2019 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 12-14

[Schuttelberg]

Personally, I don't find it funny. He won his title, retired and I have no problem unlike some for him to be around and give us his views. BUT, he seems to babble on a lot about his contemporaries and their competence. He seems to forget that he won a championship for which he went through a lot of hardships and easily disrespects people who have perhaps been through the same or more. In Bahrain, he was at Seb's throat and this week he chose Lewis. I find it incredibly distasteful and I am not a resentful or hateful person but he definitely tries to get that started in me.

I just find it strange that Rosberg is back at all, fair enough he achieved what he wanted, he'd had enough of the pressure so walked away.

But now he's back, but as a pundit - why? if he misses it that much then come back and compete

Most pundits either weren't good enough (Palmer Di Resta) or are way too old, Rosberg is neither

I can understand that he's back in the capacity that he is. I keep cribbing about F1 being predictable but I keep tuning in hopelessly. We're all petrol heads. What I don't understand is his high headedness and lack of empathy for his ex peers. I think in their time together, Lewis had more "on" weekends than Nico and as rough a time as Seb has had with his spins, Lewis and practically all level headed fans will tell you that Seb is far better than Nico in that respect.

I thought Nico was incredibly brave with his retirement, but post that he's been a proper prick. And on a human level, I really respect Nico.

[Restomaniac]

I'll just give my two cents on the whole situation with Vettel & Leclerc-

It's all easy in hindsight. Lewis was in a direct championship fight with Nico in 2016 and I seem to recall him benefitting from having Nico move over to pip Daniel at Monaco. Ferrari's issues are not their drivers, or the car per se. It's operations and lack of foresight. It was clear to me on Saturday that their race was with the Bulls and not the Mercedes.

Lewis and Nico situation in Monaco was different.....Nico was no where in rain, he was 3 sec slower than Danny and holding up the entire field, when they let Lewis go the gap to Danny was 13 to 15 sec in just 7 laps....and unlike Vettel today, Lewis pulled a massive 5 sec in just 2 laps.

Exactly. Especially in the Rosberg-Hamilton years, race strategy for Mercedes was to do what was best for the team, not for a driver. By letting Hamilton pass Rosberg in Monaco '16, they maximised their result as a team (he won, remember, instead of finishing 6th and 7th). Ferrari looked today if they wanted to get Leclec away from Vettel, just in case, even when it meant finishing 3th and 5th instead of 3th, possible 2nd and 4th. Protecting Vettel like this is costing them points.
Leclerc smells blood.... the coming season will be very very interesting between the two of them.

Also Ferrari are making their own bed here. How long before Leclerc says ‘screw him! I’m not moving over’ if this keeps up? He WILL eventually get sick of being stitched up like that.

[ClarkBT11]

When Bottas came out after the double stack pitstop Vettel was only 3-4 seconds behind, pitting a lap later and Vettel could be on for the undercut. Also before the double stack Hamilton was only 4-5 seconds ahead of Bottas. Mercedes only pitting one driver could of meant losing their 1-2

[e30ernest]

Most pundits either weren't good enough (Palmer Di Resta) or are way too old, Rosberg is neither

I personally think this is a good thing though. We get the view of a world champion who still mostly knows the field personally as well as the machineries involved.

IMO Rosberg is usually fair with his assessments. He calls it how it is and is usually correct IMO.

[Phil]

I dont get the hate Ferrari and Vettel are receiving. The worst kind of any strategy would be to have both your drivers hold each other up. At the point the team orders were issued, it looked as if Vettel was quicker and had more pace. He clearly did, even if not by much once he got the nod. Not much more to say really.

I did find them splitting the strategy precurious though; definitely had a taste of “lets do something different to not have them too close to risk bad PR”. Given Verstappen had already virtually undercuted Leclerc at that point, i thought going “long” was reasonable. Yet later in the race, when everything was looking like it was going to be a 1-stop race, Max pitted and Vettel did too to cover him off. At that point, Leclerc was still roughly 10 seconds ahead and given the even larger gap back to Gasly, i would have left him out. Even if at the start it was looking like that Leclerc would be eaten alive on his old Hard tires, i think the performance gap would have came down eventually to make it work. Worst case, he’d still have to pit and finish 5th.

Just seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity with little risk of damage and nothing to lose really.

[GPR-A]

In recent memory, I think this year's winter testing verdict has to be the BIGGEST BLUFF that has been pulled on F1. Almost every so called F1 expert were willingly party to that bluff. "Ferrari leading by quite some margin, Red Bull behind them and Mercedes HAVE GOT IT WRONG"!

Having paid already for this year's subscription (blame the auto debit), I can only bitch about those immature morons at Autosport, who call themselves as "Experts".

Just three races into the season and it appears as if this is going to be a 2014-16 all over again. Neither Ferrari, nor Red Bull (the so called BEST CHASSIS makers) have got their aero right and with such level of disadvantage, competing with Mercedes, who are one of the best, if not the best, in-season developers of the car is going to be task of extreme magnitude.

The only bright spot is Honda's performance and reliability so far.

[Restomaniac]

In other news Albon surely HAS to be promoted and soon?

[Restomaniac]

In recent memory, I think this year's winter testing verdict has to be the BIGGEST BLUFF that has been pulled on F1. Almost every so called F1 expert were willingly party to that bluff. "Ferrari leading by quite some margin, Red Bull behind them and Mercedes HAVE GOT IT WRONG"!

Having paid already for this year's subscription (blame the auto debit), I can only bitch about those immature morons at Autosport, who call themselves as "Experts".

Just three races into the season and it appears as if this is going to be a 2014-16 all over again. Neither Ferrari, nor Red Bull (the so called BEST CHASSIS makers) have got their aero right and with such level of disadvantage, competing with Mercedes, who are one of the best, if not the best, in-season developers of the car is going to be task of extreme magnitude.

The only bright spot is Honda's performance and reliability so far.

TBH RedBull are not too shabby in the in-season development stakes. If I’m Ferrari I’m look over my shoulder instead of at Mercedes!

[jurinius]

Binotto is too soft, but there are too many challenges for Ferrari (Win constructor, Win Pilot, prestige, performance, honor,...) when you are too focused on the performance u can't really manage the whole team easily only if you have a secret weapon on your back. Maybe Maurizio would have made CC win back with Binotto still in the back.
If I was MB I would have play the Leclerc card heavily knowing that I owe nothing to Seb. Now he has destroyed that chance to build with equi chances for both. This can result to be the worst season in term of Gap with Merc as constructor. As far as I "dislike" Ferrari "race philosophy" I want more fight between them like against McLaren F1.

[iotar__]

Ferrari's storm in a tea cup. Cry me a river a stop being team orders hypocrites, fair or not it was a minor thing anyway. Ferrari's bigger mistake and initial source of problems was mismanaging Bahrain. Being open and not lying like Mercedes, their second flaw.

Now shadow committee of fairness of racing that kept their heads in their proverbial places 99% of that time including the most brutal examples (Rosberg Monaco, Bottas x 7) is now in full media swing.

BTW you now know why they kept Raikkonen for so long (while losing everything in the process)?

[NathanOlder]

How are you gonna go faster when there's a car in front of you? Have a think a little. He was hovering in 0-6, 0.9s range troughout the lap, which is not something you can do if you are slower or even if you are identically paced.

Oh really, like we don't know those basics here on the forum. Vettel was not faster when he got in front, nothing changed, that there is the problem.

Leclerc was in no position to attack vettel when they got switched, unlike vettel who was at times at ~0.2s range at the end of straights. Later in the race leclerc couldn't beat vettel's fastest lap with 8 laps less fuel.

I think just before the stops Leclerc was just starting to show better pace than Vettel.

As for Charles , has there been any mention on his 'gearbox' issues ?

[kebab]

As for Charles , has there been any mention on his 'gearbox' issues ?

His gearbox was fine

[tpeman]

I don't get all the hype about Ferrari and the story about Leclerc being "underdog" to evil-villain Vettel. He seemed to question the team's decisions (broke team orders in Bahrain). Also, today he wasn't faster than Seb (in fact, he was at his level at best). If Ferrari think Vettel is their man, who are we to question them? It is generally perceived that Vettel is "bad" now, as if he barely makes it into the points, truth is he is almost never off pace. I am not a fanboy in any way, but Kimi's current form is giving so much credit to Vettel's qualities. Leclerc is without a doubt an incredibly fast driver and a very nice guy, but he seems to carry that Alonso-ish vibe. If Leclerc signed a number 2 contract, then he should actually follow it and respect the decisions of the team.

Also, Verstappen would have been ahead of Charles anyways, so they had to try something different.

[dfegan358]

Ferrari need to win a races soon or this will be another season gone before its half way through.

To be honest as a Ferrari fan, I have no great faith we can turn it around over the season. Mercedes seem to have the best package overall.

[GPR-A]

In other news Albon surely HAS to be promoted and soon?

Guess what. He was not the preferred option before finalizing him and Kvyat was the other best option!Marko is not a man of patience and who knows, there could be a repeat of 2016 in Barcelona where one STR driver was promoted to senior team at the expense of another being demoted to junior team.

Some drivers are simply too unfortunate that they get paired with some extra ordinary drivers.