Sebastian Vettel came out of last weekends with yet another win under his belt in the 2011 Formula One Championship, after a race that was almost 'too much' in terms of eventualities and action. With the Pirelli tyres, the use of DRS, and the varying strategies displayed by each team all being under scrutiny come the end of Sundays race, the event really does need decoding.
The weekend certainly seemed to provide the biggest challenge for the teams so far this season, with so many variations in weather predictions and tyre performance all contributing to the number of different routes and directions that each driver selected going into race day. One thing that is visibly apparent this year compared to last year is that it is much more important over the course of the weekend to set the cars up in favour of a better Sunday compared to a better Saturday, which was very much the case in 2010. The main, most foremost reason for this alteration in how to approach the weekend is due to the much less durable Pirelli tyres introduced this year. With the much less durable rubber being used this year in Formula One, and a larger gap generally being seen in between ultimate pace of the two sets of compound’s, being on the right tyres at the right time is essential to a race. For example, Jenson Button went against the conventional four stop strategy being used by the front runners in Turkey, and as a result was out of sync with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, of whom he was racing for the last place on the podium. However, because the strategy was changed mid-way through the race as teams discovered that tyre degradation was higher compared to Friday and Saturday, the McLaren team had not been able to save a fresh set of the soft compound tyres. This meant Button exited the pit lane for his final stint on rubber already used, and older than that of the Pirellis on Hamilton’s car, leaving him a sitting duck for both his team mate, and a resurgent Rosberg after his own tyre issues mid race.
Away from the rubber situation in Turkey, another massive talking point coming out of the weekend was the effect on the race caused by the controversial drag reduction system, otherwise known as DRS. After seeing the most overtaking in a race as has been seen for years, reaction from many fans has echoes that of many of the drivers and team personnel, in saying that the art of overtaking has become ‘superficial’. The issue in Turkey was not that the DRS was unneeded, but more so to do with the positioning of the DRS ‘zone’. The tracks DRS trigger line was positioned shortly after the circuits legendary four apex Turn Eight, and yards prior to the braking zone for the turn nine chicane. The ‘activation line’ was shortly after the chicane, in front of the light hearted kink on the circuits back straight, approaching turn eleven; infamous for being the corner in which the Red-Bulls entangled in last year’s race. The majority of the moves made in this zone were done and dusted prior to turn eleven (the turn in which overtaking was supposed to be influenced using DRS), meaning that changes for position became as straight forward as breezing past one another on the back straight due to the massive windfall caused by the DRS, aswell as the use of the KERS system. If anything, this race was a steep learning curve in terms of how the FIA should approach future races when considering where to place the DRS zone at each track, bearing in mind that although increased overtaking is fantastic in theory, there is still a fine line in-between a skilful Maun over , and gimmick propelled change of position.
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