's dominance in recent years has been that everything in Ferrari was about Shumacher winning. At least at Brawn both drivers have an equal chance at the start of first practice on the Friday morning.

How many times was Massa, Irvine, or Barrichello, or whoever, leading Schumacher and they had to let him past. That doesn't happen with Brawn and I hope it never will, no matter which driver is in front.

I must admit that I used to blame Ross Brawn for the Ferrari policy, but I wonder now if he was only executing what those higher up in Ferrari told him to do.

I didn't find the Hamilton mania negative last year. I think his arrival has been a huge boost to F1. I have found some attitude of his in recent interviews a bit negative, but he does seem to be coming to terms with things now.

Ian