The F1 Thread

[waggy on the wing]

early days yet, but Vettel looks in a different class to the others. Another Schumacher maybe

 

[Nando]

His car is in a different class, we'll see how good he really is when he gets wheel to wheel with the other big boys. His ability to pull a lap out whenever it's needed is very impressive though.

 

[waggy on the wing]

McLaren are getting closer to Ted Bull, but Vttel looks after his car much better than others, and as you say Nando, when the pressure is on, he can find a super quick lap.
Heidfeld looked good today

 

[Nando]

Heidfeld's an odd driver, he always does just enough but lacks the little bit extra. He needs pressure from a team mate to motivate himself.

 

[waggy on the wing]

Heidfeld's an odd driver, he always does just enough but lacks the little bit extra. He needs pressure from a team mate to motivate himself.

which is why he never gets the the top teams after him. He has the ability, but seems happy to do just enough

 

[The Bear]

I know it makes the races more 'exciting', but there is a big part of me that doesn't understand the tyre situation. Why make them deliberately quick wearing? It means that the drivers spend their whole time being careful instead of pushing as hard as they can every lap which is what they should be doing. I want to see them all on the limit, on the edge, trying to eke out the fastest laps possible not tip-toeing around trying to make the tyres last a few more laps.

You'll always have teams trying to get the most laps they can out of a set of tyres no matter how much degradation they have. Drivers will always try and look after them at certain points to save performance for when they need it.

If you make the tyres last 30 laps instead of 15 you will just go back to how we were with Bridgestone and every team making one stop at every track. If you make them last the entire race then you'd have no pitstops at all and races would be dull.

As far as the race goes I thought it was quite action packed. The DRS/KERS combination worked well and there was lots of stops which bought plenty of tactics into play.

The penalties for Hamilton and Alonso are just stupid. Alonso was already punished by having to change his nose, and if you penalise that sort of coming together then the stewards are going to he very busy in the future.

Hamilton barely made an extra move defending his position, and certainly less than Vettel made off the start line into the forst corner. No-one made an issue of it at the time so I have no idea why the stewards felt the need to investigate it.

 

[FrankMunro-371]

You'll always have teams trying to get the most laps they can out of a set of tyres no matter how much degradation they have. Drivers will always try and look after them at certain points to save performance for when they need it.

If you make the tyres last 30 laps instead of 15 you will just go back to how we were with Bridgestone and every team making one stop at every track. If you make them last the entire race then you'd have no pitstops at all and races would be dull.

As far as the race goes I thought it was quite action packed. The DRS/KERS combination worked well and there was lots of stops which bought plenty of tactics into play.

The penalties for Hamilton and Alonso are just stupid. Alonso was already punished by having to change his nose, and if you penalise that sort of coming together then the stewards are going to he very busy in the future.

Hamilton barely made an extra move defending his position, and certainly less than Vettel made off the start line into the forst corner. No-one made an issue of it at the time so I have no idea why the stewards felt the need to investigate it.

Absolutely. It was a straight forward racing accident. It was Alonso who was at fault, and he paid the price. I could not see what Hamilton did wrong. I do hope stewards are not going to react like this every time there is a coming together.

 

[Nando]

The Alonso incident sets a dangerous precedent. The Hamilton one is tough, he is changing direction trying to break Alonso's slipstream. He's got previous with Petrov from last season for the same thing and was given a reprimand for that.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

The Hamilton one is actually quite important in the season for me. It is a clear message that weaving to disrupt the slipstream and therefore negate the DRS on the chasing car won't be tolerated.

Alonso's was just a racing incident, and the fact he damaged his nose was punishment enough for me.

 

[Nando]

Alonso's DRS was broken, weaving's been banned for a while, but it seems the stewards are going to be a lot stricter this year.

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

In relation to that incident yes Alonso's was said to be playing up, what I meant is that knowing the DRS is available for the car behind is going to make you want to disrupt it more by weaving so there would be a temptation to breach the rules on weaving. Hence why the stewards are going to be strict on it, which is fair enough as far as I am concerned.

 

[The Bear]

DRS zone for China is the entire back straight before the last corner. Officially the longest straight in the F1 calendar at 1170m.

I actually thought that Korea's looked longer but apparently not.

 

[Nando]

Red Bull not going to be using KERS apparently, they might be able to stick it on pole but they'll get mugged without KERS.

 

[Nando]

Hmmm

http://en.espnf1.com/china/motorsport/story/46042.html

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Red Bull not going to be using KERS apparently, they might be able to stick it on pole but they'll get mugged without KERS.

Adrian Newey hates it, doesn't he.

You'd think though after seeing the issues Webber had at the start last weekend that they have got to realise that it's the lesser of two evils.

 

[Nando]

Without a redesign of their car, I can't see how they can fully implement it with the success McLaren get out of it. If they get done this season by an erratic KERS then thats tough shit.

 

[Nando]

Ok, they're incredibly fast this weekend, KERS or no KERS.

 

[The Bear]

Where does it say they aren't using KERS?

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

It doesn't today, but they didn't expect to as it was unreliable for them.

Vettel is a class apart on this circuit. If he keeps it out of the barriers and his mechanics hold together he should win by a street.

 

[ROVERT47]

Isn't in danger of becoming a bit of a bore again, no wonder Ecclestone wants to turn the sprinklers on.