Lewis Hamilton has won his first race of the year, thanks to a very unfortunate retirement of Valtteri Bottas a few laps from the end. Kimi Raikkonen finished second for Ferrari, ahead of Perez who scores the first points of the season for Force India.
Expectations about pole time?
In my opinion, Baku will be the only track of the calendar in which the pole time will not improve, because of heavier cars and increased drag due to halo device. Of course this year's cars have much more downforse, so i expect to be faster through corners, but probably the losses along that endless straight will not overcome the gains of the sector 1 and 2.
My guess is 1.41 flat and i expect a close fight between Mercedes and Ferrari with Red bull 0.5 behind.
I would be reasonably sure that the Ferrari team are fully aware as to how their car uses each type of tyre, and their strategists will have chosen the tyres that in their educated opinion, will work best for them.
except that when teams chose tyre allocation for this race they had not done a single lap with the new compounds (it was chosen before testing)
I agree that the tyre allocations are almost pointless at this point. All this means is Ferrari will run more ultras in practice, Vettel will run his one spare SS, raikkonen will run his one spare S - and the allocations will be exactly the same for the race, or at least they won’t be incumbered by the decision. As someone above said, likely 1 soft, 1 SS and ultras left for the race which gives them plenty of options.
Additionally, based on previous years, it’s likely the soft will be useless here.
Agree totally with first part. But I think the soft can be useful here. Remember tyres are one step softer this year, so the soft is the old SS. Which was the softest tyre anybody used in lasy year's gp
I agree that the tyre allocations are almost pointless at this point. All this means is Ferrari will run more ultras in practice, Vettel will run his one spare SS, raikkonen will run his one spare S - and the allocations will be exactly the same for the race, or at least they won’t be incumbered by the decision. As someone above said, likely 1 soft, 1 SS and ultras left for the race which gives them plenty of options.
Additionally, based on previous years, it’s likely the soft will be useless here.
I don't think it's pointless. Safety car likelihood is extremely high here. We saw last year that this was anything like a straight forward race, although the inaugural race was completely incident free. But I think it's good to have extra option tires imo. This race likely won't be a pole and win race.
Imo, Ferrari will do well this weekend. I see Merc continuing to struggle with their fickle car at a track that needs both low and high down force. I think Red Bull will do very well here as their chassis is the class of the field. This race may well be a championship reality check weekend for Lewis and Merc.
Imo, Ferrari will do well this weekend. I see Merc continuing to struggle with their fickle car at a track that needs both low and high down force. I think Red Bull will do very well here as their chassis is the class of the field. This race may well be a championship reality check weekend for Lewis and Merc.
Imo, Ferrari will do well this weekend. I see Merc continuing to struggle with their fickle car at a track that needs both low and high down force. I think Red Bull will do very well here as their chassis is the class of the field. This race may well be a championship reality check weekend for Lewis and Merc.
Class of the field based on what? brand new softs versus old worn out Mediums in the chinese GP?
this myth really needs to die quickly... this is no longer the blown diffuser era when funny enough it was the engine and engine maps that gave red bull their dominance and not some super duper secret mastery of aero.
Christian Horner is not a reliable source.
Expectations about pole time?
In my opinion, Baku will be the only track of the calendar in which the pole time will not improve, because of heavier cars and increased drag due to halo device. Of course this year's cars have much more downforse, so i expect to be faster through corners, but probably the losses along that endless straight will not overcome the gains of the sector 1 and 2.
My guess is 1.41 flat and i expect a close fight between Mercedes and Ferrari with Red bull 0.5 behind.
Imo, Ferrari will do well this weekend. I see Merc continuing to struggle with their fickle car at a track that needs both low and high down force. I think Red Bull will do very well here as their chassis is the class of the field. This race may well be a championship reality check weekend for Lewis and Merc.
Class of the field based on what? brand new softs versus old worn out Mediums in the chinese GP?
this myth really needs to die quickly... this is no longer the blown diffuser era when funny enough it was the engine and engine maps that gave red bull their dominance and not some super duper secret mastery of aero.
Christian Horner is not a reliable source.
Of course red bull has the best chassis. It is 50hp down on Ferrari and Mercedes and is right on their coat tales in qualifying. Sure they had better tyres at china but Hulkenberg was also on new soft tyres at the end of the race and he couldn't do anything about the top 6 cars except Vettel who had damage to car and tyres.
Like last season, i'm expecting a good bunch of surprises here.
lots of crashes and chaos. surely not a vettel-ham incident will repeat, but i'm confident there will be misjudgements in overtaking and many incidents following.gasly and hartley might clash, sirotkin and stroll, and perhaps vettel and kimi? i'm actually expecting Bottas to outperform Lewis once again. i'm thinking there's another opportunity here for DannyRic and Max, but both of them might clash aswell. Instead, who knows - we might see Alonso or Sainz take a win.
that doesn't take away that i personally don't like the track at all. also think F1 doesn't belong there, especially with a government that is corrupt and tyrannic to innocent people, but hey, that's same goes for Bahrain, just to name one. And quite frankly, China too to be honest. A government that spies -literally- on their own people with billions of camera's and is planning to implement a 'social judgement' system not unlike that of a episode in 'The Orville' from all things. but i'll just focus on racing instead.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Ferrari have the 'sweeter' car and Mercedes has the 'diva'. I think Ferrari will walk this one.
If Mercedes goes from locking out the front row with a gap of over 1 second from P1 to P3 in qualifying to getting "walked" by Ferrari in 1 year, then I would also expect Mercedes to pull out of the sport permanently on Saturday night, because that would the epitome of embarrassment.
Imo, Ferrari will do well this weekend. I see Merc continuing to struggle with their fickle car at a track that needs both low and high down force. I think Red Bull will do very well here as their chassis is the class of the field. This race may well be a championship reality check weekend for Lewis and Merc.
What?
Let me rephrase.
Imo, if there was a Ferrari engine in the back of that RB, they would be leading the field. I think the RB chassis is that good.
I would be reasonably sure that the Ferrari team are fully aware as to how their car uses each type of tyre, and their strategists will have chosen the tyres that in their educated opinion, will work best for them.
Ferrari will have had no clue how their car treats the new compounds in 'anger' when they decided on this weekends tyre compounds.
