India Day Three - No Change
Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 02:14PM Yes folks it was still polluted and dusty. What amazes me is the amount of dust that was thrown up at pit stops. The teams are meticulous about keeping the pit stall clean, so how after they have been there four days is it still throwing up clouds of dust. Is it raining dust? Is the concrete not finished properly? From the look of the sky you would think it was raining dust.
I hope the Indians like a parade as that is what we got. Predictably there was only one place to overtake, and even with DRS evenly matched cars could not do it even there. Button passed Alonso at Turn One, where the predictable major accident happened, and somewhere Webber on that first lap but I did not see it. After that Alonso passed Webber at a pit stop, and that basically was it. Yes there was some shuffling down the order, but mostly because of fast cars catching up after the first corner accident.
Hamilton proved how hard it was to pass by his now compulsory accident with Massa. It was a replay of Singapore and Monaco, but this time the Stewards pinged Massa for it. Even I as a Hamilton fan thought he was the one in the wrong, not sure he is not a liability to McLaren at the moment. Massa then changed his "bouncing" front wing, not damaged in the accident, so what was that about, and then ran over a different curb and broke the other side of the front suspension. He cannot have been the only driver to run over an orange curb can he? Is Ferrari the new "Lotus" where the suspension is designed down to a weight and not up to a strength? Like Lewis, Massa is not doing Ferrari any favors. Not that it was his fault but he nearly took out Alonso exiting after his first pit stop, and was not alone in nearly contacting someone at this badly designed exit.
Oh yes, Vettel won, Button could not catch him, and that was the race. Hope the crowd enjoyed modern F1. There was a stupid piece about how India could become an F1 "Highlight." Not on this track layout it won't.
Schumacher beat his team mate to fifth place, and both Mercedes beat Hamilton home, Lewis having no answer to their pace.
I came across this nice quote today from a script writer. You know my thoughts about physically drawing tracks rather than using a computer. Now this,"When I write a script, I write a script. The last thing I do is put it into a computer. If you actually have the physicality of writing down the words, you take it in." Absolutely.
Reader Comments (1)
Pretty well agree, and certainly with the cause of the Massa Hamilton collision, disagree on the track which I thought could become one of the best of the modern era barring the pit exit. Which begs the question why, when presented with a blank canvas does it still present designers with what's seemingly an impossible task of getting the pit exit/entry fundamentals right.
On the fundamentals, surely the turbidity level's, which reminded me of industrial UK cities prior to the smoke control legalisation, have little to do with the development and most likely a consequence of the local topography and weather patterns to which I'd ask if there wasn't a better location.
Lastly on the Gribkowsky trial, after three days in court it's continues to be studiously ignored in F1 circles, the only reporting is seemingly by those blog's prone and most likely funded by Ecclestone so little surprise their opinion agrees withe every Ecclestone protestation no matter how off the wall.