Chinese GP 2008

[Shaddock]

Doesn't Lewis still have his joker engine ? If so he'll definitely use this engine just before qualifying on Saturday.

I know Heikki used his joker engine a couple of races back but Lewis has been pretty much trouble free this season.

Has anyone got any stats on the reliability of the teams this season ?

[shir0]

28.4 f) Except during the last Event of the Championship season, each driver will be permitted to use a
replacement engine without incurring a penalty the first time this becomes necessary during the
season.

NO FREE ENGINE CHANGE FOR HAMILTON IN BRAZIL. Is that clear enough for you?

Stop whining. If LH qualifies within the 1st or second row in Brazil, you can bet your big momma's arse that he has the WDC in the bag. The hardest thing for him to do by then would just be to resist the temptation to win the WDC in style (e.g. 1st place). The hardest thing for McLaren to do would be to reel him in.

As for Heikki...yes. The DNF in China was a strategic move on McLaren's part. He "didn't finish" the race. The team does not have to justify it was due to an uncontrollable failure in the engine before they have the right to replace his engine in the next round. The rules say, as long as you DNF'd in the last race and the reason for the DNF was "beyond the control of the team", you can change engines and/or gearbox. It's a grey enough rule that McLaren can get away with it due to technicality even if anyone protests.

Here's the rule excerpt...for gearboxes, just replace the word "engine" with "gearbox" and it's 28.6 a) instead of 28.4 a).

28.4
a) Each driver may use no more than one engine for two consecutive Events in which his team competes. Other than under f) below, should a driver use a replacement engine before the end of the qualifying practice session he will drop ten places on the starting grid at that Event and an additional ten places each time a further engine is used.

Unless the driver fails to finish the race (see below) the engine fitted to the car at the end of the Event must remain in it until the end of the next Event. Any driver who failed to finish the race at the first of the two Events for reasons which the technical delegate accepts as being beyond the control of the team or driver, may start the second with a different engine without a penalty being incurred.

[Project Four]

Has anyone got any stats on the reliability of the teams this season ?

A table showing not so much reliability, but how many kilometres the drivers covered over the complete racing weekend up to now.


Nick Heidfeld ------- 12833
Nico Rosberg -------- 12687
Timo Glock ---------- 12603
Jarno Trulli -------- 12570
Robert Kubica ------- 12130
Kimi Raikkonen ------ 11879
Fernando Alonso ----- 11855
Felipe Massa -------- 11837
Lewis Hamilton ------ 11687
Kazuki Nakajima ----- 11620
Sebastien Bourdais -- 11606
Jenson Button ------- 11497
Sebastian Vettel ---- 11457
Heikki Kovalainen --- 11414
Nelsinho Piquet ----- 11311
Mark Webber --------- 11290
Rubens Barrichello -- 11275
Giancarlo Fisichella -10847
David Coulthard ----- 10363
Adrian Sutil -------- 9886
Takuma Sato --------- 2248
Anthony Davidson ---- 1828

[timbo]

Nope.

The only way you can get a free engine change is if you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that your retirement was because of the engine.

I saw a brake issue that may have lead to a tire puncture. Ron Dennis will have a tough time explaining how an engine problem made his tire go flat.

Any driver who failed to finish the race at the
first of the two Events for reasons which the technical delegate accepts as being beyond the control
of the team or driver, may start the second with a different engine without a penalty being incurred.

Well, you are right in that the "retire" should not be deliberate, but it not nesessary must be connected to an engine failure.

[axle]

Just a thought on strategy...

Imagine that Heikki had a healthy car from the start.

He ran 3-4laps longer than Massa if memory serves me correctly.

WHY!? Why on earth did he have that much fuel on board?! Surely they should fuel LH for the optimal strategy and then fuel HK 1 lap lighter/heavier to *almost* guarentee a McLaren front row and maybe the ability for Heikki to control the race pace for Lewis's pitstop lap (assuming he's following him), so they can't banzai them.

Can someone explain why Heikki was so heavy?

[shotzski]

Can someone explain why Heikki was so heavy?

Maybe they were thinking of a different strategy? Like wait for the Ferraris to pit first, let Heikki run longer, then fuel him short in 1st and 2nd pitstop; have a go for a podium finish. Just my theory And Mclaren tend to fuel their cars heavier than others.

[donskar]

This race was NOT boring for LH fans!!...

There were 3 cars behind him that wanted to get rid of him.. to me every single Turn of The Great One was nail biting..

Kimi and Massa looked like little kids in the detention room in the post race interview! I was so disgusted with what Massa had to say I just turned off my TV and went to bed.

How pathetic.

[donskar]

Great race for Hamilton. He deserves the WDC.

Poor race for F1 - total bore. I finally fell asleep about 3/4 distance.

On the east coast of the US (Boston, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia) the race STARTED at 3:00 AM! I wonder about the longer-term implications of Ecclestone's moving to locales where the time difference effectively shuts out large portions of the TV audience. Having the money to put on an F1 race does not automatically mean that the same country also has a population that matches advertisers' demographic targets.

Much discussion in various threads about the changes coming next year and beyond. ANYTHING [-o< will be better than the current state of "racing" [-X in F1:
1) Driver X wins pole; driver Y is on outside of first row
2) Driver X or Y leads out of first turn
3) Driver who led through turn one wins race

[Project Four]

To follow up my earlier post, driver reliability table based on total race km covered up to and including Japan: -



Nick Heidfeld ----- 99.73%
Robert Kubica ----- 96.59%
Nico Rosberg ------ 95.90%
Lewis Hamilton ---- 95.32%
Jarno Trulli ------ 94.29%
Felipe Massa ------ 93.40%
Kimi Raikkonen ---- 92.74%
Heikki Kovalainen - 90.56%
Kazuki Nakajima --- 90.52%
Fernando Alonso --- 88.10%
Mark Webber ------- 87.60%
Rubens Barrichello -86.04%
Timo Glock -------- 83.01%
Jenson Button------ 81.54%
David Coulthard---- 78.49%
Sebastien Bourdais- 78.41%
Nelsinho Piquet --- 72.36%
Giancarlo Fisichella 69.23%
Sebastian Vettel -- 68.35%
Adrian Sutil ------ 61.36%
Takuma Sato ------- 22.06%
Anthony Davidson -- 13.24%

[Shaddock]

Hats off to the BMW team.

[roost89]

Very well done for BMW! Especially Nick nearly 100% reliability record!

It is interesting to note the difference in reliability between team-mates. (highest rated first)

Felipe & Kimi - 1%
Nick & Rob - 3%
JB & Rubens - 5%
Nico & Kazu - 5%
Lewis & Heikki - 5%
Fisi & Sutil - 8%
Webber & DC - 9%
Seb B & Seb V - 10%
Jarno & Timo - 11%
Alonso & Nelson - 16%

The reliability of Super Augri is horrid, it's like they've not been here!

[GTO]

The Ferrari team strategy was pathetic. Massa needed the win & finish ahead of Lewis. They should have done one of the following:
1)low fueled Massa in quali to get pole to try & control race pace. Massa has done well from pole.
2)used Kimi as 'hare' --> low fueled him in quali to get pole to try & control race pace & slow Lewis
3)short fueled Kimi in 1st pit stop to get in front of Lewis & control race pace & slow Lewis

Why did they have both cars on same 2 stop strategy? Why not try something different like Schumacher/Brawn used to do?

[PlatinumZealot]

Look on the front page of F1.com.. there was not much Ferrari could do, LH was just faster that day.

Domenicali mystified by Ferrari’s lack of pace in China

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/ ... /8573.html

[megz]

Quick question: What did LLT on Kubica's pitboard mean?

[Rob W]

Domenicali mystified by Ferrari’s lack of pace in China...

Lemmie guess. Mysterious white powder in the fuel tank?

R