2016 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, Apr 15 - 17

[F1ern]

Kimi's take:


"On the previous run, at the same corner, I ran very deep, too deep," he said. "The last one I was quite a bit up on that lap but I ran wide on the hairpin and obviously lost a lot of time.

"It's a shame, we had a chance to be on top today but that's how it goes. We'll try and make the best out of it tomorrow."

He thinks he could have had pole and, if he was 'quite a bit up' on the previous lap then it seems quite likely.

Soft tyre appears the way to go at the start but there will be a time when Rosberg has to use a different tyre than the soft: if medium when Ferrari on soft then there could be a performance advantage for the Reds; if the SS then Mercedes don't seem to be able to make it last, so would be a splash and dash (so to speak).

We'll see but undoubtedly Ferrari are not taking opportunities with both hands.

From the best sector times i think Kimi was 0,05 sec behind Rosberg after sector 2. I dont know if Rosberg did his best 1. sector on his last run.

[henra]

We'll see but undoubtedly Ferrari are not taking opportunities with both hands.

Indeed!
That has been the common denominator in the races so far. Ferrari have a relatively competitive car (depending on track probably just around 2 - 3 tenths behind the Mercs which is a great imporvement over the 2014 and 2015 seasons where Merc was easily ahead by 5 tenths) and Merc has been making a number mistakes yet both Ferraris still manage to drop the ball each and every time. Kimi and Seb will regret the wasted chances they got handed so far.
Kimi's last Q3 run was not good and Seb's was actually disastrous by his standards.

[bauc]

Weather forecast for tomorrow?

[giantfan10]

Weather forecast for tomorrow?

sunny and 23 degrees i think

[Pierce89]

God both Ferrari drivers sucked in q3. They both made mistake on top of mistake.

[mika vs michael]

It's the first time in F1 history that the best team on the grid is talking the 2nd best team so up...I mean Mercedes is clearly no 1. Ferrari is in striking distance only if there is a hiccup from Mercedes but only then. We keep hearing about Ferrari being nicer on the SS tyres but it is not that much nicer to keep them ahead of Merc. Ferrari will have to storm the start get grid position an open a gap and then pit and come back again just behind Rosberg. It does not seem so promising. If they don't fix their issues until Barcelona the season is lost and they'd better focus on 2017. The thing is that both Raikkonen and Vettel made mistakes on their quali laps just because they have to overdrive and fight the car in order to beat the Mercs. So they are about 0.300-0.500 behind Mercs and a bit closer on race trim 0.250-0.300...

[CLKGTR]

Where can I find best sector times from today's qualy? I found top speeds on Forix, but not the sector times. And please some link on power unit components usage? Thanks

[tomazy]

Where can I find best sector times from today's qualy? I found top speeds on Forix, but not the sector times. And please some link on power unit components usage? Thanks

You should find all the info you need here

http://www.fia.com/events/fia-formula-o ... rmation-11

[CLKGTR]

Thanks tomazy

Here is Rosberg pole lap (and many others)

http://maxf1.net/rosbergov-pole-positio ... kini-2016/

[carisi2k]

We'll see but undoubtedly Ferrari are not taking opportunities with both hands.

Indeed!
That has been the common denominator in the races so far. Ferrari have a relatively competitive car (depending on track probably just around 2 - 3 tenths behind the Mercs which is a great imporvement over the 2014 and 2015 seasons where Merc was easily ahead by 5 tenths) and Merc has been making a number mistakes yet both Ferraris still manage to drop the ball each and every time. Kimi and Seb will regret the wasted chances they got handed so far.
Kimi's last Q3 run was not good and Seb's was actually disastrous by his standards.

If neither the Silver or Red team fix there mistakes there is a team in blue that won't be making those mistakes and will come along and beat them all.

This is also another race where both teams are glad that they didn't give the blue team a 2016 engine.

[carisi2k]

Those speed traps should be proof that Paddy Lowe is telling fibs in regards to the 2016 Renault and Honda engines being better then the 2015 Ferrari engine in a straight line.

[f1316]

We'll see but undoubtedly Ferrari are not taking opportunities with both hands.

Indeed!
That has been the common denominator in the races so far. Ferrari have a relatively competitive car (depending on track probably just around 2 - 3 tenths behind the Mercs which is a great imporvement over the 2014 and 2015 seasons where Merc was easily ahead by 5 tenths) and Merc has been making a number mistakes yet both Ferraris still manage to drop the ball each and every time. Kimi and Seb will regret the wasted chances they got handed so far.
Kimi's last Q3 run was not good and Seb's was actually disastrous by his standards.

If neither the Silver or Red team fix there mistakes there is a team in blue that won't be making those mistakes and will come along and beat them all.

This is also another race where both teams are glad that they didn't give the blue team a 2016 engine.

I thought that about the engine too interesting to see if we get 3 cars capable of victory after Canada (I'm sceptical but hopeful)

[FoxHound]

Those speed traps should be proof that Paddy Lowe is telling fibs in regards to the 2016 Renault and Honda engines being better then the 2015 Ferrari engine in a straight line.

And you can prove this?

[Shrieker]

I find it odd that Hamilton has chosen not to start from the pits with a race specific setup. Could it be that Mercedes want to use their advantage by gearing the setup completely towards the races, knowing they'll lock the front row out no matter what on Saturdays ? So Hamilton doesn't need to change the setup at all.

Or, he is thinking of first lap heroics - which end up in tears more often than not...

[SteveRacer]

I figure that the Mercedes are using race setups and have been for a long time now.

Aside from altering your setup, starting from pit lane is also a disadvantage. A good car will pass several others before the first turn starting dead last. Not the case if you start from pit lane.