2015 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 10-12

[SectorOne]

updated my post a bit. Sounds like you´d have to do Q1 and Q2 on the prime tire in order to be able to save a set of options then.

[markp]

Fernando looked slower than his teammate all weekend. First time I see him in such position.

I'm not defending his performance (no need), Button was faster but with a car at such a low level all driver vs driver discussions are a bit pointless. Wasn't someone here (rather optimistically I thought) expecting McL Lotus fight?

Same as 2014 at Ferrari? Or all the midfield and Biancj Chilton at Marrusia last few years? Only 2 races gone will wait a few more races before forming an opinion but 2-0 to Button so far.

[iotar__]

This is where Mercedes free race tactics hurt them a bit.
In an ideal world they would have not went out again and saved the tire.
(ideal as in not in Rosberg´s best interest but for the team as a whole looking at the race)

- No, this your preferences talking, everything needs to be in favour of "your" driver, nothing to do with a team, let's say Rosberg is faster on Sun and has better chance for a win? Yeah deny him chance for pole.
- 0,04 is your answer, look how close it was between Rosb and Ham and didn't they send him too late? Rosberg's RE is horrible he sounded relieved that he was behind,
- Massa out-qualifying both Bottas and Raikkonen (I'd like to see Arrivabene's face) and quite close to Vettel , if TV salesmen had him on their "pro" lists he'd be considered a genius driver
- Lotus is considerably slower than Sauber, they need to get their act together, Renault and a driver are making them look less awful here but it won't last long, instead I expect "it's top 10!" fiction.

[efuloni]

[
- Massa out-qualifying both Bottas and Raikkonen (I'd like to see Arrivabene's face) and quite close to Vettel , if TV salesmen had him on their "pro" lists he'd be considered a genius driver
.

He qualified ahead of Bottas the three races so far...

[iotar__]

Fernando looked slower than his teammate all weekend. First time I see him in such position.

I'm not defending his performance (no need), Button was faster but with a car at such a low level all driver vs driver discussions are a bit pointless. Wasn't someone here (rather optimistically I thought) expecting McL Lotus fight?

Same as 2014 at Ferrari? Or all the midfield and Biancj Chilton at Marrusia last few years? Only 2 races gone will wait a few more races before forming an opinion but 2-0 to Button so far.

What are those comparisons for exactly? 2:0 Button is autosport forums level where Button vs Alonso has 1000 replies when in fact there's nothing to talk about. When I talk about McL performance I mean it's random, below any decent level, testing and replacing components stage, focused on reliability set up, adding aero, you have no clue about engines, programs, settings, drivers are really irrelevant from team's perspective at the moment. Not to mention missed tests and races. Even if it was steady-horrible it still means little, what does it matter if they are 15 or 17? You can take risk, different direction at times etc.


If you want to gloat and draw conclusion, fine I won't argue with you 2:0 it is

[psychemedia]

Session Utilisation for FP3:



and qualifying:



Bearing in mind comments about previous charts (I still haven't had a chance to group by team, but it's on the to do list!), I've also started considering what we might term toggle views of this sort of chart, that retain the spatial layout but use different labels - such as the gap to the best session time.

This is not as easy as it might seem at first, because it forces you to think about online versus offline algorithmic approaches to the chart's design. In what we might term an online chart, we can build up the chart as time moves on (that is, we could construct the chart in real time). In an offline chart, we use some property of the dataset as a whole to construct the chart (such as the gap to the best overall time in a session) and as such can only generate the chart once all the data is in...

[Edax]

What are those comparisons for exactly? 2:0 Button is autosport forums level where Button vs Alonso has 1000 replies when in fact there's nothing to talk about. When I talk about McL performance I mean it's random, below any decent level, testing and replacing components stage, focused on reliability set up, adding aero, you have no clue about engines, programs, settings, drivers are really irrelevant from team's perspective at the moment. Not to mention missed tests and races. Even if it was steady-horrible it still means little, what does it matter if they are 15 or 17? You can take risk, different direction at times etc.

Agree. Button qualified 3.434 seconds behind the P1 time, Alonso 3.438 with 0.004 seconds of difference.

Perhaps it tells that the divers are somewhat better matched than for instance Webber and Young.

But says a lot more about the car than the drivers.

[atanatizante]

But the last set available, is free to use only in Q3 and they would start the race on Q2 tyres.

Hmm so if they had done one run only, that tire would count towards the race?

As far as I know, there is one extra set available, which is only limited to use in Q3 and will not be available for Race. This was done to encourage cars to run more in Q3 and not sit out.

Ideed, since 2014 they have 4 sets of option tyres, then :
Q1: Both Merc drivers were on prime tyre and Ferrari drivers were used 1 set of option and 1 set of prime.
Q2: Merc used 1 option and Ferrari 2 option tyres
Q3: Merc used 2 new option tyres and Ferrari 2 option, one new and one used.
And if you`ll do the math you could see that both teams have 1 set of fresh option tyres for the race

[Jordan44]

Think Ferrari got this if they qualify top 4. Their race pace without tire degradation is very close to Merc, and when degradation comes into play they are just too good. They have too many options and I reckon girls and boys at Merc camp must be having headaches all weekend long knowing what kind of pace Ferrari has.

Add to that a fact that Sunday will be hotest day in a long time and we might have a race on our hands. Either way, cant wait!

I don't think the race pace will be as close as people think in the end, it will be fascinating. The gap to Ferrari in qualifying definitely increased from what it was in free practise, I don't think Merc were showing their full hand at all.

[Moose]

Think Ferrari got this if they qualify top 4. Their race pace without tire degradation is very close to Merc, and when degradation comes into play they are just too good. They have too many options and I reckon girls and boys at Merc camp must be having headaches all weekend long knowing what kind of pace Ferrari has.

Add to that a fact that Sunday will be hotest day in a long time and we might have a race on our hands. Either way, cant wait!

I don't think the race pace will be as close as people think in the end, it will be fascinating. The gap to Ferrari in qualifying definitely increased from what it was in free practise, I don't think Merc were showing their full hand at all.

Yep, I expect Merc to have a ~0.5-0.7 second a lap advantage at the start of stints, and while Ferrari may have better tire wear, that'll only bring that down to approximately similar lap times, it won't give them a fight I don't think.

[aral]

Think Ferrari got this if they qualify top 4. Their race pace without tire degradation is very close to Merc, and when degradation comes into play they are just too good. They have too many options and I reckon girls and boys at Merc camp must be having headaches all weekend long knowing what kind of pace Ferrari has.

Add to that a fact that Sunday will be hotest day in a long time and we might have a race on our hands. Either way, cant wait!

I don't think the race pace will be as close as people think in the end, it will be fascinating. The gap to Ferrari in qualifying definitely increased from what it was in free practise, I don't think Merc were showing their full hand at all.

Yep, I expect Merc to have a ~0.5-0.7 second a lap advantage at the start of stints, and while Ferrari may have better tire wear, that'll only bring that down to approximately similar lap times, it won't give them a fight I don't think.

all speculation! and if the gap is only around .5-.7 secs, and the ferrari is lighter on their tyres, than that gap might not be enough to make up for the extra pit stop that the merc could need.

[FoxHound]

Would Ferrari one stopping be an option?

[f1316]

Haven't read every single post, so apologies if already mentioned: but coulthard just pointed out on bbc how Rosberg's been consistently slower in s1 and 2 but quicker in s3 with higher top speed- as it proved in q3 ultimate laps.

If so, he may have been looking with an eye to the race, much as Hamilton did many times last year.

[ecapox]

Would Ferrari one stopping be an option?

I think they could. Although it would have to be orchestrated perfectly in order to not fall back at the end to those running fresh tires. Its a gamble that maybe one of the two Ferraris would try.

20-25 laps on soft
30 laps on medium

[Artur Craft]

Button flying lap on mediums from FP2. Nice onboard footage from an actual working mclaren honda. Car looks quite well behaved imo. Honda is seriously lacking in the BHP department.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F86eAua8GgM[/url]

And RAI on softs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LbWh_7WmSg[/url]

FOM already blocked them. Thanks for uploading, anyway. Next time, do it on places like vimeo or dailymotion and you will probably get away with it

Fernando looked slower than his teammate all weekend. First time I see him in such position.

Alonso matched Button on qualifying, despite making a mistake on the most important corner(the one that leads to the back straight) and having no FP3 running

On a sidenote, how cringeworthy were the planted 'fans' with flags down the back straight.

Yeah, that farce is so pathetic

Haven't read every single post, so apologies if already mentioned: but coulthard just pointed out on bbc how Rosberg's been consistently slower in s1 and 2 but quicker in s3 with higher top speed- as it proved in q3 ultimate laps.

If so, he may have been looking with an eye to the race, much as Hamilton did many times last year.

DC is correct. Rosberg is 1,5kmh faster on S1 and 0,5kmh on S2 despite being slighlty slower on both. On the speed trap he has 2,5kmh over Hamilton.

It really seems like Rosberg went for an alternative setup more biased for the race. As for claiming Hamilton did this last year, there is no factual indication of it. They were usually pretty similar on speed traps and often said to use the same setup.
@iotar, have I already said how good is it to have you around here?!