2015 Chinese Grand Prix - Race Thread

[Nova]

Should have slept and not bothered with this morning's race. A 90 minute endurance race where everyone was constantly looking after tyres. Today's 6 hour WEC race on the other hand was a thriller, Audi/Porsche/Toyota pushing and pushing for the full 6 hours with the lead changing many times. Only 3-4 secs off the F1 pace now too; F1 must have its days numbered in its current form.

Im almost glad I missed it, but wouldve watched if it was at a decent hour...BUT, AF Corse Ferrari won GTPRO class at Silverstone.
That was a darn good race. Gotta love them 458's.

[KurtC]

a good result in my opinion Merc are clearly faster but our drivers need to be there to get some good points, in case their cars fail... let's wish ferrari can still be the bulletproof car it has been in the past seasons... VET is in Second place after 3 races and not that far... who would have though??

[darkchild]

Interesting best sector times by Vettel.



But whats also interesting is the fact that our fastest laps are kinda slow compared to everyone else. Vettel did his on lap 15, Raikkonen on lap 42 on mediums

[Kristof_F40]

Interesting best sector times by Vettel.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCZ-oBBUsAAMvvq.png:large

But whats also interesting is the fact that our fastest laps are kinda slow compared to everyone else. Vettel did his on lap 15, Raikkonen on lap 42 on mediums

Has more to do with on which tyre you are on which moment with which strategy...
But we had decent pace here, but our tyres weren't working super good I think

[AfterLife]

I have reached to this conclusion that there is no real game changing difference between Ferrari and Mercedes power unit. Both power units seem to be identical in terms of performance. It is just the chassis that makes the difference between Mercedes and Ferrari.

[dpiatto]

You need to keep dreaming, it not going to happen. The only person getting upset is Rosberg.
What flame fanning did Vettel actually do?

That's right Rosberg is upset & that's my reason for believing a repeat of what happened in Spa is very likely,
As for the flame fanning, well i'm sure Vettel wouldn't be disappointed that there is tension in that camp & he mentioned to Rosberg that he was being backed up into his Ferrari,so yeh why not,I see it like that.
You can interpret it anyway you like but that's how I see it.

[darkchild]

Has more to do with on which tyre you are on which moment with which strategy...
But we had decent pace here, but our tyres weren't working super good I think

Yea Arrivabene said we pushed hard in first two stints, but later we backed off. We had no answer for them with prime tires, since they were very conservative for this type of surface and weather. Even softs were durable for 15+ laps which just meant trouble for us once we saw Merc weren't dropping off. But all in all superb race from our POV I would say. Merc made even bigger leap from everyone on the field, yet we cut that gap to I think uncomfortable level for Rosberg and Merc. After last year that is success worthy of big praise for the team and our drivers.

I have reached to this conclusion that there is no real game changing difference between Ferrari and Mercedes power unit. Both power units seem to be identical in terms of performance. It is just the chassis that makes the difference between Mercedes and Ferrari.

Yea, Enrico Benzing (ex Ferrari engineer and journalist) made quite scientific comparison between PU based on aero, downforce setups, drag etc. and came to conclusion that Merc has around ~10bhp more then Ferrari. But James Allison did say we have 3 tokens more for complete change of internal combustion and there will be big enough gains. As you said, that difference is no game changer as rule of the thumb advantage of ~21hp is around .3 seconds and JA said our race pace is equally split between chassis and engine side, so yea...small difference.

What JA also said is that they have upper hand is quali setup where they can use all energy power to get as much power on tarmac and there will be improvements from us.

All in all I think we have engine side under control. Team has proven that they can make quantum leap forward with innovative and good solutions so that timeline from Binotto about completely closing engine gap by second part of the season seems spot on. As for chassis, it finally looks like we got car with great potential as it is balanced, predictable and easy to set up. Now just add downforce and more power and Merc better watch out!

[evo_spook]

I have reached to this conclusion that there is no real game changing difference between Ferrari and Mercedes power unit. Both power units seem to be identical in terms of performance. It is just the chassis that makes the difference between Mercedes and Ferrari.

Shouldn't have sacked Aldo!

[AfterLife]

Shouldn't have sacked Aldo!

James Allison and his team have done a superb job to lift Ferrari to this point of competitiveness. To be honest there is no need to worry. We should consider that Mercedes chassis is older than Ferrari chassis. James Allison and his team have done a very good job on chassis despite having less time than Mercedes.

[Nero Horse]

Shouldn't have sacked Aldo!

Aldo Costa is good, but James Allison is better.

[Ste]

Except that Benson has slagged off Lewis loads of time. You're just letting your own bias get in the way, just cause Ferrari isn't been praised doesn't mean its a knock.

Are you for real?

He's a known Ferrari-hater and Hamilton-lover. Doesn't do anything but have a love in with Lewis and slag Ferrari and especially Alonso (when he was at Ferrari at least) off.

[evo_spook]

Are you for real?

He's a known Ferrari-hater and Hamilton-lover. Doesn't do anything but have a love in with Lewis and slag Ferrari and especially Alonso (when he was at Ferrari at least) off.

Your incorrect, loads of times he has slagged Lewis off, just cause he isn't praising Ferrari all the time doesn't make him a hater, people expect Ferrari to be praised 24/7 even if they don't deserve it and if it doesn't happen then they are put down as a hater.

[Greig]

Your incorrect, loads of times he has slagged Lewis off, just cause he isn't praising Ferrari all the time doesn't make him a hater, people expect Ferrari to be praised 24/7 even if they don't deserve it and if it doesn't happen then they are put down as a hater.

He clearly dislikes Ferrari nothing about praising us.

[SashAlex]

Well, looking at the race now I feel glad I opted to visit today the Museum in Maranello. :)))

Still happy for our boys. Shall Bahrain bring us some advantage again tyre wise?

[gjoko-mkd]

F1 2015 Chinese GP Engine Comparasion

[Giallo 550]

But whats also interesting is the fact that our fastest laps are kinda slow compared to everyone else. Vettel did his on lap 15, Raikkonen on lap 42 on mediums

I believe 15 is when they told Seb to go all out.

[Nero Horse]

Drivers ratings according to La Gazzetta dello Sport...

[Sriharsha]

Interesting best sector times by Vettel.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCZ-oBBUsAAMvvq.png:large

But whats also interesting is the fact that our fastest laps are kinda slow compared to everyone else. Vettel did his on lap 15, Raikkonen on lap 42 on mediums

So ultimately this proves that Seb got affected by the Lewis slowing down game. He pushed Nico to Sebastian which then lead us to take early pit stops in order to control the Wear and try to attack with an undercut.

[Fireblade]

Your incorrect, loads of times he has slagged Lewis off, just cause he isn't praising Ferrari all the time doesn't make him a hater, people expect Ferrari to be praised 24/7 even if they don't deserve it and if it doesn't happen then they are put down as a hater.

Just cause he isn't praising Hamilton all the time doesn't make him a hater, people expect Hamilton to be praised 24/7 even if he doesn't deserve it and if it doesn't happen then they are put down as a hater!

[Nero Horse]

[chris.gotfunk]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbA_30cU38M

I missed these.