2017 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai 07-09 April

[bit1817]

Before the Gio crash Vet was pitstop corrected ahead of Ham. It was pure luck, that the Bulls and Mercs got the free pitstop.
Interesting is the race to the SC pitstop: I was wondering about the speed especially Ham and Ver took. Good use of the rules?

Seems to be stupid safety Carl rules...
Under virtual safety car speed Limit for everybody on the whole Track.

Under real safety Car full speed until you have the safety Car ahead.
Thats why 1-5 stayed in Front of Vettel. So Vettel went to the harder compound while driving trough the pitlane.

But it seems to me that everybody --- up the restart except of Ham.

[Chene_Mostert]

Bottas spun whilst warming his tyres up?

Yip, how cool is that!

[Phil]

Ferrari unlucky, how do you expect a SC coming after a VSC? Gamble did not pay off but good recovery to come second, RBR screwed them pretty bad in first 20 laps...its really hard to overtake...

I did. Lots of drivers gambling for slicks on a very challenging track? Near guarantee for a crash IMO. If there hadnt been a VSC (equaling less time loss on a pitstop), most drivers would have stayed out a few more laps on inters.

Ferrari gambled, but in the end it didnt cost them much. One could say the safety car helped those drivers on slicks to get a few laps of running meaning more time for the track to dry out. It was a no brainer for all cars on inters to pit under safety car to slicks for the sane reason: get on the same tire, lower pit time loss and plenty of laps at safety car speeds while the track dries out.

Ps: The safety car didnt put them behind RedBull. It was their own pitting under VSC that set them back while the Bulls stayed out.

[RZS10]

The stewards probably leaned towards blaming Stroll for turning in on Perez and thought that him being out of the race was punishment enough.

Why wasn't Vettel punished for being half out of the box? Usually there were penalties for way smaller deviations from the proper starting position...

[GPR-A duplicate2]

So, it is ok now to stray away from the starting position, like Vettel did today and touch the other cars while aggressively overtaking? I really hope we continue to see this as a common thing going forward and Charlie and Stewards take no offence of that. If not, then there would be some s&&t storm.

[Sonador]

Very underwhelmed with Bottas.

But true F1 is back, and i like it.
The overtakes today were on such a high level, it gave me goosbumps.

[basti313]

Ps: The safety car didnt put them behind RedBull. It was their own pitting under VSC that set them back while the Bulls stayed out.

??? So the Bulls didn't need to pit?
Nonsense...

It was clear, that the SC gifted a free pitstop to everybody on Inters as every car had to drive through the pits. With these nearly 25sec in mind:
- We were robbed a nice race between Vet and Ham.
- Bulls are miles away. They finished 45sec behind Ham and without the free stop, SC and Ham pushing a bit, it would have been close to getting lapped. Ver for sure as he had quite some gap before the SC.

[Restomaniac]

So, it is ok now to stray away from the starting position, like Vettel did today and touch the other cars while aggressively overtaking? I really hope we continue to see this as a common thing going forward and Charlie and Stewards take no offence of that. If not, then there would be some s&&t storm.

Yes the Vettel start looked off.
I mean where does it stop? Just 1 wheel in your starting box now?

I like banging wheels but as you say, you can be sure on another weekend it will receive penalties. This is the problem as drivers don't know race to race what the rules are.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Ps: The safety car didnt put them behind RedBull. It was their own pitting under VSC that set them back while the Bulls stayed out.

??? So the Bulls didn't need to pit?
Nonsense...

It was clear, that the SC gifted a free pitstop to everybody on Inters as every car had to drive through the pits. With these nearly 25sec in mind:
- We were robbed a nice race between Vet and Ham.
- Bulls are miles away. They finished 45sec behind Ham and without the free stop, SC and Ham pushing a bit, it would have been close to getting lapped. Ver for sure as he had quite some gap before the SC.

Why is suddenly luck becomes a talking point? Especially when you take gambles? Ferrari did the same last year in Canadian GP to advantage of a VSC, but couldn't come good. It is stupid to rue and blame luck when the gamble didn't pay off. Didn't luck helped Ferrari in 2015 Malaysian GP, when they did not chose to Pit, while Merc did and lost? Gambles are gambles.

[wickedz50]

Ps: The safety car didnt put them behind RedBull. It was their own pitting under VSC that set them back while the Bulls stayed out.

??? So the Bulls didn't need to pit?
Nonsense...

It was clear, that the SC gifted a free pitstop to everybody on Inters as every car had to drive through the pits. With these nearly 25sec in mind:
- We were robbed a nice race between Vet and Ham.
- Bulls are miles away. They finished 45sec behind Ham and without the free stop, SC and Ham pushing a bit, it would have been close to getting lapped. Ver for sure as he had quite some gap before the SC.

The lottery that happened with the VSC and the SC was enough to re-arrange the order, ferrari had no chance...it is too early to to call a different strategy ahead of the Merc...in Melbourne they waited and followed the Merc and they had success..if they want to win they have to follow Merc and not give up position so easily...i hope they learnt it today...

[Chene_Mostert]

So, it is ok now to stray away from the starting position, like Vettel did today and touch the other cars while aggressively overtaking? I really hope we continue to see this as a common thing going forward and Charlie and Stewards take no offence of that. If not, then there would be some s&&t storm.

Yes, I hope we see a lot of aggressive driving this season, I much rather have overtakes than watching a Mercedes sitting behind a Red Bull and listening to the driver complaining on how "impossible" overtaking is.

[Phil]

Ps: The safety car didnt put them behind RedBull. It was their own pitting under VSC that set them back while the Bulls stayed out.

??? So the Bulls didn't need to pit?
Nonsense...

The only nonsense here is suggesting that the safety car put RedBull ahead of Ferrari.

Again: Ferrari pitted under the VSC which put them BEHIND RedBull. At that point, RedBull had track position as a result of staying out. Fact. Indisputable.

If there were no crash and no resulting safety car, the RedBulls had still been ahead and it is anyones guess if the Ferrari on slicks would have had the pace to overtake cars on inters on that damp/wet track.

Bear in mind, inters = quicker in the corners and damp patches, slicks quicker on the dry parts. Also assuming any car on slick tires attempting an overtake would have to go off line to pass and on to the damp parts makes me think that attempting passes would be difficult.

Yes, over the course of 5-10 laps, the inters would have died eventually and normal pit stops more costly, so in this hypothetical scenario, i would have expected Ferrari to get past the Bulls (assuming no crashes or loss of control), but not into the lead.

[Schuttelberg]

Ferrari and Mercedes have a car advantage at the moment, but once RBR close the gap, the better driver line up of RBR will begin to show.

[jurinius]

We will be back soon with races in dry conditions then complaining about overtaking will start again, this time maybe from a Ferrari sitting behind a Force India... Enjoyable race under unusual conditions today . Lets talk again about that after next race under dry conditions.

[FrukostScones]

So, it is ok now to stray away from the starting position, like Vettel did today and touch the other cars while aggressively overtaking? I really hope we continue to see this as a common thing going forward and Charlie and Stewards take no offence of that. If not, then there would be some s&&t storm.

with the starting position that was borderline penalty and I think someone not in the "2017 title contender leage of drivers" would probably have been penalised.

the fight with RIC was still OK, he shoved him a bit as RIC was trying to really put him actively into a very bad position for the next turn...
But as the new loose overtaking rules for 2017: no penalties for overtaking/causing a collison unless it is extremly reckless or on purpose...
see MAG/ERI first race... not even a penalty there. or today PER STR.

So there was no VET factor in the RIC overtaking "incident".