2018 Heineken Chinese Grand PrixFormula 1 

  • Thread starter Jimlaad43
  • 304 comments
  • 14,551 views
Jimlaad43
The ultrasofts can't do a full lap at full pace. Kimi burnt his tyres in the first two sectors and was screwed for the last one. Sen cared for them and nailed the last sector to snatch that pole position.
Click to expand...

Vettel wasn’t exactly that much faster than Raikkonen in S3, was only 0.14 seconds difference.
 
JC_Dude
0.14s in one sector is a ton of time.
Click to expand...

It's really not, the cars at average speed (around 140mph ish) travel about 1.5 car lengths in that time and last year Vettel out-qualified Raikkonen by an average of more than 0.14 seconds per sector (not just one) in 7 races.

Looking at the two laps it's hard to really put your finger on where Raikkonen loses time in the last sector without telemetry, but the only real indication I can find suggests that he got a slightly worse exit onto the main straight. As shown in the pictures below Vettel seems to be at slightly higher revs at the end of the exit kerb leading onto the straight with 6 lights showing on his wheel compared to Raikkonen's 4, suggesting he's going slightly faster. However that does entirely depend on them having the same gearing and the lights on the steering wheel coming on at the same revs, but I see no reason why that wouldn't be the case.

upload_2018-4-14_14-44-5.png
upload_2018-4-14_14-44-12.png
 
That was the difference though. Kimi was purple in the first two sectors but then bottled it in the last. Seb found time in the last sector which is why he's on pole
 
What’s with Mercedes it seems like Bottas is driving a better car then Hamilton and their pace is off and they cant figure things out. They need to figure things out.
 
I think Merc spent too little time on Ultras during pre-season. In AUS they thought they'd got away with it, but when Ferrari got on top of their game they just struggled to keep up on these tyres. Still, on Softs and Mediums they are looking at least a match for Ferrari
 
Fine margins for Kimi (Good to see he is back at a decent level), needed to match his first Q3 run last sector and he would have been there but credit to Sebastian for managing to hook it up when it mattered two races in a row. I think time difference gained and lost is more complex than just looking at sectors as even though Kimi went purple in first two sectors of lap, he probably used more energy to make it but lost out marginally under braking over the lap and car placement (That sort of evened itself out though) which is probably where the difference was, maybe also some setup difference too. Them prancing horses are super quick on the straights but last two races they have been able to match others under braking and corners more, glimpses in Melbourne.

Saving grace for Merc is for the two steps harder tyre, they were similarly quick so might bode well for them in the race but they also have got Red Bulls to deal with too who start on the softer tyres... Merc seem to have lost some strengths of last year but gained in others so maybe they will be stronger in Monaco and Singapore and weaker in Silverstone relative to Ferrari of last year at the moment. They do seem quite strong in the races though, maybe concentrating on the harder tyres in winter testing helped race pace but hurt a bit qualifying pace. They still seem to have the most efficient PU in the race so maybe if no safety car, it might be problematic for their competition so could open up some overtaking opportunities provided they have the pace to keep the pressure on. I wonder if Ferrari found some clever way of pushing peak power. Reliability as always will be a big factor in the championships this year.

Most positive thing in qualifying I saw was Force India back up to speed and they seem to have quite a bit in the pipeline, credit to Sergio and Nico for out qualifying their teammates. Most worrying thing is performance of McLaren, they only seem genuinely quicker than Sauber. Good job for them Williams don't have better drivers, otherwise it might have been a struggle to get out of Q1 in last two races. Unlike Force India who noticed correlating issues, McLaren are saying their 'ambitious' design is matching up to their targets but now they don't think their target was all that high. They really need their upgrade package they are working on to deliver big as it is not like others around them will be standing still.
 
MUSC4EVER
Mercedes struggling again.
Click to expand...

They're struggling to get the tire temperatures into their most favorable operating range. Tomorrow will be warmer, according to forecast, so Mercedes will suddenly be ultra-competitive again. It will be an awesome race!
 
Good morning people, 6.21am here. Looking forward to hopefully a good race. 👍
 
Is anyone else's ESPN Stream not working by chance, or is it just mine?

EDIT: Disregard, they got it up and running. Now I don't feel bad about staying up until 1:30AM to watch this.
 
DesertPenguin
Anyone else in North America planning staying up to watch live? I hate waking up and being late to the thread. So much so that I must watch live lol
Click to expand...

In NA? I haven't even been to bed yet (I'm in the UK). By the time I finished work and caught up with qualifying, it was 3:30am. Meant there were only 3 hours until the race (7am), thought I might as well stay up.
 

Latest Posts

Back