2015 Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix

[afrodude41 0]

Thoughts from Afro

I'm sure you're just as surprised as I am that it's now Thursday and there isn't a race thread up yet, and that Sebastian Vettel managed to drag the SF-15 to victory at the previous round at Malaysia.

To be honest, I realised during pre-season testing that Ferrari would be the dark horse of the 2015 campaign, but if you asked me at the start of the season to say when Ferrari would win a race, I wouldn't have said Malaysia or any of the first five or six rounds. Obviously, this turn of events shook Mercedes enough to bring forward aero updates to this round. Keep your eye out for a 'major' new front wing, supposedly it's faster than the last one. Red Bull looked a little better in Malaysia, having both cars finish a Grand Prix and enter Q3 for the first time this season. However, the big upset for them was having both cars from the junior team Toro Rosso finish ahead of them. You'd have to go back to 2009 to find a similar situation between the two. An embarrassment if you ask me...

Poor Force India had both drivers penalised for what I felt were race incidents. That led to no points whatsoever. Williams are there, but they aren't making the sort of impression that they made towards the end of last season. At the moment, their hopes of winning a race are fading away. Impressive drive from Kimi Raikkonen, having suffered a rear puncture at the start of the race, falling to last, then ending up in fourth by the checkered flag. I guess the safety car helped him out a bit, but impressive nonetheless. Manor started their first Grand Prix, albeit with one car driven by Roberto Merhi. Will Stevens had a fuel system issue that ruled him out of the race and qualifying. Although Merhi had qualified outside the 107% time, the stewards were generous enough to let them race. Maybe they won't be so lenient next time.

Race Details



Race Start (Local/GMT) - 2:00pm/7:00am
Tire Allocations - Softs/Mediums

2014 Results:
Pole - Lewis Hamilton | 1:53.860 (Wet)
Podium - Lewis Hamilton
                 Nico Rosberg
                 Fernando Alonso

Interesting Facts:

• Sebastian Vettel now has one less win than Ayrton Senna (40|41)
• The shape of the Shanghai International Circuit is inspired from the Chinese character sheng (上)
• An F1 car steering wheel costs about as much as a family car

[VetteIfan 0]

Amazing that this is the 12th running of the Chinese GP. Really underrated track. Not a particularly brilliant track to drive but in the last few years (2014 aside) it has usually produced one of the best races of the season. 2012 was particularly memorable, having 10 cars in a line between 2nd-11th in the closing laps fighting tooth and nail.

Ferrari should keep the Merc's honest. But while Nico is in his back pocket, Lewis should have the race won as long as he gets away well at the start. 

[f1since08 60]

Hamilton's fifth pole at Shanghai today, only Senna, Schumacher and Fangio have taken five (or more) poles at the same circuit :)

[couger1981 89]

fIsince08 said:

Hamilton's fifth pole at Shanghai today, only Senna, Schumacher and Fangio have taken five (or more) poles at the same circuit :)

Didn't know they had Shanghai on the calender when Senna was driving lol ;)

[GoldenColt 1]

Or Fangio. ;)

[f1since08 60]

You know what I meant man :p 

[Lukedfrt 91]

I was surprised to see McLaren less than 2 seconds off the pace with such a long straight, more big improvements!

[GoldenColt 1]

He shall be called Professor Hamilton from now on.

[Jiggy 5]

Well, at least Maldonado tried to make things exciting.

[Hughesy 254]

Fell asleep with 15 laps left, boring race. Hamilton is showing he's a class above Rosberg this season. I agree with Martin Brundle, it seems with the new noses (although the look better) cars are finding it harder to follow and overtake.

[GoldenColt 1]

Rosberg: "Hamilton drove too slowly."

Hamilton: "It's not my job to look after Nico's tyres." 

:D

[f1since08 60]

Rosberg is such a child.

[MATT 23]

And Lewis isn't? Oh please.


At the moment they're both as bad as each other. 

[JensonBottom 1]

Lol what. Hamilton hasn't even done anything childish this season.

[GoldenColt 1]

At least Maldonad'oh didn't disappoint.

How you can mess up that corner despite the fact that they removed the gravel trap is beyond me. Why braking so late?

[garyjpaterson 0]

[Hughesy 254]

That picture says it all, Rosberg knows he can't keep up with Hamilton :joy: 

[GoldenColt 1]

Hughesy said:

That picture says it all, Rosberg knows he can't keep up with Hamilton :joy: 

And Lewis knows that aswell. :wink: 

[Chadwick8505 0]

Pretty boring race, I thought strategy might play a roll but the top four all had roughly the same strategies.

The Mercs do have Ferrari breathing down their necks though... It could turn out to be a really interesting development race between the two teams. With Merc moving up their front wing this weekend it could throw off the timing of upgrades causing a nice give and take between Ferrari and Mercedes.

[f1since08 60]

Chadwick8505 said:

Pretty boring race, I thought strategy might play a roll but the top four all had roughly the same strategies.

The Mercs do have Ferrari breathing down their necks though... It could turn out to be a really interesting development race between the two teams. With Merc moving up their front wing this weekend it could throw off the timing of upgrades causing a nice give and take between Ferrari and Mercedes.

Merc had that front wing ready for Malaysia but didn't use it. Complacency cost them.

[sjsharp2010 225]

I wouldn't have called it a boring one but I would say it was average as unlike Australia there were somre battles going on up and down the field. Whereas in Aus there was nothing.

[MBKF1 91]

I was out all day yesterday but followed the race on Twitter and the Formula 1 App. Seemed pretty boring to be honest and when I found some WiFi I watched the Sky Sports 20 minute highlights. Well half of it was rubbish! I skipped a lot of it, and I'm not gonna watch the whole thing.

I don't get Rosberg in this situation though, what the hell did Lewis do wrong?! If he was going that slow then why not just speed up a lot and try and overtake him? I know he said there was dirty air which would have ruined his tyres quicker but why not give it a go? He can't afford to finish behind Hamilton every time much longer? Lewis must be feeling so confident right now. China was the perfect weekend if there was one. No mistakes whatsoever, from practice, right through Qualifying and the race.

[sjsharp2010 225]

PeteTheDuck said:

I was out all day yesterday but followed the race on Twitter and the Formula 1 App. Seemed pretty boring to be honest and when I found some WiFi I watched the Sky Sports 20 minute highlights. Well half of it was rubbish! I skipped a lot of it, and I'm not gonna watch the whole thing.

I don't get Rosberg in this situation though, what the hell did Lewis do wrong?! If he was going that slow then why not just speed up a lot and try and overtake him? I know he said there was dirty air which would have ruined his tyres quicker but why not give it a go? He can't afford to finish behind Hamilton every time much longer? Lewis must be feeling so confident right now. China was the perfect weekend if there was one. No mistakes whatsoever, from practice, right through Qualifying and the race.

I agree when someone is going slower tha nyou and you don't like it get past them if you can that's what racing's about at least that's how I feel about it as I'd have sped up and tried to pass Lewis.

[Jiggy 5]

I'm guessing this is what Rosberg is thinking. By slowing down, Hamilton is hurting Rosberg's tyres. If you go for the overtake, you push your own tyres even more. Not only that, Hamilton seems in such control of his pace that he would easily react to that. You won't be able to get close enough to really attack him and you'll just end up in the same position you're in now, only it will hit your tyres even more because of the increased pace.

[f1since08 60]

Jiggy said:

I'm guessing this is what Rosberg is thinking. By slowing down, Hamilton is hurting Rosberg's tyres. If you go for the overtake, you push your own tyres even more. Not only that, Hamilton seems in such control of his pace that he would easily react to that. You won't be able to get close enough to really attack him and you'll just end up in the same position you're in now, only it will hit your tyres even more because of the increased pace.

Which is called racecraft, really I have no idea what Rosberg is twisting about!