FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE:
Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton posted the two fastest times in first practice Friday for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix. Sebastien Vettel was third fastest, but also crashed during the session.
In second practice, Button remained on top but Fernando Alonso snuck up to second with Vettel and his teammate Mark Webber third and fourth. Hamilton slipped to eighth, with Felipe Massa fifth, Michael Schumacher sixth, Nico Rosberg seventh, Vitaly Petrov ninth and Sebastien Buemi tenth.
Qualifying can be seen on TSN at 12:55 a.m. Saturday (repeated at 8 a.m. on TSN2).
Earlier . . .
Sebastien Vettel will win the World Championship this weekend in Japan, probably.
Jenson Button has re-signed with McLaren for the foreseeable future (there are reports the three-year-deal is worth untold millions of dollars).
The other F1 drivers aren't planning to hold a special meeting to discuss Lewis Hamilton’s “aggressive” driving after all.
That, then, is the news.
It's the eve of the GP weekend, and because the feedback was so positive when I first did this a few weeks ago, here is Pirelli Tire’s Grand Prix Preview. A weekend TV guide for F1 and NASCAR telecasts follows the preview:
Suzuka in Japan has been the scene of many battles for the championship, but this year Sebastian Vettel needs just one point to make sure of his second consecutive title, joining a very exclusive club of drivers to win back-to-back championships: Alberto Ascari (1952-53), Juan Manuel Fangio (1954-55), Jack Brabham (1959-60), Alain Prost (1985-86), Ayrton Senna (1990-91), Michael Schumacher (1994-95 and 2000-2004), Mika Hakkinen (1998-99) and Fernando Alonso (2005-2006).
First though, he needs to get to the end of a demanding 53-lap race in Suzuka, using Pirelli’s P Zero Yellow soft tires and P Zero White medium tires. That is assuming conditions stay dry: Suzuka’s location close to the coast means that there is a high risk of wet weather, which caused qualifying to be postponed until Sunday morning last year.
Whatever the weather, Suzuka is one of the most varied races of the year for the tires as well as the drivers. Here are a few reasons why:
The track
The S curves at the beginning of the lap consist of a sequence of bends taken at high speed. The tire is subjected to continual sideways accelerations, which challenge the shoulder of the tire and take it to the limit of adhesion. The tire has to give the driver good turn-in, driving precision and lateral grip, while being quick to adapt itself to a slightly different type of asphalt – which is less abrasive but does not offer quite as much grip as other parts of the track.
The Spoon corner has a continual constant radius. At 112 mph, the lateral force equates to 2.5G, which is combined with just over 1G of forward force as the car accelerates out of the corner. This places heavy demands on the compound and the structure. In fact, this is typical of the whole circuit, which is very flowing and so has the least traction demand of the year. The only two places where proper traction is needed are out of the hairpin (Turn 11) and the downhill final chicane. Braking effort is also low at Suzuka.
130R is one of the fastest corners. The drivers arrive at it in seventh gear at 193 mph. It’s a long corner with plenty of grip and this allows the drivers to take it flat-out, producing a pressure of 1,764 lbs. or more on the front-right tire, which has to keep the car on the correct racing line and deal with a considerable sideways force at the same time.
The final chicane, which is a favored point for overtaking and the scene of the well-known clash between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1989, is made up of tight right angles, which leads onto the main straight where the cars are at full power once more.
Thinking laterally
With its unique combination of high-speed corners, Suzuka puts the highest lateral loads on tires all year, which is the main feature of the Japanese track from a tire point of view.
A lateral load is a sideways force on the tire, which pushes it to the outside of the corner. At the same time, the tire is still providing grip through friction against the track surface, so a lateral load flexes the structure of the tire and can also increase wear by encouraging sideways movement of the tread pattern on the track.
This flexing and sliding causes heat build-up, particularly in the shoulder of the tire, which is the part that moves around the most. In turn this can lead to blistering, which is where chunks of the tread pattern come away due to localized excess heat. If uncorrected, this eventually causes the surface of the tire to break up and affect performance, which is why tire temperature is such a vital parameter.
On most circuits, the straights provide an opportunity for tires to cool down, due to the lack of sideways forces exerted on them when the car is not cornering. But the first half of the Suzuka lap in particular is just a series of fast bends, with no real straight during which the tires can recover from the demands placed on them.
This is what makes Suzuka especially challenging for the tires. Driver will have to manage their allocation carefully this weekend and keep tire temperatures under control. When working at their hardest, as is the case at Suzuka, the hottest part of the tire tread can reach temperatures of up to 248° Fahrenheit.
TV Guide
F1 qualifying: Sat., 12:55 a.m., TSN (repeated at 8 a.m. on TSN2)
NASCAR Nationwide: Sat., 3:30 p.m., TSN, Kansas Speedway (this follows an NHL game so might be joined in progress).
F1 Grand Prix of Japan: Sun., 1:55 a.m., TSN (repeated at 7:30 a.m. on TSN2 and again at 4 on TSN2)
NASCAR Sprint Cup: Sun., 2 p.m. TSN, Kansas Speedway
Bathurst 1000 race shown live flag to flag first time ever in NA television, starting at 7pm Saturday on Speed channel.
Posted by: Adam | 10/07/2011 at 08:05 AM