lundi 23 mai 2011

ANALYSIS-Motor racing-Formula One rules pass the acid test

MONACO, May 23 (Reuters) - Formula One's new rules passed the acid test at the weekend but, despite the novelty of a thrilling Spanish Grand Prix, the season's story remained the same.
World champion Sebastian Vettel and his Red Bull team just keep on winning, seemingly destined to retain both their titles with plenty of races to spare and whatever the
challenges thrown at them.
The German's fourth victory in five races at least provided something of a change as the first time in 11 years that the driver on pole (Red Bull's Mark Webber this time) did not win at the Circuit de Catalunya.
There was plenty of overtaking, at a track where previously there had been precious little, and pitstops galore banishing the processions of old.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner told reporters the race proved the sport's new look -- with the moveable rear wing (DRS), quick-wearing Pirelli tyres and KERS power boost -- was working.
"I think Barcelona quite often had the ability to be a 'drone-athon' and after the first corner like that, that would have almost pre-determined the outcome," Horner said of a race in which Vettel lapped Ferrari's Fernando Alonso despite the Spaniard seizing the lead at the start.
"I remember two years ago, Sebastian drove around looking at the exhausts of Felipe Massa pretty much the entire grand prix with only one pitstop to deal with that," added the Briton.
"I think that now this has really changed the dynamics.
"A track that's historically been notoriously difficult to overtake (on) or generate close racing has produced an absolute thriller."

TYRE CHOICE
How the teams and drivers managed the massive performance gap between the soft and hard Pirelli tyres was again key to a race that showed a yawning chasm between the best and the rest.
Red Bull and McLaren lapped everyone else, including Alonso who had been on the podium at the previous race in Turkey and had hoped for much better, with the race turning into a sprint and four stops the norm among the leaders.
"Formula One nowadays is pretty much the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer because of the tyres," observed Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello, whose Williams team have yet to score a point.
"The better teams go faster with the tyres and save the tyres more. The other teams are going slower and using the tyres more."
The slower, hard tyres Pirelli brought to Barcelona were loudly criticised by drivers on Friday and the challenge became to save as many sets of the faster softs for the race as possible.
The Red Bull and McLaren drivers did just one flying lap in final qualifying, knowing they had pace in hand, while Alonso went out again to secure fourth on the grid and then paid the price in the race.
Renault's Nick Heidfeld, who missed qualifying after his car caught fire in final practice, went from last to eighth because he had plenty of fresh tyres in hand while Russian team mate Vitaly Petrov slumped from sixth on the grid to 11th at the finish, largely because he did not.
"When you have a new option (soft) tyre and someone is driving around on the mid-age hard tyre, it is as easy to overtake as getting a lollipop from a three-year-old kid," said Barrichello.
"It's almost too easy. And the guy who is driving that prime (hard) tyre is just so slow."
Ferrari's problem was that they could not get their car to work with the hard tyres, a problem they will not face in the next two races in Monaco this weekend and then Canada where Pirelli will be introducing their 'super-softs'.
They may be back in the fray but Red Bull, on pole for the past six races including last year's season-ender in Abu Dhabi, are building up a heavy cushion and can be expected to remain the team to beat through the European summer.
Vettel has dropped just seven points while Red Bull are 43 points clear of McLaren and 83 clear of Ferrari.
"In five circuits of very different characteristics, we have managed to be competitive for all of them so far and obviously we are hopeful that we will carry that form into Monaco," commented Horner.

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