*****Official Formula 1 Thread*******

[eDave]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Alonso is taking on Indianapolis this Sunday. Never has run an oval, and nothing at these speeds (230mph laps).


He has been flawless in practice and in qualifying, he's in the middle of Row 2. I don't follow F1 at all but whoever this guy is, he's a goddamn badass.

[PornChief]

Seems like a 100 years ago that I went to Adelaide to see the 1st Australian GP (well, 1st of the modern era at least). That track was the best street circuit ever, and that race had Gods like Mansell, Piquet, Prost, Senna, Rosberg and Berger. I was young and we drank a lot so I don't remember much except I met Prost, he was cool, must have been about 5 feet tall.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by PornChief

Seems like a 100 years ago that I went to Adelaide to see the 1st Australian GP (well, 1st of the modern era at least). That track was the best street circuit ever, and that race had Gods like Mansell, Piquet, Prost, Senna, Rosberg and Berger. I was young and we drank a lot so I don't remember much except I met Prost, he was cool, must have been about 5 feet tall.

That is ****ing awesome. lucky bastard.

[PornChief]

also, Vettel is gay.

[Dylan]

KC native: I really appreciate your willingness to respond to my questions. Thanks!

[bandwagonjumper]

It might be a stupid question but how do NASCAR and Formula 1 compare? How much do the top drivers earn and could top drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton compete in NASCAR?

[PornChief]

Originally Posted by bandwagonjumper

It might be a stupid question but how do NASCAR and Formula 1 compare? How much do the top drivers earn and could top drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton compete in NASCAR?

F1 drivers are paid way more, Alonso gets 30m euro, drivers on crap teams get a lot less, around 500,000. Mark Webber gets 10m euro which is about average. They'd make it easily in NASCAR, but that would be like Peyton going to the CFL.

[KC native]

Originally Posted by bandwagonjumper

It might be a stupid question but how do NASCAR and Formula 1 compare? How much do the top drivers earn and could top drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton compete in NASCAR?

Originally Posted by PornChief

F1 drivers are paid way more, Alonso gets 30m euro, drivers on crap teams get a lot less, around 500,000. Mark Webber gets 10m euro which is about average. They'd make it easily in NASCAR, but that would be like Peyton going to the CFL.

Yea, and that's before sponsorships. F1 top drivers make a **** ton of money. Michael Schumacher used to pull down more than Michael Jordan when he was at his peak.

[Al Bundy]

Good win for Sato in the Indy car series.

[KC native]

Fantastic race again today.

Alonso showed some grit. 3 pit stops in the first 30 laps because his wing was broken, but still managed to pull out 8th spot.

Perez went out there and gutted it out too. Tough defensive drive and nice finish. Out drove Button by a lot.

Vettel is Vettel. I wish Fernando wouldn't have had the technical problems. Should have been a great fight between them at the front.

Paul Di Resta ran a fantastic finish for himself and Force India. Can't believe he pulled off P4. He was almost on the podium but Crashy McCrasherson pulled out a great race.

[KC native]

Race is at 6:30 AM CST for the early birds. I will be DVRing this per my usual.

Should be a great race.

Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix.

The German took his second consecutive pole by 0.254 seconds from Hamilton, with Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel third ahead of Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso could manage only fifth on the grid in front of his adoring home fans, just 0.001secs quicker than team-mate Felipe Massa.

McLaren's Jenson Button was only 14th with team-mate Sergio Perez ninth.

Scot Paul di Resta was 10th as the top 10 was completed by Lotus's Romain Grosjean in seventh and Red Bull's Mark Webber in eighth.

Brazilian Massa was subsequently handed a three-place grid penalty for blocking Mark Webber during the Red Bull driver's timed lap in the second session, relegating the Ferrari driver to ninth on the grid.

"Congrats to Nico - really happy for the team," said Hamilton. "It's down to all the great work from the guys at the factory. But we've got to approach tomorrow with caution because it's going to be tough. I didn't have two option tyre sets, but I think Nico was quicker today."

Since 1997, the Spanish Grand Prix has been won from pole position every year bar one, when Vettel won from second in 2011.

But Mercedes have struggled for race pace this year and team principal Ross Brawn sounded doubtful when asked if they could win the grand prix, admitting others had been in better shape during the race-simulation runs in Friday practice.

However, world champion Vettel said: "Mercedes were in a league of their own. We were surprised by the pace they had today. I am happy to sit in third right behind them because they were out of reach.

"I expect them to be strong in the race because they have been quick all year on this track and I expect the people behind to put some pressure on, Lotus and Ferrari. We will have to look after ourselves and our own tyres and then see what we can do."

The improved Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne were 11th and 12th ahead of Force India's Adrian Sutil.

"The car didn't feel too bad in Q1," said Button of his poor qualifying. "I got held up on my lap and lost about 0.3secs in last corner from this morning but then in Q2 I just didn't have the grip on my last run. The tyre pressures came in massively high. We're just looking now to see if they were set properly."

On whether he was surprised by team-mate Sergio Perez's pace, he said: "I am considering where we are. He did a good job, obviously got everything right."
Williams continued to struggle - both cars failed to get past the first knock-out session despite a major upgrade package.

Valtteri Bottas was 17th, 0.058secs ahead of team-mate Pastor Maldonado as the corner-entry instability that has plagued them all year seemed to still be a problem.
Deputy team principal Claire Williams said: "It's not why we come racing to not get drivers into Q2. The boys all work really hard, and we've got to improve. You never panic in these situations. The grid is so tight, we were only one tenth off getting into Q2 so I don't think it's time to panic."

Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez was handed the same punishment as Massa for impeding Kimi Raikkonen and will start the race in 19th position. The Mexican was previously given a five-place grid penalty for the last grand prix in Bahrain for his part in an incident with Adrian Sutil during the Chinese Grand Prix.



Driver Car Team Q1 Q2 Q3
1 Nico Rosberg 9 Mercedes 1:21.913 1:21.776 1:20.718
2 Lewis Hamilton 10 Mercedes 1:21.728 1:21.001 1:20.972
3 Sebastian Vettel 1 Red Bull 1:22.158 1:21.602 1:21.054
4 Kimi Raikkonen 7 Lotus 1:22.210 1:21.676 1:21.177
5 Fernando Alonso 3 Ferrari 1:22.264 1:21.646 1:21.218
6 Felipe Massa 4 Ferrari 1:22.492 1:21.978 1:21.219
7 Romain Grosjean 8 Lotus 1:22.613 1:21.998 1:21.308
8 Mark Webber 2 Red Bull 1:22.342 1:21.718 1:21.570
9 Sergio Perez 6 McLaren 1:23.116 1:21.790 1:22.069
10 Paul Di Resta 14 Force India 1:22.663 1:22.019 1:22.233
11 Daniel Ricciardo 19 Toro Rosso 1:22.905 1:22.127
12 Jean-Eric Vergne 18 Toro Rosso 1:22.775 1:22.166
13 Adrian Sutil 15 Force India 1:22.952 1:22.346
14 Jenson Button 5 McLaren 1:23.166 1:22.355
15 Nico Hulkenberg 11 Sauber 1:23.058 1:22.389
16 Esteban Gutierrez 12 Sauber 1:23.218 1:22.793
17 Valtteri Bottas 17 Williams 1:23.260
18 Pastor Maldonado 16 Williams 1:23.318
19 Giedo van der Garde 21 Caterham 1:24.661
20 Jules Bianchi 22 Marussia 1:24.713
21 Max Chilton 23 Marussia 1:24.996
22 Charles Pic 20 Caterham 1:25.070

[Dylan]

Sunday, May 12 at 8 a.m. ET - That is better than 6 a.m.

Who is going to win the Spanish Grand Prix?

Red Bull have always been strong in Spain. I think Vettel will be hard to beat.

Kimi is strong in Spain. He has won this race twice. Kimi is 10 points behind Vettel after four races. Would like to see him win the race.

Alonso has not won here since 2006-not a good track record. Then again, he finished second last year.

Mercedes - Have they improved their race pace? Not sure.

Pirelli will bring medium and hard compound tires to Spain. Supposedly, they tweaked the hard compound tires so they hold up longer. But will they be durable?

I find the tire strategy confusing...I am not sure how long the driver can push the new tires.

My picks

1st place: Vettel / Kimi - Each driver will receive half a trophy..
2nd Alonso
3rd: Webber

[KC native]

Finally got around to finishing the race.

Phenomenal drive from Alonso and Massa. Ferrrari decided they would just drive it hard the whole race and make 4 stops. Game changing strategy and it will be interesting to see if they keep it up. The mantra this year has been protect your tires as much as possible and Ferrari said **** that and went for it. This will make the strategies later in the season much more interesting.

Kimi was Kimi. The mad Fin was excellent as usual. He has a great chance to win the driver's championship. There are mounting rumors that he could be headed to Red Bull to replace Webber next year. I don't know if I see Kimi at Red Bull. He really hated all the extra shit he had to do at Ferrari and Red Bull would have the same requirements for him.

Mercedes is ****ed. They can pound out a fast lap to qualify high but they have problems with tire wear and they don't look like they are getting any better. They locked out the front row during qualifying and both Hamilton and Rosberg finished outside the top 5.

McClaren is also in a similar situation. Perez was faster than Button again and they made him stay behind him at the end of the race. Their lack of performance has been the biggest head scratcher of this season.

[Donger]

The Pirelli tires are just ridiculous. Four stops, really? I read that the guys are so worried about degradation that they are seriously backing off. Something like three seconds a lap SLOWER than GP2 on the same track. That isn't F1.