- 27 Mar 11, 12:12#247258
Watched the cars from mid-high speed Turn 14 to slow turn 15, my usual place for the past 4 years.
Driver wise, the bravery award belonged to Schuey, Nico, and Vitaly, Kamui, and the Virgin and HRT boys, whose cars looked evil going around there....
The Red Bull is planted to the track, simple. Is is extremely stable, particularly on turn in. You can physical see (and hear) them getting off the bake a touch earlier and carrying higher apex speed. Their superior corner speed isn't as obvious as last year's rocket ship. Though it was very easy to pick Vettel's pole winning lap, it was phenomenal to watch as he went past....
The Saubers looked very consistent from lap to lap, and in general looked tidy. Same for Williams.
The 'black' Renaults were also impressive, as were the Mclarens. The Ferraris looked good under brakes, and appeared to have good mechanical grip. The traction among Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, & Renault looked ( and sounded) similar, better corner speed of the RB7's was what set them apart.
With all the work on exhausts this year, there are very different sounding cars out there.
The most ear piercing note has to go to the 'green' Lotus Renaults. The black ones have a very crisp note, and have a distinctive gurgle at part throttle. The Mercedes have a very flat 'fart' noise on over-run, Mclarens not as distinct. Force India, have same engine, but normal sounding over-run.
Downforce is king in this game, and Virgin and HRT definitely lack it, as their drivers looked slower through T14, and when they looked to really lean on the car, they were clearly working the wheel very hard, and using ALL the kerb, to hustle through the corner.
Once again, Red Bull have a front wing that passes the FIA tests, but droops ( and pivots nose down) markedly on track. The do have some very clever composite engineers at Red Bull.....
Driver wise, the bravery award belonged to Schuey, Nico, and Vitaly, Kamui, and the Virgin and HRT boys, whose cars looked evil going around there....
The Red Bull is planted to the track, simple. Is is extremely stable, particularly on turn in. You can physical see (and hear) them getting off the bake a touch earlier and carrying higher apex speed. Their superior corner speed isn't as obvious as last year's rocket ship. Though it was very easy to pick Vettel's pole winning lap, it was phenomenal to watch as he went past....
The Saubers looked very consistent from lap to lap, and in general looked tidy. Same for Williams.
The 'black' Renaults were also impressive, as were the Mclarens. The Ferraris looked good under brakes, and appeared to have good mechanical grip. The traction among Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, & Renault looked ( and sounded) similar, better corner speed of the RB7's was what set them apart.
With all the work on exhausts this year, there are very different sounding cars out there.
The most ear piercing note has to go to the 'green' Lotus Renaults. The black ones have a very crisp note, and have a distinctive gurgle at part throttle. The Mercedes have a very flat 'fart' noise on over-run, Mclarens not as distinct. Force India, have same engine, but normal sounding over-run.
Downforce is king in this game, and Virgin and HRT definitely lack it, as their drivers looked slower through T14, and when they looked to really lean on the car, they were clearly working the wheel very hard, and using ALL the kerb, to hustle through the corner.
Once again, Red Bull have a front wing that passes the FIA tests, but droops ( and pivots nose down) markedly on track. The do have some very clever composite engineers at Red Bull.....