Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[WhiteBlue]

My view is that Vettel made a wrong decision against the advise of Adrian Newey. The McLaren style wide solution will have more performance potential in the future. Vettel will have to adapt to that style of driving because Webber shows it can be done.

Red Bull internally are technically putting the bench mark on the fastest driver. This is obviously Mark Webber at the moment. No wishful thinking can change results. Seb needs to reflect on this and make the necessary adjustments. I'm pretty sure he can do it.

Shanghai is another race that is not going to help Seb's 2012 campaign. He is once again on a damage limitation strategy. His odds to become WDC in 2012 are going to take a serious hit.

[Mestrades]

Can somebody give me a link with the time per lap of the FP3? The PDF on FIA's website link is broken. Brawn has said that they have been testing high fuel runnings and I would like to see them. Thank you!

[Maelstrom]

Dunno about that. Alonso is leading the WDC atm. He's definately not going to win. Vettel probably needs to do better than Hamilton/Button or finish close behind them. Then in Bahrain he has to outperform them.

It's not over by a long shot.

[Morteza]

[Unc1e_M0nty]

My guess is that grid slots 5, 6 & 7 will occupy the podium, I'm going for Hammy, Webber ,Button.

The grid looks fantastic and it should be a great first stint for overtaking.

[Trailer23]

This is the first time Vettel hasn't made it to Q3 since Brazil 2009. He's always led the pack pretty much for the past two seasons. It'll be interesting to see how he copes with being in the middle of the pack when the race starts.

Its easy to lead a race when you have a fast car as RBR has had in the past two years, but tables are slowly turning & now their are teams like MercGP & Sauber coming up.

I like Vettel as a driver, but lately he's been acting somewhat as a royal prick. I wonder where the RBR management will stand if Webber has better lead in points mid-way through the season.

[Unc1e_M0nty]

My view is that Vettel made a wrong decision against the advise of Adrian Newey. The McLaren style wide solution will have more performance potential in the future. Vettel will have to adapt to that style of driving because Webber shows it can be done.

Red Bull internally are technically putting the bench mark on the fastest driver. This is obviously Mark Webber at the moment. No wishful thinking can change results. Seb needs to reflect on this and make the necessary adjustments. I'm pretty sure he can do it.

Shanghai is another race that is not going to help Seb's 2012 campaign. He is once again on a damage limitation strategy. His odds to become WDC in 2012 are going to take a serious hit.

I'm amazed that one of the top teams would go down this route after all the testing tells them that the "Webber" spec car has more downforce, they are pampering to Vettle and all they've done is lost more development time and testing data. Would they have done the same for Webber if he had been in the same position, I think not.

[Mestrades]

From the picture above, did their DRS system really helped them in qualifying? I mean they are in the middle of speed trap!

You don't have to see the speed trap. You have to observe the speed in corners or in intertemediates zones. Look:
http://www.fia.com/EN-GB/MEDIACENTRE/F1 ... speeds.pdf

[ParanoiD]

very interesting grid composition.

I guess there will be many wheel-to-wheel battle tmr.

Did Kobayashi had his carreer-best grid? Sauber really have a decent car. With a little bit of fortune they could be leading championship somewhere along the season.

Leading the championship? I think not. But I can certainly see them getting no 3-4 position by the end of the year in the WCC.

Yeah, that really needs special conditions.
I was imagining Malaysia-scene haha

[Raptor22]

Nico made a lsight set up change for Q3 so unless its purely wing incidence relates he's going to be on a sub optimal set up for tomorrow's race.
Michael has also has better race pace so I am hoping that with the tyre management improvements they made that they're looking good to hold P1 and P2 to the finish

[SiLo]

I think the Merc will hold a lot of people up, and it could bunch up the pack a bit early on. Should be a good race!

[Raptor22]

Not so sure.
The Merc os definately fast in S3 but Schumacher has been pretty quick around the whole lap. I think Schumacher stands a better chance of winning because he works specifically on race set up this morning. I think he's car goes into the race with the better balanced race package

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Nico made a lsight set up change for Q3 so unless its purely wing incidence relates he's going to be on a sub optimal set up for tomorrow's race.
Michael has also has better race pace so I am hoping that with the tyre management improvements they made that they're looking good to hold P1 and P2 to the finish

Im not privy to the sector times, but....Nico's car looked on rails.

I watched the onboard footage and the car had very minimal steering inputs(sign of a good car) when entering and exiting corners.
The best I have seen a Mercedes car handle by a long way.

What strikes me is 2 things. 1st that Rosbergs 2nd sector was so neat and tidy and fast. They were struggling in sector 2 comparative to the McLaren all weekend, and this is a downforce sector.

2nd, the cars top speed. It appears Mercedes have added more DF to NR's car and it is paying them dividends. His top speed is 8kmh+ down on his best.
Personally if this is the case I would say that he is looking good for the race too. Perhaps not win, but at least podium.
Its perhaps not so simple, but if they have rear wear issues and glueing their arse to the floor, why not try a monkey seat?

This would help during the race as an aero means of not relying too heavily on the tyres.

[siskue2005]

Nico made a lsight set up change for Q3 so unless its purely wing incidence relates he's going to be on a sub optimal set up for tomorrow's race.
Michael has also has better race pace so I am hoping that with the tyre management improvements they made that they're looking good to hold P1 and P2 to the finish

You can only change very little during a Quly session
as there is parc ferme rule as soon as the Q1 starts

You could only do front wing angle, brake duct sizes, diffs

[siskue2005]

now it seems that from other sources that they infact changed the setup on Nico's and took a gamble before Q1
so it seems that his car was more setup towards qualifying