evancharley5: Drivers praise COTA but race prospects aren’t good | 2012 United States GP Friday practice analysis

Drivers praise COTA but race prospects aren’t good is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.

F1 drivers were full of praise for the new home of the United States Grand Prix after sampling it for the first time today.

But the signs aren’t great for Sunday’s race prospects with very low tyre degradation and drivers concerned about possibilities for overtaking around the Circuit of the Americas.

Drivers’ verdict on the Circuit of the Americas

Jenson Button as one of several drivers to heap praise on the track: “Turn one to turn nine is a brilliant and free-flowing section – particularly if the car is working well.

“Turn one is a strange corner though – with a very wide entry rather like turn three in India. Turn three here – the start of the ‘esses’ – is fantastic though. It’s quicker than Becketts at Silverstone. It’s very unusual to find a section of corners like this on a modern Formula One track. I love it.”

However he was sceptical the track would be easy to pass other cars on: “I don’t think overtaking is going to be easy here, because it’ll be so tricky to stay close to the car in front of you.”

Michael Schumacher said the track would prove a good showcase of F1′s appeal for American fans: “The circuit will certainly help to showcase how attractive our sport can be.

“It has a very nice layout, and the good thing is that it is very challenging. Yesterday I went out to explore the track on a scooter, and it was very different from today when the low seating position of our cars compromises your vision a lot.”

There were many complaints about the lack of grip on the track when practice began but Daniel Ricciardo expects that to improve: “The new track lived up to the expectations we had before coming here, although the lack of grip spoilt it a little bit.

“But as the track rubbers-in and cleans up, I’m sure it will get even better. The grip level did improve from morning to afternoon but I’d expected a bit more. In fact I reckon next year, we could find a completely different circuit, although by this Sunday I think it will be much more fun.”

But fellow Australian Mark Webber was not quite as fulsome in praise, pointing out that after the first sector it became much like any other modern circuit: “It’s a pretty good track, it’s quick, especially the first sector which is quite full on, although sectors two and three are more traditional and similar to other tracks.”

Longest stint comparison

This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/charts/2012drivercolours.csv

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
Sebastian Vettel	105.762	105.721	104.75	104.462	110.035	103.901
Mark Webber	106.991	106.472	105.112	105.399	105.658	112.531	104.787	104.406	104.417	110.592	103.967
Jenson Button	110.361	105.111	105.26	104.448	104.659	104.106	104.228
Lewis Hamilton	106.213	101.593	100.744	115.031	100.446	107.562	115.051	106.892	104.97
Fernando Alonso	105.637	104.007	99.446	106.375	99.255	109.723	98.483
Felipe Massa	103.911	102.596	100.756	102.924	100.064	108.275	101.58
Michael Schumacher	109.669	107.993	106.547	107.114	105.836	105.596	105.832
Nico Rosberg	109.084	107.615	106.823	105.383	105.59	105.853	105.431	104.95
Kimi Raikkonen	107.657	106.605	105.481	105.478	106.301	105.265
Romain Grosjean	113.023	106.063	104.972	105.024	105.044	105.897	105.264	105.576	105.157	104.188	104.622	110.777
Paul di Resta	109.178	107.729	107.259	107.352	106.866	106.341	105.946	110.204	105.53	105.387	104.922
Nico Hulkenberg	109.309	107.814	106.895	106.148	106.189	106.788	105.956	107.036	105.118	104.848	103.821
Kamui Kobayashi	111.867	107.409	105.954	115.21	106.208	108.44	105.357	105.679	105.988	106.246	105.817	107.734	104.921	104.902	104.439	104.56	104.637
Sergio Perez	102.909	101.007	101.609	109.825	104.451	100.454	106.808	100.425
Daniel Ricciardo	105.159	101.772	100.93	103.037	100.435	100.952
Jean-Eric Vergne	109.944	107.72	109.064	111.75	106.859	106.358	106.156	106.95
Pastor Maldonado	107.636	104.302	106.959	102.904	103.983	107.833	126.773	101.541	105.364	100.23
Bruno Senna	106.801	105.446	101.392	111.996	101.214	100.239	109.509	101.465	99.531
Heikki Kovalainen	110.117	108.187	108.084	108.139	109.919	108.182	107.56	109.538	107.526	108.141	110.899	108.63	107.449
Vitaly Petrov	110.542	108.223	107.493	108.508	106.928	106.645	107.172	107.029	108.323	106.638
Pedro de la Rosa	109.372	107.553	105.64	110.064	105.101	104.453
Narain Karthikeyan	108.962	108.201	111.148	107.605	110.136	106.121	106.131	105.114
Timo Glock	110.959	103.744	109.862	102.903	104.865	102.797	102.652
Charles Pic	116.335	111.012	119.059	112.596	109.249	110.5	108.469	108.039	107.82	107.683	109.886	107.489

It’s clear from looking at the stints drivers ran on Friday that the tyres are able to last a long time. Sauber’s head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall’Ara is unhappy with the choice of medium and hard tyres for this race: “The biggest challenge is to get the tyres to work, as they are definitely too hard for the circuit.”

Kamui Kobayashi said: “I have big warm-up problems with both compounds. It just doesn’t work in qualifying if you need ten laps to get the tyres to work.”

Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery said they had erred on the side of caution: “As this is a completely new circuit with a number of potentially unknown factors, we deliberately opted for a conservative tyre choice here.”

As was the case in the last two races, a single pit stop will be all that’s needed for most drivers on Sunday.

Sector times and ultimate lap times

	Car	Driver	Car	Sector 1	Sector 2	Sector 3	Ultimate lap	Gap	Deficit to best
1	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	26.496 (4)	38.647 (1)	32.575 (1)	1’37.718		0.000
2	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	26.289 (1)	39.075 (6)	32.923 (2)	1’38.287	0.569	0.188
3	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	26.433 (2)	38.973 (4)	32.981 (3)	1’38.387	0.669	0.361
4	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	26.647 (8)	38.731 (2)	33.105 (5)	1’38.483	0.765	0.000
5	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	26.645 (7)	38.824 (3)	33.083 (4)	1’38.552	0.834	0.477
6	3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	26.580 (5)	38.982 (5)	33.224 (6)	1’38.786	1.068	0.000
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	26.588 (6)	39.222 (8)	33.638 (11)	1’39.448	1.730	0.000
8	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	26.844 (11)	39.233 (9)	33.432 (7)	1’39.509	1.791	0.144
9	19	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	26.902 (13)	39.136 (7)	33.493 (8)	1’39.531	1.813	0.000
10	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	26.451 (3)	39.402 (13)	33.689 (13)	1’39.542	1.824	0.744
11	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	26.873 (12)	39.340 (11)	33.589 (9)	1’39.802	2.084	0.313
12	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	26.759 (10)	39.521 (16)	33.590 (10)	1’39.870	2.152	0.360
13	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	26.724 (9)	39.470 (15)	33.805 (15)	1’39.999	2.281	0.327
14	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	27.068 (16)	39.351 (12)	33.747 (14)	1’40.166	2.448	0.000
15	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	26.952 (14)	39.570 (17)	33.654 (12)	1’40.176	2.458	0.259
16	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	27.084 (17)	39.284 (10)	33.856 (16)	1’40.224	2.506	0.476
17	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	27.006 (15)	39.449 (14)	33.999 (17)	1’40.454	2.736	0.062
18	11	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	27.295 (18)	39.728 (18)	34.045 (18)	1’41.068	3.350	0.362
19	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	27.577 (21)	40.420 (20)	34.302 (19)	1’42.299	4.581	0.177
20	24	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	27.517 (20)	40.326 (19)	34.528 (20)	1’42.371	4.653	0.281
21	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	27.507 (19)	40.490 (21)	34.666 (21)	1’42.663	4.945	0.183
22	25	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	27.909 (22)	40.806 (22)	34.744 (22)	1’43.459	5.741	0.079
23	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	28.060 (23)	40.940 (23)	35.393 (24)	1’44.393	6.675	0.060
24	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	28.331 (24)	41.130 (24)	35.376 (23)	1’44.837	7.119	0.277

Sebastian Vettel’s second practice run was disrupted by a water leak. However he was still able to set the quickest time by a comfortable margin.

Althought Fernando Alonso was third-fastest, Lewis Hamilton had strong sector times but didn’t pull them all together in the same lap.

Complete practice times

Pos	Driver	Car	FP1	FP2	Total laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull-Renault	1’38.125	1’37.718	47
2	Mark Webber	Red Bull-Renault	1’40.650	1’38.475	66
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1’40.337	1’38.483	64
4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1’39.543	1’38.748	59
5	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1’40.528	1’38.786	61
6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1’40.966	1’39.029	57
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1’41.159	1’39.448	64
8	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1’44.548	1’39.531	67
9	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.036	1’39.653	64
10	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1’42.588	1’40.115	55
11	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus-Renault	1’41.880	1’40.166	55
12	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1’42.539	1’40.230	65
13	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1’41.998	1’40.286	62
14	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1’41.473	1’40.326	64
15	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’41.825	1’40.435	58
16	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1’41.833	1’40.516	61
17	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.023	1’40.700	63
18	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1’41.783	1’41.430	64
19	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1’43.443	1’42.476	66
20	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1’44.464	1’42.652	57
21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1’43.522	1’42.846	61
22	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1’43.288	1’43.538	61
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1’46.917	1’44.453	29
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth		1’45.114	20
25	Ma Qing Hua	HRT-Cosworth	1’48.559		19

Ferrari were second-quickest behind the Red Bulls, so when Sebastian Vettel referred to “a couple of surprises today in terms of pace” it doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to work out who he was referring to.

“The updates we have brought here seem to work but we still need to look more closely at the data before having a definite answer,” was Fernando Alonso’s verdict on the day’s running.

“I am happy about this, but it’s also true that while we are making small steps forward with each passing race, so too are the others, so the distance between us remains unchanged. Would I be happy to be third again tomorrow afternoon? Sure, but this is only Friday and we have been in this position before and then on Saturday other cars have got ahead of us.”

Speed trap

	#	Driver	Car	Engine	Max speed (kph)	Gap
1	15	Sergio Perez	Sauber	Ferrari	322.4
2	14	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber	Ferrari	322.1	0.3
3	17	Jean-Eric Vergne	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	320.5	1.9
4	16	Daniel Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	320.3	2.1
5	11	Paul di Resta	Force India	Mercedes	318.7	3.7
6	7	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	Mercedes	318	4.4
7	8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	317.9	4.5
8	6	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	Ferrari	316.7	5.7
9	5	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	Ferrari	316.6	5.8
10	9	Kimi Raikkonen	Lotus	Renault	315.6	6.8
11	18	Pastor Maldonado	Williams	Renault	315.6	6.8
12	19	Bruno Senna	Williams	Renault	315.4	7
13	10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus	Renault	315.3	7.1
14	3	Jenson Button	McLaren	Mercedes	315	7.4
15	4	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren	Mercedes	314.3	8.1
16	23	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT	Cosworth	314.1	8.3
17	12	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	314	8.4
18	22	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT	Cosworth	313.7	8.7
19	25	Charles Pic	Marussia	Cosworth	313	9.4
20	20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham	Renault	312.6	9.8
21	24	Timo Glock	Marussia	Cosworth	312.5	9.9
22	21	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham	Renault	312.4	10
23	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Renault	308.3	14.1
24	2	Mark Webber	Red Bull	Renault	308	14.4

The Red Bulls are rooted to the bottom of the speed traps by a clear 4kph. But if they’re going to annex the front row and scamper off into the lead through COTA’s twisty first sector, it won’t matter.