Chinese Grand Prix

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blake
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I'll start off by saying...What a friggin mess that circuit is. It's a nightmare. There is absolutely nothing of interest or remarkable in anyway about it, well other than the piss-poor construction of the circuit itself. I have nothing against Tilke circuits, I count Turkey as one of my favorite circuits now, I've always liked Bahrain and Malaysia has grown on me over the years. However each of those circuits have something good about them. CHina has nothing, other than those two huge UFO type grandstand things that go over the main straight.

Onto the racing.

Not much to be said here. Renault stepped up and brought it. McLaren did not. Granted the saftey car periods did not help McLaren's strategy at all. It hurt Kimi because it took all the advantage he had with fuel away and hurt him because he was always heavier. JPM's issue was just bad luck. Renault deserve both titles. They stepped it up...BUT they have always been super lucky all season. Renault has had no issue like what happened to JPM while McMerc has had alot of these silly little uncontrolable things.

As far as the rest of the race.

China and MS do not get along, period! Maybe it's all the red, who knows. That Albers things was just odd. Yes MS turned left sharply but Albers was going way too fast...

The only other thing I can say is that I am glad to see Minardi and Jordon go...for the sole reason that it means the cars will be more competitive and driven by drivers actually qualified to drive in F1. That means the cars will be less of a hazard out there on the circuit not being so far off the pace driven by morons who should even have a driver's license.

Pizzona...hahaha...bye bye. I hope to never see you in a F1 car again. Sucks to be you but you have had chance after chance after chance and you've blown most of them.

Klein....red bull...what was that all about. Where did that pace all of the sudden come from? It was nice to see. Klein gets my vote for most improved driver of 05. Two years ago I didn't expect him to last the entire season at Jaguar. Now he is turning out to be a solid driver who could be a star in the future. Amazing.

Other than that Shanghai has replaced Brazil as my least favorite circuit in F1, by a long margin.

Congrats to Renault and Alonso...You guys earned it!
 
That's a little harsh.

I like the track - Corner 1 is actually a triple-apex, taken at full throttle on the first turn-in, followed by Corner 2 which turns almost as far in the opposite direction.

The fast left-right-left reminds me of Infineon Raceway. The long corner onto a straight reminds me of the last semi-circular turn at Complex String - it just keeps on going and then suddenly becomes a straight. Really testing for understeery cars. Then a nice, long straight with a punishing hairpin at the end - like Paul Ricard - and lots of potential for passing or accidental self-outbraking.


Bahrain, on the other hand, wangs chung - no interesting features at all. Interlagos needs something interesting between corner 4 and the start of the ascent, but has my favourite thing on a track - elevation change, and lots of it.
 
Maybe we will view the tracks in a diffrent way when there will be changes to the Aerodaynamics and makes it possiable to fellow another car through the corners and getting slipstream :)
 
Well, my opinion about the Albers-Schumacher crash is that it's just a 'race' accident. Albers had his own way to go to the starting grid and that was by going through the circuit with high speed. Schumacher on the other hand did that lap slower. Albers went almost completely to the left side of teh track and Schumacher does the same. It was too late to miss him, so they touched each other.

That is not a reason to say that Albers is not qualified enough to drive in F1. Ok, I may be Dutch and a bit subjective, but he isn't THAT bad. Examples of drivers who aren't qualified enough are people like Tarso Marques and Gaston Mazzacane. They were really slow.

Anyway, that doesn't mean I don't want to see Albers go. He isn't a very friendly person if you hear his interviews. In my opinion he is someone that thinks he is great, because he often is showing off in those interviews. It's like because he did well in DTM, he is a superb driver, which isn't true.

Doornbos on the other hand has a nice personality. He may be a little bit slower than Albers, but who cares if Albers is 'rude' towards public? (Example: Someone wrote in an article in a Dutch F1 magazine that he don't expect to see Albers back in 2006. As a reaction Albers forbid the magazine to put interviews with him in the magazine. Kinda odd, everyone may have their own opinion.)
 
Mclaren_Man
I dont think that is likely because MS has passed his used by date now.
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I don’t understand why people think MS isn’t still a great driver. His car isn’t good, but he still completely owned Rubens and only got beaten to the championship by 2 drivers, Alonso and Raikkonen.

Blake
 
Blake
I don’t understand why people think MS isn’t still a great driver. His car isn’t good, but he still completely owned Rubens and only got beaten to the championship by 2 drivers, Alonso and Raikkonen.

Blake
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and he's a seven time world champion, who still is competitive in the right car.
 
Darn these 1-2am start times. Why couldn't SpeedChannel tape-delay it for 7:30; it's not like the core audience isn't used to getting up at that hour?

I don't watch enough TV to warrant a TiVo purchase (2-4 hours a week.)

Another season over. No more V10s. No more Minardi and Sauber, and soon, no more Jordan. What will F1 be like next year, I wonder. But we'll know for sure in March of 2006.

Not much to say about the race, except it's funny that the first time a V10 engine led a lap, it was a Renault-engined Williams (Riccardo Patrese: Brazil, 1989). And the last time a V10 led a lap was today's Renault.

Enough from me. It would be nice to see Klien and Speed in the same team for 2006...
 
pupik
Darn these 1-2am start times. Why couldn't SpeedChannel tape-delay it for 7:30; it's not like the core audience isn't used to getting up at that hour?

I don't watch enough TV to warrant a TiVo purchase (2-4 hours a week.)

Another season over. No more V10s. No more Minardi and Sauber, and soon, no more Jordan. What will F1 be like next year, I wonder. But we'll know for sure in March of 2006.

Not much to say about the race, except it's funny that the first time a V10 engine led a lap, it was a Renault-engined Williams (Riccardo Patrese: Brazil, 1989). And the last time a V10 led a lap was today's Renault.

Enough from me. It would be nice to see Klien and Speed in the same team for 2006...
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Speed is replaying it at a completely WORTHLESS time of 12 AM Friday morning. Gahhh! 👎
 
Blake
I don’t understand why people think MS isn’t still a great driver. His car isn’t good, but he still completely owned Rubens and only got beaten to the championship by 2 drivers, Alonso and Raikkonen.

Blake
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When I say he is passed his used by date I mean that I dont think he will be winning any more championships. Maybe he will be better next year and contend for the title but I still cant see him winning it. I know Bridgestone/Ferrari havent had a good year, but I cannot see MS taking another title especially up against the young guns (kimi, Alonso and JPM). He will be right up there but not winning the championship. Once all the key players at ferrari (MS, Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Bern etc) retire which will be in a few years time, ferrari will

BTW: I am not saying MS is a bad driver, he is the best in history, but I believe his time has passed.
 
anyone have any good pics of JPM and the grates?
 
Famine
That's a little harsh.

I like the track - Corner 1 is actually a triple-apex, taken at full throttle on the first turn-in, followed by Corner 2 which turns almost as far in the opposite direction.

The fast left-right-left reminds me of Infineon Raceway. The long corner onto a straight reminds me of the last semi-circular turn at Complex String - it just keeps on going and then suddenly becomes a straight. Really testing for understeery cars. Then a nice, long straight with a punishing hairpin at the end - like Paul Ricard - and lots of potential for passing or accidental self-outbraking.
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have to agree with famine. Shagnhai is not a bad track, its quite challenging, often the tracks that breed the most passing aren't a challenge. I've heard alot of things abotu very amyn tracks this year not being good for passing, but its just the cars. There was some great action in V8supercars earlier in the year.

That first corner is a gem, on the coverage, on an in car of Juan Pablo following Raikkonen they where showing the percentage of brake and accelerater being used, it was very interesting to see the way they kind of had to tippy toe around turn 1, with soft use of the brake and accelerator.
Also I liek he wide turn onto the straight, particuly the way its cambered inwards slightly right through the corner and just drops away at the end
 
[FPV]Rusty
have to agree with famine. Shagnhai is not a bad track, its quite challenging, often the tracks that breed the most passing aren't a challenge.
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Exactly. If the drivers are putting so much energy into simply driving the track, it's much more difficult to break that concentration to make a pass. The Hungaroring is one of my favorite tracks to drive in a video game because of the complexity and the flow of the corners, but it generally provides the most boring F1 races of the year. Same with China. I haven't driven this track in games, but it looks like a good challenge for a driver.
 
Suzuka and Spa Francorchamps are very complex tracks, with some overtaking spots. No wonder they're the driver's favourite tracks.
 
does anyone else think alonso seemed a bit more happy when they won the contructors then when he won the title? maybe it was just the coverage or something but i dunno.
 
Well, duh. Winning the constructors means he did both, and also means he has a better chance to win again next year.
 
It just means he's proved himself. The driver's title was a "meh, we knew it was coming kind of moment." I guess that's why he didn't slow down for the last two races and went all out. Wanted to prove that he DESERVED the championship.

Still can't understand people putting him down... this is just like Michael's first championship against Mika... who had a faster, but less reliable car. The fact that he won partly through strategy and partly through Mika's misfortunes didn't make it any less of a championship.
 
pSI civic
does anyone else think alonso seemed a bit more happy when they won the contructors then when he won the title? maybe it was just the coverage or something but i dunno.
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It was the last race of the season. He finally got to "let go."
 
i guess that all makes very good since. i was just thinking i would have felt different if i had won the title. the contructors wouldnt have ment as much to me if i were him.
 
I agree with niky, the drivers title was over before it really began and many had discounted it as really being worth anything. More emphasis has been put on the constructors title than usual and for Renault to win that it proved Alonso should have won the championship and that the car was still a match for the McLaren.

Blake
 
Ive been meaning to ask this question since saturday but i kept forgetting. Why do BAR Honda have different sponsors and colours for the Chinese GP's???
 
Britisch American Tobacco (BAT) doesn't sell Lucky Strike in China, they do sell 555 tobacco there. That's why BAR had a different color scheme (which I like a lot) :)
 
Hmmmmm that was an erm.... yeah a race.

That was actually not worth getting up early for at all, deffinatly one of the worst of the season.

JPM, incredibly unlucky there but maybe he should focus more on the track then on Kimi's ass (Alonso and Kimi both avoided it, why not him?).

Kimi never really looked like he was going to trouble the Renaults today he was behind Fisi for so so so long and i think that is due to the McMerc not being up to usual standards and Renault having the new engine.

Alonso drove a nice race, clean and professional, got the job done, nice Queen impression on the radio too. :lol:

Button was quite unlucky with the saftey car periods, him and DC were keeping up with the McMercs fairly nicely and i felt they could have thrown up some overtaking if they pitted just that one lap later.

Kathekayan had a pretty fast crash, too ka while for marshalls to get to the car however, he could easially has been injured in the car..

So, a poor ending to a great season, i cant complain really its usually the other way around!!
 

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