Chinese GP 2014 Race Thread

[SinanOzerS]

If Vettel did not hold back Ric before the second stop i am not sure if Alonso would finish 3rd... Rocky was very confident that they will fight back.... red fools were 20km slower than mercs on the straights. I still dont believe that we have the second best car in the grid considering Kimis performance.... Its all about Alonsos driving skills.

Agreed.

[sachin]

Looking at the point's standings,we have been best of the resr for so many years now.
Time to be BEST now.

[pluto]

Alonso is making Kimi look like Massa. I wonder if he will finally be given credit or everyone will just make excuses again? Kimi is not comfortable which usually means being a few tenths slower than a normal driver but against Alonso that means 1 second a lap. Nice progress by the team the car seems quite decent although how much of that is Alonso doing miracles again? Just compare Kimi's pace in the Lotus when he returned to F1, with no experience with new tyres cars, he was fighting at the front, not midfield.

[SinanOzerS]

Time to some upgrade guys, we have to do it. Forza FERRARI

[fronaldo]

Did anyone know chequered flag showed at the end of lap 54...!! Kobayashi move on Bianchi not count..see @cmckinleyF1 tweets

[Nero Horse]

If Vettel did not hold back Ric before the second stop i am not sure if Alonso would finish 3rd... Rocky was very confident that they will fight back.... red fools were 20km slower than mercs on the straights. I still dont believe that we have the second best car in the grid considering Kimis performance.... Its all about Alonsos driving skills.

I believe that we do have the second best car, or at least very close to it. Kimi had some mechanical problems throughout this weekend so it's natural that he struggled quite a bit in the race.

[JacKy]

Traction of F1-4T was suprizingly good!!! Better than even RB , better than all the other teams except Mercedes. I'm look forward to barcelona..

[LivingHitokiri]

Alonso is making Kimi look like Massa. I wonder if he will finally be given credit or everyone will just make excuses again? Kimi is not comfortable which usually means being a few tenths slower than a normal driver but against Alonso that means 1 second a lap. Nice progress by the team the car seems quite decent although how much of that is Alonso doing miracles again? Just compare Kimi's pace in the Lotus when he returned to F1, with no experience with new tyres cars, he was fighting at the front, not midfield.

Something is weird tho, if you check Kimi's fastest lap it was on part with Fernando's and it was much sooner with heavier load,it happen right on when he was fighting with perez.
The thing is, either he got some problems with balance issue on different stages or the lack of running on Friday and Saturday was too much for his racing setup. He only managed to run FP 2 ,while missing FP1 and doing 1 lap on FP 3 while being wet.

Im not worried tho,give it some time and Kimi will get more comfortable in general and then we will get even better results.

[Greig]

Better showing from Ferrari (well Alonso) but it's going to take a massive effort to overhaul Mercedes now. Well done to the team though on making a decent step forward just as they said they would in China (even though the doom and gloom members told us we would make no gains after the Bahrain test.) Hopefully Kimi can perform a little bit better as currently he is not even close to matching Alonso, who would have thought it!

[Muhammad Ansib]

Fernando was on Fire in the openning stages like someone had set fire to his trousers. Thank God we are getting a bit better starts finally this season, But Man Massa's Williams is no Slouch off the line. But fernando's race-craft is mighty, Choosing his battles wisely!

[tifosi1993]

[Laferrari]

Something is weird tho, if you check Kimi's fastest lap it was on part with Fernando's and it was much sooner with heavier load,it happen right on when he was fighting with perez.
The thing is, either he got some problems with balance issue on different stages or the lack of running on Friday and Saturday was too much for his racing setup. He only managed to run FP 2 ,while missing FP1 and doing 1 lap on FP 3 while being wet.

Im not worried tho,give it some time and Kimi will get more comfortable in general and then we will get even better results.

In the last stint fernando was not in pushing mode in the beginning because he was nursing his tyre to get them longer ...so his best time was not relevant.Fernando is a great racer , kimi was looking like massa...but kimi needs to have a car in the right spot to compete with fernando .China is not his favorite track.Clear picture of everyone will be Barcelona .I still think we are behind redbull but with the best driver of the grid we can compete with them.
We improve a lot the engine , drivability was way better for fernando.
Vettel....hmmmm he is a joke!Riccardo kill him in qualy ...but destroy him in the RACE!!!! incredible.4 time champion... imagien riccardo with rocketship from 2010,2011,2012 unbelievable.Vettel is destroying his legend by himselft...if fernando was in the same team he will have lapped him in the middle of the grand prix.Everyone in Redbull will understand that riccardo is the best driver and will be the center of the team.Vettel will go to Redbull if the situation stay the same.Vettel will go to a clash with the team because he will not accept that someone will beat thim in this sort with team order already...haha

[Muhammad Ansib]

In the last stint fernando was not in pushing mode in the beginning because he was nursing his tyre to get them longer ...so his best time was not relevant.Fernando is a great racer , kimi was looking like massa...but kimi needs to have a car in the right spot to compete with fernando .China is not his favorite track.Clear picture of everyone will be Barcelona .I still think we are behind redbull but with the best driver of the grid we can compete with them.
We improve a lot the engine , drivability was way better for fernando.
Vettel....hmmmm he is a joke!Riccardo kill him in qualy ...but destroy him in the RACE!!!! incredible.4 time champion... imagien riccardo with rocketship from 2010,2011,2012 unbelievable.Vettel is destroying his legend by himselft...if fernando was in the same team he will have lapped him in the middle of the grand prix.Everyone in Redbull will understand that riccardo is the best driver and will be the center of the team.Vettel will go to Redbull if the situation stay the same.Vettel will go to a clash with the team because he will not accept that someone will beat thim in this sort with team order already...haha

MArk Hughes of Autosport in the Columns "The Title fight that turned on tyre failures " has written "Essentially the car's downforce enabled it to go through fast corners at a speed that overwhelmed the 2013 tyre. If they wanted to get competitive stint lengths its drivers had to use only a fraction of its performance through the fast turns. To an extent this was true of most cars - but much more so with the RB9.
Pirelli, which was seeing the loads generated by every car, estimated in Malaysia for the second GP that on proper, all-out performance tyres capable of transferring the aero loads, the Red Bull could be winning races by a lap...".." such was the genius of Adrain Newey !!

[Alessandra]

Just want to add......excellent work from the garage mechanics,; the norm these days

[gazoz]

Just want to add......excellent work from the garage mechanics,; the norm these days

agreed Huge Congrats

[Nero Horse]

All in all this was a positive weekend. A nice boost for the team. It's good to go forward from here and hopefully we'll get only better and faster.

Forza Ferrari!!!

[brembo man]

Agreed.

If Lewis came in 4th, Alonso woud finish 2nd. If means nothing, take the 3rd place podium and love Ferrari and Alonso's success this race. No if's or buts about it Alonso is the best.

[Alonsomaniac]

We definitely made a step forward, although it is always difficult to judge how good - or bad - a car is with Fernando behind the wheel. The result was good, the best there was to achieve today.
What really starts to worry me though is the difference between our drivers.
Both Mercedes drivers, both RB drivers were relatively close together, but there was almost a minute between both Ferrari drivers. That's not normal and certainly not good for the WCC points.
To this moment I haven't heard of any technical problems during the race for Kimi.
I know Rosberg had no telemetry which made it difficult for him at times, but still he finished within reasonable distance of Lewis.
Now we can say it is all new to Kimi , the car , the team and so on, but the cars are new to everyone.....and the team, well he already knew the team didn't he?
Besides that, doesn't the same go for Ricciardo?
I don't know what the problem is, but it has to be solved very quickly if it's technical. If it's Kimi, he has to up his game from this moment on, because it is in no way possible that Fernando is so much faster.

[Suzie]

Just want to add......excellent work from the garage mechanics,; the norm these days

Yeah, not to sound like Alan Partridge but that first(?) stop of Alonso's they showed was textbook. I feel jealous

Alonso was excellent today.

[PadGeT]

The car was excellent today.
The team was excellent today!
EDIT - I haven't watched the race yet.

[zike]

BlqEGFtCUAAPREi.jpg

Alonso and Kimi?

[Gould]

Yup, great race by SF and by Alonso. I was sure yesterday we were in for a 4th or 5th place as a maximum. Hopefully we can keep the development going in the PU and get Kimi up to speed as well. We need him to keep the constructors points away from RBR.

[Suzie]

BlqEGFtCUAAPREi.jpg

Alonso and Kimi?

Nah that looks like Roberta to me.

[Bertie]

Great race from Alonso. He is the man!!!! Great to see Ferrari made a good step forward!!!! Kimi needs to up his game and i'm sure he will.

Massa vs alonso at the start had my heart in my mouth Alonso super brave to keep his foot in. Sorry to say but massa was out of order. Not for going for the gap which was risky to say the least (moving five car widths across the circuit with such aggression when lots of cars fighting for space is kind of asking for trouble) but for insisting it was Alonso's fault (Alonso cast no blame on Felipe as he had not seen the replay). It is also of note that when the accident took place massa didn't keep his foot in and backed bottas into rosberg initiating a further collision. But hey its racing no hard feelings just observations.

Alonso's race craft was good, not defending against rosberg to maximise his ability to defend 3rd from ric was a good move.

I think 3 stops would of been a faster way but has to be teamed with good performance on the straights to make the strategy work think FI and williams missed a trick there.

The under-cut to get past vet was a good call think RB left RIC out too long in first stint. Vet not being able to pass Alonso and vet being out-classed by ric made was fun to watch.

Great way to start the day it nearly takes the edge off having to go into the lab today, at least I will be smiling while experimenting!!!

Happy easter everyone and Forza Ferrari

[tifosi1993]

BlqEGFtCUAAPREi.jpg

Alonso and Kimi?

Kimi and his race engineer.

[Suzie]

Whoops yes, it is in fact Antonio (sorry Roberta.)

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[tifosi1993]

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[wisepie]

Thankfully a podium at last and well deserved, my heart was in my mouth when Fernando and Felipe came together, that could have been a disaster for both of them and me. Progress certainly, but we need so much more and I don't think anyone will catch the Mercs any time soon, if at all. As for Lewis and his earrings and haircut and mid-Atlantic drawl, I've had enough already. But we beat the Bulls, a great effort from FA, shame Kimi couldn't better 8th but well done SF for restoring my faith.

[Alonsomaniac]

There are a lot of complaints about this years F1 by fans, but we must not forget the one thing that has improved the sport very much:
we don't see The Finger anymore.........

[Bertie]

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Thanks for posting it seems on average we lose 10kph to merc power. Lets see this come down with better power delivery and traction.