Chinese GP 2012 - Shanghai

[Jersey Tom]

After a long day of errands and moving, finally got to catch up on the race.

Not going to read through 40 pages here... but holy crap there were a lot of marbles from tire wear. May have been the most I've seen in any race.

[Speedster]

Getting really annoyed with Eric Boullier, watching his interview now and he's basically blaming everything on Kimi, he did a perfect strategy and Kimi made the mistake and went wide, he said. It was clear that Raikkonen was not in control of his car anymore, and he didn't run wide because of a mistake, but because of useless tires and dirty air...

[jamsbong]

Speaking of Sauber, why they are always so stingy with their tires. It is like what Brundle said, Seems like Sauber can't afford to pay for their tires.

This year Sauber has a fast enough car, thus enough to not have to gamble on skipping one stop.

[raymondu999]

After a long day of errands and moving, finally got to catch up on the race.

Not going to read through 40 pages here... but holy crap there were a lot of marbles from tire wear. May have been the most I've seen in any race.

Aye. It's rubbish really. I don't mind the current fashion with Pirelli's jelly bean-life tyres; but to leave crumbs all around the racetrack is rubbish.

[bhall]

I said it before, and I'll say it again: these tire lotteries are boring. As Rosberg showed, if a driver can run in isolation, a "normal" race is possible. Otherwise, you end up with a Trulli Train such as the one behind Raikkonen. Even though that produced a lot of action, that action was never in doubt; you just knew it was coming. And that, frankly, is boring.

No driver could do anything aggressive, lest they run through a mine field of marbles. So, all that was left was to wait for a mistake. Raikkonen provided it when he wandered off-line one time, and ended up falling ten places in two laps. I concede I'm likely in the minority with the view that this is not good racing.

[foxmulder_ms]

I kind of agree. Instead of cars and drivers, tire condition becoming decisive factor. However, you can argue, it is just another piece of puzzle and everyone is using same tires so learn how to use them to max. That's why I thought Mclaren made almost a huge mistake with 3 pit stops. They were lucky to recover.

[raymondu999]

I sort of see where you're going with this now. Say the teams and drivers had perfect information as to how long a tyre would last, to the dot. Would you then be better pleased with the tyres? I get the feeling that you're just not happy with the uncertainty of how long a tyre would last (Lotus thought Kimi's 2nd Prime set would last the race but died some 5 or 6 laps before

[Pandabeer]

On one side it's exciting to see that none of the teams really know how long a set of option or prime tyres will last, so you don't know how one car will perform and as a result of that we see different teams at different tracks fighting for good positions. On the other side its a pity that you know the drivers can't really push as they want to, because they will destroy their tyres within a few rounds, or falling out of the "sweet spot" where the tyres perfom perfect.

[raymondu999]

For me personally, I don't like the Raikkonen-esque cliff they faced, or the marbles. But I'm a happy camper otherwise

[myurr]

For me personally, I don't like the Raikkonen-esque cliff they faced, or the marbles. But I'm a happy camper otherwise

I agree to an extent that the cliff is over the top, but there still needs to be a strong decline at some point otherwise we'll always be tending towards a one stop race with only some cars doing two stops. The balance in China between two and three stops was already borderline for the three stoppers and at any circuit where it is harder to overtake it wouldn't have worked.

Take Monaco for example. Without the cliff or at least a strong decline in tyre performance you would see the entire field on a one stop strategy and the winner would be the front runner who chanced stopping first and got the undercut.

At least with the cliff there is a strong punishment for taking that chance too early and getting it wrong.

[snoop1050]

I said it before, and I'll say it again: these tire lotteries are boring. As Rosberg showed, if a driver can run in isolation, a "normal" race is possible. Otherwise, you end up with a Trulli Train such as the one behind Raikkonen. Even though that produced a lot of action, that action was never in doubt; you just knew it was coming. And that, frankly, is boring.

No driver could do anything aggressive, lest they run through a mine field of marbles. So, all that was left was to wait for a mistake. Raikkonen provided it when he wandered off-line one time, and ended up falling ten places in two laps. I concede I'm likely in the minority with the view that this is not good racing.

i miss refueling it was nice never knowing when a team was going to stop or what stratergy they were on (before the starting fuel weights were anounced)

these tyre endurance races are boring for me i want to see cars pushing it to the limit instead of a marathon and people pacing themselfs all the time

[bhall]

Since the conclusion of the race, I've been thinking about how nice it would be to bring back refueling with a fuel tank whose capacity is limited by the regulations to such a degree that it would require more than one stop to complete a grand prix. It's a pipe dream, I know. The FIA appears to have a hard wire implanted somehow within my brain so that there's no possibility that their regulations will ever please me. Fair enough, though.

I just really hate the tires these days. And DRS, too.

[Richard]

Hang on a second, that's why we have less durable tyres "whose capacity is limited by the regulations to such a degree that it would require more than one stop to complete a grand prix."

[bhall]

Yep. And they throw off so many marbles that the racing line becomes a veritable tightrope.

EDIT: I'm not one who really thinks pit stops make or break the quality of racing. But I understand that many do. The Pirellis are a response to this group of people. I'd just rather see pit stops induced in a way that doesn't destroy any possibility of good, hard racing. Tire durability and marbles do just that.

And besides, what's efficient about carrying a full fuel load from the start?

[banibhusan]

I wonder whether Alonso would have really ran off track if not for those tyre marbles!!