[DieGrüneHölle]

Silly rain giving Red Bull a chance in quali.

During the recent Bahrain test last weekend, Mercedes was quickest by over 1.4 seconds a lap.

[954Stealth]

The rain is playing in Vettel's favor
but good job, Hamilton

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by gary88

http://gfycat.com/UncommonDangerousAfricangoldencat

"Fuck! How many times we have to rebuild this car every race weekend?"

(Average 2-3 times every weekend?)

[DieGrüneHölle]

Nice, looks like no rain in the forecast for the race.

If Rosberg gets stuck behind one of RedBulls, Hamilton should drive off into the sunset.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by Blipit_

Silly rain giving Red Bull a chance in quali.

During the recent Bahrain test last weekend, Mercedes was quickest by over 1.4 seconds a lap.

The Newey chassi. When power is not as important it shines. If the Benz engine was in that chassi it would be 2013 all again but as it seems with Ricciardo as champ...

[DieGrüneHölle]

Originally Posted by solstice

The Newey chassi. When power is not as important it shines. If the Benz engine was in that chassi it would be 2013 all again but as it seems with Ricciardo as champ...

Is that why Mercedes still qualified first. I don't see the other Mercedes powered cars up front every weekend. Have fun all season.

[Nang Vann]

Move over Sebastian, let Daniel through

[solstice]

Originally Posted by Blipit_

Is that why Mercedes still qualified first. I don't see the other Mercedes powered cars up front every weekend. Have fun all season.

Benz seems to have a great chassi, still 2nd to RBR it looks like by how RBR closes the gap in poor traction conditions. And Benz has Hamilton which I think is the fastest guy out there next to Alonso. Same to you mate, enjoy this great season!

[hellrotm]

Vettel not folloing team orders cost Reb Bull and Ricciardo a podium finish.

[E90SLAM]

Massa had a great start, but the move back to the middle cost him valuable points.
Lucky neither Massa, Alonso, Bottas and Rosberg's car were damaged because of contact. But I wonder if the poor pitstop was caused by the contact though.

McLaren was nowhere....huge disappointment.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by BlackJetE90

Vettel not folloing team orders cost Reb Bull and Ricciardo a podium finish.

Hehe, "Tough luck" classic. I'm not a Vettel fan and think he is overrated much due to Webber being slow but I like that answer and would likely done the same if I was a 4 time champ with a team rookie sniffing my heels. I hate team orders when racing for position.

[///S65]

glad to see Ferrari is doing better but Mercedes is still miles ahead...Rumors say Mercedes spent twice as much money as Renault in developing the new power unit...Geez I wonder where did Mercedes get so much money to burn in F1. Mercedes is already 100 points ahead Reb Bull with only 4 races.

[M_Six]

Looks like Hamilton's year. Or Nico's if Hamilton runs into reliability issues. Great drive by Fernando.

Loved the early checkered flag. Didn't Pele screw up a flag wave once?

[ashtaron14]

The sarcasm of Nico's "Tough Race?" to Lewis in the Cooldown room was Ice Cold.

[solstice]

Originally Posted by ashtaron14

The sarcasm of Nico's "Tough Race?" to Lewis in the Cooldown room was Ice Cold.

Yeah, not sure what Nico is thinking. He was visibly disturbed after Bahrain which is nonsense. The only reason he wasn't beaten as bad as in Shanghai was the safety car. Without that he would not had a chance to get even close to Hamilton, not sure why he seemed so upset about 2nd place in Bahrain. He better cool it, stop the sarcasm/whining and focus on beating Lewis fair and square instead of hoping for team orders to help him win races if that what's bothering that the team didn't tell Lewis to let him by.

[Lucky_Strike]

Vettel vs Ricciardo, Hamilton vs Rosberg, Massa vs Bottas, and Alonso vs Raikkonen. This is an interesting 2014 F1 of intra team battles ! It's only going to get better with each race.

[RobertRO]

Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai):
2004: fastest lap Michael Schumacher - 1:32.238
2014: fastest lap Nico Rosberg - 1:40.402

Conclusion: 10 years later, the best Formula 1 car is more than 8 seconds slower on this circuit. That is huge, and tells a lot about the negative impact of regulation changes on this sport.


Later edit: or, to go further with this rant:
2004: Rubens Barrichello (winner) completed 56 laps in 1:29:26.985
2014: Lewis Hamilton (winner) completed 54 laps in 1:33:28.338
Which means that in 2004 Barrichello would had time to stop at the pit, get off the car and gulp a burger, get back in, run 2 extra laps (!) and still win against the best car+driver of 2014...

[gary88]

Hamilton is truly shining with a dominant car.

[six_timer]

Originally Posted by RobertRO

Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai):
2004: fastest lap Michael Schumacher - 1:32.238
2014: fastest lap Nico Rosberg - 1:40.402

Conclusion: 10 years later, the best Formula 1 car is more than 8 seconds slower on this circuit. That is huge, and tells a lot about the negative impact of regulation changes on this sport.


Later edit: or, to go further with this rant:
2004: Rubens Barrichello (winner) completed 56 laps in 1:29:26.985
2014: Lewis Hamilton (winner) completed 54 laps in 1:33:28.338
Which means that in 2004 Barrichello would had time to stop at the pit, get off the car and gulp a burger, get back in, run 2 extra laps (!) and still win against the best car+driver of 2014...

Did it occur to you that the fact the race is 2 laps shorter implies the laps are longer than back then? They don't just randomly change race distances.

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by solstice

Yeah, not sure what Nico is thinking. He was visibly disturbed after Bahrain which is nonsense. The only reason he wasn't beaten as bad as in Shanghai was the safety car. Without that he would not had a chance to get even close to Hamilton, not sure why he seemed so upset about 2nd place in Bahrain. He better cool it, stop the sarcasm/whining and focus on beating Lewis fair and square instead of hoping for team orders to help him win races if that what's bothering that the team didn't tell Lewis to let him by.

Sour Grape....

[ydoc]

Originally Posted by five_timer

Did it occur to you that the fact the race is 2 laps shorter implies the laps are longer than back then? They don't just randomly change race distances.

Here's the answer on that point (56 vs. 54 laps) ...

Although contested over 56 laps, the race result was declared after 54 laps, as the chequered flag was erroneously shown one lap early. The leading positions were not affected by this error.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Chinese_Grand_Prix

[E90SLAM]

Originally Posted by five_timer

Did it occur to you that the fact the race is 2 laps shorter implies the laps are longer than back then? They don't just randomly change race distances.

The Shanghai Circuit never changed its layout. The error was caused by the marshal who waved the flag one lap earlier. Thus FIA official rule stated in case of any early finish, the result will take as the previous completed lap (i.e. 54)

In other words, in 2014, cars takes more time to cover shorter distance.

http://en.espnf1.com/china/motorsport/story/155187.html

The length of the Chinese Grand Prix has been cut from 56 laps to 54 laps after the chequered flag was waved one lap too early.

The error does not change any of the points-paying positions, but does mean Kamui Kobayashi has been classified behind Jules Bianchi's Marussia, which he passed on lap 55. The chequered flag was shown to Lewis Hamilton at the end of lap 55, and under the regulations that means the race results were officially declared one lap earlier at the end of lap 54.

Article 43.2 of the sporting regulations states: "Should for any reason the end-of-race signal be given before the leading car completes the scheduled number of laps, or the prescribed time has been completed, the race will be deemed to have finished when the leading car last crossed the line before the signal was given"

Hamilton mentioned the chequered flag over the team radio as he started the last lap and after the race said he was unsure what to do.

"That was very strange! I was thinking 'am I seeing things?' I looked up, I was coming across the line expecting to do another lap and all of a sudden I looked for a split second and I saw the flag, I lifted for a second and I saw there was no-one on the wall, so then I just kept going. I did lose a second or so. I asked the team, they said no, so I just kept going. Very, very strange. It was good to do another lap."

Kobayashi was disappointed to have been stripped of his position by an incident out of his or the team's control.

"It's a real shame that my move on him on the last lap now doesn't count due to the mistake with the chequered flag, something we had nothing to do with. We'd had a really good battle for the last few laps of the race and I got him on what was the last lap, until it turned out the chequered flag had been waved a lap too early by mistake - until we found that out after the race it had been good to see what a small victory like that does for the team as it lifted everyone at the end of a very tough first four races of 2014."