I really dislike Valencia.

The track has near-as-makes-no-difference no opportunities for passing...almost everything is determined in qualifying or pit stops.

I very well could be talking out of my ass, but it looked to me as if Brawn had real pace, but in a lot of cases were hung up behind slower cars. The fact that both Button and Barrichello were able to leap-frog cars in pit stops showed that in clear air they were significantly faster, which incidentally provided the only excitement of the race.

I know its completely a guessing game and teams have no idea what the other cars, or even their own teammates are fueled for, but why button was fueled for 19 laps in Q3 when Hamilton was fueled for 15 I'll never know. In a race where there is virtually no passing I thought you would try your best to get into P1 almost disregarding of the amount of laps you are fueled for.

I don't understand why, when Bernie has come out and said that they are making changes to the cars to increase the amount of overtaking, F1 would allow a track to be built which has maybe one chance for an overtake per lap. In the age of computer simulations it seems so silly to me.

Good job Barrichello.

Button; learn to start better.

Valencia is a visually beautiful track..but there was next to no overtaking which made the race rather dull.

Where the cars ended up after pit stops was prolly one of the only interesting things.

Also, I dont feel like Button truly deserves the championship. The other cars are getting better, thus showing that a driver also needs to be competent. It's not like his car sucks now.

I thought Rubens was crying at the end...rather happy for him.

I think something shook his confidence. But you could see his talent shine through when he needed to catch up to Webber, and near the end of the race where he just started seconds out of Alonso, until presumably, Brawn told him to chill out. I'll agree with Leif though, his starts are pretty dismal.

How so in regards to Button not deserving the championship? Him and Brawn did a better job than anyone else in the first half of the season. It's not like they drew his name out of a hat and gave him this allocated number of points and he didn't have to work for them.

Disagree with the Valencia being "beautiful", too. It's beautiful... if you love huge concrete walls, catch fencing, and harbour/industrial buildings and cranes.

The biggest problem with Valencia, something which the BBC crew touched on, is the fact that the track doesn't really have "defined" corners. A lot of the corners are fast, sweeping bends with very definite braking points.

Rubens drove brilliantly. I feel sorry for Hamilton, but I was happy for Barichello. He isn't my favorite but he drove like a winner here.

As far as Valencia. Yah, it's a poor track for overtaking. To make matters worse, next year they are banning refueling. So the passing in the pits won't even happen.

Its a very pretty circuit though.

Tires.

I agree with Phix, Valencia is an ugly track, whose only redeeming quality is the cool Americas Cup garages they work out of. The rest of it is but ugly.

BTW, did anyone else notice the guy with this fly open in the Brawn hospitality centre when the three musketeers from BBC were interviewinng Ross Brawn before the qualifying coverage? I have been caught unzipped before, but never on international television. Making matters worse, they talked to RB for about 3 minutes, with the guys crotch over Ross' shoulder the whole time.

This dude with the phone?



Looks more like a black zipper.

I didn't think the race was crappy. OK, overtaking doesn't happen on track, but pit strategy still kept it entertaining, and I loved watching the best of the drivers flow through it...watching Hamilton and Barrichello string together all of those flowing corners was just lovely to my eyes. As for whether or not the track is "pretty", it wins a lot of points for the harbor and the bridge. You may not see very much from the driver's seat due to the walls and such, but when you're watching on TV you're looking at higher angles so you can see a lot more...not like the prettiness of the track really matters a whole lot.

From some angles it looked like the guy's fly was open, but I could be wrong.

Yeah, well, the "prettiness" was the whole point of staging that track/race at its location in the first place. They basically wanted to make a Spanish Monaco to capitalize on Alonsomania.

Ya, considering the fickleness of Spanish fans I don't know how well Valencia will do once Alonso is gone. Then again there are tonnes of British tourists in Spain during the summer, so it might do OK if the Spaniards bugger off.

I remember a presenter mentioning during the second 2006 Spanish GP how before Alonso started winning the race was practically devoid of spectators...

Well, I certainly don't care.

I don't find it pretty though...it reminds me of Bahrain, in that the two dominant colours are grey and beige. I much prefer the tracks that wind through forests. Although I'm with clark in terms of Valencia's sweeping corners, some of those are amazing.

It was nice of them to move the shipping containers this year though...

Yeah, Barcelona has traditionally been a procession and before Alonso's '05 season it was ~50% capacity most seasons.

Now we've got TWO Spanish races and they're BOTH processions still... oh well.

Too bad about the flub with Hamiltons 13 second pit stop. :/

Oh yeah, this whole thread and nobody's even mentioned Luca Badoer or Romain Grosjean. Grosjean actually impressed me for a debut drive...he made it to Q2 his first time out and at one point well past the half-way point in the race he had the 5th fastest lap classified and finished 15th despite needing a new wing in the beginning of the race. Badoer didn't do as well, but I was watching the BBC coverage and I think they ripped into him way too hard. As the race went I noticed he was picking up the pace, and he did end up with a fastest lap in the mid 1:40s which beat both Buemi and Alguersuari's best times (and was a match for the qualifying times of the bottom end of the Q3 runners). I also remember at one point he got lapped by one of the front runners (I forget who, I think Kovaleinen?) and he stuck to Kovaleinen pretty well for at least a lap anyway. In any case, I look forward to seeing what he can do at Spa for several reasons. 1) He's gotten his test out of the way and he seems at least somewhat up to speed now, 2) he is familiar with Spa, and 3) interesting weather at Spa could really give him an upper hand (let's not forget he made it up to 4th during the chaotic 1999 European GP in a mediocre car). Then again, it's always my nature to root for the new guys.

Beautiful track...until you get a wide helicopter shot shown on SpeedHD in 720P and realize that it is in a container port. Man, after viewing the overhead on Google Maps and also seeing those wide shots then that totally destroyed the illusion that it was a pretty track for me at least. At least I'm not the only one who found the race boring though; I haven't been watching Formula One for a long time and I was shocked by the lack of passing throughout the race. I felt extremely bad that one horrid pit stop ruined the race for Hamilton but at least Rubens got a win...

Oh, and if you are not getting SpeedHD on DirecTV or through some other outlet then I feel for you...that channel is absolutely amazing just for the Formula One coverage.

It's ok, don't worry about it.

I get the BBC content which has 1) no ads 2) former drivers and team bosses commentating 3) several interviews in the paddock with former superstar drivers and team bosses off the pit wall 4) no stupid Speed "custom driver placing" graphics which takes up like 75% of my screen with crazy red shit all over the place...

Oh, and it's all widescreen, anyway. F1 doesn't have a true HD feed cause Bernie is stuck in the '90s it seems so the SpeedHD is just uprated video.

^Ya, I was skeptical about BBC at first, but it has really matured into some pretty awesome F1 coverage. And not missing 4 minutes of coverage every 20 minutes or so is very very nice. Even the team of Jordan, Coulthard and _______________ (can't remember his name ATM) is pretty good. I think it's kinda funny how they gang up on Eddie Jordan.

I think perhaps a lot of people refer to Valencia as beautiful, are also talking about the city itself, which away from the track/harbour, I've heard is a very nice place.

I said before Q3 to my Dad, there is no point in the Brawns attempting to light fill and go for pole, because if they had done that and got jumped by both McLarens off the start they'd be up shit creek come the pitstops. Barrichello got it right and should Jenson have had a decent start (I agree, something he really needs to work on) he might have had a shot at the podium too.

I thought Grosjean did a good job for his first race too. However, I really didn't expect Badoer to be that bad, I don't want to be too harsh, but someone who's been around that long shouldn't be that far off the pace in F1. Okay you can argue that he'd disadvantaged as he hasn't been racing like rookies Grosjean and Alguesuari - but then Ferrari are at fault for putting him in that car with little race practice. I know the season is kind of a write off for Ferrari, but that's pretty embarrassing for them I think. Gene would've been the next best alternative for me.

It kind of annoys me that McLaren refuse to admit that they lost the race in the pits. All this bullshit about how it didn't affect the outcome of the race and Whitmarsh saying it cost them about 2 seconds! Hamiltons pitstop was 13 seconds and Barrichello's was 7 or maybe even 6 - that's where you lost the race! I get that they're not trying to point the finger of blame, but someones late call to Hamilton to stay out for another lap instead of coming in like he did, that was the problem. Perhaps it was Whitmarsh and that's why he was sheepish.

Jake Humphreys or Humphries. Don't remember the spelling...

I don't know why Ferrari put Badoer in the car. Perhaps it's a reward for being a loyal Ferrari man all these years, or perhaps it is to give their test driver a better idea of what F1 is like, so he can better make recommendations, but it seems like a missed opportunity to give some young hot-shot a chance to get their feet wet.

I think the problem with Jensen's starts isn't that he's all that bad at them, I think he just tries to be too aggressive toward the people in front of him, sacrificing track position to those behind. I forget which race it was, but I remember it paying off for him once this season, where he leapt into first and held it for the remainder of the race, but I think the rest of the grid has gotten wise to that trick. I think that if he would focus more on being defensive, and worry about the guy in front after the first corner he could start getting some serious points again.

Yeah, it really is confusing why Ferrari put Luca in the car. I'm a fan of the guy and I really hope he delivers at Spa and snags at least one point. But, yeah, he hasn't raced in anything since Minardi in '99, he hasn't test driven anything in a year, and, regardless if he was running in the points 10 years ago until his engine/tranny blew up the signs are starting to point that Luca Badoer peaked a while ago and the fact that he hasn't raced in other categories since leaving F1 only amplified his rustiness and ability to read and adapt to new tracks. When he was test driving it was always at Fiorano, or Mugello, or Barcelona... well known established tracks.

If Ferrari really did want to put a test driver in the car Marc Gene would have been the best choice. Personally, I would have thrown in Nelson Piquet Jr.

Great...and I thought I had something special...

How are you getting the BBC coverage?

Check your PM in about a minute.

Me too?

Aw, moe, how could I forget you of all people?

Thanks Phix.

I thought Button is taking it easy because he's only got 2-3? engines left?

Valencia was boring, do a good quali + consistant laps + few nice pits and your good to go.

BBC was saying that teams on average have about three engines left.

It gets confusing though, since some teams changed out perfectly good engines after one race and apparently are saving them for a later date...maybe some tracks are hard on engines, while others are relatively easy, so you use a new engine on the hard tracks and save the previoulsy-run engines for the easier tracks...

Vettel could be in trouble though, since he has only two engines left...

I think a lot of the manufacturers are holding on to their new engines for races and are going back and re-using old ones in free practice and sometimes qualifying. Also, I think Button's been more cautious in general and he hasn't been going crazy in the starts just for fear of getting taken out, especially since his qualifying results have been putting him farther back from the front row for the last several races, where he's more likely to get tangled up in something nasty. Plus, I have to agree that starting does not seem to be his strongest trait.

Yeah I think perhaps it's a combination of both. Being aggressive at first trying to get a jump on people and then if something looks a bit risky backing out of it - he knows all too well how easy it is to lose a nose, it seemed to be forever coming off in the 06/07 seasons!