Brazilian GP Thread - Spoilers - Sponsored by Rain

[Fernando]

Brazil plays host to the 19th and final round of the 2013 FIA Formula One World Championship as teams make their way to São Paulo and the suburb of Interlagos, home of the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

The lap of Interlagos is one of the year’s shortest but it crams a lot into its 15 turns and 4.3 kilometres. It presents a classic demand for compromise between the high-downforce requirements of the looping medium-low speed middle section and the flat-out, low-drag search for ultimate top speed that characterises the long section uphill from the Junção corner to the start-finish line, which then drops down to the overtaking-friendly, heavy-braking Senna S.

As in 2012, Pirelli will bring its Hard and Medium compounds to Interlagos. The rain-affected 2012 race provides few clues to strategy but key to Jenson Button’s victory last year was his ability to run on slicks in marginal conditions, winning on a two-stop strategy while his pursuers made an extra stop for rain tyres. The forecasts suggest rain may play a part again.

Even if rain does fall, the 2013 edition is unlikely to deliver quite the level of drama seen in 2012’s title-decider. However, although the main issues of the season have been resolved, F1 goes to Interlagos with questions still to be answered. There are tight battles up and down the field in the Constructors’ Championship, not least of which is the competition for second place. In the USA, Mercedes increased their lead over Ferrari to 15 points, while Lotus remain a long-shot thanks to Romain Grosjean’s sterling efforts in Austin. Meanwhile, at the other end of the table, Marussia and Caterham are fighting to avoid finishing the season in last place. Marussia currently hold tenth, courtesy of Jules Bianchi’s 13th-place finish in Malaysia. In the normal course of events it would be difficult to imagine that being under threat – but Interlagos is perfectly capable of springing a surprise. prvw-flag-brazil.jpg

CIRCUIT DATA

AUTÓDROMO JOSÉ CARLOS PACE (INTERLAGOS)

Length of lap: 4.309km
Lap record:
1:11.473
(Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams, 2004)
Start/finish line offset: 0.030km
Total number of race laps: 71
Total race distance: 305.909km
Pitlane speed limits:
80km/h throughout the weekend.

CHANGES TO THE CIRCUIT SINCE 2012
► New debris fences have been installed on both sides of the track between Turns Three and Four
► Race control has been renovated with new high definition camera feeds and other enhancements.

DRS ZONES
► There are two DRS zones at Interlagos. Zone One has a detection point at the apex of Turn Two with activation 20m after Turn Three. Zone Two has its detection point 30m after Turn 13 and activation 60m before Turn 15.


Source: Fia.com

Weather Forecast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/3448439

[dyrewolfe]

Given that there isn't much reason for watching, from a competition point of view, I'm hoping for rain, safety cars...retirements...pit lane screw-ups...the works...just to give the season closer some entertainment value.

Can honestly say I don't care about the result. Will only be watching because it IS the season closer.

[GSC]

Another Hamilton Friday whinge. Expect a wet pole then.

McLaren will be praying for on and off rain all race

[Guest]

Another Hamilton Friday whinge. Expect a wet pole then.

As a Hamilton fan, his negativity is starting to annoy me. Season's over, car is not good enough & not suited to his style n handling. He just needs to chill. Of course, everything he says is highlighted in comparison to other drivers but he said he has "no hope" of a good result if there is wet weather at the Brazilian Grand Prix. He says, "Throughout my career, in the rain was always best for me, that was when I could make a difference. In this car, there's no hope for me. I don't know what's going on.".

Contrast that to Rosberg who said, ''It felt good and it was a good day in the wet. In general, it looked like good pace so, for me, I hope it can stay wet this weekend''.

We've been saying that Hamilton's had issues all year, especially with setup, but for him to be nearly a second off Rosberg in the wet (practice) shows how big an issue it is for him. Hopefully he can sort himself out for qualifying.

As for qualifying....it's bloody wet. Expecting good things from Hulkenberg & at least a shake up we're all hoping for.

[monty junior]

Yea It seems like we are going to have a wet quali, first since Belgium which certainly throws up the possibility of a surprise. Bottas was well up there again in P3 a second ahead of Maldonado, the Torro Rossos also look strong, hopefully it will be a gradually drying session setting up a topsy turvy grid.

[Guest]

Maldonado  

[bogbrush]

So that's what happens with a 'leveller' then?

[Guest]

Shocking anti-climax & apparently it's drier tomorrow. Hulkenberg was AWOL, Hamilton's issues were pretty genuine & Vettel strolled by over half a second.

[GSC]

Tribute to Vettel and Red Bull that even in that madness it's business as usual.

[Guest]

Dry start, rain expected half way through. Could be exciting second half of race to end this miserable season. C`mon Hammy  

[GSC]

Come on Webber

[Bull]

Come on Massa!!!

[Il Gialloblu]

Come on Webber

Yes! Not sure I've ever wanted a Red Bull to win before, but I want Webber to today.

[GSC]

Suspect if Webber wasn't leaving Hamilton would've put him on the grass

[Bull]

CONTACT!

[Guest]

Bul***** decision! F1 needs to grow a pair, just an incident. Why the f### did RB bring Webber in behind vettel n stack. The pit error cost Webber dearly.

[Bull]

Another crap race.

[bogbrush]

Bul***** decision! F1 needs to grow a pair, just an incident. Why the f### did RB bring Webber in behind vettel n stack. The pit error cost Webber dearly.

They expected a safety car. It helped Mark big time as Vettels tyres weren't ready and it meant instead if being 12 secs behind he was 6.

It didn't cost Webber anything, it helped him.

[CaledonianCraig]

So Mark Webber finished third in the driver's title despite a season blighted with KERSissues and other issues. It just demonstrates how far ahead of the field that Red Bull were this year.

[bogbrush]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Guest]

What I meant is, Webber should of stayed out while Vettel pitted, surely? It was never a safety car situation in my opinion. Being stuck behind Vettel in the pits, allowed Alonso to close gap significantly, so it didn't help. Yeah, he cut gap from 12 to 6 but that means nothing, Webber was never going to challenge SV.

At the end of the day just another shocking race. Thought Rosberg was dire, Bottas was poor in comparison to Austin. Good day for McLaren. Other than that....woeful.

[bogbrush]

Well, they seemed to think it was a panic - those were Webbers tyres ready to go on, the cause of the delay was bringing Vettel in unexpectedly.

[GSC]

It would've worked fine if Vettels stop wasn't slow

[dyrewolfe]

No biggie...Mark was still able to pass Alonso fairly easily and get his 2nd place. You weren't actually expecting Vettel or the team to let him challenge for the win, were you?

Good drive by Alonso. Did as well as he could - just didn't have the pace to live with the Red Bulls. Great combative drive by Massa...shame his race was ruined by that drive-thru. At least it showed Williams what they're getting next season. Still managed a respectable 7th place too.

Odd race for Mercedes...maybe their car set-ups were balanced too much in favour of the wet qualifying conditions, so were compromised for the dry-ish race? At least both Rosberg and Hamilton finished in the points (3 & 4 places down from where they started, respectively) doing just enough to pip Ferrari to 2nd in the Constructors' Championship.

Weirdly McLaren's best race of the season, with Button having his best race of the campaign, coming all the way from 14th to finish 4th. Perez making an even more impressive positional gain, all the way from 19th to 6th.

Gutted for Grosjean, whose 1st/2nd lap engine blowout ended any hopes Lotus might have had of nabbing 2nd in the Constructors'. Heikki very disappointing in the race. Was expecting a lot more, given the car he had.

A few good duels on the track, involving Webber, Rosberg, Alonso and Button, but overall not the greatest race.

Best of luck to Webber with Porsche...I'll miss "Aussie Grit".

[Guest]

haha, no. Obviously Vettel was going to get the nod for a pitstop, irrespective if it scuppered Webber's planned stop. All this Webber 'love' RB showed all weekend was embarrassing after what's go on over recent years. I didn't really see Webber getting emotional really, did I miss it? If anything, I think he's glad he's out the sport, especially with the direction the sport is heading. You even get the impression Hamilton doesn't even enjoy the sport anymore.

As for Mercedes, they have just been woeful in the first few laps, if anything, these are the most important laps of a race, which give you the foundation & position to challenge in a race. They've rarely had it, maybe the odd race here & there. I was basically laughing when we saw the synchronised overtaking of Vettel on Rosberg & Alonso on Hamilton down the straight on lap 2. Hamilton's had setup issues all year & Rosberg had balance issues this weekend. They need to improve this dramatically for next year, otherwise it will be curtains.

Agree, great drive from Alonso. Even James Allison is stating Ferrari can dominate in years to come now, funny how Brawn could join over the winter after his Ferrari talks this weekend & then a certain four time champion might also join, once the RB era is over.  

[dyrewolfe]

Agree all the RB "appreciation" for Webber did seem a tad forced, although no doubt they're grateful for his points contributions that helped them win the Constructors' titles.

Webber never showed much emotion - the most telling thing he did was to take off his helmet on the warm-down lap. Afterwards, on the podium and during the interviews, he seemed fairly calm and controlled.

I think you can excuse Hamilton being hacked off as he did suffer a puncture / delamination when he collided with Bottas and then got a drive-thru penalty to compound his problems.

That said, there might be some truth to your suggestion that he may be falling out of love with F1 as it seems to be becoming ever more geared to equipment management and strategy, rather than outright racing.

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