Round Nine: Great Britain Preview

Greetings Internet,

The world of Formula One has worked it's way back home, motoring here to our green and not so pleasant land. Dropping anchor in the southern end of the country - I vote we move all the British GPs further up here and hold them at Croft Circuit. It may not be up the excessive health and safety standards the FIA have set for all the other venues on the calender, but it's only an hour down the road and much cheaper to get to with having to deal with the horrific rail network. Anyway the flaws of transport in this country aside, that is hardly the main order of business.

This season now enters the mystical ream of tea, scones and orderly queueing. Where the normally dull and miserable British public jump onto the bandwagon, much in the same way that everyone flocks to Wimbledon because some folk want to bat some spheres around, yet not give a crap about tennis the rest of the year. So hello there to all the new people caught in that collective magnetism of this event this is only round nine, where have you been. Nevertheless, I welcome you for what could be my biggest audience of the year, I may even need to use my other hand to count you all.

The Track

Credit to the FIA for the graphic

Silverstone was the site of the inaugural Formula one race all those years ago - not quite as far back as the dinosaurs but 1950 is still a long time ago. If I had relatives still alive from then they would probably look like dinosaurs so that's close enough. But onto the track - many changes have taken place since that first race, and yet more alterations are in place for this year. After the frankly irritating introduction of the "Arena" section in 2010, which eliminated the brilliant Bridge corner from the lap - replacing it with the slow hairpins at Village and the Loop. On the positive side the national straight was redecorated and Brooklands is more fun with the wider entrance, which does open up passing chances - after deleting Abby Chicane they need the track needs them.

This year sees the introduction of the next major phase of development and refurbishment process, the opening of the new pit lane complex. This moves the grid away from the original pit straight and places it after Club, making Abby turn one which is just as fast as Copse but leads into Village hairpin to make lap one interesting. The rest of the track remains in it's high speed finery, with the run from Woodcote to Stowe being one of the greatest sections of track on the calender, the Arena does rather ruin it a little but every track can't be as great as Spa.

Now here is the obligatory video, to illustrate what those words above are saying - one thing I have to point out is that there is no 2011 version of the layout available. But fear not I just ran last years lap starting it on the new pit straight - but did cause continuity problems with the timing as it would be triggered at the normal SF line. But I fixed that one too... with a little less finesse just by cutting out the timing graphic altogether - so no idea how fast the lap was as it was the middle of a mutli-lap run. But without further hesitation and without starting more sentences with 'but' here is this event's supporting video.

So as tracks go this is one of the greatest layouts on the calender, but unfortunately the most flowing of layouts don't often produce the greatest races because passing becomes more difficult as only one line really works. But with these new dangled gadgets on the cars to aid racing and the ominous prospect of the British weather threatening to unleash it's traditional precipitation to liven things up a little - this weekend could be very entertaining. And after not a lot happened in Valencia we could do with some excitement.   

What to expect

The biggest shake up of the formbook could well be on the cards this weekend, so who really knows what is going to take place this weekend. A prospect that makes this race even more of an anticipated contest than it already is. From this event forward the FIA have banned the use of the off-throttle blown diffuser device, and other exhaust driven aerodynamic aids. 

Now to you the new folk - Hi again - basically this device is a system where the gasses that leave the exhaust are leaving under pressure so are moving at a decent speed. These gasses are pointed at the rear diffuser or in the case of the Renault Squadron, pointed out the front and sides for downforce there - a system which used to only work when the accelerator is applied. But the technology has advanced to the point where the engine is still generating these gasses when no throttle is applied, effectively burning fuel for aerodynamic gain. This in turn makes the exhaust a dynamic aerodynamic device which not permitted and has now being eradicated after it became too advanced and having too much influence. 

That  taken care of, who will lose out the most from this loss - well Red Bull and Renault being the major pioneers of the method. They stand to lose the most along with Mercedes who have a substantial system as well, additionally it hurts Lotus who were just developing the technology on their cars as the intention to ban it was declared. What this means is that McLaren and Ferrari could stand to gain a lot this weekend before the others re-coup their losses, making it a very important race for them. Mid field runners also could make inroads here, exploiting the new weaknesses up front to make points more of a possibility. The one thing we can be sure of is that the back of the grid should be in the same order with HRT and Virgin battling to avoid being last comfortably behind Lotus.

HRT have begun their revolving door driver routine which they took to last year with the likes of Chandok, Klien, Senna and Yamamoto. This time Narain Karthekeyan is placed on the subs bench and Torro Rosso third driver Daniel Ricciardo moves into the driver seat, the second inter-team switch of the season after De La Rosa was moved to Sauber to be One-stop Perez 2.0. 

Again now to those couple of additional readers (I know used up at least a week's worth of optimism there) congratulations for still being here - you've earned a cookie - but after all this is the British GP and I should look at the resident interest. That is the likely and only reason, you are still moving these words into your head and of course I thank you for that so here goes.

• Hamilton - In the dry Lewis probably - on paper - offers the best hope for a British win this weekend, he may not be the viewers choice for a home victory, certainly isn't mine. Far to irritating and has a major problem working out if anything is actually his fault when it often is. Ignoring how much of a prat he is, I do have to admit he is rather quick - one of the fastest in the field so certainly a good possibility.
• Button - On the other side of the McLaren stable the odds are just as good, and Jenson is likely the crowd favourite for to see a Brit on that top step of the new podium. Jenson can not be counted out but often seems slower than Lewis. However, and it's a major however is the rain turns up then the odds swing towards Button considerably as a proven specialist in changeable conditions. As we saw in Canada, so if it gets a little damp then Jenson could be in for a very strong run at the victory.
• Di Resta - The third in the trio of locals on the grid - although hailing from north of the border following fellow Scots Coulthard and Franchitti as successful racing drivers. Paul may not have the car to contend for the win but certainly is showing some good speed but is a little erratic at times. This weekend should be very strong for Di Resta in his first home race in F1 it will be a momentous occasion.

DRS and KERs

Being a seriously high speed track KERs is going to be rather useful, however because there are so many sections of the track which would benefit from the extra power then the system could be spread rather thin across the lap. Either that or drivers use all the energy allowance in one area to attain the maximum gain, but that leaves them vulnerable round the rest of the lap being unable to use the system defensively to hold an attacking rival off. 

DRS is a different matter however, after having two activation zones in Valencia and Canada the FIA have returned to the single zone this weekend. Positioned on the Wellington straight - or as it was named before the modification of the GP layout - the National straight. Looking at where they are intending to start the zone - before Aintree corner it is going to be a zone of considerable length which could lead to the easy passing we saw in Turkey and Canada. But as was demonstrated in Valencia that is by no means a certainty, and if the rain does arrive then the system will be disabled altogether. 

Overall whether the British GP turns out to be an epic spectacle or not it will always be a special event part of that is history and part of it is being allowed to drink tea during it claiming it's a patriotic gesture. Although tea has been consumed at all the races so far - several for Canada and some wine but that was a long weekend. Whatever beverages are your choice for the race, just sit back and enjoy the 2011 British Grand Prix.