2014 Santander British Grand Prix

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Formula 1 made it's return to Austria a couple of weeks ago after an 11 year hiatus. For the most it was a successful return to the Styrian mountains, for Red Bull it was a complete nightmare. This weekends race is shaping up to be interesting after Williams locked out the front row of the grid during qualifying in Austria which may hint that they are the ones to take the fight to Mercedes. But Silverstone is the home GP for Mercedes and one Lewis Hamilton. He will be pumped up to grab a win this weekend. Get strapped in as -in the words of Frank Skinner and David Baddiel- Formula 1 comes home for the 2014 Santander British Grand Prix

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Event Date: 4-6 July 2014
Circuit length: 5.891 km (3.66 mi)
Laps: 52
Lap Record: 1:33.401, Mark Webber, 2013



2013 Results

1) N. Rosberg (Mercedes)
2) M. Webber (Red Bull)
3) F. Alonso (Ferrari)​
 
Hopefully with their apparent slightly advantage in a straight line Williams can at least challenge them again, make them do a bit of work.
 
In my opinion, it's Hamilton's best chance of a victory here since 2008, even if that is stating the obvious. He's easily in the most competitive car and also has the raw talent to match, as has been so evident in the past. I'm not a massive Hamilton fan, but it would be nice to see another Briton win on home soil.
 
I am going this year. Will be camping from tomorrow night. Weather report is currently rainy for Saturday & Sunday :/ So should make the race more exciting, but will probably be a bit miserable camping.
 
Not a huge fan of Hamilton hope mclaren can get up there at least once this year I am praying for a fast mclaren:ill: a hurricane and button on form in the rain but got more chance winning the lotto .... So with that said go Hamilton :gtpflag:
 
Anghammarad
I hope that he leaves Ferrari next season. Trillion dollar budget and two of the very best drivers and still they only manage fifth at best.
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I doubt its a trillion dollars:D but for sure with all there resources to be out paced by force India regularly this year , alough kimi made the right choice moving at least he get paid at ferrari and he is higher up the grid then if he was with lotus. Alonso have given a lot to ferrari time they start giving him and kimi a car that could actually challenge for the lead.

I say these cars got to be scrapped, I watch two races this year. previous years I would watch practice qualify and the race day but now its so boring with the sound the look and tire regulations I am really missing vettal winning all the time now at least that was formula one even if it was dominated by a single driver
 
Ham if all goes well... I wonder if Williams can keep up the form they showed in Austria, they never showed anything like that sort of speed in previous weekends.
 
GTPorsche
http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/sponsor-scuderia-ferrari

Deal starts this weekend and goes to the end of 2015.
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It seems possible then, that Haas might run with Ferrari engines in 2016. Or it might even become a full blown technical tie-up, with Haas being provided with some key components of the Ferrari running gear. This is only speculation of course, and it could all go the other way completely; with the partnership fizzling out at the end 2015. But with new team principals Marco Mattiacci's connections to Ferrari North America, and the importance of the US market to Ferrari; it's hard to see (for me anyway) how Ferrari wouldn't be keen on the idea of linking up with an American team. Especially when dealing with a name as big as Gene Haas.

Anyway, back on topic. Personally I think it's anything but simple, trying to predict who will take the trophy home this weekend. Two races ago I would have said otherwise; but last time out in Austria, Williams stepped-up out of nowhere. And it turns out that they're now running the same turbo configuration that Mercedes put to such good use, in the first six races. Coupled with the reliability issues suffered by Lewis and Nico in the past two events, and the Williams drivers could push them both to the breaking point; providing that they keep up their Austrian pace.
 
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All the Mercedes teams have been running the same turbo configuration.

The difference is in the implementation of the intercooler plumbing and the packaging.

McLaren apparently started out on the wrong foot. Their car was initially designed with a bigger exhaust package in mind. Then Mercedes released the motor with the space-saving log manifold... McLaren are still trying to catch up.

Force India's handicap is they're using air-to-air intercoolers. Which are big and bulky. They're still fast.

Mercedes is running an air-water-air intercooler positioned behind the driver. This gives you a ridiculously short path from the air intake to the turbo to the intercooler to the engine... all of that happening in the space under the roll hoop. This means good response, cool running and a lot less hardware in the sidepods... (need more radiator to cool that water, but that's already there) so smaller sidepods, better aero than other Merc teams.

Williams have copied the intercooler option. And, as seen, the effect is damn dramatic. It's expected the other Mercedes teams can do so, as well, but we don't know when.

I think Ferrari runs its intercooler inside the Vee of the engine for similar packaging benefits. But the Ferrari engine still doesn't run as cool or as efficiently as the Merc motor.

*Uh, not a turbo nerd... just been doing research for a web article.
 
niky
All the Mercedes teams have been running the same turbo configuration.

The difference is in the implementation of the intercooler plumbing and the packaging.

McLaren apparently started out on the wrong foot. Their car was initially designed with a bigger exhaust package in mind. Then Mercedes released the motor with the space-saving log manifold... McLaren are still trying to catch up.

Force India's handicap is they're using air-to-air intercoolers. Which are big and bulky. They're still fast.

Mercedes is running an air-water-air intercooler positioned behind the driver. This gives you a ridiculously short path from the air intake to the turbo to the intercooler to the engine... all of that happening in the space under the roll hoop. This means good response, cool running and a lot less hardware in the sidepods... (need more radiator to cool that water, but that's already there) so smaller sidepods, better aero than other Merc teams.

Williams have copied the intercooler option. And, as seen, the effect is damn dramatic. It's expected the other Mercedes teams can do so, as well, but we don't know when.

I think Ferrari runs its intercooler inside the Vee of the engine for similar packaging benefits. But the Ferrari engine still doesn't run as cool or as efficiently as the Merc motor.

*Uh, not a turbo nerd... just been doing research for a web article.
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My mistake. Cheers for clearing that up! :cheers:

It does make you wonder doesn't it, just how devastating Force India could be, if they packaged their intercoolers differently? :crazy: My guess is that if they did, they'd be extremely close behind Mercedes.
 
That Williams could get so far with that one change shows how much room for improvement there is in this formula. The cars might reach parity with the older ones after a year or two of stable rules. If we had the same aero package and fuel rules as in previous years, I wager the cars could be much faster than the V8s...

Lots of potential on the table, if the FIA would relax some of the rules a little. Possibly at the end of the year, they might be open to doing that, as I doubt gimmicks like titanium skid blocks or megaphone exhausts would serve to help the racing.
 
niky
That Williams could get so far with that one change shows how much room for improvement there is in this formula. The cars might reach parity with the older ones after a year or two of stable rules. If we had the same aero package and fuel rules as in previous years, I wager the cars could be much faster than the V8s...
Lots of potential on the table, if the FIA would relax some of the rules a little. Possibly at the end of the year, they might be open to doing that, as I doubt gimmicks like titanium skid blocks or megaphone exhausts would serve to help the racing.
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I suspect the racing will be a lot closer next year, without any interference from the FIA. Reason being that the gap between the Mercedes, Ferrari, and Renault engines, should be greatly reduced during the off-season. Admittedly, Mercedes will also be developing their engine also. However the disadvantage of being out front is that big improvements, are often hard to find.
 
So, could be looking at a wet qualifying session and a dry race. Nothing like that to shake up the grid a bit. :)
 
Massa just smashed the Williams at Stowe corner , blocked the pit and red flag on session. Rear wing is off and ripped two wheels off
 
MHPALA
Engine gone on the other Williams. The calamity.
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I was hoping Williams would challenge Mercedes this gp hope they can get them repaired and dialled in before quali

Love the Francois cervert avatar
 
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Blimey, Williams are having a mare! Missed the beeb's coverage of FP1, seeing as I was out playing golf this morning. But it sounds as if I missed a rather eventful session. Anyhow, hopefully the guys from Grove can bring it back, and still challenge Mercedes this weekend. It's always a tough challenge however, when you start the weekend on the back foot.
 
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