Engine mapping has been the topic this weekend! A huge fuss about the effect of the clampdown on engine mapping... And the effect of it on Red Bull especially! Some even predicted that teams could lose half a second per lap due to the clampdown when the teams aren´t allowed to do any alterations on the engine mapping between the qualifying and the race. And many experts have said that the clampdown would hit hardest on Red Bull. But what happened in the qualifying at Valencia today...
Sebastian Vettel took another sweeping pole at Valencia by making a perfect lap! And his team-mate Webber was second fastest so Red Bull conquered the front row for tomorrow´s race. So I guess we can all forget talks about engine mapping! No matter what is going on with Red Bull´s Renault engine, their car seems to be extremely fast anyway! Hamilton qualified 3rd with a 0.4-second gap to Vettel and Alonso came 4th so no surprises actually. Button couldn´t get the best out of his car and he was left 6th on the grid. Let´s see who will be the strongest contender to challenge Vettel tomorrow... If I´m asked I would say there isn´t one!
Back to engine mapping and the clampdown announced by FIA. All the officials have insisted that this has absolutely nothing to do with trying to make a more balanced grid but I have my doubts... There hasn´t been this kind of mid season rule changes before so why start now? In 2009 there was a lot of talking about the double diffusers but they weren´t banned during the season. And now there´re several rule changes made just after 7 or 8 races: in addition to engine mapping there will be clampdown on diffuser blown exhausts aswell... So either it´s getting a bit suspicious or I´m just seeing it that way! Of course it´s kind of understandable that FIA would like to see the battle for the world championship continuing til the end of the season but... All these clampdowns don´t seem to hit hard on Red Bull (or other top teams either), which I´m actually more than happy about! So no matter how much FIA or somebody else would like to make Vettel´s triumph end I don´t see it happening...!
It´s going to be a thrilling race tomorrow for sure. The McLaren drivers may have wanted to see the crucial moment of the Canadian GP as Vettel cracking under the pressure but I´m convinced we won´t see mistakes like that from him tomorrow! Let´s see if Webber will finally be able to challenge his team-mate for a victory... If only Red Bull won´t give him wings like last year at Valencia when he crashed with Heikki and what a crash it was!!!
It´s going to be round 8 tomorrow so lots of races to go before the world champion will be crowned! And over 5 months before the Race of Champions will take place! Earlier I wrote in my blog how my plans to see the event were almost ruined by re-instating the Bahrain GP in this year´s calendar. Which didn´t happen because luckily the Bahrain GP was cancelled again shortly after rescheduling it. But this was only the beginning for the setbacks concerning my plans to watch the ROC live in Frankfurt next December! This week it was officially announced that the ROC won´t be held in Frankfurt like previously confirmed! And so far there hasn´t been any information on at which venue the event will be held... Somewhere in Germany but where? I have started to think I´m not meant to see Vettel drive live at the ROC, at least not this year... I´m kind of afraid to see what else will happen before we make it to December... Please keep your fingers crossed for me, I desperately want to witness the event live!
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