Lotus to put Double DRS ‘device’ on hold

2012 Belgian Grand Prix Friday practice analysis

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Today’s washout during practice means there’s little useful data to look at.

However the limited running done during the two wet sessions has had an effect on at least one of the team’s plans for this weekend.

Lotus technical director James Allison revealed they will not use their new Double DRS – referred to by the team as the ‘device’ – in the third practice session tomorrow. That means it is unlikely to be seen in the rest of the weekend.

“Today’s rain also prevented us from seeing how the ‘Device’ would perform in the expected race conditions.

“With discretion being the better part of valour we will conduct third practice tomorrow with a conventional aero package rather than attempting to squeeze Friday’s intended evaluation into the precious final practice session.”

Romain Grosjean said: “It’s a big shame we couldn’t do much running today as it was so wet. I was really looking forward to trying the famous ‘Device’ for the first time, but I guess I’ll have to wait.”

In very wet conditions some part of the track proved more treacherous than others, as Jenson Button explained: “For most of the lap, you’re not really pushing – then, halfway down the Kemmel straight, it suddenly gets wetter.

“It’s a different type of asphalt, which doesn’t drain as well. As soon as you hit that, you feel the car slow down and then it starts to spin its wheels.”

Here’s some of the data from today’s two practice sessions:

Sector times and ultimate lap times – first practice

CarDriverCarSector 1Sector 2Sector 3Ultimate lapGapDeficit to best
114Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari35.67260.97534.3392’10.9860.403
218Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault35.65861.23734.6552’11.5500.5640.391
316Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari35.87761.50434.3772’11.7580.7720.246
417Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari35.67861.78234.7122’12.1721.1860.652
515Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari35.97462.11234.7512’12.8371.8511.024
62Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault36.03862.43334.6032’13.0742.0880.117
78Nico RosbergMercedes35.99263.31734.7162’14.0253.0390.185
819Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault35.88863.20235.2482’14.3383.3520.322
97Michael SchumacherMercedes36.38063.16835.1832’14.7313.7450.671
101Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault36.21663.26335.3812’14.8603.8740.000
1111Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes36.07364.03935.4452’15.5574.5710.255
1224Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth36.86363.60835.3112’15.7824.7960.627
1312Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes36.88964.05034.9822’15.9214.9350.865
1421Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault36.34664.38835.7622’16.4965.5100.292
153Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes36.35564.01036.3052’16.6705.6840.191
164Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes36.87964.07535.8732’16.8275.8410.000
1725Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth36.85064.59235.7782’17.2206.2340.299
1820Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault36.87664.97636.3472’18.1997.2130.000
199Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault37.15562.61939.0162’18.7907.8044.571
2010Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault38.06763.73037.0902’18.8877.90119.814
2122Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth37.07965.76436.3062’19.1498.1630.397
2223Dani ClosHRT-Cosworth37.19065.86936.3042’19.3638.3770.326
235Fernando AlonsoFerrari40.14467.09441.7152’28.95317.96711.796

Complete practice times

PosDriverCarFP1FP2Total laps
1Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari2’11.3892’53.23224
2Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault2’11.9412’51.66018
3Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari2’12.0042’49.75015
4Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari2’12.8242’58.23218
5Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault2’13.19113
6Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari2’13.8613’12.90120
7Nico RosbergMercedes2’14.21017
8Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault2’14.66016
9Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault2’14.86015
10Michael SchumacherMercedes2’15.40217
11Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes2’15.8122’51.33314
12Timo GlockMarussia-Cosworth2’16.4092’52.07620
13Nico HulkenbergForce India-Mercedes2’16.7862’59.12515
14Vitaly PetrovCaterham-Renault2’16.78816
15Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes2’16.8277
16Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes2’16.86110
17Charles PicMarussia-Cosworth2’17.5192’49.35418
18Heikki KovalainenCaterham-Renault2’18.19911
19Pedro de la RosaHRT-Cosworth2’19.54612
20Dani ClosHRT-Cosworth2’19.68912
21Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault2’38.7019
22Fernando AlonsoFerrari2’40.7492’50.4977
23Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault2’46.5809

Speed trap – first practice

#DriverCarEngineMax speedGap
117Jean-Eric VergneToro RossoFerrari254.5
214Kamui KobayashiSauberFerrari252.91.6
319Valtteri BottasWilliamsRenault249.25.3
418Pastor MaldonadoWilliamsRenault247.27.3
52Mark WebberRed BullRenault245.59
68Nico RosbergMercedesMercedes244.99.6
721Vitaly PetrovCaterhamRenault244.79.8
816Daniel RicciardoToro RossoFerrari243.910.6
915Sergio PerezSauberFerrari243.411.1
107Michael SchumacherMercedesMercedes236.817.7
1111Paul di RestaForce IndiaMercedes234.819.7
1212Nico HulkenbergForce IndiaMercedes233.820.7
131Sebastian VettelRed BullRenault232.122.4
1424Timo GlockMarussiaCosworth231.523
153Jenson ButtonMcLarenMercedes230.324.2
1625Charles PicMarussiaCosworth229.325.2
1710Romain GrosjeanLotusRenault22925.5
1820Heikki KovalainenCaterhamRenault22727.5
199Kimi RaikkonenLotusRenault224.530
2023Dani ClosHRTCosworth220.234.3
2122Pedro de la RosaHRTCosworth219.235.3
224Lewis HamiltonMcLarenMercedes21836.5
235Fernando AlonsoFerrariFerrari202.552
246Felipe MassaFerrariFerrari176.478.1

2012 Belgian Grand Prix

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Image © Lotus F1 Team/LAT

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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10 comments on “Lotus to put Double DRS ‘device’ on hold”

  1. Nick Jarvis (@)
    31st August 2012, 18:26

    looking forward to seeing it at monza, really hoping Caterham have one secretly planned for that race, too :)

    1. @nickj95gb It will no doubt prove more useful at Monza than Spa anyways. Shame, I was looking forward to its debut. Only a week to go I guess!

      1. Nick Jarvis (@)
        31st August 2012, 19:34

        yeah, it will work really well at monza, it’s basically 1 huge straight with a couple of chicanes :)

  2. Romain Grosjean said: “It’s a big shame we couldn’t do much running today as it was so wet. I was really looking forward to trying the famous ‘Device’ for the first time

    me too

    1. Has the “device” been used under racing conditions? I don’t think so, they were very organized they tried to test it early but this rainy conditions in recent practices has spoiled Lotus plans. Another thing that may spoil Lotus chances was Pirellis tyre allocation for the next GPs, I now understand their decision for SPA, nonetheless teams are threatening to go over the limits again which makes me believe, that they perhaps are lying to us, they chose harder tyres because Ferrari and most likely someone else likes them.

  3. Very interesting looking at the lap times, but mostly the ‘deficit to best’ times. It would seem that for the most part (bar perhaps Alonso) the best drivers have the lowest deficit. Hamilton and Vettel have none, as does Heikki Kovalainen. I still think he’ll end up in that Ferrari seat.

    I’m sure it may be skewed by the fact not much running was done, and the other factors considering the conditions, but it’s interesting to note all the same.

    1. I was thinking of writing a spoof comment complete with predicted race results such as we always see after 1st. practice, but I think your much subtler approach is better and I will leave it to you. :-)

  4. Shame, but maybe they have other ways to cope with lower temps @ lotus

  5. Did anyone catch info on Mercedes having tested something quite similar to the Lotus device on their car during the Friday?

    1. davidnotcoulthard
      1st September 2012, 10:33

      at Melbourne?

Comments are closed.