Most liked posts in thread: F1 - 2012

A couple 2013 silly season reports.

Kobayashi is out at Sauber, to be replaced by Esteban Gutierrez. That's two new drivers for Sauber since Hulkenberg is replacing outgoing Perez. No word on Kobayashi's future.

Pic moving from Marussia to Caterham, replacing Kovalainen. No word on Kovalainen's future, though he has already stated he refuses to be a pay driver. That may mean he's done in F1.

 

Weather forecast update - wow!

"Saturday is expected to dawn dry with some sunny spells around for final practice, but throughout the break and towards qualifying, clouds will build and it may become overcast by the end of the knockout session. A further slowing of the front now means that rain is now less likely during qualifying. The latest timeframe for showers to arrive over Interlagos is just after the session has concluded, but then conditions will deteriorate at quite a rate. Air temperature will top out at 31 Celsius.

Light mid-afternoon showers will become much heavier during the evening, as the front begins to cross Sao Paulo and its environs. Showers and longer spells of rain will continue overnight, leading into a wet start for race day.

Sunday will obviously start damp, with a continuation of the showers. However, there could be worse to come, based on today’s rainfall projection. Heavy showers will merge into a sustained period of intense rain, between the hours of approximately 06:00 to 18:00 local time. Clearly, this encompasses the race window and we are looking at enough rain to produce safety cars, red flags and possible issues with standing water etc.

Air temperature will only scrape up to 21 Celsius, as the colder airmass moves in behind the first wave of showers. Winds will be light to moderate at times from the south-east."

 

Another Quali spoiler alert:
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Full qualification results here.

Alonso promoted as Maldonado is penalised (GPUpdate.net)

 

Weather forecasting is an inexact science...keeps changing all the time.

"Showers will continue to feed in from the south-west this evening and overnight, becoming increasingly frequent, as the cold front continues to push its way through south-east Brazil. Air temperature will dip to 17 Celsius.

Title Decider

Race day is expected to dawn wet with overcast conditions and a few light, scattered showers around. From here, there are two schools of thought – even at this late stage. The widely-used GFS model is leaning towards just one or two scattered showers after 09:00, while local sources are continuing to roll out a fully wet scenario, frequent showers throughout the day, the guarantee of 71 wet laps and everyone finishes the season with a race to remember.

Which way do I think it will go? Probably a mixture between the two. The most likely scenario is that there will be a few showers during the course of the morning and early afternoon, but there will also be some lengthy gaps, allowing the track to dry out somewhat. You won’t go far wrong if you are thinking along the lines of the 2008 race with a couple of sprinkles within the race window to spice things up."

 

I don't know the exact process but I do know it's not meant to end a driver's session. The car goes on the weighbridge and then is released to get back to business. Apparently the strange thing in this case is they waved him in mid-session. The rules allow it (see below) so you'd think the teams and drivers would expect and be watching for it but apparently they usually do it as the Q1 and Q2 sessions end, much like they do for Q3.

"In addition to scrutineering, cars are also weighed during the Grand Prix weekend to ensure that they comply with minimum weight requirements (640kg). Cars taking part in Q1 and Q2 are called in at random to be weighed, while all cars participating in Q3 are weighed after the session. Classified finishers are weighed again after the race."​

 

I'll second that.

 

Even that ^^^ is a bit of a spoiler...in a way. :biggrin5:

For anyone who didn't watch and forgot to set a DVR (and who have Speed TV): First (of many, I suspect) re-airs today at 4:30p E / 1:30p P & 11p E / 8p P.

Folks at Speed say to ignore your channel guide and add an additional 30 mins of recording time to the end. I assume that's to include their extra segment on Speed's years of F1 coverage?

 

... and now they've changed that to an additional 40 minutes.

 

SPOILER WARNING!
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There's been a lot of argument and discussion after the race over a particular incident involving Vettel. Here's McNish with some post-race analysis, including his wise (IMHO) comments re the Vettel incident.

Race stewards insist that Sebastian Vettel overtake was made under yellow-red flags