That was really my reference the newer Tilke and/or city courses not desert courses per se.

Now my concern is that Tilke is the designer of the proposed new AMP track here in Ga. Mind you they have to include a 100 ft elevation change so even if it ends up being just a big square, that alone should make for some fun.

 

Back to the topic at hand, after a rude interuption, the Toyota of Jarno Trulli had a legit shot at the race win until the race engineers put him on the harder compound for the middle stint when EVERYONE ELSE went to the super softs. Trulli ran about 12 laps to start the race and appx. 25-27 on the hard compound and the rest on the super softs. At a deficit of 1 sec per lap average, he lost appx. 25 second of track position, but came in 9.1 second behind button at the end. In addition, Trulli put in the fastest lap of the race on lap 10 on the super softs. It's pretty clear given all the evidence that the Toyota engineers possibly cost themselves the 1st race win of their F1 career:

Bahrain GP - Sunday - Race Results

Bahrain Grand Prix Results - 26 April 2009 - 57 Laps
POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT LAPS TIME/RETIRE
1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 57 1h31m48.182
2. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 57 7.187
3. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 57 9.170
4. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes 57 22.096
5. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Brawn-Mercedes 57 37.779
6. Kimi Raikkonen Finland Ferrari 57 42.057
7. Timo Glock Germany Toyota 57 42.880
8. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault 57 52.775
9. Nico Rosberg Germany Williams-Toyota 57 58.198
10. Nelson Piquet Brazil Renault 57 1m05.149
11. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 57 1m07.641
12. Heikki Kovalainen Finland McLaren-Mercedes 57 1m17.824
13. Sebastien Bourdais France Toro Rosso-Ferrari 57 1m18.805
14. Felipe Massa Brazil Ferrari 56 1 Lap
15. Giancarlo Fisichella Italy Force India-Mercedes 56 1 Lap
16. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes 56 1 Lap
17. Sebastien Buemi Switzerland Toro Rosso-Ferrari 56 1 Lap
18. Robert Kubica Poland BMW Sauber 56 1 Lap
19. Nick Heidfeld Germany BMW Sauber 56 1 Lap

R. Kazuki Nakajima Japan Williams-Toyota 48 Oil Pressure
FASTEST LAP:
Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 10 1:34.556

 

TV commentator said the prime tires in the last stint worked better cause the track rubbered in to help the less grippy tires. Made sense.

At least Toyota didn't put on the Full Wets . . .

 

Couple that with fact that any attempt to Trulli to overtake Vettel off line would be met with layers of marbles AND Bahrain is a circuit that is very hard on brakes. In the post qualifying news conference, Trulli stated that he was getting a low brake pedal during qualifying, I can only imagine what his brakes felt like at the end of that race.

 

Pete - i understand your sentiment wrt the time lost on the hard tires with truly but your math is off a bit. true, he lost something like 25 sec on the hard compound and finished 9 sec behind but he did not make up all that time on driving. the other drivers had to spend time on the hard compounds also - so you have to add back the time he 'gained' when they were disadvantaged on their stint with hard tire.

in any regard, trulli set fast lap of the race and had a good drive. i can't make sense of the tire choice but whaddya gonna do?

 

Your right about not being 25 sec. total, but nearly one else tried to come in very late and have the least amount of time on the hard compound as possible. Some were coming into the pits with 10-14 laps left in the race when compared to Trulli's 25-27 laps on the hards.

My other point was that Trulli was on the hard tires when the track wasn't rubbered in, so at the end of the race, the gap of 1 sec. slower per lap on the hard compound might have been down to .7 or so instead of the full 1 sec.

Gutsy call by Toyota, but it just didn't work out this time around.

 

true. without splitting hairs, toyota did get the math wrong, thats for sure.

 

Brendorenn !

Before the Prima ballerina kills us with more of her dis-information ! ....

Toyota did there part the drivers did not !


On lap 12 Glock pits from the lead, changing over to the harder compound tyre - coming out just behind Rosberg in ninth place. The next lap Trulli pits from the lead, taking on less fuel than his team mate - rejoining just ahead of Alonso in sixth place. Kovalainen pits as well.

On lap 14 Alonso makes a pass on Trulli around the outside to take seventh. Barrichello pitting from fourth, remaining on the soft tyre.


On lap 16 Button and Hamilton pits from first and third, both staying on the soft tyre, Vettel taking over the lead.

On lap 37 The leader Button, Trulli from third, Hamilton from fourth, and Alonso from seventh all make pitstops - Vettel taking over the lead.

On lap 40 Vettel makes his final stop from the lead, rejoining in third ahead of Trulli.

At lap 41 Button leads Raikkonen (yet to stop) by 10.0 seconds, followed by Vettel (13.4s), Trulli (14.7s), Barrichello (16.2s), Hamilton (18.7s), Rosberg (21.6s), Piquet (32.7s), Glock (35.9s) and Alonso (41.9s) in tenth place.

At lap 50 Button continues to lead Vettel by 12.5 seconds, followed by Trulli (13.6s), Hamilton (22.6s), Barrichello (39.5s), Raikkonen (42.9s), Glock (43.6s), Alonso (50.0s), Rosberg (52.3s) and Piquet (63.9s) in tenth place.


POS DRIVER NATIONALITY ENTRANT LAPS TIME/RETIRE
1. Jenson Button Britain Brawn-Mercedes 57 ..........1h31m48.182
2. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault 57 ......... 7.187
3. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota 57 ........ 9.170

FASTEST LAP:
Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota lap 10 1:34.556


As you will see Trulli after setting FTD on lap 10 , is not able to race the full distance , his last pitstop he is 1.4 sec behind vettel yet finishes 2 seconds at the end , he was so slow during mid race Alonso was able to catch and past him and after his final pitstop , HE WAS NOT ABLE TO MAKE A DENT towards Vettel ....

The Toyota had the pace , it only needed a driver who could make dat difference , LH or FA would have made that difference and i would also say Vettel .

You have to race the distance , this was Stoolmachers greatest strength , running flat out all race distance , it is the min required today, well unless you happen to have a Brawn.

Trulli lacks this aggression and i would speculate to say , it is so because he is not winning races, he cannot visualize the win , so he does not push , unlike the other vultures LH or FA , even if they start in the back their drives are 100 % , they know how to win and can smell it , they go for it all the time , even if the odds are against them ......LH drive to 4th place was magnificient and KR for the first time this year drove flat out the whole race , you can see the difference in his performance THEY ARE WINNERS

 

I agree, Trulli should have been able to reel Vettel in at the end of the race. Vettel was only running mid-low 1:35's on a harder compound. He should have at least been able to mount a challenge as his car would have been much faster than Vettel at that point.

 

Other than track position. I don't see how anyone can tell who was driving well during the closing stint of a race. If you have a significant advantage you just want to maintain position and not risk going off or car damage. Danica Patrick most intelligent interview went something like this: How fast are going to go out there today? answer; " Hopefully just fast enough to stay in the lead." When I have made a move early in say a rain race, I have finally learned to back off unless I have someone on my tail.
I do think the Toyota's underperformed.

 

Bob ! it's F1 ........" Danica Patrick ".........................................

Trulli laid down ...

 

Is there a "if you quote Danica you must post pic" rule?


So vot vill Toyboata do in the next race.

 

OK ...........! First practice ...er,ahhh ... P1 .................

 

LOL. The only intelligent conversation I remember from a Danica interview. Hey, she may droving F1 next year, who knows.

 

Is she hungry enough for a USF1 seat/points drive.


GoDaddy go International?


GoDaddy grid girls will be interesting.

As posted in the other F1 thread in OT, McLaren on suspended 3 race ban for playing nice with the F1 committees.