Chinese GP 2009 - Shanghai

[ISLAMATRON]

I'm sure their engrish is better than your chinwah

[jamsbong]

a little late on my part, since i've only started to watch the race now..

did anyone else notice this?

Damn! thats an embarrasment. The Chinese have come a long way, but they still need much improvement.

[paused]

lol, was just about to post 'notice what?' then I spotted it.

Don't you mean "spotetd it"

[andartop]

Very funny and really important. Especially when one considers that half the English 50 years or younger can hardly speak or spell English properly. At least in London, that is.

[Ray]

a little late on my part, since i've only started to watch the race now..

did anyone else notice this?

I posted it in the Caption contest thread.

[vasia]

Did Briatore even watch the same race and look at the same data as everyone else? Is he partially blind? He makes absolutely no mention of Toyota. Glock in the Toyota was far faster than Alonso in the race, and Glock's pace was at about the same level as Brawn and very close to the Red Bulls. Alonso had 9th fastest lap in the race.

I'm sorry, but Glock changed his setup when he started from the pitlane. His setup was far more rain-optimized than the dry qualifiers out there.

Trouble is, we haven't had a single "calm" GP to analyze true pace. Even in Australia, the tyres and safety-cars gave us a very distorted view.

I'm sorry, but Glock had access to the same weather forecast as everyone else. I guarantee you at least one car out of the Q3 qualifiers was set up a bit for rain. Didn't Kubica also start from the pitlane? Where did he end up in the race?

Furthermore, you cannot make significant changes to car set-up after qualifying. The main thing Toyota did was change Glock's fuel strategy starting from the pitlane, and also avoiding any potential first-lap chaos. Glock's car might have been set up a bit for rain from the beginning, before qualifying.

Regardless, Briatore is wrong with his claims.

[vasia]

and bare in mind that 10kg more fuel add about 0,2s on fast circuits. So you´ll see that if you add about 20kg and so about 0,4sec to alonso´s time, that that time was right behind the Brawns and in front of the best Toyota
With that additional 20kg alonso would have started from 5th place and with a common fuel load.

i´m not trying to say that renault is the thing to beat, i just want to show that they catched up and maybee are already equal or faster than toyota/williams

i also don´t like the far to big mouth of flavio, but pls start to considere the facts before you start throwing rocks at somebody...

i´m out
cheers

Or maybe not. Q2 times Trulli was faster than Alonso.

As for Q3, very interesting what Mark Webber had to say about it:

http://f1.gpupdate.net/en/news/2009/04/ ... ys-webber/

"If you look at the fuel-corrected timings, taking into account the loads being carried by each car, the grid would have been Rubens Barrichello, Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber so clearly we have to keep improving," Webber continued, who qualifying third.

Mark Webber actually admits that if everyone was on the same fuel level, Trulli would have qualified ahead of *both* Red Bulls and certainly ahead of Alonso.

Also keep in mind Trulli struggled with his car during qualifying, as did Glock. Trulli had huge issues with his set-up during the race. Toyota did not even achieve the maximum from the car under qualifying. Imagine if Glock and Trulli were happy with their cars during qualifying? Trulli would have threatened Vettel for pole position and Toyota could have certainly threatened for the race win. Even though Trulli struggled with his car, he still put in a strong qualifying session. Glock put in an amazing race performance.

Despite being happy with his car, what did Alonso do? Finish out of the points. Obviously, Renault is not at the same level as Toyota right now, perhaps with Williams they may be.

Before anyone brings up luck, it had nothing to do with it. Yes Renault had some bad luck, but so did Toyota. The difference is Glock finished in the points, and Alonso did not despite Alonso qualifying much higher than Glock.

Shanghai is also a circuit that has suited Renault very well, and a circuit Alonso likes very much. Keep that in mind.

[Metar]

Lets not forget that Alonso's qualifying-position counted for nothing, because he was in the pitlane before he was close to running out of fuel, under the safety-car. He effectively started the race itself dead last (or almost - ahead of Nico). That, plus a spin, cost him the points (and he was just seconds behind the points-scorers at the finish).

I'm sorry, but Glock had access to the same weather forecast as everyone else. I guarantee you at least one car out of the Q3 qualifiers was set up a bit for rain. Didn't Kubica also start from the pitlane? Where did he end up in the race?

Furthermore, you cannot make significant changes to car set-up after qualifying. The main thing Toyota did was change Glock's fuel strategy starting from the pitlane, and also avoiding any potential first-lap chaos. Glock's car might have been set up a bit for rain from the beginning, before qualifying.

Regardless, Briatore is wrong with his claims.

When you qualify in the dry, you're going in with a setup leaning towards the dry. One or two drivers might've had a bit of a compromise - but nothing compared to what you can do when you actually see the rain, and your qualifying-position is, as the Germans say, Futsch.

And yes, if you're willing to give up your qualifying-positions and start from the pitlane, you can change your setup - wings, suspensions and all. When a top driver starts from 18th and lower, I see no reason not to do this and adapt for the situation.

As for Kubica... He was in a good spot, right up Trulli's tail, when he actually crashed with said tail. After that, with a bad mounting for the front wing, what exactly can you expect?

[vasia]

Lets not forget that Alonso's qualifying-position counted for nothing, because he was in the pitlane before he was close to running out of fuel, under the safety-car. He effectively started the race itself dead last (or almost - ahead of Nico). That, plus a spin, cost him the points (and he was just seconds behind the points-scorers at the finish).

When you qualify in the dry, you're going in with a setup leaning towards the dry. One or two drivers might've had a bit of a compromise - but nothing compared to what you can do when you actually see the rain, and your qualifying-position is, as the Germans say, Futsch.

And yes, if you're willing to give up your qualifying-positions and start from the pitlane, you can change your setup - wings, suspensions and all. When a top driver starts from 18th and lower, I see no reason not to do this and adapt for the situation.

As for Kubica... He was in a good spot, right up Trulli's tail, when he actually crashed with said tail. After that, with a bad mounting for the front wing, what exactly can you expect?

You should also keep in mind Glock damaged his front wing from contact with Heidfeld. Glock had to pit early for a new front wing and that compromised his pit strategy for the rest of the race. He was once again at the back of the field after leaving the pits with a new wing, yet he STILL managed to work his way up the field a second time.

Enough talking from me, all you have to do is look at the lap times of Alonso in the race and compare them to Glock.