Official 2014 Chinese GP Thread

Yup, that's a bit amateur!

I'll don my fanboy hat- LOVED seeing Mr Ricciardo nail Sebastian again. I think he's doing better than anyone expected, certainly than I was. So pleased for him that it is very much so far, very good.

Hat off- Lewis was imperious, what a commanding win and his form is looking more and more ominous. Its feeling a little 2009 like, I wonder if anyone will get close by year end?

gav écrivait:
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> So the race result has changed to finishing after
> only 54 laps, because the chequered flag was
> accidentally shown early, which, according to the
> rules, if that happens, the result must be taken
> at that point. This means Kobayashi's overtake on
> Bianchi didn't count.
>
> While nothing important changes, what a
> clusterfuck.


massa wouldnt have minded this scenario in 2008 :P

Ferrari2007 Wrote:
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> @Monil, funnily enough mate, Turkey's attendance
> figures were terrible, despite its location just
> outside of Istanbul.

OK, that may have been an oversight on my part . It still produced, imo, some good racing.

The best example of @#$%& chequered flag organisation I can think of is the 1983 Belgian GP. Because of a false start, the flag was shown a lap early without any prior announcement, and it was shown at a different place on the lap to the starting grid(The race started where all modern GPs at Spa have started, but the chequered flag was shown at the old start-line on the run down to Eau Rouge).

Technology and the sport in general have moved on just a bit since then, so it's a surprise to see this kind of stuff happening now. Can't remember any confusion over chequered flags happening in recent years.

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Didn't Pele forget to wave the flag, or missed the winner at Interlagos one year?

Well, that wasn't the most interesting race. Rosberg's terrible start meant that a Hamilton walkover was unavoidable
Great stuff from 'Nando and a rather humorous Vettel there

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GPGSL -
GPGSL-3 - Pizza Party Racing manager and driver
Nations Cup - Team Scotland manager

J i m Wrote:
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> Didn't Pele forget to wave the flag, or missed the
> winner at Interlagos one year?

Ah yeah, 2002. He stared blankly as MS went past, then realised and stared up the track after him with an "Oopsy!" look on his face - I remember now. :P

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Got to say I'm impressed with the build quality of the Williams cars. After both being bounced about like space-hoppers on the run to the first corner they stood up pretty well.

The onboard footage of the start from Rosberg's car looked like Grand Theft Auto.

And Seb... LOL. Even when he's moaning he's awesome. :D

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EC83
Got to say I'm impressed with the build quality of the Williams cars. After both being bounced about like space-hoppers on the run to the first corner they stood up pretty well.

The onboard footage of the start from Rosberg's car looked like Grand Theft Auto.

Honourable mention for Bottas for driver of the day too. Nothing to do with his race, just for a keeping a car, which is sideways in the air, from spinning. Awesome.

I think the reliability in General is impressive. I sense that people in general were expecting olden style attrition and to be counting finishers on one hand. But I'm not the least bit surprised that F1 has got on terms with the new packages as quickly as they have. Even just over a decade ago when the stricter parc ferme conditions were implemented high attrition was anticipated but instead the teams responded by building cars that were significantly more reliable.

The Williams has looked particlary robust so far, when Bottas clouted the wall at Melbourne I was convinced it would mean retirement, but he came back strongly. And yesterday's wheel banging incidents were remarkable for the lack of concenquences, even as recently as last years Brazilian Grand Prix, Bottas' FW35 broke fairly comprehensively after a relatively light touch with Hamilton.

I'm also pleased that Williams have appeared to make good progress on their wet weather performance and also tyre dedgregation issues, although I imagine the relatively unique front tyre limited nature of the Shanghai circuit may have created a slightly false impression.

Quote
J i m
I think the reliability in General is impressive. I sense that people in general were expecting olden style attrition and to be counting finishers on one hand. But I'm not the least bit surprised that F1 has got on terms with the new packages as quickly as they have. Even just over a decade ago when the stricter parc ferme conditions were implemented high attrition was anticipated but instead the teams responded by building cars that were significantly more reliable.

Indeed, but let's wait until the engines are towards the end of their lives. I don't think they have to be used for successive races, like the gearboxes are, so we might see a flurry of failures towards the end of the year. They likely will use them in order given the "reliability" changes which will take place through the season, so not necessarily.

That said, with all the sensors and checking that goes on now, teams are more likely to pick up on issues before they become issues, taking a grid penalty to change them if necessary.

And one of the cars (think it's Maldonado's) there's something like 4 bits of the power unit which has needed changing already, so he's going to be piling grid penalties on grid penalties later in the season.

Still, you're right - reliability has been better than expected.

For me Nico R is very much like DC, Webber and Rubben.

Fantastic on his day but a very solid number 2. Lets be honest here Lewis would probably have 4 wins now and has closed a 25 point lead down to nothing without Nico breaking down.

If Nico wants to stay in this championship he needs to up his game big time, Lewis just looks in total control and the one making the errors is Nico.

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marcl
If Nico wants to stay in this championship he needs to up his game big time, Lewis just looks in total control and the one making the errors is Nico.

While Nico needs to up his game and is looking rattled at the moment (certainly on Saturday he was all over the place), it think it's unfair to say he's in for the supporting role quite yet. They were fairly even last season and in Bahrain he was undoubtedly the faster of the 2 drivers.

Plus, Lewis has at least one wobbly each season (normally Nicole-related it seems) which he lets get to his head and affects his next few weekends, so we'll see if that happens.

Overall, Hamilton looks the more comfortable at the moment, but I wouldn't be placing my hard earned on him yet.

Im not just going by this year im going by the last few years as well.

Last year Lewis had the measure of Nico as well despite being in a new team and the car not really being suited to him.

I think Nico is a good driver, but I just think Lewis is better. Hes 100% not in a supporting role, but he needs to start winning races very soon.

And yes I agree about lewis, he does not always keep his head so we need to see how that goes,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 09:51AM by marcl.

4/19 races gone with nico apparently owning hamilton big time in bahrain pace-wise, and we conclude that nico is webber; or D.C.? now webber was so miserable that in 2011 he won only 1 race; in 2013 none. if i were nico i would get offended if you called me a webbber. in fact i always wondered why marting brundle always pointed out how fast webber is? he is certainly aggressive and experienced. and he was probably fast in his early days (although he never had a decent team mate). but he was just as fast as a turtle in the last 3 years of his career.

also, i am 100% sure rosberg will never do a D.C-esque by letting his teammate pass in even conditions (melbourne 1998).


do not get me wrong. i think that hamilton IS faster than rosberg currently. the truth is, though, that we had 3 wet qualies from 4 races. And we all know nico is a slow driver in the wet. M.S. in his 40s owned him big time in Hockenheim, Silverstone 2012 in the wet. Hamilton is doing the same this season so far. But in the dry at bahrain there was clearly a faster merc. driver and it was not lewis.

regarding the china gp - a telemetry problem, of which all of you are aware, I am sure, caused a bad start and thus, a bad race subsequently.
the only thing china proved is that:

1. lewis is faster in the wet
2. rosberg has a good racecraft and can carve his way through the field if necessary.
3. williams have a magical suspension. :P



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 10:58AM by mitadumapaga.

Tbh I never really rated Webber that high to start off with, he was a good driver but never out standing. In F3000 there were a lot of silly mistakes and Justin Wilson looked better.

Yes Nico was faster is Barhain a track he has always gone well at, but thats what I mean. When DC and Rubens got to a track they loved their team mates never got close but over a year the odd one or two races were not enough.

Nico was faster but on race craft Lewis won, no way should he have won at Barhain. He was slower and on worse tyres yet he won and thats got to hurt Nico.

Maybe yes I am jumping to early, but so far over the year and a bit its been Lewis with the pace in most races.

What we need to remember with Nico is that although he's been in F1 even longer than Lewis, this is his first season in a potentially title-winning car. There's a unique mentality of being a title-contender that he needs to learn, and judging by his performance at the weekend, he's learning the hard way at the moment. It's a mentality which, of course, has been with Lewis more or less since the start of his F1 career.
But as a driver, per se? Nico is quite capable of beating Lewis and taking this title. The fact he only has 1 win to Lewis's 3 and still leads the Championship says a great deal. He just needs to start putting Lewis under more pressure.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2014 03:03PM by EC83.

All it says to me is Nico was lucky Lewis broke down at the first race as it probably would have been 4 from 4 and he would be miles behind already.

Even last year Nico was making mistakes on laps that could have got him higher up on the grid, he is better in a race though and does not let his head drop. I still think with Lewis if he has to fight his way through we could see the old Lewis driving to much on the edge.

On Sunday Nico took no risks and every pass was 100% on, Lewis will be more of take a dive and hope for the best.

I just hope the championship is over before the last race as I dont want any driver to lose out to the stupid double points thing.

For the 'John Watson - burn from the sturn' esque drive, I don't think there is anyone better than Hamilton, of his equal perhaps yes (Alonso, Vettel, Kimi) but there's no one better at coming back through the pack than Hamilton, when he's got the bit between his teeth he's simply irascible.

And so far, this season he's certainly come out punching hard in the intra-team battle between him and Rosberg. If it wasn't for the technical failure at Melbourne he'd probably have won, he won at a canter in Malaysia and again at China. At Bahrain he should arguably should have lost but won anyway, the only other driver who's as stupendously efficiently relentless as that is Vettel.

Rosberg is a excellent driver, (I've always been pro Rosberg) in the right circumstances he's got a championship in him, but I fear not when he's got a Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso type driver as his team-mate. He's ultimately not consistent enough.

If the Merc maintains the significant competitive edge through out this season then either Rosberg is going to need Hamilton to have several more DNFs which allow him to snatch 25 points from him or Hamilton is going to have a Monumental hormonal strop over Nicole, he's probably due one round about now... but I think overall he has Rosberg covered.

The break down normally happens in the summer break, so will see how lewis does after that lol.

Yes lewis is good at coming through the field if he does not get down beat.