2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[Brenton]

I swear I'd be a Hamilton fan if not for how incredibly lucky he is, it frustrates me. Last week another example... Not only do most of his competition that qualified in front of him dnf, his tire somehow was fine from rubbing against a rivals tire that went flat. Vettel's behavior at Mexico and Baku disgusted me but my heart cheers him on because I don't want to see Mercedes dominate any more. I'm dumb, I know.

Most of the people who qualified in front of him, well 3 people qualified in front of him. Only 1 retired, and at the time technically he was behind Hamilton when he retired. He had bad luck meaning he started 9th. Of the 8 starting in front of him, 2 retired. 1 was Kimi , like I said, he was in the pits and coming out behind Hamilton. The other was Danny Ric, he was the only one to retire from in front of Hamilton, and he was only in front of Hamilton because of Hamiltons BAD LUCK with a gearbox change.

So please dont talk nonsense .

Obviously I was referring to his grid position... Why be obtuse and rude about it? Started 9th, and three of the drivers who would have been difficult to finish ahead of retired. Verstappen retired too remember? From the incident with Hamilton that could just have easily caused Hamilton to retire, which was incredibly lucky for him. He had a rare grid penalty which happens more often to the other race winning drivers, so I think it's still reasonable to call him lucky last weekend. Most drivers don't get a podium from starting 9th, even those with nearly as much talent as Hamilton.

Hesh, yeah there's a good chance of a safety car. I wonder how significantly that that possibly will affect race strategy?

[Vettel165]

From what can be seen from these figures it seems that the Mercedes drivers were both slightly ahead of the Ferrari. The Ferrari itself is one of the fastest cars on the straights and it's right on the straight that continues to gain ground on Mercedes. In curves, with the exception of turn 1 and 2, the W09, instead, it is confirmed more rapid compared to SF71H.

The fight for pole position seems to be restricted to Mercedes and Ferrari with Red Bull being the third force. The theme of Milton Keynes will be working mainly thinking about the race where he has a slightly smaller gap than in qualifying since, Renault, it has an extra boost to get some mapping hp more in Q3 crucial moments.

Analyzing the graph at the bottom are not seen big of performance decay of the signals to the exclusion of Vettel tires that has been hindered by traffic and a higher tire degradation than that of rivals. One thing similar to it was also seen in Bahrain, where Vettel began his race in a rather fast but towards the end of his stint Bottas was much faster than him demonstrating that, the Ferrari, stresses too the rear tires. One problem that has also admitted the German Ferrari driver.

Among the drivers with medium tires, however, Vettel managed to distance of about one-tenth Bottas.

http://www.f1analisitecnica.com/2018...-mercedes.html

My opinion.

So Ferrari is having some problems with the US, interesting, in my opinion SF71H with their new philosphy of the car is slowly becoming a car that is heating up the tyres quicker as Mercedes. This should be good for remaining races (of course this might mean that the car will have more tyre-wear in the race, but we dont know yet). I hope that Ferrari will go in Q2 on the soft tyres, and then start with them and then just switching one time to mediums.

The big question, is the James Allison effect already by Mercedes? When he was by Lotus and Ferrari his cars were always very good on tyre-wear but had many problems with heating them up to the right-optimal level. Thats why in his Ferrari, Lotus years they were always better on the softest compounds. Its just a speculation of course.

DVB: great post, looks like I was wrong.

[DVB]

No, Mercedes already fixed the problem of overheating the tires before J A came. Remember in 2012 - 2013 they already got pole's but dropped back in the race because of tire degradation. The next year's it was fixed.

Ferrari is still easier on the tires because of they're conventional suspension, instead of the aggressive version of the Merc. But it seems to pay off. With Vettel doing 39 laps on the soft in Bahrein, while Pirelli said 30 laps was the maximum before the cliff dropping. Vettel and Ferrari knew they got f*cked when Merc switched to the medium tire. So they chose to drive to a delta time and Merc got bluffed thinking Ferrari needed to pit again. It would have been very interesting to see Vettel also go on the medium tire. That would have given us a clear interpretation of the 2018 order... Guess we need to wait till Sunday.

[f1316]

It’s funny that Seb and Kimi tell completely different stories about how difficult it is to set up the SF71H:

Vettel: “the car is not yet where I want it to be. So, we are still looking at how we can improve. I think the SF71H has the pace, but you need to make sure it works. Today it's been a mixed day” - and he’s said before that he’s finding it hard to find the sweet spot on this car.

Kimi on the other hand: “I'm quite happy with the feeling of the car. I think we have a pretty good base line to start from, it looks pretty good. The car has been quite straightforward since the beginning, so it easy to fine tune things.”


Very different. Must be slightly difficult for the team.

[Restomaniac]

I swear I'd be a Hamilton fan if not for how incredibly lucky he is, it frustrates me. Last week another example... Not only do most of his competition that qualified in front of him dnf, his tire somehow was fine from rubbing against a rivals tire that went flat. Vettel's behavior at Mexico and Baku disgusted me but my heart cheers him on because I don't want to see Mercedes dominate any more. I'm dumb, I know.

Most of the people who qualified in front of him, well 3 people qualified in front of him. Only 1 retired, and at the time technically he was behind Hamilton when he retired. He had bad luck meaning he started 9th. Of the 8 starting in front of him, 2 retired. 1 was Kimi , like I said, he was in the pits and coming out behind Hamilton. The other was Danny Ric, he was the only one to retire from in front of Hamilton, and he was only in front of Hamilton because of Hamiltons BAD LUCK with a gearbox change.

So please dont talk nonsense .

Obviously I was referring to his grid position... Why be obtuse and rude about it? Started 9th, and three of the drivers who would have been difficult to finish ahead of retired. Verstappen retired too remember? From the incident with Hamilton that could just have easily caused Hamilton to retire, which was incredibly lucky for him. He had a rare grid penalty which happens more often to the other race winning drivers, so I think it's still reasonable to call him lucky last weekend. Most drivers don't get a podium from starting 9th, even those with nearly as much talent as Hamilton.

Hesh, yeah there's a good chance of a safety car. I wonder how significantly that that possibly will affect race strategy?

So highlight the fact that he got lucky when other cars failed infront of his position on track in the 2nd race of the season but then argue against the fact that he was unlucky to be in that position to start with. Also ignore his bad luck to end up behind Vettel due to a VERY lucky VSC for Vettel in the 1st race.

That sounds fair!

[godlameroso]

I'll say it again despite the graining the ultra soft is still a better tire than the soft because they have similar ultimate performance and life. Both tires start degrading around lap 12, only the medium tire can go the distance, easily maintaining its performance for half the race. The other two will only last quarter race distance. Any way you slice it first stop will come latest around lap 24.

[JPBD1990]

I’m so embarrassed for McLaren. Such a historic team with so much money dawdling around at the back. Nowhere near redbull with the same engine, but best chassis on the grid? They must be so embarrassed that they said that, and it really demonstrates how much they didn’t develop the chassis through the Honda years. Okay, arguably it would have been hard to with limited running and a substantially underpowered engine - or arguably it gave them nothing but time to develop the chassis.

It’s a very uniquely simple looking car, similar to redbull last year. We all wondered if it was a secret weapon but, again, it’s just proven to be under developed and horrendously slow.

Wow, what a situation to find themselves in. This would never happen under Ron Dennis. Bet they’re glad they staged that coup now. Also pretty sure Ron would be glad he got out when he did. Honestly this isn’t just meant to blindly criticise McLaren - I am just so shocked. Never thought I’d see this day.

[zoroastar]

I’m so embarrassed for McLaren. Such a historic team with so much money dawdling around at the back. Nowhere near redbull with the same engine, but best chassis on the grid? They must be so embarrassed that they said that, and it really demonstrates how much they didn’t develop the chassis through the Honda years. Okay, arguably it would have been hard to with limited running and a substantially underpowered engine - or arguably it gave them nothing but time to develop the chassis.

It’s a very uniquely simple looking car, similar to redbull last year. We all wondered if it was a secret weapon but, again, it’s just proven to be under developed and horrendously slow.

Wow, what a situation to find themselves in. This would never happen under Ron Dennis. Bet they’re glad they staged that coup now. Also pretty sure Ron would be glad he got out when he did. Honestly this isn’t just meant to blindly criticise McLaren - I am just so shocked. Never thought I’d see this day.

i dont think ron not being around for 1 season has much to do with it. what has or hasnt been done in the last year probably wouldnt have changed drastically either way, especially if they had still swapped power units. but its 2 races in, and as horrible as you claim they are, they are still in 3rd for the time being. they have the most prospect for gains in developement of most if not all the other teams. whether they will do it right? only time will tell. id suggest you give them until europe before you discount them completely.

[Morteza]

Engine failure for Ricciardo (Suspected turbo failure according to Christian Horner)

[godlameroso]

Bye bye MGU-H.

[Sevach]

Ferrari looking good in the low grip conditions.

[F1Krof]

Mercedes struggling quite a bit. Wow. After a great showing in testing and australia, they’ve quite fallen off the pace. Seems like they have abondened their proven philosophy. Or they have missed the trick with the ala Ferrari sidepods.

[JPBD1990]

Unexpected turn of speed from Ferrari. I still think Mercedes will turn up for qualifying but wow - way to make us hang on every single second of this season. What a ride!

[Restomaniac]

Engine failure for Ricciardo (Suspected turbo failure according to Christian Horner)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Datq__LW4AA2aAk.jpg

Flames out the back may suggest that the ICE has swallowed parts of the turbo too.

[Morteza]

Mercedes struggling quite a bit. Wow. After a great showing in testing and australia, they’ve quite fallen off the pace. Seems like they have abondened their proven philosophy. Or they have missed the trick with the ala Ferrari sidepods.

Yup! Have they reached a deadline with their current concept? I don't know, but the car definitely isn't as stable as Ferrari.