DHL Turkish Grand Prix 2011

[AMG 6.3]

I see a lot of team's are expecting high levels of tyre degradation next weekend. Perhaps partially because like the Shanghai circuit, the Istanbul circuit isn't used much throughout the year. So like in China, by Sunday the track still won't have rubbered in much.

[phil1993]

Not just that, but Turn 8 will kill the tyres.

[AMG 6.3]

That too of course. Hope there are no tyre blow-outs in turn 8.

Pirelli will allow the team's to test their experimental hard compound in Friday practice, as in Malaysia.

[phil1993]

There won't be blow-outs, thats not the way Pirelli's work. It'll just be a severe degredation which means that the lap times will suddenly drop. The tyres go off a cliff - you saw that with Hamilton in China; the lap before he pitted he lost about five seconds and got passed by Massa.

The teams have also got to get a right balance between the front tyre pressures and rear pressures.

[cformula1]

Wouldn't surprise me if we see some teams using 4-stop strategies, given the degradation.

[AMG 6.3]

There won't be blow-outs, thats not the way Pirelli's work. It'll just be a severe degredation which means that the lap times will suddenly drop. The tyres go off a cliff - you saw that with Hamilton in China; the lap before he pitted he lost about five seconds and got passed by Massa.

So far, anyway. It has been impressive how there haven't been any failures of any sort, but Turkey is a different challenge all together...

Wonder if pole will be worth chasing at all costs, given how important fresh set's of tyres seem to be? Vettel will be upset.

[oukilF1]

Wonder if pole will be worth chasing at all costs, given how important fresh set's of tyres seem to be? Vettel will be upset.

I doubt that, we all know RBR tactics.. once he stays in front out of the first corner he will dissapear and control the tyres just like Oz and Malysia

[Edi96]

Massa is the man to beat in Turkey. He won the GP three times and always outpaced his respective teammate (including Alonso). If the car is good enough he will shine again.

[shailf1]

Updated Ferrari F150 for Turkish GP, testing in Fiorano for advertising purposes

Spoiler:

http://www.omnicorse.it/magazine/8363/f ... -a-fiorano

[alex1369]

Massa is the man to beat in Turkey. He won the GP three times and always outpaced his respective teammate (including Alonso). If the car is good enough he will shine again.

What do you mean if the car will be good enough????????

There is no way past a RBR specially in QLF - they are the champs in QLF

[Vorull]

Massa is the man to beat in Turkey. He won the GP three times and always outpaced his respective teammate (including Alonso). If the car is good enough he will shine again.

What do you mean if the car will be good enough????????

There is no way past a RBR specially in QLF - they are the champs in QLF

Dude, have you ever watched a race on sunday?

[iceman1]

I think Qualifying will become less important to the teams due to the new tyres and strategies.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes qualifying on pole position is no longer the key to winning at certain circuits.

A combination of new tyres and overtaking aids has made it easier to pass for position this season and put an onus on pit strategy. At the recent Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull driver Mark Webber failed to make it out of the first round of qualifying, but raced from 18th to third on Sunday. He was helped by the fresh sets of soft tyres he saved by not taking part in the final two stages of qualifying and Horner has admitted Webber's performance has made his team rethink its approach to grand prix weekends.

"It makes you question the value of qualifying," Horner told the Sunday Times. "Now the cars can overtake and with such a big difference between old and new tyres, we are going to have to reassess at each track how important it is to get to the front of the grid. Our strategists will look at how we should be structuring our race weekends."

Each driver has three sets of soft tyres and three sets of hard tyres available to them for qualifying and the race. At most races last year front-running drivers used all three sets of soft tyres in qualifying, carrying the final set in to the race before stopping once for hard tyres.

However, with this year's Pirellis degrading more quickly, Horner believes drivers could be better off saving fresh sets of soft tyres for the race, even if it compromises grid position.

"According to the characteristics of the track and the tyres at any given weekend, you might want to tilt the whole thing in favour of having fast, new tyres at key parts of the race, maybe at the expense of qualifying," he added. "You have to do a lot of overtaking to make it work, but Mark showed it can be done. You could say he needed a couple more laps to have won. With two laps less we could have won with Sebastian, using a conventional strategy, based on good grid position."

[phil1993]

Lotus did some straight line testing on Wednesday, trying out a version of McLaren's exhaust

[oukilF1]

Ermm.. Mclaren exhaust?

seriously!? wasnt the blown diffuser concept pioneered by RBR

[JoostLamers]

Massa is the man to beat in Turkey. He won the GP three times and always outpaced his respective teammate (including Alonso). If the car is good enough he will shine again.

Not even a podium