2012 Chinese Grand Prix

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CarolinaBlue704
Schumacher will win.


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Holy mother of God...:lol:
 
I don't know but by looking at that picture of Schumacher, it reminds me of something. Modern Talking's Win The Race song :p
 
tribolik
Thats what they said about the Ferrari and the Lotus seems in a lot better shape.
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Alonso didn't win that race on the pace of the F2012 alone. He won the race because the team made the right strategy call in the wet, and because Perez made a mistake. If the race had been dry, he woudn't have stood a chance. After all, Pat Fry reckons the F2012 is still a second off the pace of the front-runners.
 
Finally, first F1 race that is LIVE on BBC!

An early start for watching the races. I prefer the early starts, allows you to get more done during the day afterwards.

Should be good fun to watch hopefully, as last year's race was really quite interesting. For me, I can't really say my predictions for the podium as there doesn't really seem to be an established order as of yet, apart from the Mclarens being good at qualifying and race pace. Hammy to get pole, Button to win the race. I guess.

Mercs to fade in the race as they did in Malaysia.
 
prisonermonkeys
To be fair, Schumacher was in a pretty good position until Grosjean punted him off.
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Yeah but let's look at their cars not punted during the two races and you see them fast for a very short time at the start and then they fall off. It seems they have an issue with tire wear like Ferrari did last year.

Hopefully they had time to iron this out a bit before the race.
 
Yes, that is true. However Schumacher wasn't quite able to move up the field that easily though and later in the race, he was being overtaken quite easily at one particular spot on the track which highlighted that he had low grip levels.

Button also didn't move up that well either, so I suspect that it was down to the track being difficult to predict.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
It seems they have an issue with tire wear like Ferrari did last year.

Hopefully they had time to iron this out a bit before the race.
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They reckon they have. Ross Brawn sais Malaysia taught them a lot about how the tyre compounds respond to changing circuit conditions.
 
LMSCorvetteGT2
Yeah but let's look at their cars not punted during the two races and you see them fast for a very short time at the start and then they fall off. It seems they have an issue with tire wear like Ferrari did last year.

Hopefully they had time to iron this out a bit before the race.
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To be fair, Schumacher had pretty solid pace in Australia until he retired. He also would have finished much better in Sepang if it wasn't for Grosjean. Romberg, on the other hand, seems to be struggling with the car now.
 
prisonermonkeys
The Lotus E20 isn't good enough to challenge for race wins. Not unless something happens to wipe out the McLarens.
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I don't know what you're basing that on. His teammate qualified 3rd in the first race of the season, and bad lucked out of the race. Raikkonen didn't even get a shot at qualifying, but qualified 5th demoted to 10th for Malaysia, and still managed a 5th place finish. Again, fastest race lap of all by 3 tenths of a second.

So yes, with Raikkonen behind the wheel who certainly seems newly motivated, and a car who qualified 3rd and 5th on the grid certainly seems like a candidate to win races, especially when the race pace is obviously quite good.
 
thechosenwonton
I don't know what you're basing that on. His teammate qualified 3rd in the first race of the season, and bad lucked out of the race. Raikkonen didn't even get a shot at qualifying, but qualified 5th demoted to 10th for Malaysia, and still managed a 5th place finish. Again, fastest race lap of all by 3 tenths of a second.

So yes, with Raikkonen behind the wheel who certainly seems newly motivated, and a car who qualified 3rd and 5th on the grid certainly seems like a candidate to win races, especially when the race pace is obviously quite good.
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Don't listen to him, he hasn't had one good word to say about Lotus since Petrov left.
 
thechosenwonton
I don't know what you're basing that on. His teammate qualified 3rd in the first race of the season, and bad lucked out of the race. Raikkonen didn't even get a shot at qualifying, but qualified 5th demoted to 10th for Malaysia, and still managed a 5th place finish. Again, fastest race lap of all by 3 tenths of a second.

So yes, with Raikkonen behind the wheel who certainly seems newly motivated, and a car who qualified 3rd and 5th on the grid certainly seems like a candidate to win races, especially when the race pace is obviously quite good.
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Fastest lap is pretty meaningless, because anyone can do so on low fuel and fresh tyres at the end of the race. The Lotus' pace is good, but the McLarens and Red Bulls are undoubtedly faster in race conditions. Kimi got to 5th thanks to a chaotic start to the race, and the bad luck of Vettel and Button.

It's a fast car in qualifying, but the McLaren, Red Bull, and maybe even the Mercedes is faster.
 
Peter.
To be fair, Schumacher had pretty solid pace in Australia until he retired. He also would have finished much better in Sepang if it wasn't for Grosjean. Romberg, on the other hand, seems to be struggling with the car now.
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Still their tires fell off the map sooner than the other teams and Ross Brawn talked about this. PM also shows how they recognized it and planned to work on it before China.
 
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Peter.
Fastest lap is pretty meaningless, because anyone can do so on low fuel and fresh tyres at the end of the race. The Lotus' pace is good, but the McLarens and Red Bulls are undoubtedly faster in race conditions. Kimi got to 5th thanks to a chaotic start to the race, and the bad luck of Vettel and Button.

It's a fast car in qualifying, but the McLaren, Red Bull, and maybe even the Mercedes is faster.
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Kimi got to 5th on the last few laps of the race, had nothing to do with the start. Fastest lap isn't meaningless at all; you just said "undoubtedly faster in race conditions" - that is in doubt, hence fastest lap. Everyone is running the same fuel levels, several other teams had potential positions to make up towards the end and must have been pushing, Kimi still had the fastest lap.

So using the words "undoubtedly", "meaningless", and others saying Lotus don't have the car to challenge for a win - the evidence does not bear this out.
 
thechosenwonton
Everyone is running the same fuel levels...
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That is not true. Well, not exactly the same fuel levels at the end but roughly around there. There are cars that consume a lot more fuel than some cars, depends on how the drivers manage their driving limits.

About the fastest lap, they're not meaningless but it doesn't give much of a clue to the exact pace of the car. While for example, Kimi may have got a fresher tyres and fuel mix to full while the leaders and the rest are saving fuel and out of tyres towards the end of the race.

Kimi only set his fastest laps on the last 10 laps of the race but before that, he did not.
 
Well the fuel levels would vary a small amount; and since I don't know what the mileage is on the McLaren vs Renault vs Ferrari vs Redbull, I'll just go with the same amount since the variables aren't clear, and the differences are unlikely to be massive.

The last 10 laps are when he was pushing to pass and finally clearing traffic, so it's clear he was driving hard; my issue is with just dismissing the Renault/Lotus so quickly; they haven't had a normal race up to this point to know exactly where they are - they appear to me quite capable and quick in race form, and Kimi knows how to pass people (always key). I'd love to see Kimi in a real grid spot and see what he can do.
 
Considering Alonso managed to win Malaysia, I'd say that any of the Top 18 can win a race if they get a bit lucky.
 
akmuq
Considering Alonso managed to win Malaysia, I'd say that any of the Top 18 can win a race if they get a bit lucky.
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Top 18 is a bit of a tall order, especially if it was a dry race. Top 10 is much more likely, but I still think Mclaren will have the fastest car.
 
Submerged
Finally, first F1 race that is LIVE on BBC!
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That leaves me with a little conundrum :p I wouldn't mind catching the race live on my TV... I haven't seen any of BBCs coverage/highlights this year, can anyone give me a brief comparison to the Sky presentation? My other options include; watching live on my laptop (I have a SkyID) or downloading the race for later.
 
TayTheDay
That leaves me with a little conundrum :p I wouldn't mind catching the race live on my TV... I haven't seen any of BBCs coverage/highlights this year, can anyone give me a brief comparison to the Sky presentation? My other options include; watching live on my laptop (I have a SkyID) or downloading the race for later.
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The Beeb's coverage has generally been very good. Jake, Eddie and David are still good and Ben Edwards' commentary isn't half bad either. 👍
 
thechosenwonton
Kimi got to 5th on the last few laps of the race, had nothing to do with the start. Fastest lap isn't meaningless at all; you just said "undoubtedly faster in race conditions" - that is in doubt, hence fastest lap. Everyone is running the same fuel levels, several other teams had potential positions to make up towards the end and must have been pushing, Kimi still had the fastest lap.

So using the words "undoubtedly", "meaningless", and others saying Lotus don't have the car to challenge for a win - the evidence does not bear this out.
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The start took Schumacher and Grosjean out of it, and Button soon followed. Then Vettel ran out of luck in the last few laps. That's 4 places virtually handed to him.

Fastest lap is not a good judge of performance. It can mean that Kimi was only cruising, saving his tyres, for much of the race, around 20 seconds from the leaders, then got a move on when Senna started to close in on him.

Kimi can overtake, but the Lotus is not quick enough to beat the McLarens in either qualifying or the race. Even if he is behind a McLaren, and is faster, it probably won't be by enough to setup a decent overtake.
 
Peter.
It's a fast car in qualifying, but the McLaren, Red Bull, and maybe even the Mercedes is faster.
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McLaren and Red Bull, yes... maybe... Red Bull not so much faster as they'd like... Mercedes... jury's still out on that.

I'm pretty sure that the long straights will suit Mercedes better, though. But they may hamper Red Bull much more than Lotus Renault... but that's just a guess.

akmuq
Considering Alonso managed to win Malaysia, I'd say that any of the Top 18 can win a race if they get a bit lucky.
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With one caveat... any of the Top 18 cars can win a race if they get lucky and they're driven by Fernando Alonso. :D
 

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