Celebrating Five Glorious Years of Heikki Kovalainen: Formula 1 in 2012

If I get up early enough and actually use the F1 app for the iPad, it'll probably show purple when in fact they are the SLOWEST laps of the race.

oh no where will I get FOM's press releases/fluffy copy now

So I watched this despite my bleeding liberal heart. I have read that there might be a dead protester, which casts a pall. Force India's defense of missing P2 as a "strategy" seemed absurd and awful. I felt really bad when the footage showed some rich prince on top of a stand/building with a couch and an attractive woman at his side, then a bunch of white people in sunglasses sitting in the stands.

All that said, qualifying was pretty good! I can't remember seeing virtually every team using two sets of softs in qualifying. Apparently the sand on the track is ripping up the tyres and the optimum laps for softs is 3 and primes is 11 (though I seem to remember hyperbole like that on some tracks last year and they could stretch them longer in the actual race without a significant drop off).

I hope the race is good. Everyone seems to be locking up on turn 13 (I think that's the one) so that might help even it out. Even if Vettel gets away and makes it clear around the first corner, I imagine the tyre situation could keep it interesting and competitive. There was very little between Red Bull and McLaren.

The haze and the lack of vegetation on the track is kind of unreal, the whole thing looks like CGI to me

i think it's kind of pretty as a track. very unreal, though, yes.

i'm finally playing through F1 2011 for the Xbox btw and I can't believe how many tracks I hate. Shockingly I love the Hungarian one.

So this is going ahead then.

I HATED HATED HATED the Hungaroring when playing Grand Prix 2 back in the day, sadly it's "not too bad" today compared to some other circuits (lol Valencia).

btw can we start a fund to bring back Istanbul Park and its 'Faux Rouge'.

The Heppenheim Kid & The Ice Man are back.

I am getting a bit confused by these races tbqh.

Confused how? About what factors lead to success or failure in these races? Or just how close everybody is?

Beginning of 2011, Lotus looked fantastic - I remember at the start of China, they just blasted by everyone. By the end of 2011 you'd forgotten they were even on the track. I would love to read something on what the hell happened during 2011 for them, technically. They've sorted it out now, whatever that was.

Really rooting for Kimi with this one - like he said in interviews he really only had one chance to overtake and didn't make it.

Since you all have been mentioning the video game I looked it up - wow, that thing is amazing, it looks like a total blast. If it existed for Mac I'd be all over it (I think the online version of it is more like a manager thing rather than a racing thing?)

Never played the online version, but i do love the Xbox version I've got, even if it frustrates the hell out of me sometimes.

I had just assumed re: Lotus 2011 that they weren't producing high-enough quality upgrades through the season and they just dropped off. Maybe it's also a symptom of the high speed emphasis that featured in this race? Even without the blown diffusers, Vettel's speed in the corner was way better and, for whatever reason, he could fly out of that first corner and rebuild his slight lead so Kimi was always left where he was going down that long straight again.

Checked and it looks like the racing in the online version is strictly viewed from overhead, no steering involved - so it looks like a 'football manager' kind of thing. I'd rather drive ...

What did you think of Rosberg shoving people off the track twice? That was crazy but Alonso slipstreaming to the pit entrance and breaking away was crazier (and I think he did that twice as well, the camera people didn't focus on the second time though)

I haven't seen any news of a penalty on Rosberg, but if there isn't one I'd be surprised. Alonso seemed more upset that he Rosberg didn't leave him space to get around. But yah, his slipstream thing was nuts. I didn't see it the second time.

loled at Alonso v Hamilton reactions though. Alonso gripes and complains, Hamilton just passes him off track anyway (apparently this had happened in the GP2 as well?).

One thing I noticed playing through the game is that some of the newer tracks (India, especially) feature more solid run-off areas on the sides of the track compared with Spa or Monza, which seems to rely on gravel. In the game (and I am playing it on the Medium setting as I work it out) you can run off the track a bit in India and lose only a little bit of speed and time, but when you hit the gravel at Spa or Monza (especially with my set up on those tracks) you're basically fucked. So it was interesting to see the Bahrain off-track bit be solid enough to maintain speed and even overtake. I'd like to see how the stewards rule on it.

Rosberg was cleared. Alonso's response:

Fernando Alonso ‏ @alo_oficial

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I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy! ;)))

Ahhhh hah ha that's excellent - I do feel for the guy though, that looked scary

The team radio stuff that ends up on air is determined by the teams though right? So Hamilton might have been bitching a blue streak and we'd never know.

Not really into installing bootcamp or whatever, though I'm sorely tempted. That game looks sooooo good.

"“I can only say that if, instead of such a wide run-off area there had been a wall, I’m not sure I’d be here now to talk about it.” - Alonso

I really don't know what to think about it other than a. looked scary b. I don't understand the overtaking rules cos I'm a noob c. the stewards evidently don't think it's a big deal

Did they determine what was up with Hamilton's left rear tyre during the pit stops?

Oh yeah, Whitmarsh talked about it

I think the defensive rules is you have one move, but after that move you have to give space. Alonso seems to be interpreting that to meant that after Rosberg more or less pushed him off the track and Alonso pulled back, Rosberg should have basically let him by, maybe. Rosberg's issue with Hamilton is that he didn't pull back - he just kept going off track and passed him. It felt dangerous to me, and I was reminded of that incident last year where, I think it was Schumacher, running Rubens almost into a wall by not allowing him to get by.

xpost re McLaren:
Evidently it's a recurring mechanical issue rather than gross pitstop stupidity, though I really don't get how after the first set of problems they couldn't replace everything on that side? Maybe a defect in all parts that were made

reviewing the Rosbergs, it doesn't look as if it's really his fault, Ham and Alonso just get stuck in and refuse to back off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bea17BeLepI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQurrE15bA

Yeah, I guess not. It does seem like a very aggressive defensive move, but then he was coming up against aggressive driving. I guess Alonso interpreted Rosberg's move back to the racing line to be a second defensive move, but it really wasn't.

Yeah you can see Ros is just doing his thing (he wasn't pulling a Schumi from last year and weaving all over the place) - one thing I read though is people thought that Hamilton shouldn't have gained a place by overtaking off the track.

I don't know if you're familiar with these video game race/GP reviews, they're pretty fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeWU0GkBwjo

ha. quite enjoyed that actually.

re: the video game - i tend to play 20% of the full race, which means i get to pit stop and have to change tyres, but it also means I don't have to deal with looking after my tyres that much (unless its raining, which can be a nightmare). Still, I was really tempted to play the full race for Abu Dhabi this weekend just to see it get dark.

I don't mean to turn this into a drooling-over-video-game thread but the texture and the detail in this is really astonishing

- guy who plays one video game every two years so is easily astonished

My races aren't long enough to worry about tyre drop-off, but I did an hour of driving in the rain in practice and you definitely feel the Intermediates drop off when the dry line starts forming, so you have to ride off the line to pick up some water to cool them down. Trickiest part is figuring out when to switch from inters to a dry tyre, as I'm not as good as sticking to the racing line as the computer is.

About what factors lead to success or failure in these races? Or just how close everybody is?

BOTH

I mean, Formula 1 is supposed to be about boring consistency, right?

Er...well, by that I'm surprised that Mercedes can be winners one week and midfielders the next, with Red Bull at the opposite poll. China and Bahrain aren't radically different circuits, you know (lol Tilke lol) except in climate.

btw I don't "get" everyone getting butthurt about The Ros...oh no wait I get Alonso being butthurt because he's the Spanish Mansell.

Couple things I would say about that (confusion re success/failure):
Everyone is really close this year. It doesn't take very much at all to fall five places back in quali, and conversely it doesn't take much to get on the front row - tenths or hundredths of a second are the difference.
There have been unpredictable events that set people way back - Schumi in Bahrain, the McLaren pit stops.
Biggest factor, again - tires. Lotus and Sauber seem to have perfect car balance that evens wear, whereas McLaren seem to be really heavy on the rear tires, especially if the track is cooler.

At this point Red Bull are sorting themselves out by giving Vettel a config that he can drive well. I wouldn't expect him to completely own the rest of the season, but I would bet he'll pick up a number of wins.

Aye, otm about tyres...it's obvious on one level but not apparent on the surface. The FIA's backstage shenanigans with Pirelli is highly underrated when you think about, the crazy variability at different temperatures amongst the teams is a somewhat genius...but it's not as visible as DRS ZONES!!!!

Yeah the tires really create a tenterhook of randomness ... but isn't that kind of the point to em?

I wonder if anybody does a game featuring tracks that don't exist/aren't used like Detroit, that would be a blast

waht is a "Williams", guys

this is fantastic. bring it home pastor!

COME ON PASTOR, BEAT EL MANSELLO!!

VENEZUELA REPRESENT

What a fun race. One of the best from an often boring track.

This is only the most incredible result in ever. I mean, a Venezuelan dude winning in a Williams?

For a driver oft-derided as a "pay to play" competitor I'm very happy for Maldonado.

that was really impressive when alonso was putting the pressure on - didn't flinch once.

loving this stuff with the tyres. i always thought they should've been engineered to brutally drop off like that from the point they went with a single supplier.

seemed doubly worse this weekend. how often do they jump a tyre grade (i.e. soft to hard)?

Is it me or does this thing look impossible to overtake on?

Who is Michael Schumacher? Is this a new guy or something?

LIKE MONZA 1971 UP IN THIS AREA

no actually like that time with gilles villeneuve at jarama

Put your hands up for Mark Webber, he's got the widest car on the track.

What a beautiful parade with announcers hoping desperately for some rain-soaked drama.

"The McLaren garage says it'll be raining in FIVE minutes!"
"Well, from here, I can see a really dark cloud..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seqYJ9azUbw