2015 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 10-12

[raymondu999]

WTH happened here? Rings of Hockenheim a few years back with a mad priest running on the racetrack.

[deterherligt]

WTH happened here? Rings of Hockenheim a few years back with a mad priest running on the racetrack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7wAomUJ5bQ

The priest was at Silverstone. I belive the Hockenheim man was an mercedes emploey that was fired and mad or something.

Here is the priest at Silverstone:

[giantfan10]

should be a very very interesting race to say the least..the mercs should be on pole based on the low fuel runs in FP2 BUT the ferrari matched the mercedes lap for lap during long runs on both tires

[Andres125sx]

Wow, McLaren 10th just 2 seconds behind Hamilton.... Never expected that

If only they could finish the race in those positions....or at least finish it whatever the result is.

Well, two races, only one car finished one race, so it´s a 25% probability what means if one car reach the checkered flag they´d be lucky

[WaikeCU]

Ferrari PU has got some power on the loud pedal. Impressive speeds. V10s were doing ~320-330 If I remember correctly.

So Hamilton sets the fastest lap of the session, but he's more than 10kph down on the speedtrap. Dunno, but that's a big deficit. Unless he's not running on full power, he could well see two Ferrari's fly by him on the straights on race day. A true sitting duck.

[Phil]

That quite depends where Hamilton starts. If he's in front and his car produces better laptimes, he will gradually increase his gap irregardless how fast that Ferrari is on the straight. Like when RedBull used to win its races starting from pole. From pole they were in a class of their own, in traffic, not so much.

As for the top speeds; How do teams handle practice sessions? Since these are 'top-speed' figures, I'm assuming they are from the quick runs, so with open DRS to achieve them. Couldn't it be that Ferrari might have a more extreme DRS implemention? As in; the drag difference between open and closed DRS flap is greater?

I'm more concerned about tyre wear to be honest. Malaysia [in extreme conditions] showed that using tyres efficiently is a bit part of winning. If they can run the same pace as Mercedes but longer, that puts them at a slight advantage. Or if they can run a higher pace over the same laps. Depending on how big that advantage is, they could run a different strategy that suits them better. If it's not big enough, then track position will be more important.

[George-Jung]

[hattrick]

First Practice Session Lap Times.pdf

Second Practice Session Lap Times.pdf

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Teams and drivers who have changed unit parts for China:

New PU components used by drivers in China.pdf




Power Units used per driver so far.pdf





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Technical Delegate’s Report.pdf

 ...in order to inspect the
change gears and associated dog rings for physical damage and as a result of this inspection to
change the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th change gear pair.
This was done in accordance with Article 28.6d of the 2015 Formula One Sporting Regulations.

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Transcript drivers press conference.pdf

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Media kit.pdf
-very interesting document with a lot of information .. like this map:



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Referees at the GP China:
Chinese GP Race Stewards Biographies.pdf

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Circuit Map.pdf

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Grand Prix Preview.pdf


Vettel eyes step forward on Saturday

[tranquility2k4]

I think Merc have quite a big advantage over Ferrari here on quali and race pace. Clearly Ferrari have better deg, but not enough to pose a problem. If you compare Hamilton vs Vettel, we can assume they were both on full tanks and Ham has clear advantage. With Rosberg and Kimi this is not the case, but I'm pretty certain that Rosberg started on a full tank, whereas Kimi started on 2nd stint fuel. The reason for this is if you compare team mates on different tyres, Kimi is similar or even faster than Vettel who is on the faster tyre, whereas, Ham is clearly faster than Ros on slower tyre. When Ros puts option on he isn't going hugely faster than Ham was, certainly suggesting he started on a full tank.

There was a trend last year where Merc would switch their engine down in FP2, and rivals would be closer and then they would switch it back up in FP3 and be miles ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if the gap is nearly 1 second in qualifying again. Remember last year at China in FP2, Merc were only 1 tenth ahead of Ferrari and Lewis went on to win at a canter.

[ChrisDanger]

First Practice Session Lap Times.pdf

+ much more...

Thanks for that!

[Vasconia]

That quite depends where Hamilton starts. If he's in front and his car produces better laptimes, he will gradually increase his gap irregardless how fast that Ferrari is on the straight. Like when RedBull used to win its races starting from pole. From pole they were in a class of their own, in traffic, not so much.

As for the top speeds; How do teams handle practice sessions? Since these are 'top-speed' figures, I'm assuming they are from the quick runs, so with open DRS to achieve them. Couldn't it be that Ferrari might have a more extreme DRS implemention? As in; the drag difference between open and closed DRS flap is greater?

I'm more concerned about tyre wear to be honest. Malaysia [in extreme conditions] showed that using tyres efficiently is a bit part of winning. If they can run the same pace as Mercedes but longer, that puts them at a slight advantage. Or if they can run a higher pace over the same laps. Depending on how big that advantage is, they could run a different strategy that suits them better. If it's not big enough, then track position will be more important.

But if Ferrari can match their lap times during the first 3-5 laps they could attack them on the straight. Vettel used to be in his on league during the first 3 laps of each race when he was driving his WC winner cars.

[MarkedOne8]

I think Merc have quite a big advantage over Ferrari here on quali and race pace. Clearly Ferrari have better deg, but not enough to pose a problem. If you compare Hamilton vs Vettel, we can assume they were both on full tanks and Ham has clear advantage. With Rosberg and Kimi this is not the case, but I'm pretty certain that Rosberg started on a full tank, whereas Kimi started on 2nd stint fuel. The reason for this is if you compare team mates on different tyres, Kimi is similar or even faster than Vettel who is on the faster tyre, whereas, Ham is clearly faster than Ros on slower tyre. When Ros puts option on he isn't going hugely faster than Ham was, certainly suggesting he started on a full tank.

There was a trend last year where Merc would switch their engine down in FP2, and rivals would be closer and then they would switch it back up in FP3 and be miles ahead. I wouldn't be surprised if the gap is nearly 1 second in qualifying again. Remember last year at China in FP2, Merc were only 1 tenth ahead of Ferrari and Lewis went on to win at a canter.

False. In FP1 the gap was bit more than 1 second. At the beginning of FP2, the gap was also about 1 second or slightly less. The leap in times came when both Merc and Ferrari drivers switched to Soft tyres. Mercedes found "only" about 1,5s, but Ferrari found ~2 seconds. That suggests that your theory about Merc FP2 sandbagging is false.

[hattrick]

Chinese GP: Team personnel press conference



(@ChrisDanger, always at service.)

[Rikhart]

Well Alonso showed last year hes way better then Kimi.

I would be more precise: Fernando was way better in a beasty car the F14t was than Kimi.
Kimi seems to be quite sensitive regarding traits of his car. He can be quick if everything fits.

DUUUDE If everything is right on a car and a car is amasing even a Mediocre driver like Maldonado can win..........

Alonso is better then Kimi plain and simple same car same conditions and Kimi did nothing compared to Alonso im not even an Alonso Fan im just saying Alonso is better plain and simple and now we see that Vettel is also better then Kimi. Or so far he has been lets let the season finish.

Only thing last year showed us was that alonso is better with very bad handling cars. In fact he might be the best in that aspect, and I wonder how much that has hurt ferrari these last 5 years...

[Phil]

But if Ferrari can match their lap times during the first 3-5 laps they could attack them on the straight. Vettel used to be in his on league during the first 3 laps of each race when he was driving his WC winner cars.

If they can match their laptimes, then there will be a bigger difference than 10kmh anyway, because the car at the front will not have DRS vs. the car behind that (under the assumption the gap will be < 1.0 sec) will. But even with DRS vs. a Merc without, the key will be how close that Ferrari can get in dirty air on the run up to those long straights. I'm operating on the assumption that the Merc has quite a bit of downforce, so is quicker through the corners (it has to be, otherwise it wouldn't make up the deficits in straight line speed on the straights), so it probably has a higher corner speed, thus is pulling away at that point. A car overtaking will have to overcome this and be still quick enough to pass before the end of the straight.

Anyway, it's only been practice, so we have differing fuel loads to consider. QF might tell us more, but then we are comparing light car vs light car - however in the race it will be relevant how both Merc and Ferrari compare under full fuel loads (heavy!) and how much performance they can extract from the tyre.