2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[TwanV]

Meh. Here we go again.I think Wouter sums it up nicely, all drivers make dumb mistakes. VES' miscalculation with Vettel was a very stupid move but these things happen. Take a look at Hamilton in the Loews Hairpin in the compilation, equally dumb. I think Raikkonen did that move multiple times in his career with the same silly end-result.
What happened with VES' this season can be summed up as:
Melbourne: strong practice sessions; floor damaged in first few laps (not over a curb mind you), he pushed hard (team instructions if I remember correctly) and lost the car, brought it home in the points to acclaim of his team.
Bahrain: Mistake in Q1 beit engine mapping or lack of throttle control; strong first few laps, (and most people will agree a) racing incident with Hamilton;
Shanghai: strong practise sessions, good race upto safety car; ballsy move on Hamilton (impatient/unwise but safe), stupid move on vettel.

On the latter one Vettel was very clear and relaxed, obviously not happy but the experienced guys know things like that are part of racing, there was a hint of a gap for a second and VES fell for it.

All in all unfortunate and he should do better. On the other hand all year he's consistently quicker than RIC, and certainly by no means a disgrace to the sport as this website has very disappointingly as a headline.

[Vettel165]

As a big Vettel fan I started to gain a lot of respect for Lewis, I started to admire him slowly. Maybe because he is also much down to earth this year as he was, or maybe because Seb, Hamilton are both having four drivers titles, and are both amazing drivers. Would love to see again Vettel vs Hamilton for the title this year. Of course wouldnt mind some Ferrari domination, but for now there is no such thing.

Cheers.

[LM10]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_s0iwj_Ns#t=1m06s

Verstappen told "See you fuc*ing later son" on team radio when he overtook Kimi in the first lap.. and then lap 43 came.
I don't know what to think about him calling Kimi "son", though.

[NathanOlder]

Did Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso also use a psychiatrist in there first years?

Who knows but they have had much longer careers in the lower ranks before rising up to F1. Vettel and Alonso spent time in the lower tiers of F1 gaining experience before stepping up. Hamilton went straight into a championship-contending seat but had a wealth of experience competing at the sharp end of junior championships.

Genuine question: has Max gained the same experience in the lower tiers?

Lewis spent 5 full years across 3 lower formulas. Winning all 3 formulas.

Vettel spent 4 years across 2 lower formulas, winning 1 of them.

Alonso spent 2 years across 2 formulas, winning 1 of them.

Max spent 1 year and finished 3rd behind Ocon and Blomqvist.

This is why I can't see why people say he lucked in to a top drive. He put Vettel and Alonso to shame in junior categories so fully deserved a decent car. Max on the other hand, too much too soon in my opinion

[Sierra117]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_s0iwj_Ns#t=1m06s

Verstappen told "See you fuc*ing later son" on team radio when he overtook Kimi in the first lap.. and then lap 43 came.
I don't know what to think about him calling Kimi "son", though.

I thought he said to Lewis in response as he overtook him before Kimi.

Super cringe moment nonetheless.

[Big Mangalhit]

Meh. Here we go again.I think Wouter sums it up nicely, all drivers make dumb mistakes. VES' miscalculation with Vettel was a very stupid move but these things happen. Take a look at Hamilton in the Loews Hairpin in the compilation, equally dumb. I think Raikkonen did that move multiple times in his career with the same silly end-result.
What happened with VES' this season can be summed up as:
Melbourne: strong practice sessions; floor damaged in first few laps (not over a curb mind you), he pushed hard (team instructions if I remember correctly) and lost the car, brought it home in the points to acclaim of his team.
Bahrain: Mistake in Q1 beit engine mapping or lack of throttle control; strong first few laps, (and most people will agree a) racing incident with Hamilton;
Shanghai: strong practise sessions, good race upto safety car; ballsy move on Hamilton (impatient/unwise but safe), stupid move on vettel.

On the latter one Vettel was very clear and relaxed, obviously not happy but the experienced guys know things like that are part of racing, there was a hint of a gap for a second and VES fell for it.

All in all unfortunate and he should do better. On the other hand all year he's consistently quicker than RIC, and certainly by no means a disgrace to the sport as this website has very disappointingly as a headline.

Agree mostly but..

Melbourne: floor dmg or not he did a mistake and loss the rear which he needed to take more care. Nothing serious but happened
Bahrain:Crashed in Q1 and then racing incident (I agree) but that could totally been avoided if he had more care. I think it was on of those classic MAx maneouver that he can sometimes pull and then all of us (me included) will praise and absolutely love to see but sometimes go very very wrong like this case here.
Shangai:Very optimistic dive bomb that again cost him a podium and maybe a win.

All in all I think this is MAX right there, he is able of the best (like that amazing race in brasil which I still think was on of my favourites drives to watch) but because it is so risky it is not a very efficient way of maximizing points in a championship. He is basically risking a DNF for a net gain of 4-8 points in each risky overtake and I don't think in the long run it is worthy, I think that is way Ric will never have the same hype and yet will always produce more consistent results and finish higher in the stands. On the other hand watching max drive on a good day is absolutely fantastic and I do love that he always tries to make overtakes in improbable places without DRS, this is amazing for the show!

[TwanV]

Did Vettel, Hamilton, Alonso also use a psychiatrist in there first years?

Who knows but they have had much longer careers in the lower ranks before rising up to F1. Vettel and Alonso spent time in the lower tiers of F1 gaining experience before stepping up. Hamilton went straight into a championship-contending seat but had a wealth of experience competing at the sharp end of junior championships.

Genuine question: has Max gained the same experience in the lower tiers?

Lewis spent 5 full years across 3 lower formulas. Winning all 3 formulas.

Vettel spent 4 years across 2 lower formulas, winning 1 of them.

Alonso spent 2 years across 2 formulas, winning 1 of them.

Max spent 1 year and finished 3rd behind Ocon and Blomqvist.

This is why I can't see why people say he lucked in to a top drive. He put Vettel and Alonso to shame in junior categories so fully deserved a decent car. Max on the other hand, too much too soon in my opinion

Yes he was very impressive but keep in mind that Hamilton was groomed by Ron Dennis throughout his lower-formula career, he was the prototype junior-program driver. The same cannot be said for Vettel and Alonso but I remember when following them in the lower tiers it was quite clear they were F1-drivers in the making. All are exceptional talents, but lower-formula performance and experience is not all-telling to how solid a driver performs in F1 (Bourdais, Grosjean, Maldonado etc.)

Max' incredible first season accelerated his career beyond anybody's expectation and the subsequent pressure he did handle very well. 3 years down the road we expect him to convert his raw talent to the scoreboard and this can go both ways. I expect him to be able to do it, but there are examples of very talented drivers with a reasonable intelligence that couldn't cope. Remember Alesi? Time will tell if he will be able to elevate his point-scoring potential to the level of the drivers you mention.

[Mandrake]

Apart from his main title rival have a totally unexpected gearbox fault after 1 race obviously.

He was outqualified anyway. In race, Ric and Kimi had DNF'd so in a sense, Lewis was actually lucky one

Yes because a driver who knows he is starting at least 6th sets his car up for qualifying obviously. Yet the said driver who got the gearbox failure is the lucky one. Oh my days

There is no such thing as a quali setup.

[Manoah2u]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_s0iwj_Ns#t=1m06s

Verstappen told "See you fuc*ing later son" on team radio when he overtook Kimi in the first lap.. and then lap 43 came.
I don't know what to think about him calling Kimi "son", though.

I thought he said to Lewis in response as he overtook him before Kimi.

Super cringe moment nonetheless.

seriously, are we now starting to hate drivers upon what is said under adrenaline on the radio between him and his engineer?

i think you should then really start thinking about what other drivers said, not the least Vettel, and certainly not the least Kimi.

This discussion once again is a shining example why we should be happy NOT to have driver threads

Max made some poor decisions this race, get over it for chriyng out loud. grow up. y'all act like kids on a playground on who bullied who the most.

Remember Kvyat, just to name 1?
And how about Lewis vs Massa for a good bunch of races, constantly crashing into eachother?
How about Nico Rosberg on Hamilton more than one incident?
How about Hamilton and Rosberg slamming into eachother ?
Vettel and Webber? Perez and Ocon? Gasly and Hartley?
Kimi and Bottas? Nasr and Ericsson? Grosjean and Alonso?
Coulthard and Schumacher? Or how about Senna and Prost?

You all act like Max can't drive anymore, forgot Brazil 2016? just to name one race.

Be happy we had a very, very exciting race with lots of stuff happening, and just 1!!!! DNF,
which i believe was a retirement to save engine mileage - but i didn't catch the official story there.

[Unc1eM0nty]

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.

I don't think Vettel was lucky at all in Bahrain.

Hmmm, I'd have to say they rode their luck.

39 laps on a set of soft tires, remember him and Kimi at Silverstone lays year

[Brenton]

Max made some poor decisions this race, get over it for chriyng out loud. grow up. y'all act like kids on a playground on who bullied who the most.

This is a F1 race discussion thread. We talk about what drivers say and do during F1 races. We're not the ones throwing insults because we don't like to hear criticism of a particular driver. How about you get over it, and grow up? Stop acting like a bullied kid and just let people discuss the race as they wish?

[foxmulder_ms]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_s0iwj_Ns#t=1m06s

Verstappen told "See you fuc*ing later son" on team radio when he overtook Kimi in the first lap.. and then lap 43 came.
I don't know what to think about him calling Kimi "son", though.

Generally there is some delay with the radio so I thought that was directed at Ham.

[BwajSF]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2_s0iwj_Ns#t=1m06s

Verstappen told "See you fuc*ing later son" on team radio when he overtook Kimi in the first lap.. and then lap 43 came.
I don't know what to think about him calling Kimi "son", though.

Generally there is some delay with the radio so I thought that was directed at Ham.

Yeah.. Remember after last race Hamilton n Max Crash... Ham said to media that he is young n he will learn and stuffs like that..That is what this radio reply was for i guess.

And Max's Race Engineer reply was Epic.. "Dont get greedy" kinda like .. o please shut it n drive dont crash again.. hahaha...

[digitalrurouni]

Am I right in saying the fastest laps and average lap times for this year's race is just about the same as those of last year's Chinese race? It just seems to me the cars have gotten faster in qualifying by a bit but that does not translate necessarily in to race lap performance?

[bonjon1979]

Am I right in saying the fastest laps and average lap times for this year's race is just about the same as those of last year's Chinese race? It just seems to me the cars have gotten faster in qualifying by a bit but that does not translate necessarily in to race lap performance?

I think it’s clear that they’re protecting their engines in the race