bill shoe wrote:After 3 or 4 races HRT will reliably qualify within 107%, regardless of if they are competitive with Team Lotus and Virgin.
HRT qualifying will be an interesting subplot in Australia. They have to take their best shot in Q1, then wait nervously until Q3 to find out if they were good enough. Last year their heroic effort got both cars in the first race (pre-107%) but if they can't qualify this year it will be a step back.
It will be interesting to see how all the teams perform during Aussie qualy, but in terms of high-pressure must-succeed performance it's all about HRT.
107% only is active in Q1 this year, not Q2 or Q3. In 2010 their average for Car 20 (Chandhok/Yamamotto/Klien) was 7.49% behing Pole and Car 21 (Senna/Yamamotto @ Silverstone was 7.26% behind pole. The figures i collated over 2010 were all to Pole time in Q3, so in Q1, they were within the 107% rule easily, trust me. Hispanias worst tracs were Bahrain, Austrailia, Spain, Britian, Hungary, Belgum (Freak Quali), Singapore, Korea and Brazil (Freak Quali). However Canada could be in there, but its not due to Chandhok being lumbered with a crap gearbox and being unable to select 7th gear. Most of the leading teams introduced updates at those races as well, if the teams had to race the same spec all year, im confedent to say that Hispania would have managed to put as much as 3 seconds of mecanichal evolution onto the F110.
I have no worries that they will be able to do the same as last year, as they will have 2 cars readily built up for starting FP1 and not joining in for its first laps at the end of FP1 due to the cars being built up in the paddock. And they will have the gearbox trouble they had with the Xtrac with 17 gearbox changes accross both cars in 2010 as Williams last year with the same gearbox as Hispania have in 2011 only had 9 accross both cars. And the F111 will get aero updates as well. It dosnt make sence to me that Marussia Virgin dosnt go with the Williams LG14 gearbox as well as they had 21 gearbox changes accross the season last year with the Xtrac.
If The F111 is using Penskie dampers, i am thinking they will be using the same suspension setup that Lotus ran last year in the T128 as they ran Penskie last year, and will do so this as well, but with a diffrent front suspension system thats more modren. Sounds to me like the F111 will have J Dampers this year, as the F110 didnt have any sort of refinements like J Dampers on its suspension.
The F111 will make a leap forward on the F110, how far, im not sure.