Z3RoadstarTXF1 wrote:
I can't help but think Maldonado and Grosjean are in serious need of patience on Sundays, when looking at their qualifications and race results. (Being very noticeable in Valencia where impatience by Maldonado caused an incident battling for a spot that he was very clearly going to take within the next lap or 2 because he had the better lap times during that stint and had closed to a point where the only issue was 'when' not 'if' he would overtake Hamilton.)
The Williams, Lotus and STR breakdowns were the most interesting to me given the significant difference between Saturday results and Sunday results.
Just narrowing to my own firsthand focus, being in T3 at Austin with the tight S's, in front of me, there seemed little difference between Kimi and Romain with their lines through the S's. And with the exception of Saturday morning, they were very close in their times throughout the practice and qualifying sessions. But then on Sunday, Kimi executes one of the better battles and passes with Button, while the debate was how many times Grosjean had gone off (we were sure of 3).
Meanwhile, with the Williams, Maldonado seemed much tighter in his line, with much more speed through the T3-4-5-6 sequence, seeming much more aggressive through them. When the discussion of whether Senna deserve a spot on the 2013 grid came up in one of the threads, I was thinking 'eh'... he didn't really do anything to distinguish himself one way or another IMO. And really he was significantly off Maldonado's pace in Austin, pretty much for all but Q1. But then on Sunday as is evidenced by the stats, it was a different story. While Maldonado did score higher, it was just 1 place and 0.6 seconds than Senna. Whatever advantage Maldonado may have had with speed, it evidently doesn't translate into better results than Senna on Sundays.
I think the challenge will be if Maldonado can learn more patience on Sundays without sacrificing too much of his speed and aggression in finding the best racing lines.
I think his progress and Rosberg's could be the most interesting for 2013 (though not getting as much attention as Perez's transition/development at McLaren). Both have shown the ability to be seriously fast IMO, but Fridays and Saturdays are not Sundays, so there will need to be more.
I was also surprised at how closely the numbers were at Mercedes. Perhaps it was that it was a new and unfamiliar tract, but the group I was sitting with all seemed to feel Michael looked to be driving so cautiously. Whereas Rosberg really caught my attention with a really strong stint, that had him atop the list in P2 until the teams switched over the Medium options and times plummeted. But Rosberg took over that spot by a good margin and held it throughout as drivers continued to bring down their individual times on the Hard options. And he topped Michael anywhere from 0.5 seconds to 1.4 seconds in the practice sessions and then registers 17th in Q1 and Q2.
I wasn't suprised at the MS/NR statistics as I've been watching them this season, but am suprised that you are suprised
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Schumi DNF'd pretty much every race at the beginning of the season for mechanical reasons. During this time the car was competitive and Rosberg gained most of his points. As the season progressed (and Schumi ended his run of DNFs), Schumi finished higher than Rosberg pretty much every race, but by then the car was a mid-fielder at best, so few points were to be gained.
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