F1 2011 - Great Britain, Silverstone Circuit

You didn't think I'd forgotten, did you? At Valencia, after the banning of changes to engine mapping, we were all expecting the Red Bulls to be reined in somewhat, at least in qualifying. Well, Vettel got Pole, and he went on to more than comfortably win the race. Now, with Silverstone comes another regulation change, this one more severe - the banning of the off-throttle blown diffusers. So, should we expect this to make any difference to Red Bull's almost compete domination this season? That depends on who you ask: Vettel says it shouldn't affect the car or the team that much, and he should know as he's the guy who drives the car, right? Go ask Adrian Newey the same question ... you'll get a different, far more pessimistic answer. Newey has stated that the whole car is built around that off-throttle blown diffuser exhaust system, and that it will have a severe impact on their performance. The practice times may give some indication, but it's in qualifying that we'll really find out how much of a difference, if any, it will make to the established order.

Meanwhile, the 'will he, won't he?' rumours surrounding Lewis Hamilton's potential move to Red Bull next season keep getting hotter and hotter before having cold water poured all over them by both Horner and Hamilton ... again! Lewis is looking to put those to the back of his mind and produce a solid drive; he is hopeful that the McLaren team will be competitive this weekend, particularly after they were outshone two weeks ago by Ferrari. Speaking of the prancing horse, we may well see them disappear this weekend, much like they did at Catalunya. Why? The tyres. Pirelli are issuing the Hard and soft compounds this weekend, and Ferrari really struggled with the Hard tyre in Spain; so we may well see a straight fight between the McLarens and the Red Bulls.

Silverstone will have only the one DRS zone, rather than the two we saw at Montreal and Valencia. The detection zone is just before turn three, heading into the new Arena part of the track, and the activation zone starts just after turn 4. This means that drivers can opt to use DRS while going flat-out through turn 5 and onto the straight heading down to Brooklands. As for my driver to watch, it's a man who has never even been on the podium at Silverstone, let alone won a race there - Jenson Button. If the Red Bulls really are badly affected by the regulation change, and if Ferrari do struggle with the tyres, then the McLaren drivers should stand a good chance here. Lewis and the Red Bulls may well out-qualify Jenson, but he will be eager to get a win at his home GP, and if the weather changes...

[Phlashman]

Hopefully a good race after the last GP snore fest.

This is where we see if the rule changes have an effect, and I hope they do otherwise the rest of the season is a formality. But if the weather is off, that could cloud the whole issue.

As for Red Bull/Lewis stuff, I said before, I think it'd be a mistake. Long term McLaren is the better bet.

I thought the S/F line was moving to the club-abbey straight this year?

Nope, it's Arena to Brooklands, probably due the club/abbey straight hosting the new starting grid and pit-lane.

Webber has topped first practice, but it pissed down and so it's hard to judge. Kobi almost flipped his car..

Nope, it's Arena to Brooklands, probably due the club/abbey straight being hosting the new starting grid and pit-lane.
..

isn't that what i just said? S/F = start/finish

http://www.formula1.com/races/in_detail ... agram.html

D'oh! I thought you were referring to the DRS zone! Yeah, that pic I used is clearly from last year.

Nothing much to gain from Friday. What is going on with Renault still being allowed to blow the diffuser at 50% compared to everyone else at 10% or something like that?

Hopefully it's a good race.

Red Bull and Renault complained, saying the limit of 10% gave too much of an advantage to any car with a Mercedes engine. Part of me is pissed off; however, I think it's right that they've rethought this - if they're going to ban it, it should be banned at the end of the season.

I strongly dislike the fact that Vettel appears to be waltzing away with the championship, but the reason he's doing so is purely because he is a first-class driver who happens to be in the one car that has the best aerodynamic package based on the rules set down at the start of the season. This mid-season ban was the FIA, not just moving the goalposts, put replacing them with Rugby posts.

If Vettel and Red Bull run away with it, then we'll just have to put up with it. We've seen this before: 1988 and '89 with Senna and Prost and the immensely powered McLaren Honda, 1992 with Mansell and that absolutely fucking amazing Williams Renault, and of course the early to mid '00s with Schumacher and Ferrari.

Just to clarify - nothing has been set in stone yet, and won't be until P3 tomorrow morning. The 50% they were allowed to run today is actually only allowed under braking, so if the driver just lifts off the throttle, it's still only 10%.

Well the rules are a complete mess and it looks as though this will be abandoned and it will go back to normal for the rest of the season.

Quali wasn't that interesting, but Di Resta did great.

[Phlashman]

Yeah, I wasn't that impressed. Hopefully the race will be better tomorrow.

Webber usually starts badly so I expect Vettel will lead going into the first corner.

Good to see Di Resta doing well.

[Phlashman]

Good race.

It was a good race, and a fantastic drive from Alonso. Hamilton also had a really good race, I just hope he doesn't get penalised for the collision at the end...

Doesn't look like he'll get penalised. Stefano Domenicalli himself said it was just a racing incident.