2018 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, April 13-15

[Sierra117]

I guess that you are overlooking the fact that until the SC came out, Vettel was lining up to pass Bottas, on newer tyres.
So even if Ferrari were tardy in calling Vettel in, there was a reason for it, and frankly it was actually working.

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

1 lap actually, no concept of strategy, they thought they could cover but couldn't.

Mercedes outlaps are really good looking at the timesheets, do they have a semi qualifying mode?

From what I recall from onboards and interviews, they have a few degrees of higher modes, so it could just be a tad higher mode (not full Q mode), it could be the clearer air, it could be Bottas pushing harder or a combination of a few or all of these things. Nonetheless Bottas was great, he was the driver of the day for me.

[Vasconia]

What a race!!! as Ricciardo already said he seems to achieve exciting victories.

I did want Vettel and Ferrari to win this race but they failed with strategy, they came to the pits to late so they lost the leadership, I thought Bottas was going to pull away with the médium tyres but Ferrari´s pace with those tyres were pretty good, but not enough to overtake Bottas who did a great race, his best in a while.

Then it came the SF and RB was audacious and their strategy worked, Ricciardo was again MARVELLOUS overtaking, he is truly a master, his overtakes are a pleasure to my eyes. On the other hand Verstappen was too agressive again and ruined Vettel´s race. The German reacted like a gentleman, kudos for him, but he must be furstrated. He should leave China with a 25-30 points advantage to Hamilton, but they have been only 9.

With two mediocre races, Lewis still can be leader if he wins next race, something very possible. But who knows what willl happen now that Ferrari has a car which seems to work in different conditions.

Bottas has been better than him in the last two races, he needs to react.

Alonso and Hulkenberg were the best of the rest, their season starts are being perfect. Carlos needs to reach last season´s level if he wants to defeat the German.

Baku can´t come soon enough!

[Vasconia]

I guess that you are overlooking the fact that until the SC came out, Vettel was lining up to pass Bottas, on newer tyres.
So even if Ferrari were tardy in calling Vettel in, there was a reason for it, and frankly it was actually working.

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

1 lap actually, no concept of strategy, they thought they could cover but couldn't.

Mercedes outlaps are really good looking at the timesheets, do they have a semi qualifying mode?

I thought Vettel came to the pits two laps later, how on earth they lost 3 seconds?

[Vasconia]

I watched the race again.

The most amazing thing for me was Bottas's 5 seconds gain with the pitstop undercut. That showed what Mercedes really has even in the hands of Bottas. Mercedes could have win all these three races with some luck. I think Mercedes is the fastest car. This also shows Hamilton (or his team) was having an off weekend. "Zero" development from last year's qually time did not make sense anyway. He should have been where Bottas was at least. He needs to recover.

Raikkonen was very good. It is just unfortunate he is used by Ferrari as the perfect 2nd driver so I was really happy to see on the podium, well deserved.

Daniel did not misuse his chance, did the job. Great for him.

Vestappen is just not smart enough to be a champion.

Vettel had enough pace to keep Bottas behind so I dont see that Mercedes had clearly a better pace than Ferrari. It was a un expected thing that they lost the leadership after the first stop because the gap was enough to keep Vettel first. Another good point for Ferrari is that they were also fast with medium while previous season showed that Mercedes usualy destroyed the field with those tyres.

[Vasconia]

My driver of the day is definitely Bottas.
Sure, Ricciardo was good no doubt, but I think Bottas will leave with some confidence.
He did a fantastic first stint staying close to Vettel, an incredible outlap, a marvellous overtake on Kimi, and he defended really well against Vettel & more so against Kimi towards the end(maybe not so with Ricciardo, but that was inevitable either way).

And then you wonder, what about Hamilton? I felt he was really lost the whole weekend. He is extremely lucky with how things developed

I still consider Ricciardo as the driver of the day but its true that Bottas was awesome, great qualy, great start and very good pace and defense. I hope he can keep this level.

[f1316]

I guess that you are overlooking the fact that until the SC came out, Vettel was lining up to pass Bottas, on newer tyres.
So even if Ferrari were tardy in calling Vettel in, there was a reason for it, and frankly it was actually working.

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

Without the safety car, I think many - if not all bar Raikkonen - might have pitted again and/or had to defend from those who did.

Vettel’s tyres are hard to judge with the damage to both them and the car caused by the Verstappen incident, but Bottas’ had all but gone by the end - hence even Kimi catching him hand over fist. The Red Bulls, in my opinion, would have really struggled to get to the end quickly on the mediums they put on lap 18.

All of which is just to say I think there might have been another twist in the tail even without the safety car. RB seemed to manage the US pretty well in the first stint, so I suspect you could easily make up 2s per lap for the last 13/14 laps or so and make a two stop work. If Vettel had rolled the dice on it - perhaps in response to RB doing the same - Bottas probably would have been forced to try and go to the end as the undercut would have been too strong to react.

We’ll never know if any of that’s true but I think we would have been in for an interesting finale without the safety car.

[Big Tea]

I guess that you are overlooking the fact that until the SC came out, Vettel was lining up to pass Bottas, on newer tyres.
So even if Ferrari were tardy in calling Vettel in, there was a reason for it, and frankly it was actually working.

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

Without the safety car, I think many - if not all bar Raikkonen - might have pitted again and/or had to defend from those who did.

Vettel’s tyres are hard to judge with the damage to both them and the car caused by the Verstappen incident, but Bottas’ had all but gone by the end - hence even Kimi catching him hand over fist. The Red Bulls, in my opinion, would have really struggled to get to the end quickly on the mediums they put on lap 18.

All of which is just to say I think there might have been another twist in the tail even without the safety car. RB seemed to manage the US pretty well in the first stint, so I suspect you could easily make up 2s per lap for the last 13/14 laps or so and make a two stop work. If Vettel had rolled the dice on it - perhaps in response to RB doing the same - Bottas probably would have been forced to try and go to the end as the undercut would have been too strong to react.

We’ll never know if any of that’s true but I think we would have been in for an interesting finale without the safety car.

Without the few laps of safety car, we may also have seen some fuel management in the closing laps. There could wel have been position changes late on.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

I missed the race due to long flight and missed the action. For a change, both Mercedes and Ferrari supporters feel jolted with the race. Hamilton had a Russia 2017 in China. Quite a normal season start for Lewis.

With the current state of affairs, Monaco would most likely be another nightmare for Mercedes and Lewis.

[Vasconia]

I missed the race due to long flight and missed the action. For a change, both Mercedes and Ferrari supporters feel jolted with the race. Hamilton had a Russia 2017 in China. Quite a normal season start for Lewis.

With the current state of affairs, Monaco would most likely be another nightmare for Mercedes and Lewis.

This season I think RB will smash the rest of the field in Monaco. Ferrari should not be bad but with the longer wheelbase I think they won´t be as strong as in 2017.

[Restomaniac]

I guess that you are overlooking the fact that until the SC came out, Vettel was lining up to pass Bottas, on newer tyres.
So even if Ferrari were tardy in calling Vettel in, there was a reason for it, and frankly it was actually working.

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

Without the safety car, I think many - if not all bar Raikkonen - might have pitted again and/or had to defend from those who did.

Vettel’s tyres are hard to judge with the damage to both them and the car caused by the Verstappen incident, but Bottas’ had all but gone by the end - hence even Kimi catching him hand over fist. The Red Bulls, in my opinion, would have really struggled to get to the end quickly on the mediums they put on lap 18.

All of which is just to say I think there might have been another twist in the tail even without the safety car. RB seemed to manage the US pretty well in the first stint, so I suspect you could easily make up 2s per lap for the last 13/14 laps or so and make a two stop work. If Vettel had rolled the dice on it - perhaps in response to RB doing the same - Bottas probably would have been forced to try and go to the end as the undercut would have been too strong to react.

We’ll never know if any of that’s true but I think we would have been in for an interesting finale without the safety car.

Erm Raikkonen was in far younger tyres. Logically think about it.
At the point of the SC Raikkonen hadn't long pitted. Any car pitting would have lost far more time than the RedBulls did in normal racing conditions.

Vettel was behind Bottas and by the end his tyres would have been just as old. If Raikkonen couldn't pass Bottas on younger tyres why would Vettel manage it in tyres of a similar age?
We both know there is no way Ferrari are going to green light Raikkonen on younger tyres get past Vettel on older ones as well (That's even if he could pass Hamilton).

Bottas had the position and would have stayed there. If Vettel pitted on the next lap under the SC he would have been far further back and he wouldn't have got back in time.

Bottas was in position and would very likely have stayed there no matter what Ferrari did.

[JPBD1990]

A fortnight is too long to wait after this race! It feels so unresolved.

Congrats to redbull of course but without luck they didn’t have the pace to even be on the podium.

Bad luck AND bad strategy for both Ferrari and Mercedes.

What a weird and anticlimactic race. I’m sure if you’re a Daniel Ricciardo or redbull fan you feel otherwise but this race felt manufactured, where as Bahrain was equally thrilling (it not more so) and far more organic.

I get the need for the safety car at that point (arguably, could have used VSC, double waved yellows, etc) but in as many ways as it spiced the race up, it ruined it.

[santos]

Great victory for Ricciardo... and it's nice to see that with a good strategy, RedBull is in the mix for a victory. But i have to say... If Max was in a Williams or Sauber, and making the things he does, people wouldn't say that he is agressive, and that he goes for the gap, and how a great driver he is going to be. He would be called Crashappen, or how terrible driver he is... all the things that many called to Pastor.. He is not much different from him.

[Sevach]

2 laps fresher? Describing that strategy as 'working' is a bit of a stretch.

The differential in performance between the two vehicles was low, and the differential in tyres was also low. Vettel's best chance to pass was the Raikkonen roadblock. He was already beginning to fall out of DRS range at parts of the track when the SC was triggered.

1 lap actually, no concept of strategy, they thought they could cover but couldn't.

Mercedes outlaps are really good looking at the timesheets, do they have a semi qualifying mode?

I thought Vettel came to the pits two laps later, how on earth they lost 3 seconds?

1-Vettel's tires were past their best, he was .7s below his average on stint 1.
2-Ferrari lost 1 full second in the pitlane.
3-Really good outlap by Bottas.

[ferkan]

Has Ricciardo ever won with pace? I feel all his wins have come from lucky situations, such as safety cars, front-runner screw-ups, rain, etc.
Max, on the other hand, has won with pace on a couple occasions.

What takes more skill? Having the fastest car (“pace”), or capitalising on opportunities as they become available? Max proved today that he’s not able to do that in every situation... he almost crashed out twice, for the third consecutive race.

Im a Ferrari fan so I’m not saying this as a Daniel fanboy... but your points seem moot.

Where was Daniel when Max took those wins with fastest car? Did he drive same car?

[Wouter]

He would be called Crashappen, or how terrible driver he is... all the things that many called to Pastor.. He [Max] is not much different from him.

How often did Max made a mistake like yesterday in his F1 carrière? Same drivingstyle as Maldonado?
How often overtook Maldonado several drivers in the first 2-3 rounds or drove he from
place 18 forwards to place 3 during a race?