2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[Sevach]

Max drives like a guy who's never lost a championship by a handful of points.

Good definition, a guy driving for the occasional win rather than championship points.

This time it's hurting because Ricciardo stole "his" occasional win.

Back to Vettel-Bottas
Racefans did a breakdown of the pitstop timing.

https://www.racefans.net/2018/04/16/how ... st-vettel/

[aral]

A number of comments making a mockery of certain nationalities have been removed. By all means discuss the race but please leave a person's nationality out of it It is irrelevant

[lebesset]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

[holeindalip]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

He didn't have any new fresh softs

[NathanOlder]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

Maybe so, on a plus side, all these mistakes and he is only 9pts off the lead.

[Edax]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

I think Hamilton should be happy about the outcome. He wasn’t in synch with his car. Maybe pit stop strategy could have yielded him more. But he could just as easily ended up behind VET and VES. “If then..” works both ways.

In the end he had an off day and got more points than his opponent. That is not a bad result by any standards.

[siskue2005]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

He didn't have any new fresh softs

3 laps old softs are way better than 18 laps old medium tyres which was running at that time

[Phil]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

He didn't have any new fresh softs

So?

I cant believe Mercedes went into the race thinking they were only going to stop once. The only front runner who was on a clear 1-stop was Kimi’s improvised race. Mercedes and Ferrari both were on a two stop - it was just the SC and how the race evolved that it became one. So there must have been some adequate tires around. Bottas and Vettel both didnt have an opportunity to pit - but Hamilton should have been pitted. It boggles the mind why they didnt.

[George-Jung]

... It boggles the mind why they didnt.

Simple- because they thought track position was King and that overtaking would be more difficult.

[NathanOlder]

... It boggles the mind why they didnt.

Simple- because they thought track position was King and that overtaking would be more difficult.

18+ Lap mediums vs 3 lap softs is easy to work out how easy passing would be. Vettel is already the guy Hamilton needs to beat, so knowing he couldn't stop would make it an easy decision to change tyres. Staying where he was almost guaranteed not being able to pass Vettel (unless a major mistake happened)

Mercs strategies are regularly poor, even the way they go about passing someone. Of late they have gone with the 'sit back and wait until the end of the race/stint' approach. As soon as Vettel was behind Bottas, he went for it, was always close and tried as hard as he could,almost all or nothing approach. Mercedes never do that unless they have a huge advantage. Its getting a little annoying to see now.

[johnny comelately]

Just got to see the race here in Australia on the traditional free-to-air, a cut down 50 minute version thanks to libertynot. (With the contracted station here announcing the winner before the race telecast)

Amazingly it was a race, with overtaking and everything.

Were the Renault engined cars more powerful or were the Mercedes team cars backed off a little.
Seemed to be some differences in "frontal" area mainly in the rear wing configs??

Go Daniel

[Hammerfist]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

Maybe so, on a plus side, all these mistakes and he is only 9pts off the lead.

If he wins this championship it will be epic, when you factor in the improved Ferrari car who are getting massive production out of both of their drivers, a teammate that has outqualified him so far, plus having to deal with those opportunistic Redbulls.

[TAG]

... It boggles the mind why they didnt.

Simple- because they thought track position was King and that overtaking would be more difficult.

It's the same reason Ferrari kept Vettel out too long. Vettel may have used up his year's worth of luck after race two.

[foxmulder_ms]

Did you guys see Martin Brundle asking AMD Ceo, Lisa Su whether she knows English as the "random person" at grid walk.

Random person on F1 grid: CEO of a giant tech company which has duopoly with Intel over desktop and server computers. LOL..

[Shrieker]

hamilton must be really upset although he is saying little
his team messed up in race 1which he should have won
gearbox penalty in race 2
his team messed up in race 3 as well , the safety car light was on before he got to the pit entry , fresh tyres and he would have won race 3 as well !

He didn't have any new fresh softs

Plus he was behind Verstappen already. People miss this badly. Even with equal fresh softs, he would not have overtaken him. Don't overlook the butterfly effect, had Hamilton pitted right behind Verstappen, then his contact with Vettel not occurring was a near certainty. And we would be discussing how it was a dumb move to pit him under the SC Hindsight is 20/20.