With the dust settled on the FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPAÑA 2013 what was your thoughts on the race? Please let us know why you voted the way you did in the comments section below.
thejudge13
F1: Daily International News roundup, inside whispers and insight together with thoughts and opinion
I have been suggesting – continually and regularly to little avail – the teams are being lulled too much into depending on pre-race computerised strategising… which always suggests stopping as little as possible is best.
From the first stint it was clear Ferrari had this right. 4 stopping (6 seconds slower on the computer models) was the way to go.
It is tempting for that reason to give the race a 10 – because the tyres are not the problem – it is the teams – and Ferrari proved this.
However, as a spectacle I didn’t feel as engaged as I did by the battles up and down the field as we had in Bahrain which I scored and 8 – despite Vettel winning at a canter.
So, whilst I loved the confusion at Red Bull and Mercedes (who in their right mind would try and make Hamilton stop fewer times than other leading contenders???) and I enjoyed Fernando tearing up the circuit.
The race has to be a 7 for me… though hopefully it will prove to be a turning point (after Monaco) for the way teams approach races.
Scoring the race a 7 or even 10? I rarely disagree with you judge, but artificial racing is not racing, it’s WWF in its purest form. Tyres, DRS, KERS,…man, I can probably overtake the Vettels and Hamiltons. If a team/driver win because they have the best package/skill while really pushing in most of the race, so be it. But winning because their set up is gentler on the tyres, and they can drive at 84%, while the others can drive at 71% or “can’t go any slower”? What is this? Yes, tyres always played a role, but usually towards the end of the race and not in every race weekend. This has gone way too far.
I said it before and I’ll say it again. Change the regs, reduce aero downforce, ban DRS, keep KERS, more durable tyres, and boom. You’ve got racing again.
Sometimes you have to go backwards to move forewards.
‘Sometimes you have to go backwards to move forwards’
I think this is a wildly correct statement…
Agree to your main point of reduce the aero-effect. But preserving your car has always been part of the game, whether it is tyres, fuel or mechanical bits. We are spoilt today in that often 10% of the gird retires when it used to be only 10% got to the end of the race. Ask Stirling Moss or Tony Brooks etc.
I don’t disagree with you, but this abomination with the tyres has gone too far. 50 years ago it wasn’t as if they could make their engine not breaking down and they did for the good of entertainment. This is so different from examples of the past. There will always be an element of perservation, whether this is fuel, engine, tyres. But not to this degree and in every single race. It’s unacceptable to have two cars that qualified 1-2 to finish 6 and 12 without the driver making a mistake, the team calling the strategy completely wrong, or the engine malfunctioning.
Where should two cars that qualified 1st and 2nd finish in the race then? A qualification special, using or abusing a set of tyres over one fast lap is not necessarily a race car. Maybe these rules will provide the motivation to designers to focus on race performance and do away with some of the silly aero bits that sprout forth in seeming desperation. When they get knocked off it seems to have no great effect on the ability of the driver to race rather than produce one banzai qualifying lap.
Once again – a 7. A fairly predictable outcome once the mad first few laps were completed with nearly every car getting the DRS therefore nullyfing its effect! The second DRS section seemd far too short to be effective and once again several excellent overtakes outside the zones showed that it is not really needed anyway. Some amazingly quick pit stops and some not so amazing BBC commentary and post race analysis. Where was Gary – maybe hiding after his not so good race predictions? However we had a late and long lunch of tapas and a bottle of wine while watching, to celebrate the first European GP of the season.
4-nothing to be saved but the two overtakes by alo on first lap ( without drs)
+1
To save you from wasting your weekend in a forthnight let me give you the results.
Qualifying: Merc, RBR, Ferrari, Lotus
Race: RBR, Ferrari, Merc, Lotus
You’re welcome!
Hmmm… Who would you put on pole though? Hamilton or Rosberg? Think Vettel or Alonso may hack it though. Webber (to my disappointment) seem to have gone off the bubble … 2011 again
Most would say Hamilton, but Rosberg is running high in confidence right now, so he might make it 3 in a row.
My question to the wide audience of TJ13. If Rosberg can outqualify Hamilton, and Schumacher outqualified Rosberg… Is Shumacher faster than Hamilton or is the car making Rosberg shine?
I have been thinking that for a few weeks, it seems like Schumacher wasn’t that old after all.
I gave it a 3, the lowest I have rated a race. Excepting with Alonso I didn’t see any racing, I saw a bunch of cars and drivers trying to cope with a product they were given which wasn’t good enough to make the work it was produced for.