Round 17: Korean Grand Prix

PJTierney

amacachi wrote: »

Missed the lovely girls this week and Korean ladies are right up top of my preference.

Enjoy!

http://www.planetf1.com/f1-babes/photo-gallery/6465004/The-Korean-Babes

Corben Dallas

Great race, nice interesting circuit, it will be great to see it in daylight!

Its between Alonso and Webber now, Lewis (on car pace) is out of it and probably too far back, Vettel has a v v remote chance. Button is out now and should do the recent thing and support Lewis. Its clear IMO that Hamilton is the different class to Button.

If Red Bull dont support Webber it will cost them both championships. Remember Massa is usually very strong in Brazil... and we know that he will move over.

Brazil is possibly not a RB track neither with the really long flat out section from young cow(Juang Cao) past the Start finish.

Sadly RB is Vettel's team and Horner and Marko have made it clear who the team is based around,(Sad when this should be Webber's year) they will prob still be backing Vettel (4th placed in standings) is more than likely out of the title race.

EvilMonkey

2 one two's for Red Bull with Webber winning them should be enough for Red Bull to win the title. They have to go for it. If they don't their idiots and Vettel and Webber will take points off each other and Alonso will win.

Ferrari need Massa to perform in Brazil and make sure Red Bull don't have the opportunity of getting Vettel to move over.

Brazil will be an interesting weekend I think it will suit Red Bull. The high altitude means the cars will be down on power and Red Bull can make up time in the twisty bit.

What happens in Brazil will go a long way to deciding the title.

frostie500

Five things I think following the Korean Grand Prix.

This week I looked into some of the ramifications of this race in the title chase and how Mark Webber was lucky in some ways by the race. Other issues looked at were questioning whether Korea was ready to host a race and the use of the safety car at the start of the race. I offered one possible solution to avoid problems like we saw this weekend.

PJTierney

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/245845/two-to-go-the-championship-situation/

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Fernando Alonso (championship leader, 231 points)

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Alonso is the only man who could win the title with one race to spare.


To do that, he must finish on the podium in Brazil, with the following situations taking place:

- Winning the race with Webber 5th or lower
- Finishing 2nd with Webber 8th or lower
- Finishing 3rd with Webber 10th or lower

This confirms that Webber is the only man who can stop Alonso in Brazil. If the Spaniard does finish on the rostrum, no result from any other contender would prevent the Ferrari driver from winning the title.

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Mark Webber (2nd overall, 220 points)

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Webber will remain in the fight providing Alonso finishes off the podium in Brazil, although the Australian will be out of the championship if one of the following situations become a reality:

- Alonso wins and Webber finishes 5th or lower
- Alonso finishes 2nd and Webber finishes 8th or lower
- Alonso finishes 3rd and Webber finishes 10th or lower

So, if Alonso is 4th then we know Webber is safe, no matter where he is. However, if Alonso is in the top three, Webber knows where he needs to be.

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Lewis Hamilton (3rd overall, 210 points)

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Like Webber, Hamilton could remain in the running without even scoring in Brazil, although the 2008 Champion will be unable to clinch a second crown in 2010 under the following circumstances:

- Alonso wins the race
- Alonso finishes 2nd and Hamilton finishes 4th or lower
- Alonso finishes 3rd and Hamilton finishes 5th or lower
- Webber wins the race and Hamilton finishes 5th or lower
- Webber finishes 2nd and Hamilton finishes 9th or lower

For Hamilton, he knows he is powerless if Alonso wins. Under any other circumstances, Lewis can prevent Alonso and Webber from becoming untouchable.

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Sebastian Vettel (4th overall, 206 points)

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Vettel currently lies 25 points in arrears of Alonso, meaning he must finish at least 10th and therefore score one point at Interlagos to stay in the game. However, it will all be over if this happens in Brazil:

- Alonso wins the race
- Alonso finishes 2nd-10th and Vettel does not finish ahead
- Webber wins the race and Vettel finishes 4th or lower
- Webber finishes 2nd and Vettel finishes 7th or lower
- Webber finishes 3rd and Vettel finishes 8th or lower
- Webber finishes 4th and Vettel finishes 10th or lower

Basically, Vettel must finish ahead of Alonso (providing Fernando scores) but if the Ferrari driver wins then Sebastian can’t do anything to stop him. Even if the Spaniard fails to score, Sebastian knows that a top ten result is vital to stay in touch. Webber is also a threat but Vettel can just about keep up, even if Mark wins in Brazil.

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Jenson Button (5th overall, 189 points)

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The reigning Champion has the hardest job of any of the five title contenders, as he must finish at least at least 2nd no matter what happens in Brazil. However, if the following things do happen, Button becomes mathematically helpless:

- Alonso finishes 6th or higher
- Alonso finishes 7th-10th and Button does not win
- Webber wins
- Webber finishes 2nd-4th and Button does not win

Not only does Jenson need to finish at least second, but he needs other things to happen to Fernando Alonso. Even if the Spaniard fails to score and Jenson wins, the Frome driver still needs Mark Webber to finish fifth or lower. The best the McLaren man can do now is to aim for the win and pray for carnage behind…or, more realistically, help Hamilton.

amacachi

I still don't see why there should be any views from drivers considered when it's raining. Can you name 3 drivers who yesterday could've been relied on to give impartial views?

I also don't see why they wasted time behind the SC. Maybe having a single-file start behind the SC would've been a good idea, but it's completely pointless having the field drive around behind it, it just wastes laps and racing time and does next to nothing to dry the track. The track was obviously fine yesterday, there was plenty of moisture around but there was no aquaplaning going on.

The deployment of the SC in general needs to be looked at. Sending him out 20 seconds after the leader passes so that he sits and waves others past while the others race around to try and get a pitstop (or not) is ridiculous. Even if they're going for a delta time it looks very silly.

frostie500

amacachi wrote: »

I still don't see why there should be any views from drivers considered when it's raining. Can you name 3 drivers who yesterday could've been relied on to give impartial views?

It's not ideal but its got to be better than listening to the views of 24 guys! The FIA seems to have made a decision to have input from drivers as far as track conditions are concerned if they want to continue with that they should limit the sampling to a much smaller number. In MotoGP there used to be a similar thing when races were stopped due to rain,three designated riders could make the call on track conditions. If they raised their hands to say "conditions are too bad to race" the red flag was shown. A similar thing could happen in F1 with three drivers from different teams such as Alonso, Hamilton and Schumi, lets say. If the majority -2 from 3- think conditions are too bad race direction should factor that into their decisions. The situation now is a joke.

amacachi wrote: »

The deployment of the SC in general needs to be looked at. Sending him out 20 seconds after the leader passes so that he sits and waves others past while the others race around to try and get a pitstop (or not) is ridiculous. Even if they're going for a delta time it looks very silly.

yeah that was a crazy situation and as we saw in Valencia a race can be lost(Alonso) by the SC not collecting the race leader. In that race Alonso was left sitting behind the SC while the rest of the field was able to pit. This would have been fine should the SC have been released in time to at least catch race leader Hamilton. Its definitly something they need to address over the winter

rua1972

Brundle had an item once about the gps trackers in each car. To me it should be very simple to see when the race leader enters the last corner, and then send out the SC.
Via the BBC website people at home can even see the tracker and where everyone is on the track.
Valencia is indeed a very good example, Vettel and Hamilton were able to pit, hamilton even got a new nose on his car. And come out still a number 1 and 2 in the race. It took me a while to figure that one out, untill the replay was shown in which the SC picked up the number 3,Alonso,in the race. We all know what the number 2 , hamilton, did. To be fair he got a drive trough for it. But this is about the SC
But esspecially with the trackers in mind i don't understand why they send the SC out at the wrong moment.

bigboy123

Ya completely agree, all that's needed is to have a driver tracker similar to the BBC website, in the safety car. It took almost five minutes on Sunday for the safety car to pick up vettel at one stage of the race.
Also I think red bull need to change from the obviously substandard Renault block if they want to be in with a better chance of winning a title, engine problems cost vettel 25 points in both Bahrain and Korea this year and the Renault engine was consistantly slower through the speed traps than the Mercedes in the brawn car, this was before the f duct was introduced.

frostie500

bigboy123 wrote: »

Also I think red bull need to change from the obviously substandard Renault block if they want to be in with a better chance of winning a title, engine problems cost vettel 25 points in both Bahrain and Korea this year and the Renault engine was consistantly slower through the speed traps than the Mercedes in the brawn car, this was before the f duct was introduced.

Your'e misinterpreting quite a few facts in that statement. In Bahrain Vettel did not suffer an engine failure he suffered a problem with his spark plug. This is not supplied by Renault but by another supplier(champion). In relation to speed trap figures it is worth noting that Renault have been consistently faster than Red Bull(pre and post F-Duct) through the traps. This is due to the aerodynamic nature and profile of the RB6. Adrian Newey designed a car to work in a far broader performance envelope than just straight line speeds.

The car has masses more downforce than any other car on the grid as seen by their vastly superior medium speed corner performance, Suzuka is a recent example. As a result of having so much more downforce they generate a lot of drag thus slowing the car in a straightline. The myth that the Renault engine is consideribly down on power is caused by the design philosphy of the Red Bull. While the engine is not as powerful as the Mercedes it is still very competitve in terms of power

Vegeta

I thought this was a poor race

Nearly a quarter of it was under a safety car was it?. The track looks good I just hope the next event there is dry. I agree F1 cars should be able to cope better in wet conditions but they seem terrible in it, so I would have preferred a dry race on Sunday. Lesser of 2 evils kind of thing

Also I don't like Alonso and don't want him to win the championship, despite his obvious talent

zeris

donspeekinglesh wrote: »

They've all used 8 now.

Although Webber only started on his 8th engine on Saturday so should have an advantage regarding millage assuming it wasn't damaged in the shunt.