2012 Formula One British Grand Prix Preview

Last championship weekend proved to us that Formula One is not done with surprising us, on multiple levels! This weekend, we’re off to another race weekend to Silverstone, to the track where the inaugural race of the F1 world championships was held.

Alonso’s victory at Valencia was far from sublime though it took a lot of grit and determination. A lucky safety car incident and a couple of failures helped him en route to leading the championship table. The RB8 cars showed exquisite pace at Valencia and look out for them before they start disappearing into the horizon on the straights at Silverstone.

The weather forecast promises what will be an exciting weekend for the fans but surely a difficult one for the drivers. The Brit team with its Brit drivers are favourites of course. But are the McLarens fast enough? Well, ask Pirelli what’ll happen, you’ll probably get a better answer. But for them to even come close to the podium, Jenson Button needs to realise that it’s his habit of early braking and more cornering speed is what is causing his tyre wear problems and on the other hand, Lewis simply needs to stop braking early which causes his front end tires to heat up very soon.

On a different note, look out for the Lotus E20. It has a Batman logo on the sides for this weekend to promote The Dark Knight Rises, which helps the cause considering their cars are black mostly anyway. But what I don’t understand is, Bruce Wayne is said to drive a Lambo in the movie. Lotus and Lambo, doesn’t ring a bell to me. Let me know if I’m missing a connect here!

The track is characterised with fast changes of direction and Pirelli says that the lateral load on the tires on this circuit is the maximum and can go up to 5g. The super softs have been done away with for this weekend. Only the hard and the soft compounds have been chosen and of course, the intermediates and the wets. If you look at the forecast, you’ll see more of the latter going on the cars.

Considering the high pressure on the tires, look out for Fernando Alonso. He eases his car on the track and keeps the tires at the exact temperature for peak performance for the longest time possible. He triumphed last year here in wet-dry conditions. He comes in this weekend leading the championship table after winning at Valencia which ended a record sequence of 7 out of 7.

The one other record this season might challenge is 1982’s total of 11 winning drivers. Considering this is also home to the Force Indias and their drivers showed some real pace and character last race, look out for them as well. This season has given us so many twists, don’t be surprised if we see one of them taking victory here.

Ice Man Kimi has found his groove and will go for full monty this weekend, without doubt. Another promising weekend ahead of us at Britain, stay tuned fellas.

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