Round Nineteen - Brazil, the grand finale

Greetings Internet,

Ah well here we are, 18 races now completed spanning 17 countries because Spain got greedy and ended up with Valencia the not-so-street circuit. It all comes down to this, the Grand Finale of F1 2011, the culmination of months of racing from the park of Melbourne to the futuristic Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. I'd like to say it has been an extremely competitive season but we all know that German bloke had taken over the series winning pretty much everything several races ago now. Despite an amount of domination the season hasn't been a processional parade of tedium - as we were exposed to in the days of the other German bloke - small sense of deja vu going on here.

The final race of the year is always a sad occasion, the gateway into the darkened world of winter, when all the cars are hidden away in secretive development facilities while men in white sciencey type coats hover around computer terminals and wind tunnel traces. But now I've started this little corner of the internet it becomes that much more difficult to manage because it will leave a greater cavity in my schedule, stowing the blogmobile into retirement and rolling down the garage shutters. But as it is in theatrical world, the show must go on and here is the grand arena ready for the ultimate showdown, the regular championships may be over but the bonus points championship is wide open. The top five drivers are all in with a shout of winning the championship from Jenson and his moustache in the lead down to Kobayashi in 5th some 8pts behind.

The track

Credit to the FIA for the track diagram

To host our final event this year falls to the Interlagos in Brazil, one of the more 'interesting' venues on the calender with some 'interesting'  locals some of which decided to hold up Jenson at gun point. Had this blog been in operation then there would have been penalty points issued, for such an offence. Despite the often wild inhabitants it is nice to see a less sanitised event, the season is being flooded with overly pristine and scientific circuits where the world on the other side of the catch fencing is shielded away. Things are a little different here, it's raw and invigorating full of vibrancy and colour - nice to send off the season with a farewell party.

The layout, is one of the season's traditional circuits and exhibits a variety of corner styles and speeds, some are a little bit tedious and rather annoying, the 8,9 and 10 section is an example of that. But on the other hand there are some truly redeeming features of the track, and over the years it has rather grown on me, like an obscure mould. In the days of early F1 video games Sao Paulo was one of my least favourite layouts on the calendar, mainly for my penchant for messing up the middle sector. Since then I've grown more attached to it all, with a fantastic final sector climbing the hill up to the start line - fairly easy in the dry but throw in some rain and all hell breaks loose. The 2003 race demonstrated that with most of the field spinning off in turn 3, and the race was brought to a stop with a significant accident for Mark Webber, only to be surpassed by Alonso. Even in putting it in the fence there is competition in the field, and then the race was handed to Fisichella several days later in the Jordan. That sort of event would make for an epic season finale.

The compact nature of the lap often keeps the cars closer than some of the new elongated efforts like Abu Dhabi and Korea. Hopefully this will keep the race interesting we don't want the season to be sent into the winter on the back of a dull processional race, especially if the rain makes an appearance and it hasn't been ruled out. There are overtaking opportunies round the lap - as Jenson demonstrated in 2009 on his way to claiming the title in an era before bonus points, hard to imagine such a time ever existed. Turn one being the primary attack zone, the downhill breaking zone induces mistakes and mistakes lead to opportunity.

It's that time of the weekend again when I roll of the virtual dust sheets and roll out the blogmobile onto the next track in the season, and here in Brazil it was driven out with a hint of sadness as of course this is it's last escapade of the year. Although there may be some special outings later on in the off-season, but for next year I am hoping there will be a released version of the 2012 re-imagining of the Indycar because it looks, different and here at the blog HQ...Ok we are slightly to the right of the blog HQ because the cat has occupied the chair these things are normally written on, but that aside the blog likes to be different and embrace different formula. So without further ado, here is the finale video covering the race in Brazil all six minutes of it this time. Well I had to try for a little bit more effort.

Ah how far things have come since the first impromptu video in Malaysia, when syncing my MP3 player I came across the original sound file that was planned for a voice over for these things. Well consider yourselves fortunate that it didn't make the final cut and was replaced by text instead because it was awful, why do recording devices make me sound horrible camp... but it is nice to see that things have improved since Sepang.

KERs and DRS


After two races where the FIA have installed a double DRS system, things return to normal with a single zone, to be positioned on the back straight between turns three and four. A second zone was considered for the main straight leading into the Senna S, but it was determined that passing in this area didn't need any assistance and adding DRS would make it too easy and turn the final race into a series of almost choreographed overtaking.

What is going to be interesting however is in the sessions where DRS is completely unrestricted because the final climb up the hill is probably do-able with the wing open. We've seen corners like blanchimont and 130R completed with DRS active, normally only on the Red Bull cars however, so there is a chance drivers may want to attempt turns 14 and 15 with the system activated. However in Brazil the track isn't as smooth and the section crests and falls which will affect the balance of the cars, additionally the 800m track altitude is also going to reduce downforce levels as the air is thinner.

As for KERs well, the track is more compact than many of the others on the schedule so KERs could play a part in getting off the slower corners better and possible lining up for an opportunistic manoeuvres. But the main overtaking zones are linked to longer straights and of course the KERs system offers diminishing returns at a higher speed. The system will play a greater part in the lap time aspect where being without the system often leads to a several tenth deficit compared to cars with KERs functioning correctly.

What to expect


It's the final race of an exciting year so I'm hoping for a little bit of everything, some rain, some mayhem and madness with a little bit of controversy thrown in to the mix. Maybe an HRT 1-2, ok well that's asking a little too much. Everything is still left to play for in the all important bonus points championship, eight points dividing the top five and one race to decide it all.

But on the track we can expect Red Bull to be strong once more, with tyres that don't deflate at the sight of a second corner - and that German bloke would like to complete another championship winning year on the top step of the podium, naturally of course the rest of the grid will want to be in the same position come Sunday evening. McLaren will likely be very strong too, with Button looking to claim the bonus points title in the process.

Down in the mid-field everything still is to play for as the 5th place in the constructors championship is not secured, Renault Squadron enter their final weekend as Renault Squadron in the coveted position. Force India have already announced they will already need a crazy race and a very strong finish to claim the position from the French soon to be Lotus team. A little further back Sauber have a lot to gain this weekend as they are the only team with both their drivers in the hunt for that bonus points title - with One-stop Perez heading the charge as Jenson's nearest rival along with Webber's Red Bull.

At the very bottom of the grid there is a little less on offer, the teams seem to have settled into a natural order  in the same way that different sized lego bricks always fall to the bottom and stay there. Lotus - soon to be Caterham - have been the dominant force in the final division, even breaking in Q2 on occasions when the established teams slipped up. Virgin - soon to be Marussia - have slowly merged into HRT territory where an actual battle for the final row may break out. These three teams are battling for 10th place in the constructors but as points are not going to be a factor to separate them, it comes down to highest race position, and it means that who ever benefits from a crazy finale can steal the 10th spot.

With only 71 laps separating us from the empty void of the off season, we can always hope that those 71 iterations of the Sao Paulo track will be the most spectacular of the season, and given how good Canada was it is going to take some beating. Being an evening start time in the UK is a spectacular time to round off an impressive season and give it a race to remember. The track encourages excitement from the carnage or 2003 to the last corner championship decider in 2008 and the common ingredient of rain may pay another visit this year.

It may be sad to see the curtain fall on another season but there is still a race this weekend and lets sit back - hopefully in blog HQ if the cat moves -  ready for the grand finale of F1 2011 where the inaugural official bonus points champion will be crowned.