BetterMakeWay

Ok so that inertia dumper is smth different than the banned mass dumper? If not then i assume the stewards will have smth to say. I also think that Alonso has to be running light but we'll have to wait and see for the race tomorrow how soon he pits.

And yes, time has shown that Heidfeld runs more consistently in the race, but i dunno i think he also has some luck. Probably he also runs alot more fuel than Kubica as Willy Ramf said: "Nick struggled to find a good set-up that was right for him on a single quick lap. However, he has a good strategy for the race. It will be crucial for him to make a good start and not loose too much time in traffic."

About the Ferraris i also noticed how smooth they ran but neither of their drivers are very aggressive behind the wheel. I mean you simply won't see Kimi or Massa figth with the steering wheel like other drivers (Kubica for example) who have very aggressive driving style jumping into the trees all the time
Also the car has to be set-up for each driving style. If the driver is very agressive than the suspension has also to be tuned accordingly. If the driver is not so aggressive and is less likely to jump over the corners vibrators, then the car is also tuned differently.

MiamiPhill

Time to go racing!!!

ITNurse

Good morning MP!
Vettel hosed again...can't catch a break...the poor guy. No surprises otherwise, yet.

MiamiPhill

You konw it.... .....also hope Kova is ok.

ITNurse

Alonso out!

sbdon

A disappointing day for BMW. Kubica still cannot start a race as well as Heidfeld inspite of being able to do a better qualifying lap. Kubica gave up a podium from another poor start. Heidfeld was unlucky in getting caught out gas when behind the safety car and suffered a 10 sec. stop and go for fueling when the pit lane was closed.

The BMWs are still lacking pace. On lap 40, Kubica was 1.3 Km slower than Hamilton at the apex of turn 9. Later in the race, they listed the speeds through that corner and I didn't see Kubica's listed. Very disappointing. Another example was the struggle Heidfeld had trying to get around Fisichella's Force India car when being very close coming out of the final corner before the long straight. He just didn't have the top end speed to get the job done against a clearly inferior car.

A couple of interesting comments from before the race: When Ron Dennis was asked about his drivers losing weight like Kubica, Dennis said, "He could lose more weight getting his nose fixed." Ouch! Jackie Stewart was asked who was going to be able to beat Kimi today. Jackie answered, "No one." And for the eight consecutive year, he was right. You win the pole here and you have won the race.

Clearly, the BMW team took a set back. They were not competitive with either the Ferraris (no one was) or the McLarens. So much for all of the development over the last few weeks. Even the Renaults looked much improved. Alonzo was not a light as most had predicted since he pitted only a couple of laps sooner than Massa. Hopefully, the BMWs will work better in Turkey. They have some work to do to be the number two team in F1.

MiamiPhill

I'm at work, what did I miss.....??

sbdon

Ferrari dominated (wasn't even close) - 1st Kimi, 2nd Massa
McLaren back to form, back to second best team - Hamilton a solid, unchallenged 3rd
Renault not a light as expected - Fernando a solid third until and engine or tranny failure
BMWs (see notes above) - 4th Kubica, 9th Heidfeld
Kovelinen had a nasty crash with a front left wheel failure. Supposedly, just a concussion, but his left foot looked odd when being carted off on a stretcher.
The rest were just back markers.
If you saw qualifying, that was the best part of the race, for BMW fans anyway.

BetterMakeWay

Yes but here's the bright side of the story and the comments after the race:

Robert Kubica: "We had a very good pace during today's race. Unfortunately I lost a position at the start. Anyway at the end our gap to the leader was only five seconds.
This is very true and even if the BMWs are rarely listed on the top apex speeds or top speeds they still perform very well being on the same pace as the Mclarens. If Kubica was able to come so close to Hamilton at the end of the race and being able to stick with him in a somewhat variable but tight delay then something has to give. I mean the BMWs must perform very well at another chapter and probably that's grip. In fact remembering the qualy also i hardly remember seeing either of the BMWs suffering from any light understeer or oversteer, which cannot be said about Hamilton's car or Alonso's car which not once had to retake control by countersteering slightly.

True that the Ferraris ran in a somewhat higher rhythm but that was not the team that lead the chapionship 4-5 years ago finishing almost every race with Schumy in the lead by 50 seconds or so from the second car. Also most of the experts said that qualifying good here at Barcelona practically wins the race. So i still have doubts as many would think about Ferrari domination comeback, we will have to wait and see.

About Heidfeld well in the race i thought who's the idiot responsable for telling him to pit when the pit lane was closed? I mean first i said ok it will be a huge difference in favor of Heidfeld beacause his team-mate pitted just 2 laps before the SC and Alonso also pitted before (first) but when i saw PIT LANE OPEN message i said ok here goes the penalty, and i thought either Heidfeld was plain stupid or someone in the team was not doing his job properly. Then i understood from the after the race reactions that it was a matter of fuel reserve and the team had to choose between the stop&go penality and remaining without fuel on track. Bad luck!

Alonso's success also was short lived but many said that Renault on purpose punched out that engine more than needed to get the so much wanted results in this GP. BTW did you guys see how awfull the new aero bits look at the Renaults and many other teams? The back bits that look like Woody the woodpecker Awful!!

Concluding...it is clear that BMW took a setback but only from position and points perspective, imho it didn't look at all that the team dropped behind the Mclarens or there i say it even the Ferraris. Of course BMW cannot fully match the Ferraris...yet...but they are on the right pace. Kubica ran almost glued to Hamilton and qualified better than him. Also Kubica was very very close to Massa in qualy being dropped back by only 0.007 seconds finishing the race only 1.5 second behind Hamilton. The team is confident the car still has unexplored potential and better results can be achieved in the next races. I mean 5.6 seconds in 66 laps is not that of a hard climb.

BetterMakeWay

PS: Here you can see the Renaults "Woody the woodpecker" fin and not the shark fin ala BMWs

http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/