F1 Update from the iSport F1 Pitstop: Force India F1 hit a high speed bump in the German Grand Prix writes iSporter Kunal Shah.
The Force India F1 team had what it took to do well in the German Grand Prix, infact I was hoping for a podium. The 2010 season has been their best yet and they had a lot of confidence going to Hockenheim. They had the f-duct working to their advantage and hence were fastest on those long straights. They had Adrian Sutil clock P1 in Friday Practice 1. But they still ended up way outside the points on Sunday!
The 2010 season has been competitive and we’ve often seen that one small bump on a Friday or Saturday can have a multiplying effect on Race Day. Adrian Sutil while clinched P1 in a wet Friday Practice Session 1, had a gearbox snag going into the next session. New regulations mean that a change in gearbox leads to a 5 place grid penalty. Adrian did have a gearbox scare in the Turkish F1 GP, but a repair meant that he didn’t require changing his box. But in Hockenheimring, a failure led to a change and hence a penalty!
The failure not only led to a penalty, but also robbed Adrian of vital track time. Hockenheim witnessed the practice sessions with mixed weather conditions and hence track time was of prime importance. Also, Hockenheim was back on the calendar after a one year break and hence saw teams and drivers clock extra miles during practice. While the other teams were out clocking their laps, poor Adrian and his Force India F1 car was in the pits being repaired. Now one could argue – weren’t Tonio’s practice laps enough? The answer is NO! Teams run dual programs to evaluate track and tyre performance on both drivers and hence both participating in the practice sessions is critical.
Come qualifying, Tonio had a crash exiting the final corner and planted the car into the pit wall. The crash while saw Tonio jump out to safety again robbed the team of much needed track time. Multiple car failures meant that instead of spending time developing their cars for the race, the team was limited to building the cars to be race-worthy.
While the team did manage to build their cars in time for the race, they also committed some elementary errors come race day. First, both the drivers had an incident on-track that saw Tonio pit for a new nose. However, Adrian’s strategy for the race was slightly ambitious. Had he failed to make up positions in the start, his race engineer was keen that he pit on the next lap itself and switch to hard tyres and drive the full stretch of the race on one set.
While the strategy showed that the team was thinking on their feet and had a good chance to make up positions in the race, the team ended up being confused in the pits as both their drivers came in on Lap 2. Adrian was followed by Tonio – both who were going to change their tyres and Tonio who was going to take on a new nose cone. The error here was that Adrian ended up with Tonio’s tyres and hence had to do one extra lap on track and come back to the pits to take his own. All in all – the race almost ended for Force India on the second lap itself.
The drivers did show some pace on track with Adrian clocking the fastest lap time of the race at one point. However, with stiff competition on track and no fuel strategies coming into play, the Force India cars could barely make up for lost positions. The Toro Rosso’s and Mercedes GP cars were struggling on track too and my guess is that had the weekend been normal, both cars had a chance of finishing in the points in Germany.
However, come Hungary the team I am sure will gather their act and the Force will be back again!
The German GP did see a difference in the Drivers and Constructors World Championship. Do check the effects!
Kunal Shah is a former racer and writes extensively on www.isport.in
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Asif Khan
said:
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... It was a disappointing race for FI, I hope they quickly forget about it and move on for a good race in Hungary. All the best Force India! |
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