Team-BHP - 2012 F1 - British Grand Prix

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitrous (Post 2834765)

I was surprised that Alonso did the first stop so early in the race, with the harder tyres on. I strongly felt that this would bite them in the final laps and it did. :Frustrati
In fact, in the final stint, he had to do the same distance on soft tyres. :eek:

Alonso mentioned that he was not sure if his tires would have lasted any more laps in the first stint, but the 2nd stint could have been longer is what Alonso mentioned.

But Webber had awesome pace on the final stint on the Primes. He would have caught Alonso anyway as they were doing the opposite strategy.

This also highlights the poor pace of the Ferrari on low fuel. This is not the first time that Ferrari dint have the pace towards the end of the race and losing positions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mgh (Post 2834777)

Alonso's problem wasn't wear on the softer tyres. He could not get enough speed out of them to keep Webber back. He was faster with the harder tyres.

No mate, when Alonso came back after pitting for the final time, he was barely ahead of Webber and then he pulled a reasonable 3 second lead. The Redbull engineer even mentioned to Webber that he could catch him latter since Alonso was on the softer compound.

So Alonso pulled a 3 second lead in the final stint because of the faster soft compound tires.But he couldn't maintain the same pace through out the final stint due to more tire wear.

Alonso on fresh, soft compound faster than Webber on hard compound tyre - TRUE.

Webber on hard compound faster than Alonso on worn out, soft compound tyre - TRUE.

Quote:

Originally Posted by anachronix (Post 2834883)

Alonso mentioned that he was not sure if his tires would have lasted any more laps in the first stint, but the 2nd stint could have been longer is what Alonso mentioned.

It was the other way around:

Quote:

Q: (Peter Windsor - ClarkSport)Fernando, a couple of questions: how much did being on pole influence your decision on tyre choice? I wondered whether there was an element of being conservative at the start because you were on pole.
And secondly, your second stint, was the length of that defined by covering Mark? Could you have gone longer in a perfect world in that second stint and perhaps made more use of the tyre at that point?

FA: I think tyre choice was a little bit determined by the pace we saw in FP3, the little dry running that we had. We felt more confident on the hards so it was our preferred choice today. And then, if at any point of the race it had rained and we put on intermediates you didn’t have to use the softs any more so it was a better combination of possibilities that the hard gave us today.
And then the length of the stint? I think the second was quite close to the limit of the number of laps. Maybe we could have lasted a couple of extra laps in the first one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nitrous (Post 2834765)

Quote:

Originally Posted by anachronix (Post 2834883)

Alonso mentioned that he was not sure if his tires would have lasted any more laps in the first stint, but the 2nd stint could have been longer is what Alonso mentioned.

Alonso had to pit on Lap 15 as Red Bull's pace on hard compound was very good. Vettel was putting in fastest laps on hard tires after his pit stop. Webber would do the same and Ferrari would have lost P1 after first round of pit stops.

Second stint was perfect, 23 laps. As soon as Webber pits, Alonso starts losing time to him immediately. Alonso had no option but to pit within few laps.

Third stint on Soft for 14 odd laps always had risk in it.

Thats why I said, Alonso drove very well to finish second.

Though I was watching it quite attentively .. but I think I missed out how come Massa was overtaken by Vettel in the inital few laps ?
Did it happen in the pits ??
I somehow missed it .. and asked my friend .. but even he was not sure how Vettel went past Massa..
Can anyone here please let me know ?:thumbs up