Grand Prix of Germany 2013

After a series of serious incidents with tires that occurred during the previous Grand Prix ^[3] - when the rear left tires exploded on four cars of different teams during the race, the tire supplier Pirelli conducted its own investigation and established the reasons ^{[4 ]} , announced plans to change the structure of the current version of tires - for their use at this German Grand Prix, with the subsequent replacement of this version with a new one, which the company promises to provide teams for the next German Grand Prix of the Hungarian Grand Prix ^[4] .

In the modified tires that Pirelli provided the teams for this Grand Prix, the steel cord was replaced with Kevlar , which should reduce the tire’s operating temperature by 10 ° C and reduce the likelihood of an explosion ^[4] .

In turn, the FIA , having received from Pirelli a report containing the results of the investigation of incidents with tires, as well as recommendations to the teams on the proper use of the current version of the tires, issued and sent the teams a document regulating the rules for working with tires at this German Grand Prix:

Team attention For safety reasons, Pirelli asked us to ensure that the tires on all machines are used in accordance with the requirements listed below. The task of each team is to prove to the FIA ​​technical delegate that the following rules are followed on their machines at any given time:

1. Minimum front and rear tire pressure at launch: 16 psi
2. Minimum Stable Front Tire Pressure During Race: 20 psi
3. Minimum Stable Rear Tire Pressure During Race: 19 psi
4. The maximum negative camber of the front wheels: 4 degrees
5. The maximum negative camber of the rear wheels: 2.5 degrees
6. The front and rear wheels must be used on the side for which they were originally intended (cannot be changed from one side to the other)
7. The basics of strategies outlined in 13R09NUR Preview V3 must be respected.

Charlie whiting.

- "The FIA ​​sent teams requirements for working with tires . " F1news.ru

Session 1

In the first session of free races in the Marussia team there was a replacement - instead of Jules Bianchi , the team test pilot Rodolfo Gonzalez stepped on the track. He spent 21 laps on the track, showing the 21st time in the session (1: 37,459) ^[5] .

Some teams continued to run their technical innovations. So, a passive dual DRS was installed on both cars of the Lotus team, which Lotus engineers worked on for more than a year. For the first time, the team tested it during past free races - but then it was installed only on the Kimi Raikkonen car. In addition to the Lotus team, the Mercedes system also tested a similar system on these free rides - it was installed on the Nico Rosberg car ^[5] .

Five minutes after the start of the first session, Fernando Alonso ( Ferrari ) was forced to stop his car right on the track. The reason was a problem with the electric car. In the middle of the session, Alonso again went to the track, but was immediately forced to return to the boxes - the same problems with the electrics were repeated and the team decided to replace the entire ECU ^[5] . Until the end of the first session, he no longer went on the road.

Session 2

During the second session, the teams continued to work on tuning cars, in addition, the teams had to evaluate the effectiveness of two different rubber compounds. Prior to this, the Grand Prix tire supplier Pirelli redesigned the rear tires, replacing steel cord with Kevlar . Pirelli was forced to make this replacement by a series of rear tire incidents during the past Grand Prix ^[5] .

In order to make the best decision on the settings of the cars for the qualification and the race, several teams shared the test program at once - their pilots went to the track on the cars with different configurations. So, in the Sauber team, two versions of the rear wing were tested ^[5] .

Jules Bianchi, who missed the first session and went on the track in the second, was forced to prematurely complete his participation in it - the reason was an upset stomach ^[5] .

Session 3

On Saturday morning, in the boxings of the Williams team, due to a breakdown of the KERS system, the car of Pastor Maldonado was smoking ^[6] . The fire department was able to quickly prevent a fire. Mechanics, carefully checking the car and not finding any damage, allowed Maldonado to go on the road ^[6] . In addition to Maldonado, Lewis Hamilton also faced technical problems - the mechanics of the Mercedes team had to eliminate the problems with the rear suspension that arose on his car ^[6] .

Reserve Pilots

Weather conditions: cloudy, dry. Air: + 23 ... 25 ° C, route: +42 ° C.

Part 1

The winner of the first part of the qualification, with a result of 1: 30,547, was the pilot of Ferrari Felipe Massa . He used the Soft tire set, while other potential pole candidates were using Medium sets, trying to preserve the softer sets for their decisive attempts. According to the results of the first qualification segment, they left the further struggle: Williams pilots - Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado , Caterham pilots - Charles Peak and Guido van der Garde , Marussia pilots - Jules Bianchi and Max Chilton .

Part 2

In the second part of the qualification, all pilots used Soft tire kits. The best again was Felipe Massa - 1: 29.825. As in the first part, he was again a little faster than Kimi Raikkonen ( Lotus ). The main surprise of this part of the qualification was the elimination from further struggle of the owner of three pole positions this season, Nico Rosberg ( Mercedes ). The team, having decided that the time shown by Rosberg in the first attempt, is sufficient to reach the third part of the qualification, decided not to let him out on the track, and miscalculated. Together with Rosberg, they left the further struggle: Paul di Resta , Sergio Perez , Esteban Gutierrez , Adrian Sutil and Jean-Eric Verne .

Part 3

After the first series of laps, the best time in the third segment was shown by Lewis Hamilton - 1: 29.540. In the last minute, Sebastian Vettel was able to improve this time, showing 1: 29,501, but Hamilton managed to defend his pole position - his winning time was 1: 29,398. This pole was the 29th in a Lewis career. Red Bull pilots Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber qualified second and third in the race, respectively. By the way, Webber lost time in the last corner due to the slowly moving car Fernando Alonso , who qualified with the 8th result - right behind his teammate Felipe Massa. Daniel Riccardo ( Toro Rosso ), who showed the 6th time, in the second race in a row will start from the third row of the starting field. Jenson Button ( McLaren ) and Nico Hulkenberg ( Sauber ) did not participate in the third segment of the qualification, preferring to save tire sets for the upcoming race.

Notes

1. ↑ By decision of the German Grand Prix stewards, Charles Peater (Caterham) was punished by the loss of five starting positions - before the race on his car, the intermediate shaft of the gearbox was replaced ^[8] .

Leading circles

• Note: only the first 5 items are included in both tables.

• Lewis Hamilton 29th Pole
• Mercedes 15th Pole
• 20th Fast Circle Fernando Alonso
• Ferrari 228th fastest lap
• 30th victory of Sebastian Vettel
• 38th victory of the Red Bull team
• 6,000th Pirelli tire point ^[9]

The selection is based on data published by the StatsF1 resource.

• Detailed description of the race
• Changing tires at a distance
• Race chart