multi21

Okay kiddies, it's time to get back on track. With what's happened in the past 4 weeks in F1, my head is spinning.

This is the 2nd year for the Valencia street circuit, a circuit that is somewhat quick as compared to other street courses. Temps should be quite warm, but there are a lot of teams that have made significant improvements.

I don't expect the mandatory 2 week shutting of the factories to have slowed the teams down much as they were probably working on their improvements outside the factory.

So the questions are:

Will Brawn maintain their point lead in both championships or will they continue to backpedal faster than A. Wayne at a Ferrari driver announcement party sans Fernando Alonso?

Will Red Bull make yet another advance on their car and overtake the Brawns?

Will the Renault of Fernando Alonso have more than 5 laps of fuel after Q3 qualifying session on Saturday?

Can the McLaren of Hamilton post a 2nd win in a row?

Can the 38 year old Luca Badoer score points for Ferrari in his first F1 race?

Will Kimi be able to get on the 2nd step of the podium as he did at the last race?

TIRE PREVIEW FROM BRIDGESTONE

Bridgestone European Grand Prix Preview
F1 Grand Prix, GP Europe, Valencia Street Circuit
Bridgestone will bring its two softest tyres to the European Grand Prix on August 21-23 which takes place on the exciting 5.44km Valencia street course, located in the port area of Spain’s third largest city. The venue, which was new on the calendar last year, provides an interesting challenge. Although it is a temporary race facility the circuit layout resembles that of a permanent race track. The circuit has 25 corners to challenge the drivers, making set-up a real compromise.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, said: “Bridgestone Spain is one of the most important subsidiaries of the Bridgestone Group, with over 4,000 employees, so it is good for us to visit Spain for a second time this year. We enjoy high brand awareness and good market share in Spain and this has been assisted by our Formula One activities. Over half of our Spanish tyre production is exported throughout the European Community so this illustrates the importance to us. Valencia was a fantastic addition to the Grand Prix calendar in 2008 and this year we look forward to returning and seeing the 150th race win taken on Bridgestone F1 tyres. This is a momentous occasion and we are very proud to supply Formula One.”

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What are the challenges of the Valencia street course?
This is an interesting track. It has the high speed configuration of a permanent circuit, however the track surface gives away that this is only a temporary facility. There are numerous turns, yet there are also many high speed sections and we see speeds of around 300kph five times during the course of a lap. There are low-speed corners too, so some heavy braking does take place. On the slippery surface that accompanies a street course it is difficult to find grip off line.

What did Bridgestone learn in its first visit here last season?
Last year we saw a lot of circuit surface evolution over the weekend and it was very much a learning process for everyone who attended the race. I think that everyone will continue to learn more about this venue when we visit it this season. We also found last year that the infamous gap between the bridge surface and the road surface presented no difficulties for our Formula One tyres. Last year our visit to Valencia was a momentous one as it was here that we celebrated our 200th Grand Prix participation since our entry in 1997.

Flying Finn

I'm guessing Webber or Vettel (I voted Webber) since McLaren shouldn't be as strong here as they were in Hungary and Ferrari will be even slower so no chance for Kimi to be on podium.

But Alonso might do well also. As you predict, he will probably has VERY light fuel especially since Valencia is like Monaco with no passing possibility (nice job Tilke...) but Renault has improved a lot and should be good in Valencia.

Hard to figure out what Brawn cars are going to do but I'm thinking the cars (and for sure the drivers) of Red Bull will do better than Brawn.

Some good news for next year: Q3 will be driven with light fuel load, I've been waiting for this to happen forever, we'll again get to see who really is quickest. Also, the minimum weight will be 15 kg higher than this year.

Along with the fans, Kimi, and some others (for example, Kubica) certainly are happy about those changes.

multi21

Please clarify as I haven't heard or seen this. Are teams going to be able to change from the qualifying set up to a race set up after Saturday and not have the cars impounded in parc ferme?

Flying Finn

I'm not sure, I need to check. What I know is the fuel load rule that changes.
As you know, they have to run Q3 with the race fuel load but in next year, they can run with as light fuel load as they want.

Also, the Q1 & Q2 changes slightly since there should be 26 cars. After Q1 8 & Q2 8 cars respectively will be eliminated so the Q3 will still have the top 10.

P.S. The point system remains the same, as well as the tire warmers will be still used (even though they were supposed to be banned). Also KERS will be still allowed.

ltc

When isn't she running light.
It's her home race, she will have enough fuel on board to get pole and do 3 laps into the race before having to pit.

the flyin' scotsman

Isn't this because re-fueling during the race is banned for next year?

Blackness

I wanted to vote for Schumi, but for some reason his name isn't listed on the poll options.

multi21

That's why I asked specifically about parc ferme. In years past the teams could set the car up for qualifying and then change to a race set up after Saturday.

Because of the fact there will be no refueling during a race in 2010 the car would behave/handle completely different with a few laps of fuel on board in qualifying vs. a full tank as will be the case on Sunday. If the teams are not allowed to change the car from qualifying to race set ups then it's almost a crap shoot as how a particular car will handle from start to finish.

ew928

Out on a very far limb, Hamilton.
It's a street course so mechanical grip will matter much, right?


But I'm secretly rooting for Webber.

Veloce Raptor

Same here, so I will go with his littrle brother from another mother, Vettel.






Professional Racing and Driving Coach

wanna911

LEWIS!!!!

deep_uv

Another win for Webber.

multi21

FIA reveals qualifying changes for 2010
Formula One's governing body has today released a new set of sporting and technical regulations for the 2010 season, including a revised qualifying format to adapt to the 6 extra cars that will be competing next year.

The new system mostly remains the same as the current qualifying format, although the first and second sessions will eliminate 8 cars each time, rather than 5 as is currently the case. Hence, Q3 will be run with the remaining 10 cars to decide the top 10 grid positions for the Grand Prix.

Apart from this, it was also confirmed that the cars will run with low fuel quantities during each session. This year the cars are still required to drive Q3 with race fuel on board, but since refueling will be banned as of 2010 this rule has been scrapped.

A.Wayne

What ! no prediction for golden spoon where are the button fans ?

Voting incognito .... larry, Ray, ITC, ?....................



Alonso .... she's on fire ..........................

ltc

I'm still disappointed that Schumacher won't be racing...that has sort of thrown a bit of a wet blanket over the race weekend for me.

But, on a positive note, at least we're done with Fox for the remainder of the season...back to Speed.