2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[johnny vee]

Its too early days if you ask me.
Barcelona will be the best indication of where the cars actually are, and how the first half of the season will play out.
But no matter whats going on, me personal i stand in front of the tv, i open the f1 app on my cell phone, and i follow the GP with double the excitement from last year.
And that excitement has to do with half the grid. Not just the podium order.

Great post Bisonas, me too.

[ripper]

Last year Barcelona was a big turning point for Mercedes, they were able to set up much better the car and started winning development race against Ferrari. So yeah, I guess we will have to wait that race and subsequent test days to have a clearer picture.

[Vanja #66]

Ferrari fastest in all parts of the track with biggest advantage in sector 1. Speed traps also dominated by Vettel.

2018 Chinese GP qualifying: Ferrari fastest on all parts of the track

Merc trimmed down their wings to be closer to Ferrari in the race, judging by sector times vs speed traps. Is it safe to say Ferrari have moved pass Merc in aero efficiency? Just comparing their side pod width, one would think so.

[NL_Fer]

This is what I like about Kimi straight to the point no nonsense.

Q: (Christian Menath) - Question for the two Ferrari drivers. It’s always a balance between race pace and qualifying pace. Now, as you’ve seen the gap to the Mercedes, do you feel you’ve sacrificed race pace a bit too much for qualifying pace?

KR: I honestly don’t know how you could sacrifice something today to be better tomorrow. We have nothing that you could change like that. I never… as long as I remember, there has never been a case like that. You have somehow different setups for two days. It’s what you have. If it’s fast in qualifying it’s fast in the race, if it works.

Wouldn’t a touch more toe-in/out or camber give a tenth or more on a single lap over tyre degradation during the race?

[LM10]

At the end of the long straight Vettel had a speed of 331.1 km/h and Bottas was just 1.5 km/h slower. Kimi and Hamilton were equally fast, but both slower than their teammates.

In addition to their low-drag concept, shouldn't Ferrari be significantly faster on the straights if they were burning more oil than Mercedes? Even Ocon, Grosjean and Perez, all had more top speed than Kimi at the end of the straight.

[JonoNic]

Wouldn’t a touch more toe-in/out or camber give a tenth or more on a single lap over tyre degradation during the race?

Are you implying that Ferrari compromised race pace for a glory lap?

I think Ferrari needs a little more acknowledgement on what they achieved with this year's car.

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

[MtthsMlw]

[PlatinumZealot]

I've a question: are 2018 slower than 2017 ones? Last year pole was 1:31.678, done with SuperSoft tyres, After one year of development, UltraSoft tyres (and this year US should be softer than last year ones) pole time was 1:31: 095. Did halo impact so much on lap times?

Hamilton did 1:31:914 on Q2 with soft, that are roughly last year super soft. He could have done a bit bitter in Q3 by pushing more, 0.3-0.4 maybe? More or less same time as last year with "same" compound.

Am I missing something?

Heavier cars!

[PlatinumZealot]

Interesting that Mercedes silver qualifying bullet seems to have shifted over to Ferrari. I still think that Mercedes will have a slight edge on race pace especially on the Mediums, and with Ferrari needing more fuel saving.

Hamilton needs a good start though so he can stay close to Vettel, with the Redbulls behind that's going to be difficult, it's not inconceivable that they could get among the Ferraris as well over the first few laps but it will be short lived.

I Hope its close race like the last one.

Interesting point. The Ferraris are starting on softs right? So Mercedes should be able to attack in the first laps if they can keep the bulls of their backs.

[marvin78]

The Mercedes are starting on softs. What's your point?

[MtthsMlw]

So smooth, so much grip. This car is perfectly balanced. Not even a single time he had to make a mid-corner correction or something like that.


btw why so many dislikes?

[Juzh]

Top speeds from qualifying



I'm not sure where vettel got that 331 but it must have been with some kind of slipstream at some stage.

EDIT.
I went and had a look at live timings and it was on vettel's soft tire run that he reached unusually higher top speed compared to any attempt prior or after that lap. His top speed was hovering at 333 for the last second or two, while on his first Q3 lap his top speed was quite a bit lower at 327-328. He had no traffic on either of those laps.
Did ferrari actually not use max power in Q3, or was the deployment strategy incorrect at that moment in Q2?

[Shrieker]

So smooth, so much grip. This car is perfectly balanced. Not even a single time he had to make a mid-corner correction or something like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njTUxSjd-ho
btw why so many dislikes?

Credit to Vettel, that's a near perfect lap. And that Ferrari sounds awesome. Not only the best sounding engine on the grid easily, but also better sounding than most of the V10's from the 90s. Best looking car, best paint scheme and best looking halo to boot too. Am I falling in

[MtthsMlw]

Which components of Ricciardo's PU have been replaced?

[matt_b]

Which components of Ricciardo's PU have been replaced?