2017 FORMULA 1 HEINEKEN CHINESE GRAND PRIX RACE ***SPOILERS***

I watched last night the Chinese GP which I had recorded.

Not a bad race, IMO, with some good passes. It's early days yet, but the championship seems to go towards a Hamilton v. Vettel duel this season, with Bottas and Raikkonen in the supporting roles, but not at the forefront. These 2 are to be considered at Number 2 and not title contenders already.

Mercedes and Ferrari are well ahead of the pack. Shame that Red Bull is not at the same level; both drivers seem hungry there, and no team orders apparent either.

Poor Gio had a terrible weekend with 2 shunts at the same place!
Bad weekend for McLaren, Haas and Renault.

 

Ferrari was going to win this race if not for that safety car. Still would have won if the cars weren't routed into the pits. As always, lady luck shines on Hamilton.

 

Magnussen drove well to finish eighth.

 

It's another demonstration of how Seb tries to learn the nuances in the rules to get the extra advantage, reminiscent of what senna or Schumacher would have done, like his overtake within the pit lane (and thus not against the rules of the safety car) a couple seasons back when all the other drivers were assuming, incorrectly, that they had to hold station in the pit entrance road. He overtook one of two in that short stretch and gained advantage totally within the rules.

 

Anyone keep track of # of stops for Vettel and Hamilton? Thanks.

 

Was last season....at this track I believe!

 

Thanks Bas, I couldn't remember which track or year it was!

 

Each 'stopped' twice, from intermediates to softs, then for a fresh set. Went through the pit lane for 3(?) laps early in behind the safety care after giovannazi detonated his car

 

Thanks, didn't get a chance to see the race and am wondering why Vettel ended up 6th after his VSC stop? So he was also in that train that followed the SC into the pits after G's crash?

Also can't understand why Vettel just sat behind KR for so long? Team orders?

 

If Vettel and Hamilton keep taking points from each other and if RBR gets their act together, they might still be able to throw themselves into the race for WDC.
tbh, at the moment it strongly looks like Vettel having the edge. Hamilton got away lucky in China.

 

I suggest that only team mates can take points for each other, not drivers from different teams.

Also, I don't think the Red Bulls are able to compete on equal footing with Mercedes and Ferrari.

Hamilton lucky ?

 

I am not so optimistic for Ferrari...I think that in Qualy Mercedes is still stronger as one can see when Bottas is able to drive the same time as Vettel although I think Vettel is stronger. So Hamilton will most likely start more often from pole than not and so it is Ferrari who always have to find their way by somehow. One can say Hamilton was lucky this weekend with the safety car but one could say as well that Mercedes could have won the first race if they would have been a little bit more clever as just because Vettel might have been a little bit quicker does not mean that he can get by on track if Lewis is blocking...
So Ferrari needs to find a little bit more pace in qualy to get the upper hand in the duel, right now Mercedes is holding the trump card.

 

Of course, if you are driving for team 3 and those guys in team 1 and two 2 take turns at winning, these keep each other from running away on the score board.

They are not atm. But then, on a drying track they still haven't been as hopeless as expected. AMuS suggests that RBR has issues with keeping the tyres happy at a light car but is less struggling with a heavy car. This is stuff that can be addressed.

Yes, Hamilton lucky. Of course he has done everything right to deservedly take the victory home. But he was lucky Vettel couldn't be a threat to him due to the safety car stuffing Vettel in the back end of the leading pack. Plenty of F1 press suggest Hamilton would have had a tough time taking home that victory otherwise.

 

That's the way I see it too.

The Mercedes seems to be still the superior car.

 

Who's fastest in F1 2017: Mercedes or Ferrari, Vettel or Hamilton?

Lewis Hamilton may have won the Chinese GP but the lap charts suggest Sebastian Vettel was right to claim Ferrari were fastest

Even after the curtain had fallen and the chequered flag had been unfurled, the Chinese GP still had a twist in its tale.

"I think we were a bit unlucky," said Sebastian Vettel over Ferrari team radio. "It felt like we were the quickest, man. We couldn't prove that today but next time we will."

Vettel later steered clear of repeating his assertion to reporters, merely saying "I just go with the fact that who wins the race deserves to win", but his assertion will not have been missed by Mercedes.

Ferrari's pace is quickly turning F1 2017 into a classic and the small print of their performance in Shanghai, a circuit where Mercedes traditionally excel, will have the world champions worried heading to Bahrain.

Was Vettel or Hamilton fastest in China?
After their tyre strategies diverged as early as the second lap in China, Vettel and Hamilton only ran together over the final 20 laps. And with the gap between their cars holding steady at around 10 seconds, there was little prospect of the race lead changing hands.

But both drivers were pushing hard: Hamilton and Vettel each set their fastest laps of the race during that period and, in another telling giveaway, neither Valtteri Bottas nor Kimi Raikkonen, their respective team-mates, could match their pace despite also setting their own personal bests during the same stage of the race.

Chinese Grand Prix Fastest Laps


Driver Team Lap Time
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 44 1:35.378
Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 40 1:35.423
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 41 1:35.849
Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 42 1:36.003


For both Hamilton and Vettel, the final stint wasn't about setting the fastest lap of the race, however. It was a test of each other's mettle.

"I kept pushing because you never know, maybe Lewis is doing a mistake, or has an issue with the car so I wanted to keep the pressure on," said Vettel.

"When Sebastian got behind, then we had a real race on our hands," said Hamilton.

"In terms of pace, we had a kind of match with Lewis," added the German. "Sometimes I was quicker, sometimes he was."

But who exactly was quicker in that final stint?

How Hamilton and Vettel's final stints compared


Lap Hamilton (20-lap stint) Vettel (22-lap stint)
34 - Pitted
35 - 1:55.529
36 Pitted 1:36.792
37 1:57.651 1:36.393
38 1:37.123 1:36.872
39 1:36.673 1:37.021
40 1:36.727 1:35.423
41 1:35.798 1:35.614
42 1:36.081 1:35.739
43 1:35.705 1:35.670
44 1:35.378 1:36.051
45 1:35.583 1:35.599
46 1:35.521 1:35.978
47 1:36.036 1:35.728
48 1:36.049 1:35.647
49 1:35.892 1:35.632
50 1:35.819 1:35.711
51 1:35.894 1:35.727
52 1:35.957 1:35.672
53 1:36.643 1:35.707
54 1:35.657 1:35.974
55 1:36.139 1:36.287
56 1:36.747 1:36.144


Excluding laps 36 and 37, when Hamilton lost time entering and exiting for his second stop, the numbers point to a very closely-fought contest but one in which the Ferrari was slightly ahead.

Hamilton's outright pace was a smidgen better than Vettel's: a 1:35.378 compared to a 1:35.423. But it was Vettel who had the more consistent pace: while the Ferrari was in the 1:35s 14 times over the last 17 laps, Hamilton could only better 1:36 on 10 occasions.

Most saliently of all, Vettel trimmed Hamilton's lead by 3.2 seconds over the final 19 laps. It's a reduction slightly inflated by Hamilton's very slow final lap, but even excluding that final tour from the equation still finds the Ferrari 2.5 seconds faster than the Mercedes through that final stint despite running on tyres which were two lap older.

"There were times when Sebastian put laps in and it was hard to even match the time," said Hamilton. "The last 10 or 12 laps he was doing a 35.6 and I was doing a 35.8 and it was very hard to get to where he was. Then there was other times in the race when I was quicker."

What we don't know, of course, and what Hamilton certainly wouldn't tell, is how much the Mercedes was holding back. But the fact Hamilton set a 1:35.657 - faster than the personal best of every other driver in the race bar Vettel - on lap 54 of 56 is suggestive.

Nor does it appear Vettel had enough superior pace to overtake Hamilton. While 2.5 seconds is a considerable gain, it took almost 20 laps to eek out. Vettel's earlier lap time improvement of approximately 1.2 seconds once freed up from behind Daniel Ricciardo and Raikkonen indicates that, unless Hamilton made a mistake, he wouldn't have had sufficient speed advantage to pass Hamilton even if he had caught the Mercedes.

But the numbers do bear out the working theory that, while the Mercedes' outright pace is faster than Ferrari's, which could be particularly critical in a year when reduced overtaking puts an even greater premium on track position, the W08 is 'peaky'.

Conversely, although the SF70-H cannot quite match the Mercedes over a single lap, it appears to be more consistent and kinder on its tyres.

No wonder, then, Ferrari left China defeated but far from dejected. F1 2017 is close. Perhaps not close enough to justify Hamilton's expectation that 2017 will "be one of the closest, if not the closest, fights I have ever experienced" - 2008 and the final corner at Interlagos, anyone? - but it's already close enough at the front to have the potential of a classic.

But where were Raikkonen and Bottas?
In qualifying trim, Mercedes appear to possess a small but significant advantage of around two tenths of a second over Ferrari - or, to be more specific, Lewis Hamilton does.

One clear feature of the two opening races this year has been the superiority of Vettel and Hamilton over their respective team-mates.

Bottas' self-described "amateur mistake" when spinning off behind the Safety Car resulted in him finishing almost a minute behind Hamilton in China, while Raikkonen was over 40 seconds adrift of Vettel. The Finn was also three tenths behind Vettel in Shanghai qualifying and half a second shy in Melbourne. Little wonder Ferrari are seemingly already anxious about his 2017 form.

Bottas' newcomer status will buy him a certain amount of leeway at Mercedes but the unusual nature of Toto Wolff's criticism of his driver - "Valtteri threw it away", the Mercedes chief told Sky F1 - was arguably a telling insight into the pressure Mercedes are feeling. In such a close fight, every weakness is significant and while Hamilton took pole in both China and Australia, Bottas is yet to qualify ahead of Vettel.

The gap was reduced to a thousandth of a second in Shanghai and whether or not the Finn can continue that improvement over the rest of 2017 will be an important part of the narrative to follow.

Likewise, although Vettel is a clearer number one at Ferrari than Hamilton is at Mercedes, meaning there is more chance of Bottas taking points off Hamilton than there is of Raikkonen finishing in front of Vettel, Ferrari's constructors' title prospects will be in grave jeopardy if, as in China, Raikkonen regularly loses out to the Red Bulls.

Nor is it a leap of the imagination to foresee Vettel relying, at some stage, on Raikkonen beating Hamilton to improve his own prospects of a fifth drivers' title.

source:Who's fastest in F1 2017: Mercedes or Ferrari, Vettel or Hamilton? | F1 News

 

He went straight in under the VSC, so lost only a few places, but it meant he was too far back to capitalise when the rest made a stop during the actual safety car period. Hence, he was always racing for second, with no realistic chance of first unless elton blew his tyres early and tried to 'overcut' instead, having seen it work last week for ferrari.

I too am perplexed that kimi wasn't told to clear him thru to tackle ricci earlier, we have to assume ferrari were giving kimi the chance to race, but in my opinion they left it too long, and then to compound matters, reverted to leaving kimi out 5/10 laps too far on the first set of softs, destroying his chances of beating the red bulls to third, a place he would have been reasonably capable of taking had he come out around them, or even slightly behind. When he exited the pits, he had 14 seconds to make up, and was travelling over a second a lap faster right to the end, sometimes much more than that, he clearly had the pace and the skill to do it, I think ferrari knee jerked into concentrating on vettel yet again, which is a bad sign for the constructors title hopes

 

The biggest concern for Vettel will be Bottas getting #2 on the grid and allowing Hamilton to pull away early. Otherwise a honest Vettel/Hamilton duel is in the offing and should make for enjoyable viewing.

 

+1

Bottas should improve his grid position after a few GP, once he feels comfortable with the car, and may cause some headaches for Vettel.

 

Thanks! Yes, that's what I'm worried about; Vettel can duel Hamilton for the WDC, but the WCC is hanging on their team race strategy...

 

James Allen breaks it down as to why they let Kimi stay out....

https://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2017/04/analysis-would-vettel-have-won-china-without-f1-safety-car-and-why-did-ferrari-leave-raikkonen-out/

 

Exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

 

Vettels plan for future races.....
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Haha at is funny ^^

According to this article the Ferrari and Mercedes are equal even on qualifying pace. The difference in lap time being purely down to the driver. Good news for Ferrari then. We hold a slight race pace advantage and as long as the drivers nail the qualy laps should theoretically be able to outqualify Lewis. He is just so damn fast over 1 lap though

Mercedes gleicht aus gegen Ferrari: ?Das ultimative Duell? - AUTO MOTOR UND SPORT

 

Sources are Lauda and a Mercedes engineer so it must be true as they are totally neutral

 

I think Hamilton is the best qualifier since Senna. Period!