The Officially Diffused 2009 Chinese GP *Here be Spoilers*

The FIA wouldn't have declared those diffusers illegal for all the tea in China, ha ha...
Anyway.



McLaren are back? First practice saw Lewis on top, the position he prefers.
Brawn GP kept up the pace, championship beckons?
Red Bull looke good, but it is only practice.
BMW sandbagging or sandbagged.
Ferrari, well, they always look good, but how much sand does China have?

The year so far is making us all look like F1 virgins. Get yourselves a set of tyre warmers. They'll double as blindfolds for the disbelieving.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/25/2009 12:51PM by mortal.

looking forward to another good weekend!

hopefully williams, red bull or toyota get a win!

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X (@ed24f1)

I predict that a driver has his eye put out by a big lump of rubber falling off his own super-soft tyres. I cannot believe how bad they are falling apart - they looks far worse than even Melbourne.

I like a curve ball thrown in, and a race a season with such stupidity is fine (like Ferrari at the Hungaroring in '97, which was hilarious) but I'm with Alonso on this one... it's nuts.

Someone told me Lewis had the new aero package but Heikki didn't, I didn't follow the practice so I can't comment but if that is true it's quite sad. It's been a little while since I remember such thing happening, even including MotoGP (back maybe 3 or 4 years ago)

they both have the new front wing, but apparently they only have one of their new interim diffusers, which was given to Lewis.

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X (@ed24f1)

I was also shocked to hear that there is only one diffuser and Lewis has it, but then again he is the world champion. Mclaren always say they have equal footing and yet again his shows they just do what ferrari done.

Ok so there is not enough parts for both cars, but I find it hard to believe there is only one. What if it gets damaged? maybe Kovy will have one as well tomorrow.

Even with the new parts Lewis was not much faster than Kovy in fp1. Kovy used the new wing in the 2nd session and Lewis tested other new parts.

Ferrari are in a complete mess, the car looked bad.

interesting quote from Jenson about Flavio's comments about him,

"He also needs to remember that he tried to employ me for this year, so..."

so are we to take from that, that renault seriously conisdered dropping Piquet? or was this going to be part of proposed 'Alonso to Honda' move that was discussed last year?

I think its funny the whole Flavio thing, rbr use the same engine as them and dont have the diffuser and are faster as well. I do love it when he goes into one

LOL at the thread title!

I think Brawn will maintain their advantage but the front end will tighten up a bit. Toyota, RedBull and Williams should be next. McLaren should be a bit more competitive, but I'm still not expecting anything special from them. Ferrari... Pffft! That team seem to be turning desperate. They lose their KERS in an attempt to try and find some form, and they still seem to be nowhere. Oh dear.

I get the feeling it'll be dry all weekend.

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[www.autosport.com]

Lol. Jensons comments back are quite funny, and true. The general feeling around is this is just normal flavio - a tw*t :p

Interesting comments from Button to say he tried employing him... Im just glad he didnt and tbh after 2001 you really think Button would make the same mistake?

Practice went well for Brawn, Toyota, RedBull and Williams. I guess the usual characters this year. Ferrari dont seem as confident as before, though I beleive Massas final quick lap was hurt by traffic.

One major thing i noticed was the Brawns ability to keep the soft tyres.

Im pretty sure they went out for their last two longish runs on supersoft, and on both occasions JB got the best out of the on either the 3rd or 4th lap. It seems the others are using them alot quicker. If they did use the supersofts then that is very good news. I cant say for sure, but from the little viewing box online they looked like the green stripe tyres.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

chet Wrote:
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>
> One major thing i noticed was the Brawns ability
> to keep the soft tyres.
>


yes at the moment the combination of the amount of grip the brawn appears to have coupled with Jensons smooth driving style is giving them a massive advantage with the softer tyres.

It not only gives them a boost in qualifying but will be huge in the race as it means they can be a lot more flexible on their fuel stops.

From the sounds of things a few of the others are going to be doing very short runs on them. some of the more extreme suggestions were that they've got about 5-6 laps on them before they start to hit trouble. (though i'd be surprised if they were quite that bad)

Showing now at the Chinese Grand Prix:


Macca seem to have improved somewhat...then you've Beamer who you are hard to judge, Ferrari and Renault who are probably going backwards and the usual Brawn, Willi, RBR and Toyota there or there abouts towards the front. Once again though, tyres. Seriously, can these super-softs work anywhere?

chet Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> One major thing i noticed was the Brawns ability
> to keep the soft tyres.
>
> Im pretty sure they went out for their last two
> longish runs on supersoft, and on both occasions
> JB got the best out of the on either the 3rd or
> 4th lap. It seems the others are using them alot
> quicker. If they did use the supersofts then that
> is very good news. I cant say for sure, but from
> the little viewing box online they looked like the
> green stripe tyres.

The softs are keeping their pace well considering, but the Brawn was almost as bad at chewing the fronts as the Ferrari was. There was also a slowmo of Button with rubber chunking off the tyre ('chunk' is the best word I can think of, as these weren't marbles, they were bloody huge lumps off all the cars!).

I'm still aghast at the slowmo of Massa... it was so bad he was being hit with rubber from his own tyres, and mid-corner looked at the left front tyre, while turning right and continually having to add more lock. @#$%& knows what must have been going through his mind. Actually it was probably something about needing a clear visor.

Firstly - Congrats on Jenson on a very witty comback against Flavio.

Secondly i can see a Ferrari ending up in the wall on this one (along with Piquet), their tyres are so bad you could see how much Massa was struggling.

Lewis looked fast, mainly because he was able to look after his tyres much much better than Heikki with the old aero package - an indication on a possible race winning car now?

I can only see this race going to a Brawn or a Toyota to be honest though - i think Mclaren look a little faster, but still lagging behind. Red Bull are close behing Toyota, with Williams still seemingly underperforming.

Putting Stefano domenicali(from my point of view) as team principal is such a mess in ferrari, hope he step down sooner,i prefer todt(although he has favourtism)

2 Hot 2 Handle.

MS-


KR -



"You must always pick the worst car and the worst team on the grid, to be the best."
—Fangio

Lol Gav just seen!!! Real bad! Strategy is gonna be an interesting one.

JB's strategy at Aus seemed the most logical and quickest, without the saftey cars it would seem the logical way to go.

What about here though?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

chet Wrote:
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> What about here though?

It depends. You're right in that they retained their pace for a good while, but when Button came in once it looked like a hell of a lot had been worn from the centre of the 2 front tyres. It wasn't a lockup as it was consistent and all the way around the tyre, but it was patterned, like the tyre had been bouncing while sliding. I don't think it was down to the canvas or anything (surely it can't have been), but it looked nasty.

They ought to improve as the weekend goes on though - the track should rubber in a bit.

Unless it warms up a lot during the weekend then heat isn't going to be a problem, so perhaps if they just take it very easy and build temps up slowly, they'll get through 10-12 laps fine. Even on the softs after 2-3 laps some cars were weaving on the straight... unless they were just trying to clear those chunks off their tyres.

I wonder if Ferrari will try a 3-stopper, or if they'll just stretch out the stints a bit more.

BTW, bang goes your theory about Ferrari and KERS. :P They're even slower now they've removed it. They've got big problems. I wonder what the odds are (and were before Melbourne) of them getting to Barcelona without a single point?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/2009 07:06PM by gav.

Remember that the Ferrari was designed fully focused on having KERS. They can't just simply remove KERS and improve, they need some redesigning and their new aero package was probably designed with KERS in mind so they'll have to adapt that too when they bring it in. Might be a good idea to start on super softs, barely have fuel in (maybe 9-10 laps worth), get away from the field, put medium load and go for medium tires, and for the last stint perhaps super softs (if it's not more than 9 laps) or do some sort of fuel strategy adjustment to get to the end of the race.

if there is a SC, i'm sure some of the cars will do 2 stops in 2 laps and get the soft tyres out of the way.

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X (@ed24f1)

I think that there is a very rare chance for a safety car here so the best strategy in my opinion is to Qualify light and go for a 10-12 first stint and then go for two 22-25 stints. I think 10-12 laps is the most that anybody can get out of the softs, still that is much better than in Australia.