Pirelli Chinese Grand Prix - 2016

[J.Clark]

This circuit almost without exception has been my least favorite, from the first race run there.  There have been moments, such as Hamilton's off while pitting - ending his race, but generally speaking it is the very worst of the Tilke circuits.

56 laps around the 5.4 km, 16 turn course.  There are some challenging points for a driver, such as decreasing and increasing radius turns.  It is usually hard on brakes with three long straights.  It features two DRS zones, but the one on the longest straight is only about half the length of the straight.

The lap record of 1:32.238 was set by Schumi in a Ferrari in 2004.  That could fall this weekend.

The team with the most wins is Ferrari with 4.  Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes are tied with 3 a piece.  Renault won once with Alonso.

The current drivers who have won it:
Hamilton (4)
Alonso (2 - once with Renault and once with Ferrari)
Vettel
Rosberg
Button
Raikkonen

Tire selection, after two races has teams trying some different strategies.  According to an article on NBCSports, "Three teams have opted to split their strategies, notably Mercedes AMG Petronas. Lewis Hamilton has split his medium and soft compounds to four sets each. Nico Rosberg, meanwhile, has opted for three mediums and five softs.

Williams has also gone with an interesting tire strategy for both its drivers. Both Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa will have seven sets of supersofts, while Bottas is splitting his medium and soft sets two-four, and Massa is going with only one medium set to five softs.

Haas F1 Team is also looking to continue its tire selection success it had in Bahrain, with both Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez having seven sets of supersofts. Grosjean will have one medium to five softs and Gutierrez two medium to four soft sets."

Thank goodness for DVR - I'll be setting mine - no longer needing to get up in the middle of the night for the Far East races.   

Questions for me include:
Can Rosberg continue his streak of wins?
Can Haas get both cars home, and maybe even both in the points?
Obviously, will Alonso be cleared to race?
Can McLaren get both cars to the end?

Practices begin in less than 48 hours now.  Maybe, with the changes we have seen (not the messed up qualifying, but other things less obvious) this will be an exciting Chinese GP.

Some events that were the little bit of spice:
Push a button on the steering wheel and both front tires come off.
Rain drain v sticky tires ends a race for JPM.
Hamilton could have secured his championship (I think) had he not spun off on the pit entrance. https://www.facebook.com/Formula1/videos/587257781431208/

[cosworth151]

Red Bull got their first pole & their first win at the circuit, courtesy of Sebastian Vettel, in 2009. In fact, they went 1-2 with Mark Webber getting the second.

Various sources say that Herr Tilke designed the track in the shape of the Chinese character shang.

Here's F1.com's preview:

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/video/2016/4/Your_guide_to_the_Chinese_Grand_Prix.html

[John S]

Some of those tyre choices could throw up problems, according to Paddy Lowe of Mercedes the supersofts could need changing after 5/6 laps -especially at the start of the race. Shanghai is much more abrasive than Bahrain or Aus.
.............Anyone for a 4 or 5 stopper.    

"Every team is bound to want to qualify on the supersoft - but if it grains in the race, we could see cars stopping in the first five laps. says Lowe.

Teams will be using the supersoft tyre for the first time at the Shanghai circuit, which had previously featured the soft compound as the softest tyre option before this year's race.

With drivers expected to use the red-marked rubber for qualifying, the top eight will start the race with that compound, and Lowe believes that could lead to pitstops within the first five laps of the race.

"The Shanghai circuit places an entirely different duty on tyres relative to Melbourne and Bahrain," said Lowe in a team preview.

"However, we have the same three compounds available, so it will be interesting to see how the competitive order plays out. 

"It's the first time we'll see the supersoft compound used at this track, thanks to the new regulations, and that will likely create a more extreme example of what we saw in Bahrain, where the best qualifying tyre is unlikely to be a great race tyre.

courtesy Pablo Elizalde, Master.motorsport.com, Mon 11th April.  

[J.Clark]

The front tires will be the problem at this circuit.

With regard to a 4 or 5 stop race, I can't remember what race, or what year, but Michael won a race once changing to a 4 stop strategy.

[vintly]

Saturday looks potentially very wet indeed - thunderstorms. Sunday perfectly clear. Could shake up the grid

Unless the forecast changes there's a possibility of no quali on Saturday at all.

[vintly]

And Lewis Hamilton will be given a five-place grid penalty at Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix for a gearbox change.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/36042091

Whatever we think about the fairness of driver penalties for mechanical problems, it could make for some great racing.

And it means Nico could get even further ahead which is fantastic for the championship.

[Scott]

Too bad for Hamilton, but like you say, it could spice up the race to have him a few rows back.  I'm interested to see if Grosjean and Haas can keep sticking their car in the points - love it if they can. 

Herbert didn't have enough of a razzing from Alonso, now he's saying it's time for Alonso, Button and Kimi to move along.  I'm sure he loved it when people were saying the same about him, because they did, and quite a few people. 

[Jericoke]

Too bad for Hamilton, but like you say, it could spice up the race to have him a few rows back.  I'm interested to see if Grosjean and Haas can keep sticking their car in the points - love it if they can. 

Herbert didn't have enough of a razzing from Alonso, now he's saying it's time for Alonso, Button and Kimi to move along.  I'm sure he loved it when people were saying the same about him, because they did, and quite a few people.

I think that Haas is becoming the story of the season.  I'm already picturing the movie where Grosjean has a surprise victory (podium?) due to a daring drive in poor weather.

I don't think that Alonso Button nor Kimi are embarrassing themselves out there; no need to shoo them out.  However, I think that the pipeline of up and coming drivers is fuller than ever.  Teams don't need to pay multi millions of dollars to veteran drivers when there are plenty of hungry young kids who deserve a shot.  Hamilton might have the last big contract for the next decade.

[Scott]

Looks like Alonso is back on the grid.  I was hoping to see if Vandoorne's performance was a once off (most reports say that no, he actually IS that good).

Well, I'm glad for Alonso and Mclaren.

http://www.pitpass.com/55868/Alonso-given-provisional-clearance-to-race-in-China

[cosworth151]

FP1 is proving hard on left rear tires. Massa has blown two and K Mag one. Session is under it's second red flag.

Pirelli has tweeted "Investigations on both failures on Williams during FP1 show no sign of puncture. Air loss connected to technical trouble....#F1 #ChineseGP"

USGP Indy 2005 all over again?

[cosworth151]

They got in about 8 more minutes of running before the session ended. No further tire issues. Rosburg's car went into limp home mode just after the checkers flew. The team replied that they thought it was an engine problem.


1   ROS   1:38.037
2   HAM   +0.146
3   VET   +0.628
4   RIC   +1.024
5   RAI   +1.118
6   KVY   +1.588
7   SAI   +1.639
8   BUT   +1.937
9   HUL   +2.132
10   VES   +2.195
11   PER   +2.310
12   ALO   +2.501
13   BOT   +2.791
14   GRO   +3.321
15   ERI   +3.356
16   HAR   +3.577
17   PAL   +3.779
18   WEH   +4.871
19   NAS   +4.943
20   MAG   
21   GUT   
22   MAS   

[vintly]

Ferraris ahead in FP2 - again - expect the Mercs to come back on Saturday as per Bahrain.... Or will they?

1   Kimi Raikkonen      1m36.896s
2   Sebastian Vettel      0.109s
3   Nico Rosberg      0.237s
4   Lewis Hamilton      0.433s
5   Daniel Ricciardo      1.247s
6   Max Verstappen      1.372s
7   Nico Hulkenberg      1.631s
8   Carlos Sainz      1.646s
9   Sergio Perez      1.673s
10   Valtteri Bottas      1.827s
11   Fernando Alonso   1.832s
12   Jenson Button      1.932s
13   Daniil Kvyat      2.282s
14   Felipe Massa      2.318s
15   Jolyon Palmer      2.878s
16   Romain Grosjean   2.994s
17   Pascal Wehrlein      3.045s
18   Marcus Ericsson      3.083s
19   Rio Haryanto      3.654s
20   Felipe Nasr      4.170s
21   Esteban Gutierrez 6.058s

[cosworth151]

Williams is now saying that the tire problem was actually a wheel rim problem. The slo-mo of Massa's first tire failure did appear like the tire just came off the rim towards the car in a right hander.

[J.Clark]

That would be a very bad thing to experience.  It messed up his floor too.

Great seeing Ferrari instead of Mercs at the top of the time sheet.
Hamilton already has a 5 spot grid penalty for a gear box change.  If Rosberg had something like happen and they actually had to race each other from somewhere other than the front row, that could make for some VERY exciting racing.

Poor, poor Esteban.  He got no running in FFP2 because his rear brakes were on fire when he pulled into the pits, with the calipers still glowing red after the fire was out - for some time.  He could have issues with the axles and other components at the back of his car.

[Irisado]

A shame that Haas are still having so many problems with Gutierrez's car.  I'm not sure that Haas look quite so strong this weekend.

I still think that Rosberg will keep the Ferraris off pole, but Hamilton has lost any chance to beat Rosberg, thanks to that gearbox penalty, unless Nico has a problem during the race.  Hamilton's best hope is to make a better start and beat the Ferraris who will be behind Rosberg on the grid.

Williams are underperforming, so I expect Red Bull to be best of the rest, although if qualifying does turn out to be wet, anything could happen.