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Temperature will simply drop from 33º C to 17º C between Saturday and Sunday, as the humidity is high all this month, of course it will cause rain...it always does when that happens.

The question is: will we have a thunderstorm or the just a light rain? We'll see! Honestly, I love Interlagos! A wet race is all we needed for this season finale!

I'm guessing a moderate intensity rainfall that hangs around for a while...so, pretty wet.

I'd prefer it if it was wet/dry/wet/dry showers than constant thunderstorms.

What made 2003 and 2008 so great was the rain was a random element, not a constant (Though in 2003 turn 3 never dried out enough for them to consider slicks, however the different levels of water through the race played to the different strengths of the Bridgestones/Michelins at different times)

Conversly, despite the result Monza 2008 wasn't that great because it was just constantly wet.

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RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

John Watson made the point that with all these extra run offs it is sanitising the tracks and also seemingly bringing them all down to the same formula and he lamented for the days when tracks would punish mistakes.
He prefers tracks with what he called "character", Melbourne, Montreal, Brazil and a few others, rather than the newer ones with acres of tarmac runoff.
James Allen then chimed in and tried to include Abu Dhabi in that list because of its wonderful architecture which completely missed the point John Watson was trying to make about challenging race tracks and made me roll my eyes.
I thought JA had been an improvement this year over his cringeworthy ITV days but that one comment sent it all rushing back....

_________________
RIP Birmingham Wheels: here's some of the crash videos I recorded when it was there:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIaKIE ... 5t9d5PvoHA

Twitter:

http://www.twitter.com/paulhadsley

Abu Dhabi does have character through its architecture. It also has quite small run-offs, which are permitted because there is Tecpro everywhere. I personally don't think a track's 'character' is defined by how close the concrete walls are.

Interlagos is about to be heavily sanitised not for Formula 1's sake but to try and stop local drivers dying. Motorsport is no longer allowed to be unduly unsafe at any level. Sooner or later every track will look like the new ones.

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Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

HoF.

Think is there isn't much to do in Interlagos.

Café corner, where there was a fatal incident recently was redesigned for local racing with a chicane. But apart from that, there isn't much to do.

Although Interlagos is a permanent racing track, it has the unique characteristic of being in the middle of a metropolis. There are lots of housing and other buildings around. So, there isn't much room for an 'appropriate' revamping of the track for the new FIA top standards.

I think the changes for 2013 that will make the start-finish straight in the back straight will be a step forward about making Interlagos better for FIA standards, there will be more room for the pits and the old pits will be clear for the teams to use, so it will solve many problems. But it will be strange to not see the Senna's S as the first corner.

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"The best decision is my decision!" - Balestre
"Halo is for little babies, not for men" - Jeha

i like the new tires they tested in fp1 wider contact patch they just look a bit better.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/scarsurfing?feature=mhee

The old track my friend

I think you're right that character can be made by various things. And they can be either good or bad (Bahrain's 'character' is to be in the middle of the desert with little to no spectators).

But are you serious about the walls? Let's get a huge carpark, and draw white lines on the ground in an exact 1:1 replica of the Monaco course, or even Monza for that matter. Then tell me how much sense it will make to race there.


If the track is only unsafe for local racing, the problem is somewhere else. Car safety maybe.

It shouldn't be inevitability to transform all tracks like the new ones. They have to be improved, and Interlagos' last sector for instance was awful indeed up to 2003, but they should know when to stop when the most obvious fatal risks are removed/reduced to acceptable proportions.

Brazilian Stock Cars are very unsafe. They use outdated tube frame chassis, but actually go quite fast. We're talking DTM speeds. They provide great racing, but tend to be very unsafe.

I wonder what the effect will be when (some) drivers take a full wet weather setup and will be slow in qualifying. I wonder if we get some strange results in qualifying.

Are we talking about that discipline with 3 or 4 fatal accidents in the lasts 5 years?

If the only characterful thing about a track is the propensity for a driver to hurt themselves, then I'm sorry, but for me that doesn't make it a track with character. In my opinion, Interlagos has character because of the fans and the closeness to central Sao Paulo. Not because the pit straight is narrow and lined with concrete.



The Brazilian Stock Cars are particularly unsafe, yes.

I'm not saying I agree with the processes that are taking place, but you can't deny that they are happening. Formula 1 are dumping more and more 'old' European circuits for newer constructions elsewhere in the world, and this will continue. At the same time, the older circuits that do remain are 'updating' to bring more safety. More tarmac, corner redesigns leading to larger runoffs and so on. Similar thing is happening in NASCAR; every time a track is resurfaced, they will pave over at least some of the grass on the inside as well.

If motorsport were still perceived as a blood sport, then it would not be allowed to exist. In just 40 years motorsport has gone from an attitude of 'shit happens' at all levels to the complete opposite, and part of that is from external pressure, or the perception of external pressure. I believe that motorsport is moving, slowly, to a point where risk is unacceptable in all forms and that one day it will move to a point where race cars are driverless or races are held in VR.

It just remains to be seen what is done to the circuits to sanitise them in the meantime.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Kimi blew up

and the Lotus goes kablamo

Engine change for Kimi?

Raikkonen out. Engine.

Btw, is it still predicted to rain tomorrow? They keep talking about changed weather predictions, but not about what the prediction is now :P.

Well, that narrowness and concrete wall proximity is what allows the fans to be that close and create the atmosphere in the first place
I won't agree but I respect your opinion on that.

As for modern tracks, I'm just feeling that we are crossing some kind of limit:

Changes were first done to avoid fatalities: Eau Rouge, Tunnel chicane, Interlagos last corner, all are areas where people almost died and that had serious crashes as warnings. It's totally fine to change those.

But now we have come to the point where racing has become really safe, yet they keep putting run-offs at stupid places like slow corners or hairpin exits, where nobody even came close to scratching bodywork. Not only killing the risk (which, although I don't agree with, could be acceptable) but in the process also killing any sporting challenge from keeping the cars on track!!!

I don't think we will come to VR or RC racing though. People like us will always admire daredevils, if top racing doesn't provide that thrill anymore, people will be turning to spicier stuff (e.g. all those RedBull events).