Superleague Formula - Donington

[Frailloop]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Magnusson

it will be interesting to see how Scott goes this weekend

On Thursday he was very, very quick in between the showers.

[JohnMiller]

Originally Posted by Frailloop

On Thursday he was very, very quick in between the showers.

Compared to the F3, the FF1600 or the F5000?

[grantp]

Originally Posted by JohnMiller

Compared to the F3, the FF1600 or the F5000?

I think he still holds the outright lap record on the National Circuit at Donington - or has that been bettered now? Also he lives about 20 miles away ...

In the dry last year the SF cars were, I am told, doing about 1:19s. On Thursday Mansell S was doing 1:18s in a Benetton Judd. In the comparison one has to factor in tyres and stuff and that the SF cars are heavier but have (or should have) a little more power. So in theory they are around about the same level of performance.

That said who knows what to make of today? First time in the car, extrememly varable weather conditions within the sessions, no more that an installation lap in the first practice session which suggests all might not have been well with the car, but I'm speculating. A couple of other cars had problems - engine for one and gearbox for the other.

A photo of the Galatasary car on the web site seems to have the rear wing only half signwritten and at one point there was a message on the live timing about the car needing numbers on both sides which seemed a little odd. It all sounds like things may have been a bit fraught. But I'm still speculating.

Just have to see what happens tomorrow. Last time I looked The Weather Channel was predictinig cloudy but zero chance of rain. Yeah, right. Should mix things up given the way things were today.

BTW the aforementioned Mr. Tappy was also at Donington on Thursday running the Caparo derived racer for which he has recently been a appointed as the development driver. A one make series is planned for 2010.

[lauren1995]

Originally Posted by strider

Not sure how you managed to post those times, lauren, except by using Print Screen, but well done anyway.

thanks. you're right, they were screen caps.

Sorry to see that after dominating practice Esteban Guerrieri ends up on row 5, but at least Antonio Pizzonia is on pole, I think.

yep, guerrieri is looking like he could be the find of the season. valles hasn't been on the pace nearly all of the weekend. he'll start r1 from 10th which is not good news for liverpool's championship lead as craig dolby is 6th.

yikes!! bruce jouanny seems to be in portimao. hopefully he'll manage to make it to donington in time for the first race. if he doesn't they need to replace him with someone good.

[lauren1995]

i've found a game where you can guess the results of the races.

http://www.competicionvirtual.com/

here's what i think.

race 1

1. Rigon (olympiacos)
2. Pantano (ac milan)
3. Dolby (spurs)
4. Wissel (basel)
5. Pizzonia (corinthians)
6. Buurman (anderlecht)
7. Guerrieri (sevilla)
8. Valles (liverpool)

race 2

1. Tung (atletico madrid)
2. Kennard (roma)
3. Anderson (midtjylland)
4. Martin (rangers)
5. Gommendy (porto)
6. Bernoldi (flamengo)
7. Valles (liverpool)
8. Buurman (anderlecht)

you couldn't choose sevilla so i selected al-ain instead. hopefully they will give me the points for sevilla as both teams have the same driver.

[strider]

Never mind Bruce Jouanny, where the heck is Ben Edwards? Is there a BTCC meeting somewhere?

I have had to resort to Eurosport and ever-excitable Jonathan Green.

[Keyfabe]

is anyone else having problems watching the internet coverage?

[Fernando_S]

Yes, I doesn't work

[Stefvh]

pffff

[Keyfabe]

this sucks! and why the hell is eurosport showing poxy mountain biking when this is on?

[Last2LiftOff]

Wonder if Bernie and Max are watching?

[strider]

Originally Posted by Keyfabe

is anyone else having problems watching the internet coverage?

It works on and off and even when it's on it is behind real time. In simple terms, it sucks, as Keyfabe said.

Live timing is OK, though.

[codename_47]

It was terrible at the start, kept stuttering, but it was almost like they used the extended safety car to kick it down a few notches, quality wise, so it ran smoothly.

It was perfect from then on.

Again I cannot heap enough praise on this series. The revelation of 2009 for me.

Cars racing closely and passing all around the track...including around the OUTSIDE at Goddards...c'mon people, this is fantastic!!

Its just a shame the dreaded pitstops spread the field out a bit, since these cars can race and race damn well.

I really hope certain other series (well, EVERY other series really!) looks into what SLF have done with the car design over the winter (it wasn't very good last year!) and learn from it because this is the best open wheel racing since A1GPs early years imo.

[Last2LiftOff]

Sweet! Fabulous onboards. Is there an Algarve stop?

Edit: thanks for opening the thread.

[Keyfabe]

yeah its fine now, looking forwards to the superfinal

[Fernando_S]

SLF's website is down, how convenient (?)

[Fernando_S]

Originally Posted by Keyfabe

yeah its fine now, looking forwards to the superfinal

Did Guerrieri do a good race?

[Stefvh]

He was good, until his car stopped on the track.

[Peat]

Well, i didn't see too much action trackside today, a little disapointing. But those lovely V12's made up for it.

The superkarts were the highlight of teh day for me, never seen them on long circuits before and was blown away. around 10sec a lap slower than the Superleagues (and only 3700cc less power..............)

Sod all people there today though, was almost like a club winter-series meeting before lunch!!

[grantp]

Originally Posted by Peat

Well, i didn't see too much action trackside today, a little disapointing. But those lovely V12's made up for it.

The superkarts were the highlight of teh day for me, never seen them on long circuits before and was blown away. around 10sec a lap slower than the Superleagues (and only 3700cc less power..............)

Sod all people there today though, was almost like a club winter-series meeting before lunch!!

All the infield open and no one to fill it. Mind you there were some huge puddles in the middle of the infield that are nowhere near any groundworks, where I have never seen puddles before. Goes to show how wet it has been recently.

The karts are indeed bonkers. Loved the way they drivers cleared themselves from the track if they broke down. Pick up the kart and move it to the sidelines ... I should have taken a shot of the collection on the back of the recovery truck after the races. I can't imagine what 140mph on Wheatcroft straight before the Fogarty esses on a kart must feel like.

I decided to spend my time around the Melbourne loop area but there was less passing and fewer passing attempts than I was anticipating. The race charts seem to suggest that incidents, retirements and the pit stops accounted for most of the changes. Great sounds though. My ears are still ringing.

[bella]

the rain at the previous round at zolder was definitely worse than the rain we had yesterday, but the difference was it dried up *really* quickly at zolder (where the weather conditions haven't really been much different to here, incidentally) and happened about an hour before race 2 whereas at donington it was during the qualifying procedure...

i can't fault the noise the cars make. it really does make up for some iffy racing, but i'm not sure many single seater formulae above frenault 2.0 manage exciting races at donington. it's a bit like the silverstone gp circuit in that respect.

[gomick]

Watched highlights of the Zolder round yesterday - the 1st time i have seen Superleague, great looking cars that sound nice, the racing was exciting too, hope the soccer teams hang around

[Rob29]

Watched heat one on Eurosport yesterday-no clue as to when they might be showing heat2..
Racing looked good,but hardly a single spectator present-lot more at Snetterton for touring cars.The media seems to have no interest in Superleague-barely any mention bar the small print in Autosport.

[RCMADD]

there was plenty of spectators through the gate

i was on melbourne loop and there was a none stop trickle there was a good 3/4k through the gate

[lauren1995]

the racing was awesome... probably the best races any series has had for years!!! the drivers were great too they were passing where the commentators said it was absolutely impossible to pass.

if autosport aren't covering this then it's a disgrace. i will look when the magazine comes out this week.

i do agree that there needs to be more spectators. the tickets were cheap. i've looked and the btcc cost £23 but superleague was only about 15 quid & they gave some tickets away for free. so there is not much they could do there. but the tv stuff = major fail. it needs all races & qualifying live, better promotion & to bring back ben edwards/bruce jouanny. plus the series should be promoted more in magazines.