2016 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, Apr 15 - 17

[giantfan10]

So Vettel says he only made one run in Q3 to save a set of tires...HMMMMM i'm thinking he is going for a 3 stopper SS-S-S-SS ?

[GPR-A duplicate2]

It doesn't look good for Ferrari drivers, even Ricciardo is in front, they are simply not good enough to compete with Merc, especially over one lap. No excuses today. Meanwhile marketing fiction is reaching new heights when they are almost winning Bahrain '15 before the race and almost Bahrain '16 after the race, in press releases of course, never during a race, not even a second in contention.

Live timing/Pirelli "in case of a dry race 2 different three stop strategies appear to be the fastest options: SS/S/S/S or S/S/S/SS." SS ESSESS

The race is tomorrow remember? sheesh.
its sunny and 22 degrees tomorrow at the track i suspect the red bulls and williams will be nowhere near the podium.
did you honestly think Ferrari in 2 weeks since the last race jumped mercedes with no updates to the car?
Rosberg as far as we know is in the catbird seat but i wouldnt be at all surprised if he is behind a Ferrari when the Ferraris pit on lap 6 or whenever its predicted. should be rosberg vettel and kimi on the podium in that order if its a standard race

Phew..... finally you gave up on Ferraris in qualifying and all that stubborn refusal to believe that Ferrari is nowhere in contention on single lap pace is now settled I guess. With that, all the winter season nonsense of Ferrari being closer to Mercedes than last year and now there is only 1 or 2 tenths is all laid to rest too. Normal qualifying resumed, but that has changed nothing. Any more excuses on Ferraris part or any other hopes of miracles?
So there only remains the case of Race pace that need to be busted. A Red bull that was hanging just behind for couple of races, has now started to be coming on par with Ferrari over 1 lap pace. Might be fluke. But the prospect of Renault providing a lift in performance by Canada for an already strong Red Bull package, would be creating uncomfortable atmosphere at Ferrari now. Will Ricciardo secure a 4th place finish or will he spoil one of Ferrari's party?

[rayden]

Jesus Ric, wtf

[evered7]

Some people just blow their trumpet no matter what evidence says, do they? So the Mercs are .5s up on Ferrari who made a mistake in the last run. The fact that Ferrari had provisional pole, isn't of any importance to some.

Ric beat Kimi's time set during the initial run, by thousandth. Suddenly RB have closed on Ferrari? Even if that is the case, shouldn't Mercedes be shaking in their boots as well especially since Renault won't be --- for too long and Merc chassis being the bestest of best will be put to the test soon.

The race is tomorrow. Stay tuned.

[atanatizante]

Could Lewis go tomorrow from the pit lane with a M-M-SS strategy?
Advantages vs. disadvantages?

I do not think this would be a good solution. Everything until P14 is easy to clear, no matter which strategy they use. Then there are FIs, Haas or Williams on Softs.
With the Mediums Hamilton will have a hard time and be stuck until lap 15 when they have to pit. Then maybe 5 laps free air. These 5 laps will not compensate the time loss due to the harder overtaking on track with the Mediums and after the stop they may fall back behind some Haas, Williams, FIs again.
So I think they will go for Softs and an aggressive strategy with undercutting the other Soft runners. Like this they are clear of everything until P10 after the first stop.

So medium tyre is let`s say 1 sec. slower than the soft one and W07 is at least 1,5 sec. faster than Williams, FI and maybe 1 sec. than RB & TR, on average, as we saw from the last 2 races so far and bearing in mind this is a track which you could overtake pretty easily, he must - at least - have to make the same lap times with the guys in front of him in order to pass them on the long straight, don`t you think?
In Melbourne wasn`t able due to the short DRS zones but here is the opposite ...
I think he have had here a similar strategy a couple of years ago (unfortunately don`t remember the year and driver ... maybe someone could help me with this one) with the last stint on the softest tyre available & with the light car that driver was making lots of places in the last laps, with all drivers in front of him struggling with tyre ware at the end of the race ...

[F1NAC]

NEw power unit for Hamilton!

[matt_b]

NEw power unit for Hamilton!

New MGU-H, team hope to use the 1st one later in the season once they get it back to the factory.

[giantfan10]

It doesn't look good for Ferrari drivers, even Ricciardo is in front, they are simply not good enough to compete with Merc, especially over one lap. No excuses today. Meanwhile marketing fiction is reaching new heights when they are almost winning Bahrain '15 before the race and almost Bahrain '16 after the race, in press releases of course, never during a race, not even a second in contention.

Live timing/Pirelli "in case of a dry race 2 different three stop strategies appear to be the fastest options: SS/S/S/S or S/S/S/SS." SS ESSESS

The race is tomorrow remember? sheesh.
its sunny and 22 degrees tomorrow at the track i suspect the red bulls and williams will be nowhere near the podium.
did you honestly think Ferrari in 2 weeks since the last race jumped mercedes with no updates to the car?
Rosberg as far as we know is in the catbird seat but i wouldnt be at all surprised if he is behind a Ferrari when the Ferraris pit on lap 6 or whenever its predicted. should be rosberg vettel and kimi on the podium in that order if its a standard race

Phew..... finally you gave up on Ferraris in qualifying and all that stubborn refusal to believe that Ferrari is nowhere in contention on single lap pace is now settled I guess. With that, all the winter season nonsense of Ferrari being closer to Mercedes than last year and now there is only 1 or 2 tenths is all laid to rest too. Normal qualifying resumed, but that has changed nothing. Any more excuses on Ferraris part or any other hopes of miracles?
So there only remains the case of Race pace that need to be busted. A Red bull that was hanging just behind for couple of races, has now started to be coming on par with Ferrari over 1 lap pace. Might be fluke. But the prospect of Renault providing a lift in performance by Canada for an already strong Red Bull package, would be creating uncomfortable atmosphere at Ferrari now. Will Ricciardo secure a 4th place finish or will he spoil one of Ferrari's party?

dont get carried away there genius .
So Red bull is now on par with Ferrari? damp qualification with both Ferrari drivers making mistakes and red bull is now on par? just stop it please will ya? watch the race lets see how far behind Ferrari red bull finishes.So the ferrari engine upgrade scheduled for spain? thats going to do what take them backwards? dont let facts get in the way of your usual bluster.
My point about Mercedes and Ferrari remain the same ... one team has a qualifying mode the other team cant match at this point. take away mistakes by both Ferrari drivers and i suspect the advantage Rosberg would have had if any would have been a tenth or 2.
shall we go into your chest thumping about Mercedes reliability now or save that for later since Hamilton is on his second engine in race 3 just like Vettel along with a new gearbox. All that driving around in testing in spain amounts to absolutely nothing just like i said.
the race is tomorrow in pretty warm conditions which bodes well for the supersofts . remember Malaysia last year where the prognosticators were saying the SS would only last 5 laps? lets see how the race plays out before you start celebrating early.

[gandharva]

Great drive from Daniel, but this would not have been able if Kimi and Seb didn't screw up. The fact that Ferrari seemed closer to Merc imho is only due to the fact that Rosberg has set up his car fully towards the Soft/Medium tires. Also the green track will probably play into his hands tomorrow as the SS has nearly no pace advantage over the S on a green track, but the S will for sure last longer.

So current pecking order on front limited track seems pretty much the same as on more rear limited ones.

Merc > Ferrari > RBR > TR/Williams

[Sevach]

So Vettel says he only made one run in Q3 to save a set of tires...HMMMMM i'm thinking he is going for a 3 stopper SS-S-S-SS ?

It appears that Ferrari consider the SS a good tire for the race.

Rosberg is probably going S-S-M so there will be some variation.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

dont get carried away there genius .
So Red bull is now on par with Ferrari? damp qualification with both Ferrari drivers making mistakes and red bull is now on par? just stop it please will ya? watch the race lets see how far behind Ferrari red bull finishes.

Compare Ricciardo's time with Rosberg, just half a second. And half a second on a track with one of the longest straight requiring a lot of power. Damp qualification? It was same for everyone OR are you suggesting that Ferrari becomes weaker in wet and RB gets stronger, even in 2016?

]So the ferrari engine upgrade scheduled for spain? thats going to do what take them backwards? dont let facts get in the way of your usual bluster.

Yeah, upgrades like 70% new car for 2015 Canada with a 30-40 BHP power upgrade, whereas Mercedes just did a reliability upgrade and another MAJOR package in Monza 2015. Did that changed anything?

My point about Mercedes and Ferrari remain the same ... one team has a qualifying mode the other team cant match at this point. take away mistakes by both Ferrari drivers and i suspect the advantage Rosberg would have had if any would have been a tenth or 2.

Using your own quote from some time back... "Too many ifs and buts". Why don't you also consider the fact that Lewis, who was faster driver in the previous two qualifying would have added another 2 or 3 tenths above Rosberg, just for the IF AND BUT case?

remember Malaysia last year where the prognosticators were saying the SS would only last 5 laps? lets see how the race plays out before you start celebrating early.

Did we watched two different races? When was a SS used in Malaysia before?

[basti313]

So Vettel says he only made one run in Q3 to save a set of tires...HMMMMM i'm thinking he is going for a 3 stopper SS-S-S-SS ?

It appears that Ferrari consider the SS a good tire for the race.

Rosberg is probably going S-S-M so there will be some variation.

I think the aim will be to put pressure on Rosberg: Let us assume the first lap ends in the starting order. Like this Ros will gap Ric and the Ferraris until they clear Ric with DRS. The Ferraris will have to box round lap 10-12. If they go for a SS on Vettels car, Ros needs to pit immediately in order not to loose track position on Vettel due to the aggressive undercut. And that is how they reduce the advantage of Ros starting on Softs.

[gandharva]

A used SS lasting 12 laps on a green track in China while pulling off competetive times and the eventual need to overtake one car on track? That's quite optimistic, even if you drive a Ferrari.

[ferkan]

Ferrari without mistakes would be closer, yea, maybe 1-2 tenths but fact remains, this is one of the tracks with least amount of time on full trothle.

So, the less engine is used closer RB and Ferrari are to Merc. I think that shows Lowe is spouting bs about everyone being pretty close...If he thinks 0.5s-1.5s is close then yea, he is right. Otherwise its bs.

[giantfan10]

Great drive from Daniel, but this would not have been able if Kimi and Seb didn't screw up. The fact that Ferrari seemed closer to Merc imho is only due to the fact that Rosberg has set up his car fully towards the Soft/Medium tires. Also the green track will probably play into his hands tomorrow as the SS has nearly no pace advantage over the S on a green track, but the S will for sure last longer.

So current pecking order on front limited track seems pretty much the same as on more rear limited ones.
Merc > Ferrari > RBR > TR/Williams

Based on what Q2? dont let the gap between rosberg on softs and the Ferraris on SS in Q2 give you the impression that the tires are that close in one lap performance. i suspect the Ferraris were not pushing knowing they were starting the race on those tires and were comfortably into Q3. Rosberg on the other hand would be pushing knowing he is on a slower tire.