Have a FaceBook, Twitter, or other social networking account?

Link them to your fanatic account!

Add An Account

TAKE ME TO...
Formula One
F1: Drivers Concerned By Traffic In Qualifying
Qualifying may be a crowded affair beginning with Bahrain according to drivers...
Adam Cooper  | http://www.speedtv.com  |  Posted March 12, 2010   Sakhir (BHR)
The Virgin Racing team was six seconds off the pace in Friday's practice at Bahrain. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The leading F1 drivers are worried that their weekends may be influenced by slower cars getting in their way, especially in Q1 when 24 cars will be on the track.

Friday Bruno Senna was over 11 seconds off the pace while shaking down the HRT, while even the slightly more experienced Virgin team was over 6 seconds away from the quickest time.

“Yes, I think it is a big issue,” said Sebastian Vettel. “Especially practice and at least the first qualifying session. Of course, speaking to Lucas or Timo or the other guys, Heikki, it’s not the easiest time that they have to face. Obviously they are just about to start, so I think it’s fair to give them time.

“For sure, if you arrive and you have that big delta between the cars and at least six cars are quite a bit slower than the rest and for sure it could be a problem and one or the other will suffer. It will happen in qualifying that you probably don’t get your lap time.

“These guys are trying their best as well, so you have to respect that, but if you’re five seconds quicker then it’s very difficult to estimate at the start of the lap if you will be fine or not. Here, I think it’s quite OK because you can see quite a lot, but if you go to Singapore or Monaco where half of the circuit is blind anyway then it’s very difficult. We’ve had problems in the past with traffic, it will be quite a mess but that’s life, I guess.”

“I’ve had similar problems to Sebastian,” said Robert Kubica. “They are there, for sure they are not having an easy time to keep the car on the track, so that’s how it is. They are there and from our side we can only try and get some more space when they are in front of us, but it’s hard for them, it’s hard for us. That’s how it is.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter

F1 RaceCast Online Now! Follow Formula One live online timing & scoring, practice, qualifying, race coverage, commentary and more on SPEEDtv.com!
adam_cooper's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Adam Cooper

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2012

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.