F1 World Championship 2010 Thread

[ahmz]

Petrov went left when there was no room for him to go left. Penalty.

Massa went right of Rosberg when there was room, but the door then closed into the corner and he had no choice but to go onto the grass. It would have still been ok, except when he hit the curb it flung him left. Racing incident.

[Subject Delta]

Petrov went left when there was no room for him to go left. Penalty.

Massa went right of Rosberg when there was room, but the door then closed into the corner and he had no choice but to go onto the grass. It would have still been ok, except when he hit the curb it flung him left. Racing incident.

He did have another option, it's called lifting off.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Russia set to announce race from 2014

Russia is set to announce a five-year deal to host a Formula 1 grand prix from 2014, according to a government source in the country.

Formula 1 commercial chief Bernie Ecclestone is meeting prime minister Vladimir Putin in the city of Sochi, reports the Reuters news agency.

Putin was quoted as saying: "We have reached an agreement with the principal owner of Formula 1 that Sochi would host the Russian Grand Prix from 2014 to 2020."

Sochi is on the south west Black Sea coast of Russia, near the Georgian border, and will also host the Winter Olympics in 2014.

Russia has had its first Formula 1 driver this year, with Renault's Vitaly Petrov 13th in the standings with 19 points. Though his place at the team beyond the end of this season is yet to be confirmed.

Source: Autosport

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

FP1 result:

FP2:

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Webber gets engine boost for Korea

Mark Webber's bid to seal a victory in the Korean Grand Prix that could help move him closer a maiden Formula 1 title has been boosted after he elected to take a fresh engine for the event on Friday night.

The Australian has had a new power unit in reserve ever since the Italian GP, when he was the only one out of the championship contenders who chose not to take a fresh engine for that race.

With the title chase now in a crucial phase, and power quite important for the long straights of the new Korean venue, Webber will now take his eighth and final engine for the rest of the weekend.

Although the advantage of a new engine will not make much of a difference in qualifying, it could provide him with a vital boost for the race because he will not be under as much pressure as his rivals to conserve it for future use.

Webber currently enjoys a 14-point advantage over team-mate Sebastian Vettel, and if he outscores him in Korea this weekend then he will only need to finish behind the German in the remaining two races to be sure of beating him in the standings.

Webber's engine situation puts him in a comfortable position for the final three races of the season - in contrast to Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who has been looking after his power-units ever since he lost engines earlier in the campaign.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said he hoped that reliability would not become an issue.

"I really hope not," he said on Friday. "If we do that it will be tremendously difficult to try to fight to the end. What we are able to do is try to manage the mileage with the existing engine and this is our plan and hopefully we will manage up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

"If we will have any reliability issues then it will be really traumatic as it would be almost impossible then to recover points we need to recover if we want to fight with Red Bull and McLaren as they are extremely strong. We cannot really have any problems, otherwise it is finished."

Source: Autosport

[ahmz]

Great Q3 session. I thought Alonso had it there for a second, he put in a great lap, but the Red Bulls in sectors 2 and 3 are just mighty, and once again nothing separating Vettel and Webber. It's going to be really interesting after Turn 1 tomorrow.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Qualifying result:

I'd rather have seen someone else but Vettel on pole. Then again he has to finish the race first.

[ahmz]

You always wanna qualify on pole, but with the slow speed of the Red Bulls on the straights, Webber might be able to pass Vettel with a good tow or even Alonso starting on the clean side, the only man in the 51s in that first sector.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

You always wanna qualify on pole, but with the slow speed of the Red Bulls on the straights, Webber might be able to pass Vettel with a good tow or even Alonso starting on the clean side, the only man in the 51s in that first sector.

True. Should be a good race, albeit with a lot of DNFs.

[simonlang]

woah. i just checked the poll. and im shocked that even here in an english forum the cheating spaniard alonso enjoys such a gr8 fan base :o

about todays qualifying: redbull does it again, not surprised at all. despite their car is really really sucky in the first sector but the drivers drove arround it in s2 and especially vettel in s3. he is really the best qualifyer these days aint he? :)

tomorrow i expect a very close race and the first few laps gonna be ace. hamis car has such an amazing topspeed its said hes gonna have alonso for breakfast in lap 1 i guess.

but anything else than a redbull win (even 1-2) would really surprise me. let it be a fair and non scripted race. a certain driver got way too many points handed and gifted the last 3 races already. i want the f1 back and not a showbook sponsored by banco santander.

edit: i would not be surprised at all if massa dnfs tomorrow again. since hockenheim ferrari threats him like **** and he is only used to clean the track with soft tires for his slower teammate alonso. since alonso arrived in the team, the team is separated into two teams and already had to face the world motorsport council more often than they had during all the years with schumacher which speaks for itself!

that way you dont win world championships. today in q2 you could see who was the faster ferrari driver before he had to obey the order in q3 again.

[leeisl]

"Q2 is where drivers show ultimate speed."

Strange opinion you have there.

[ahmz]

[enigma-penguin Veteran]

Lotus secures Renault engine deal

By Jonathan Noble Saturday, October 23rd 2010, 09:43 GMT

Lotus has secured its switch to Renault engines for 2011 after finally signing its deal for a supply of the French power plants, AUTOSPORT has learned.

Although the Hingham-based team had been widely expected to make the move after agreeing an early end to its contract with Cosworth, the deal was held up amid the row over the renaming of the team next year.

With Group Lotus threatening legal action against the team for its use of the Team Lotus moniker, sources suggest that Renault did not want to finalise its deal until there was better clarity on the issue.

Despite there being no official resolution of the naming issue, it is believed that enough progress has been made between the two Lotus parties on the issue that Renault was happy to commit to its supply deal.

It is understood that discussions that have taken place in Korea this weekend have been productive enough to help seal the contract.

AUTOSPORT understands that the deal will not be announced just yet, but sources close to the French car manufacturer suggest it will most likely be made at the Brazilian Grand Prix next month.

Renault team principal Eric Boullier said earlier in the weekend that it was currently too early to announce his company's plans, but said it was keen to provide engines to another team.

"It's a bit too early," he said. "If we haven't announced anything yet it means we have not signed anything yet, regarding the supply to more teams. I think that maybe in the future, yes, Renault would wish to supply another team."

Sealing the Renault deal will be a huge relief to Lotus, which has already agreed a deal for a supply of Red Bull Racing's gearbox and transmission for next year - a set-up that is only compatible with a Renault engine.

It will also help provide a big competitive step forward next season, giving the team the same rear-end as current title front-runners Red Bull Racing.

Lotus was unable to confirm the news of the Renault engine deal when contacted by AUTOSPORT.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87675

[Subject Delta]

Again McLaren underdelivered in quali, from what was coming out of the team it seems their car is extremely sensitive to tyre temperature and does not operate so well on cool tracks. However I don't believe that being on pole will guarantee RBR a win like it did at the last GP, I have a feeling tyre performance is going to vary markedly across the various cars and we could see an interesting result.

[what]

I think the start could be very interesting. Webber is starting on the dirty side of the track, which as we've seen throughout the weekend is absolutely disgustingly filthy, so Alonso should get the jump on him at the start. Then as soon as they're passed the first two corners they've got a 1.2km straight which I believe the Ferraris and McLarens are better on, so if they get a good run they could take the RBRs there.

[Subject Delta]

If McLaren or Ferrari get in the slipstream of the RBR cars, they will be practically defenceless in the first sector, and repassing will be very hard during the rest of the lap.

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

I think the start could be very interesting. Webber is starting on the dirty side of the track, which as we've seen throughout the weekend is absolutely disgustingly filthy, so Alonso should get the jump on him at the start. Then as soon as they're passed the first two corners they've got a 1.2km straight which I believe the Ferraris and McLarens are better on, so if they get a good run they could take the RBRs there.

Not only on top of that but webber is typically a bad starter anyway. Even though they have qualified low this circuit isn't really about qually, i'm predicting great things from the McLarens. Every car will be destroyed on them straights.

[.mcman]

I think it's still raining out there. Should be even more interesting!

[Subject Delta]

If it rains, I feel we will see a serious race of attrition. Those close walls in sector 3 are going to catch a lot of drivers out if it's wet.

[acnpt]

I wonder if we will see Hamilton push too hard again.

[Subject Delta]

I wonder if we will see Hamilton push too hard again.

He has nothing to lose now, so he is far more likely to go for it. If he goes for Webber, Vettel, or Alonso, they have a lot more to lose than he does, so they are more likely to be conservative. Also, the McLaren has looked extremely strong in wet races this year, and Lewis is great in the wet, in fact I recon he's probably the only one amongst the championship contenders that would actually prefer a wet race.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Start delayed by 10 minutes due to the wet conditions. RTL are currently interviewing Hermann Tilke, the architect of the track.

Just read that the race will start behind the safety car. Bah.

[simonlang]

n1. we have now a 10min delayed race start, a start behind sc and the suspected rain. this adds lots of action and i predict a vettel vs. hamilton fight for the win wiht button also throwing in some surprises.

when i hear wet race i immediately see webber and alonso in big trouble, they are kinda suckish in the wet all the time.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

When I hear wet race I remember MSC at the Spanish GP 1996. Here's hoping that the old man can show them how to drive in the rain.

[ahmz]

Boring...