2008 European Formula 1 Grand Prix

Devon

Devon

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Welcome to the 2008 European Formula 1 Grand Prix, Round 12 at the Valencia Street Circuit in Valencia, Spain.

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/12/circuito-valencia.jpg

https://pic.armedcats.net/a/an/anonymous/2008/08/12/Valencia_Tack_Map.jpg

After a three week break the teams head to the all new Valencia Street Circuit, the drivers will be making the most of the free practice sessions to learn as much about the circuit as possible. With new upgrades expected from most of the teams and a new track anything is possible.

Below is a lap of the track on board with Spanish Formula 3 driver Jaime Alguersuari.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG-7tj9U2mQ&eurl=http://www.valenciastreetcircuit.com/video-real-lap-valencia-street-circuit-gp-europa-f1-youtube.html[/youtube]

And a virtual lap of the track.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1EEHTGvwGk[/youtube]

Here are the questions:

1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?

Every driver has the chance to master the streets of Valencia, who will it be? There is only one way to find out, the race starts at 1pm local time on the 24th of August.

Until then, let the discussions begin!!
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
Hamilton, Hamilton
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
No
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
Hamilton
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
Ferrari
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
3
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
Hamilton, Kimi, Kubica
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
I don't know... it's a strange street circuit, Amercian style, very quick (they'll do more than 300 km/h four times during a lap, top speed predicted at 323 km/h. It's very fast for a street circuit. It should be interesting. I predict some crashes due to the high speed and close walls.
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?

Pole: Massa; Race win: Alonso :mrgreen:

2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?

Yes, during Q3.

3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?

Hamilton, most likely a 1:31-1:32 lap.

4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?

Still Ferrari, but by a miserably small margin.

5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?

At least two.

6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?

Alonso, Piquet, Kovalainen

7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Circuit?

A lot of wall-banging in practice, maybe some surprises in the race, a really scenic track and, maybe... a red-flag crash on Lap 1.
 
Horray! Valencia! I've been looking forward to this.

1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
Kimi, Kimi
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
Nope.
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
Hamilton, Lap 31, 1:35.465
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
Ferrari
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
2
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
Kimi, Hamilton, Kovalainen
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
Just like Monaco and Singapore, Valencia should have a novelty factor, especially with that spectacular swing bridge. In terms of racing however, it should be more like a cross between Melbourne and Montreal, fast and dangerous, but with plenty of tight hairpins as well. Overall, the layout should favour the McLarens.
 
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1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
Hamilton and Hamilton

2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
Are they? I hope so...

3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
Raikkonen

4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
Most likely Ferrari

5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
One

6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
Hamilton, Massa, and probably someone stupid like Sutil when the safety car screws everything up

7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
I enjoy watching a new venue and this circuit looks pretty challenging. With over 20 corners it'll make the drivers really have to work over 90 mins. Still, it's pretty mickey mouse and I dont expect much overtaking

I expect the circuit, as Nereid said, will favour the McLarens but Hungary showed we can't take too much for granted and expect Ferrari to be up there every step of the way...until qualifying when they inexplicably fill Raikkonen's car 6 laps longer than his closest opposition and force him to sit behind a slower car, ruining his race. Good strategy if you have the latent car speed to pull it off, but he doesn't so if anything he needs to be lighter than the others to ensure a clean race. We know he has the speed to match the rest in the final part of the race, Ferrari's job is to see that he's in a position to use it effectively, unlike Hungary and Germany.

As for Massa, well I nominated Hamilton as my pole sitter and race winner, but Massa will be very dangerous, keen to earn the result he deserved at Hungary. Whoever gets pole will win the race (assuming there is no safety car) so the final Q3 in qualifying will most likely be the most exciting part of the weekend.
 
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A week or two ago my dad stopped off at the track on a cruise around the med'. Apparently it was in really rough shape, even though the sports/GT cars were there, they were still fixing and laying tarmac, so let's see what kind of shape the track is in...

It does look awesome though, racing over the bridge and everything.
 
Devon said:
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
Click to expand...

1) Kimi or massa.
2) No.
3) Kimi or massa.
4) Ferrari.
5) 2.
6) Kimi, massa, hamilton.
7) I will watch the race and decide.
 
vikiradTG2007 said:
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?

Alonso, Piquet, Kovalainen

7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Circuit?

maybe some surprises in the race.
Click to expand...


Well, to have an Alonso-Piquet-Kovalainen podium, we would definetely need some surprises in the race ;)

I'd be happy if the result would be somewhat strange though, especially as I'm not a fan of any Macca or Ferrari driver, I'd definetely welcome a surprise winner.
 
This season have been so random that i don't even bother to guess who will win and so on.
3) R?ikk?nen - This has been pretty certain this season thought.

Track seems great and can't wait till the race begins! Too bad it's so long wait :(
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race? Looks like a McLaren track, so Lewis.
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him? I hope so.
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be? Raikkonen 46
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia? Ferrari
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see? 1
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium? Lewis, Raikkonen, Massa
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit? It looks like it could be very eventful like montreal or melbourne because it is a similar type of circuit. I think it will be a cracking race.
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?

- Masser, Hamilton

2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?

- It won't fail, though they might turn down thw wick on it

3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?

- Hamilton, lap 40, I cannot guess the range in which the laptimes will be so i'll just guess the decimals: .193

4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?

- Ferrari will still lead, McLaren will close the gap by 6 points

5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?

- 2

6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?

- Lewis, Kimi, Rosberg

7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?

- I expect the track to be different from other street circuits, as it seems as though there seem to be quite a few overtaking spots here. The first safety car will appear because someone will try an unsuccessful banzai move on someone else (if Sato was still around I would have banked on him), and the second safety car will be because someone is just gonna beach it in the armco. I'll say either Coulthard, Vettel, Piquet or Glock for the latter incident. All that having been said, I cannot wait for the new track to debut :).
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
Hamilton, Hamilton
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
No way
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
Hamilton about lap 18; er 1:28.765 - What you gonna to do?
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
McLaren
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
1
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
Hamilton, Heikki, Masa
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
I don't know, but I think that overtaking will be a bit of a problem - still I hope that I am wrong. Some "Hard bits (as in crunch not as in difficult)" are rather close to the circuit, invitation to loose some wheels there.

/EDIT just noticed I put kimi in where Heikki should be - amended. ...
 
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When it comes to who finishes where, I don't care much, I just hope the championship drivers points stays as level as possible. It is fairly certain though that at some point or another Kimi R?ikk?nen will set the fastest lap of the race, just look at the statistics, 7 out of 11 possible so far.
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race? Lewis
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him? No
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be? Kimi, lap 49
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia? McLaren
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see? 6
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium? Lewis, Kimi, Heikki
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit? little to no passing and big wreck on lap 1
 
I'm really looking forward to this race - purely due to the new circuit, will be interesting to see what it's like (and just how much carnage lap one will generate).
 
It's similar to Canada in the sense that you have a lot of fast straights and lots of stopping..

So:

Ferrari vs Mcwhaterver vs BMW

I think this race will be more close then most just because of that.
 
1) Who will take Pole and who will win the Race?
Kimi, Hamilton
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
Yes, No
3) Who will set the fastest lap and what time will it be?
Kimi, Quick
4) Ferrari (111 pts), McLaren (100 pts) who will lead the constructors championship after Valencia?
Ferrari, but it'll be closer
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see?
3 - New track with lots of corners, expect accidents
6) Which three drivers will be on the podium?
Hamilton, Kimi, Kubica
7) What are your thoughts/expectations of the Valencia Street Cirucit?
Good track, lovely location, lots of corners to challenge the drivers.
 
5) How many safety cars do you expect to see? 6
Click to expand...

Holy shit. That's one about every 10 laps, assuming it does it's outlap, inlap and a couple laps for the cleanup, we'll get 6 racing laps per 10 grand prix laps :p
 
Red_Bull said:
2) Ferrari are worried about R?ikk?nen?s engine, will it fail on him?
Are they? I hope so...
Click to expand...

Yeah, I read an news article (sorry, can't find it :( ) after the Hungarian GP, and Ferrari checked out Kimi's engine and said it was close to failing during the race. I believe (Correct me if I am wrong) that he has to use the same engine in Valencia.
 
Devon said:
Yeah, I read an news article (sorry, can't find it :( ) after the Hungarian GP, and Ferrari checked out Kimi's engine and said it was close to failing during the race. I believe (Correct me if I am wrong) that he has to use the same engine in Valencia.
Click to expand...

That's why I pointed out Q3 as a possible failure point of the engine. They might preserve it through FP3, but they'll have to run it at full capacity in Q1 and Q2 and that should weaken it to failure in time for Q3.


Maybe it will blow up in the garage between the bits of qualifying...
 
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