2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[Poleman]

Now that the race has ended i cant help but feel that despite the excitement of the SC its still the same pattern...No matter who has the faster car its management after lap 2...Why not Vettel with the superior race car build a 5 or 10 second gap to Bottas? Why not Bottas attack and force Vettel to push...There is still a glimmer of light at the bottom end of the midfield where they scrap without managing as much but still...I feel this is a bit boring but such is this new Formula rules.

[max_speed]

Red Bull is pure racing team. fast engine changes . sub 3 seconds pit stops while double stacking. prompt strategy changes. verstappen & renault are costing them a bit.

[ripper]

Ferrari and Mercedes should have pitted Kimi and Hamilton for Softs during SC. Vettel and Bottas had passed pit entry already, but their teammates still had the chance to go into the pits. Poor decision by both and surely this cost them points.

Verstappen has done it again. If there still are people telling that everything he's doing is perfectly normal I will be surprised. Destroying a driver's race and just getting a penalty of 10 seconds will not motivate him to change his behaviour at all. He finished in 5. place and Vettel at the end was struggling to even stay ahead of Sainz because his tyres and also his floor were damaged.
Verstappen got more points by playing bumper car. Something is wrong here.

Brilliant drive by Ricciardo, though.

FIA couldn't give a different penalty to VER, they gave 10 seconds to Toro Rosso for same kind of crash. If they gave a different penalty it would have been incorrect in my opinion.

[spin1/2]

To think that RBR could've had a 1-2 today with the pace on those soft tyres.
Gotto give RBR credit for initiating the undercut that disrupted the race at the front.
The 2nd pit stop was not all down to luck. Merc & Ferrari could've attempted the same gamble with Ham & Kimi. However, RBR the only team gambling today.

They lost the win with that strategy - but redbull won with luck. If the safety car was called 15 seconds earlier, Vettel and Bottas could have pitted. 15 seconds later, redbull would have gone past the pit entry.

Ferrari lost on strategy.
Redbull won with luck.
Simple.

[aleks_ader]

Yeah Vettel had 3s gap. I dint see the gap beacuse little twichy broadcast. So was udercutt so poverfull?

[iotar__]

Maybe managing race pace because of 3 Pus per season is keeping the grid close. FIA job done

- No, nothing to do with engines. Tyres but mostly random results based on luck. RB hate those and so do I. SC and they all got stuck on between strategies one-stopper.

- Verstappen low skills one trick pony in wheel to wheel. Laughable penalty. Why not a drive-through? Clearest foul and taking out the other driver with consequences.

- Bottas - Mercedes should bet on him, he's better than Hamilton this season. In this race - much better. Hamilton: wouldn't that be the best time to show "next level driving" (Wolff). It's losing Q and positions at starts instead, whinging
on the radio and slow pace.

- Vettel lost the lead in, let's not pretend, dominant car from pole and did nothing afterwards except for benefiting from moving chicane Raikkonen.

- Haas - team orders and strategy idiots. Adjusting or splitting strategy - nope. Team orders for nothing - yep, give us 5 laps. 1 point and beating no one, serves them right.

[Edax]

watching Alonso (mclaren) pass Vettel(ferrari) was the moment of the day for me.

But.. but... last week we all agreed that forcing someone off track at the exit of a corner is an absolute crime, for with a lifelong ban from F1 is the only fitting punishment.

Kidding, it was a nice move and I swear I could see ALO grinning through his helmet.

[ripper]

It was a combination of great BOT outlap, fast MER pitstop and slow FER one

[Silent Storm]

Ferrari and Mercedes should have pitted Kimi and Hamilton for Softs during SC. Vettel and Bottas had passed pit entry already, but their teammates still had the chance to go into the pits. Poor decision by both and surely this cost them points.

Verstappen has done it again. If there still are people telling that everything he's doing is perfectly normal I will be surprised. Destroying a driver's race and just getting a penalty of 10 seconds will not motivate him to change his behaviour at all. He finished in 5. place and Vettel at the end was struggling to even stay ahead of Sainz because his tyres and also his floor were damaged.
Verstappen got more points by playing bumper car. Something is wrong here.

Brilliant drive by Ricciardo, though.

Lewis had used softs, he would have he dropped like a brick in last few laps, Kimi had fresh softs available and could have finished 2nd.

[F1NAC]

Will there be some conspiracy theories like in Australia with Haas? Come on, journos, and deluded fans, don't disappoint me

[Chene_Mostert]

Red Bull is pure racing team. fast engine changes . sub 3 seconds pit stops while double stacking. prompt strategy changes. verstappen & renault are costing them a bit.

I have to agree with you here, They think on their feet and try and finish a race in the quickest time, always aggressive.
Their only weakness is Renault & Max.

[Harvester]

https://twitter.com/f1writers/status/98 ... 00928?s=19

The timing of deploying safety car is very interesting. It is like they waited for bottas and vettel to pass the pit entry and then deploy safety car to mix things up but it is probably coincidence.

Sorry I didn't want to quote you. This has nothing to do with your post.

[Mandrake]

watching Alonso (mclaren) pass Vettel(ferrari) was the moment of the day for me.

Then you have very low standards

what matters at the end of day is standing on the board ?.Using Kimi as a Guinea pig does show high standards ferrari as a racing team have.i like racing and overtakes. i guess even racing gods are fed up of boring processions.

Had Kimi been pitted at the right time, he would not have come home third. So he should not complain, nor should we. Had Vettel been pitted in the right moment he would have been where Bottas ended... So it was suboptimal in any scenario with the SC today.

[Mr.G]

Championship gap to reduced to 9 points between Lewis and Seb, who would've thought that after the first lap because it was looking like 32 points, massive swing today.

FER was lucky in first race and unlucky today, sometimes it happens. Without that crash I think it could have been two RB in front, BOT, VET, RAI, HAM

Without the second crash... RB gets lucky during SC... Otherwise it would be fight BOT vs VET and then probably RIC vs HAM...

[henra]

The timing of deploying safety car is very interesting. It is like they waited for bottas and vettel to pass the pit entry and then deploy safety car to mix things up but it is probably coincidence.

Knowing that F1 is a lot about Show nowadays I wouldn't put my entire Money on it being total coincidence. Knowing that stupidity usually trumps malice it probably was coincidence, though.