After recovering from the immense nature of last race weekend where we had a four hour race, and the 24 heures du mans with qualifying forced in during the night, moving publication of the pre-race to 4am. Along with my sense of logic and reasoning the F1 season has made it's way back into Europe at the rather uninspiring named European Grand Prix which only exists as an excuse to have two races in the same country. Previously held at the Nurburgring to milk as much money out of the Schumacher domination years the venue was shifted to Valencia when the fan base drifted to follow the Alonso reign.
So that's where the field is setting up camp at the moment, still under the illusion that they are competing in the splendour of a street circuit, when in fact this is just some spare tarmac in the harbour with some lines painted on it to mark out the layout. It bears none of the traditional hallmarks of a street environment, no cambered roads, no drains and sewer entrances to avoid, no slippery painted road markings. All it has is walls and chicanes - all Valencia (not the Ricardo Tormo testing track) is, is Montreal stretched out and with some extra corners thrown in. Replace all the grass with tarmac run-off areas and you get the picture.
The Track
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| Source FIA Track Guide |
So what does Valencia have to offer, besides a prospect for madness and devastation, well given the track conforms to the standard road course principles just with a wall round the outside. So in reality it will have to be treated similarly to the Hungaroring in the fact that it will be dusty from lack of use the rest of the year when it is just a port. It doesn't have the narrow, tight confines normally associated with circuits listed as street tracks so overtaking is possible so using the DRS and KERS that'll improve the running of this years event.
Safety cars are possible but not inevitable, there is adequate space for drivers to make mistakes and run off onto the spare tarmac where no lines have been drawn. All the key areas where collisions and damage are likely are more than covered with escape lanes and sufficient margins for error. But there is still room for significant incidents that require more involved involvement and obviously the flying Red Bull last year was a prime example.
But as I have been able to so since the Malaysian GP I can show you the readers in your singles figures the layout of the circuit in greater depth than a map from the FIA, and so I introduce the traditional track video. Brought to you on board the blogmobile first introduced in for the Spanish GP which was placed into reserve for when superseded by special editions in Monaco and Montreal.
Once again available in HD, not full 1080p HD but 720 is close enough not that it shows in the video as this computer hates the thought of playing the simulator in HD, and all videos would be down to single figures in FPS terms. With a lap speed running at 1:45.8 won't be making any inroads into the grid but ahead of the support package.
What to expect
Well we've used up the quota of insanity for a considerable amount of time, over the past two races so this time I'm not expecting too much excitement this time round. The European GP should be more straight forward without red flags, multiple safety cars and torrential downpours. So the teams can prepare for this event in much the same way as many of the other races along the calender.
But that said, Valencia is an unique event will favour different teams that a flowing traditional circuit would and would hurt others. Having features similar in nature to Montreal it is reasonable to assume that Ferrari and McLaren will be strong placing more pressure on Red Bull who will be disadvantaged by the long fast straights where the Renault engine is a little down on power in comparison. However it is impossible to count them out of the show with Vettel unbeaten on Saturday and was close to winning on their weakest track in Canada only defeated by the slippery surface when Button took the incentive and stole the win.
Mercedes do seem so be pulling away from their closest rivals Renault who are dropping to the bottom of the top ten under threat from improving Williams and Torro Rosso. The mid pack will be as fraught as ever where mere tenths could mean the difference between making the final qualifying session and between battling over relegation in Q1. This does however open the door to Lotus and the other new teams to pounce if one of the established entries drops the ball.
KERS and DRS.
The nature of the track suits the overtaking aids rather well, both DRS and KERS will play a significant role in the outcome of the race and of course the qualifying sessions. With the movable rear wing being the most effective.
The FIA have implemented two DRS zones again for this weekend, ironically in the two straights where the two major accidents occurred last year so that in itself doesn't bode well. The first of the two zones will be in place after the Bridge and the second occurring after the chicane at the other end of the straight. But here is where the problem lies, because as in Montreal there will only be one detection point in turn eight just before the bridge.
In Canada that's wasn't too much of a problem, it the two zones were only separated by the small final chicane. This time there is a far greater amount of distance between the two phases of the zone in the form of four corners. The major problem this generates is this - if a driver is able to complete the overtaking manoeuvre within the first zone then he gets a free activation in the second one, with the recently passed driver being unable to contest the position and re-pass being at a major disadvantage.
Because there are more significant straights then there are DRS activation areas, there will be some room to use the KERS to maximise the other passing opportunities. Another problem the track offers up in respect to overtaking and the KERS is that some areas are limted due to the curved breaking areas which mean the racing line covers a larger area of the track. Drivers will sweep from the inside to the outside to make the turn in point hampering efforts, but zones like turn 2 and 4 could be used as KERS passing places.
No matter how much KERS comes into play DRS will be far and away the most dominant device available to the drivers and will be very interesting in qualifying in the final sector with several fast corners. Having the flap open through those corners may become a judgement call and may result in some cars becoming rather close to those concrete walls.
We may not be expecting anything like the excitement and entertainment of Canada but with some rather stupidly placed DRS zones and a track which does offer the slight probability of carnage there is a chance we could be pleasantly surprised. In addition to the main game the support races will be back on the table this weekend and give them a wall lined layout and some overtaking options and you can almost guarantee destruction in those races. Lets hope that the Grand Prix can come close to anything we've seen over the past two races, if so it's going to be even more spectacular.
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