2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[NathanOlder]

Just doing their race sim. on the Ultra's Vettel started a tenth or 2 faster. just past the mid point of the stint (lap 8 ish) The Merc was a second a lap faster for 4 laps and then they both pitted for new tyres.

[Restomaniac]

Yeah it's now pretty obvious that every team is struggling with pitstops/tyre changes.
Maybe we do need to start to take away the pressure of pitstop speeds.

[bauc]

Yeah it's now pretty obvious that every team is struggling with pitstops/tyre changes.
Maybe we do need to start to take away the pressure of pitstop speeds.

Pitstops seem to be Achilles heel this year

[Vanja #66]

From Sky Sports TW:

Ultrasoft long run average times
Vettel – 1:38.9
Hamilton – 1:39.14
Bottas – 1:39.17
Ricciardo - 1:39.17

No mention of number of laps

[FLuidd]

From Sky Sports TW:

Ultrasoft long run average times
Vettel – 1:38.9
Hamilton – 1:39.14
Bottas – 1:39.17
Ricciardo - 1:39.17

No mention of number of laps

Not a big enough data set, but can I say that it sure looks that China is no longer Mercedes territory?

[bosyber]

On Sky, Crofty did say Vettel only did three laps on USofts. The others did longer, but I don't know how much (feel like I read somewhere around 8 laps, but can't recall where).

[Restomaniac]

Yeah it's now pretty obvious that every team is struggling with pitstops/tyre changes.
Maybe we do need to start to take away the pressure of pitstop speeds.

Pitstops seem to be Achilles heel this year

Indeed.

One has to wonder if it's because of there being less and less human input and instead it's just relying on 'systems'.

[Silent Storm]

On Sky, Crofty did say Vettel only did three laps on USofts. The others did longer, but I don't know how much (feel like I read somewhere around 8 laps, but can't recall where).

Vettel did only 3 laps

[Vettel165]

Vettel, Kimi both had traffic on their US qualy run. They should been ahead of Mercedes in practice 2, but Hamilton also made small mistake. Vettel had again traffic on his race-pace simulation on US tyres. Mercedes and Ferrari were both struggling a little bit with the setup of the car, they were both sliding around the track a lot, of course track is still very green. But Ferrari looked a little bit stable (from onboard camera) in low-speed corners and Mercedes in high-speed. RBR look to be as well in the mix, but they are losing at least 0,3s per lap in S3, comparing to the Ferrari, Mercedes engine cars. On qualy pace it is looking very close, 4 cars in 0,1s on US, with Bottas, Vettel being very strong on the medium tyres. Ferrari are usually finding a lot of lap-time from FP2 to FP3 overnight (and so is Mercedes of course), I hope it will stay like this tomorrow. No rain expected for FP3 and qualy. We will see also some sunshine of sunday with temperatures reaching as much as 20C.

[Steven]

Yeah it's now pretty obvious that every team is struggling with pitstops/tyre changes.
Maybe we do need to start to take away the pressure of pitstop speeds.

Pitstops seem to be Achilles heel this year

Indeed.

One has to wonder if it's because of there being less and less human input and instead it's just relying on 'systems'.

I think it's due to the regulation changes regarding the retention system, and the teams underestimating the impact that this has.

[Restomaniac]

Pitstops seem to be Achilles heel this year

Indeed.

One has to wonder if it's because of there being less and less human input and instead it's just relying on 'systems'.

I think it's due to the regulation changes regarding the retention system, and the teams underestimating the impact that this has.

Maybe but removing the human element can't help.

Computer systems are very binary and sensors can fail. The human grey matter can spot something screwey that happens unexpectedly outside the norm where as unless it's programmed to see it a computer system wouldn't see the issue at all.

I just think we need to be careful how much 'human oversight' we remove.

[NathanOlder]

On Sky, Crofty did say Vettel only did three laps on USofts. The others did longer, but I don't know how much (feel like I read somewhere around 8 laps, but can't recall where).

I was watching the live timing as they were out on track, I sat here and watched/wrote down as Vettel posted

38.6
38.8
39.3
40.2
40.4
40.3

all on US Tyre, so I have no idea why Crofty said that.

At the same time I was recording Ham & Max

Ham
US
38.8
38.9
38.7
39.0
39.2
39.2
39.3
43.2
box

Max
US
39.0
39.2
39.3
39.4
39.1
38.8
not sure if he continued or box.

[NathanOlder]

On Sky, Crofty did say Vettel only did three laps on USofts. The others did longer, but I don't know how much (feel like I read somewhere around 8 laps, but can't recall where).

Vettel did only 3 laps

No he didnt. it was closer to 8.

[jk-27]

So McLaren only 2 tenths ahead in practice of Torro Rosso. Is that 2 tenths down to engine or chassis? Either way, I don't think McLaren have made the advancements we were hoping for. Still scrapping in the top 10, and Torro Rosso have half the budget and are only 2 tenths behind despite McLaren thinking they have a chassis on par with Red Bull?!

[JPBD1990]

On Sky, Crofty did say Vettel only did three laps on USofts. The others did longer, but I don't know how much (feel like I read somewhere around 8 laps, but can't recall where).

I was watching the live timing as they were out on track, I sat here and watched/wrote down as Vettel posted

38.6
38.8
39.3
40.2
40.4
40.3

all on US Tyre, so I have no idea why Crofty said that.

At the same time I was recording Ham & Max

Ham
US
38.8
38.9
38.7
39.0
39.2
39.2
39.3
43.2
box

Max
US
39.0
39.2
39.3
39.4
39.1
38.8
not sure if he continued or box.

Wow, terrible pace from Seb then. I wonder what the contributing factors are... high deg? Or simulating fuel saving? Or just poor setup? Traffic?