Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[marcush.]

obviously W03 has speed not using the ddrs as well so it is unlikely to be the ultimate weapon . It is of great help in qualy as we have seen in all three races this year opening the opportunity to start toward s the front of the grid as you have basicaly two aero setups availablew on the same lap when before the change was concentrated on the rear wing -netting a balance shift towards oversteer ,which is a bit counter intuitive- at high speeds you want to reduce drag but you don´t want oversteer ,so the duffy duct helps to keep the balance .I guess it´s worth a bit but to make it work you need to design the car around it even more than with the f-duct .
I think teams are annoyed it is expensive for them to exploit this feature for so little to gain...Quite clever of Mercedes -I finally understand why they had to hold back the car so long...They need to distract the competition...paralising them for a few weeks.
the one obvious thing on W03 is the duffy duct and its a huge venture to integrate it now.Inevitably to investigate analyse and evaluate the system will take away precious recources from all other teams when Mercedes already has a competitive car and will allow them to dig into more development potential .
W03 is my favorite for this years championship- along with the Mclaren of course.

Schumacher admitted this weekend that he never enjoyed Sepang as a race track and only this year with a good car he finally finds some access to it .some tracks just don´t suit you...let´s see how things go on drivers tracks...
sure Rosberg put no foot wrong this weekend and has done well for his reputation .
But I really admire Schumacher for his sportmanship ,watching the race at the pitstand a nd cheering for Nico when others would have steamed away fuming about a team fault unavailable for comment -He offers to give the poor devil who kicks himself for being unable to attach the wheel a big hug ..says it all..This guy has done so much good for his reputation in the sport -I´m very happy he returned to Formula 1 for his love of the sport.

[Mandrake]

Could somebody post some videos of Hamilton's overtakes against actual competition this race? You talk so much about the large number of them, but unfortunately for me they must have happened during the commercial breaks...

[Yups]

A very good comparison indeed the only difference between the 2 drivers is that Rosberg is more aggressive in tackling the kerbs while Michael made a few mistakes that cost him a few tenths

Something is wrong with the sector times from Schumacher in this video. Calculated it should be a 1:35.5 lap time but he drove 1:35.6.

[ajdavison2]

Just out of curiosity if a driver qualifies on pole, but then receives a penalty for a gearbox or whatnot does the pole still count on their career stats or not?

[Ferraripilot]

A very good comparison indeed the only difference between the 2 drivers is that Rosberg is more aggressive in tackling the kerbs while Michael made a few mistakes that cost him a few tenths

Something is wrong with the sector times from Schumacher in this video. Calculated it should be a 1:35.5 lap time but he drove 1:35.6.

Nico is more aggressive and even sharper into the turns and using more curb. Vettel is very much like this too. I am also sure this has to do with the additional downforce Nico was running which also doesn't help his tire wear (Brawn has confirmed Nico is harder on tires). Michael was not able to turn in as sharp as I'm sure his car was setup for more long run to nurse the tires along. Would have been great seeing Michael's pace on lower fuel and medium fuel towards the end of the race as I'm sure it would have been quicker.

That said, why can W03 run more downforce, have sharper turn-in, yet still be difficult with tires? Red Bull always ran tons of downforce and always nursed the tires along just fine....

[Nando]

Didn't he take a while to get past Massa and Vettel compared to Button?

Hamilton started 7th, Button started 5th.

You do the math on who apparently did the best job in terms of overtakes at China

[Nando]

Could somebody post some videos of Hamilton's overtakes against actual competition this race? You talk so much about the large number of them, but unfortunately for me they must have happened during the commercial breaks...

You must have slept for a while then

I saw atleast 2 overtakes in Turn 6 on the inside.
Vettel he passed in the braking zone to the hairpin.

[raymondu999]

Could somebody post some videos of Hamilton's overtakes against actual competition this race? You talk so much about the large number of them, but unfortunately for me they must have happened during the commercial breaks...

You must have slept for a while then

not all countries have commercial-free F1 coverage

[raymondu999]

Just out of curiosity if a driver qualifies on pole, but then receives a penalty for a gearbox or whatnot does the pole still count on their career stats or not?

No. Pole is based on the FIA grid printout.

[beelsebob]

Just out of curiosity if a driver qualifies on pole, but then receives a penalty for a gearbox or whatnot does the pole still count on their career stats or not?

Yes, the BBC commentary covered this – the penalty is applied in the race, not in qualifying, so they have qualified in pole position.

[Yups]

(Brawn has confirmed Nico is harder on tires).

Do you have a link?

[marcush.]

true to it i´m pretty sure they are not on top of all this goingons...on saturday Rosberg was convinced he´d run into trouble ,as was Norby just before the race..
I´think Schumacher had a tad less df cranked on ,but shouldn´t this be a good thing at the beginning of the race with higher vertical load coming from the xtra weight?
I think all this is not perfectly understood and the actual size of the setup window is more like a blurred sight like a Matisse not a engineers drawing .

[Paul]

To be honest it was easy to miss interesting moments which were spread out and plenty, I missed a few just by taking a peek at the timing.

[raymondu999]

Just out of curiosity if a driver qualifies on pole, but then receives a penalty for a gearbox or whatnot does the pole still count on their career stats or not?

Yes, the BBC commentary covered this – the penalty is applied in the race, not in qualifying, so they have qualified in pole position.

The Beeb got it wrong. The pole statistic is derived on the fia printout of the starting grid, after penalties applied. So says Sean Kelly. Pole position is based on the P1 grid slot, not based on qualifying.

[shades]

I find it amazing that Nico had a set of unused tires.
When the car works .... it really works!