Formula 1 2010: Round 4 China

frostie500

The Shanghai Circuit:

2004 saw the inaugural Chinese Grand Prix with Ferrari’s Rubens Barrichello leading home Jenson Button for the win. In the subsequent five visits to the world’s must populace country the circuit has shown the potential for close racing and exciting finishes with the average winning distance only seven seconds. Grid position though is as crucial as ever with only one of the six victors coming from off the front row of the grid-Michael Schumacher achieved the win from sixth on the grid in the rain affected Grand Prix of 2006.

The circuit was built in 2003 by the Chinese government to show that the country was ready to be a sporting and financial powerhouse and it raised the standards expected of new F1 venues but even though the drivers praise the layout and the fact that there is ‘a bit of everything’ it is a jack of all trades and a master of none. It pales in comparison to long established circuits such as Spa, Interlagos, Silverstone and Suzuka.

Being designed by Herman Tilke a family resemblance to other new circuits are evident. Bahrain, Sepang, Abu Dhabi and the new Hockenheim all share a long straight and a tight hairpin in a bid to allow for overtaking. In China the cars will reach 320 km/ph as they brake into the second gear turn 14 and before tackling the final corner where the exit is crucial as cars will again be in excess of 310 km/ph before turn 1 and its tightening radius. It is a pretty long lap of 5.5 km and drivers can find a nice rhythm from the exit of turn 4 until the start of the back straight. This is the drivers favourite section of the lap as speeds are quite high for the majority and corners lead into one another. Turns 7 and 8 are very fast and the car is on a knife edge of grip when the change of direction is required.

Setup for the Chinese Grand Prix:

Teams and drivers have to balance the need for straight line speed with the requirement for mechanical grip in the first section of the lap. High speed corners such as 7 and 8 need good rear stability as drivers are constantly making small adjustments to the cars pitch through the turns. The exit of turn 13 is crucial for a drivers top speed down the long back straight so drivers take this high cambered corner into account when setting the car up for the race as the straight and braking zone for turn 14 represent the best opportunity for potential overtaking moves during the race. With five second or third gear corners on this track the need for mechanical grip is crucial for lap time. A high speed, low downforce setting is the last thing a driver needs when tackling a second gear corner such as turn 1 in Shanghai so a balancing act of car setup is used by teams. The driver will search for the least amount of downforce that he needs for the slow corners while still maintaining a high top speed.

McLaren’s innovative F-duct will be of great advantage again this weekend and drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton should once again be able to carry more downforce and achieve similar top speeds to opponents due to the stalling of the rear wing that the device manages to achieve. This will be very advantageous as the two most recent world champions can carry more wing and avail of greater levels of grip and downforce in the slower speed corners that are crucial on this track. The advantage will be two fold for them as they can carry more corner speed through turn 13 onto the back straight and then utilise the duct to decrease drag and increase their potential top speed into turn 14. Expect to see the McLaren’s once more monopolise the top speeds chart and be exceptionally competitive over the weekend.

Strategy for this weekend

This race has not proved to be exceptionally taxing on cars and drivers with a minimum of 17 drivers finishing the race each year. Historically this Grand Prix has been a two stop race but with Bridgestone’s tyres proving to be exceptionally durable this race will become a one stopper this year, unless it rains.

Grand Prix weekend weather

Three of the six Chinese Grand Prix have been interrupted by rain and this year the weather has the potential to once more inject some unexpected results on the race. Sebastian Vettel won last year’s wet race and the early weather forecast predicts that he will have to contend with rain if he is to achieve back to back wins here. Friday and most of Saturday should be dry but the clouds will roll in during the night and Sunday will have rain with a 65% chance of a rain affected Grand Prix.

Wet weather always creates the potential for increased excitement and this year’s Chinese Grand Prix could be electrified by a storm such as the one during the build up to the second round in Australia.

Past Performances in China

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton both have great form in China. Ferrari driver Alonso will look to bounce back to form after Malaysia and his engine failure. The 2005 winner has also achieved pole position here and has finished on the podium on four occasions and prior to last year had always finished in the top four.

Alonso’s former teammate Lewis Hamilton has been the pole sitter twice but crashed out during the rain of 07 before winning in 08 and will seek his first win of the year this weekend with an updated McLaren expected to incorporate a ride height control mechanism.

Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel has consistently been the pace setter of Formula 1 in 2010 and after winning from pole last year will look become the first driver to win twice in China and place himself firmly at the top of the world championship. Felipe Massa currently occupies that lofty position but the Brazilian has had mixed fortunes in Shanghai. He was very impressive for Sauber in the first Grand Prix here when he qualified 4th and finished 8th and has had two podiums in 2007 and 2008 but with two retirements and a sixth he will have to perform at his best to maintain his slender world championship lead.

All in all this weekend has the potential for another great weekend of action.

BBC Schedule

Friday 16 April
Practice one: 0255-0435, BBC Red Button/online
Practice two: 0655-0835, BBC Red Button/online
Saturday 17 April
Practice three: 0355-0505, BBC Red Button/online
Qualifying: 0600-0830, BBC One/online and BBC Radio 5 live sport extra/online
Qualifying re-run: 1300-1415, BBC One
Sunday 18 April
Race: 0700-1015, BBC One/online and BBC Radio 5 live/online
Post race forum: 1015-1115, BBC Red Button/online
Race re-run: 1455-1645, BBC One
Highlights: 1900-2000 and 0125-0220, BBC Three (highlights then looped on Red Button)

Past winners

2009 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull
2008 Lewis Hamilton McLaren
2007 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari
2006 Michael Schumacher Ferrari
2005 Fernando Alonso Renault
2004 Rubbens Barrichello Renault

amacachi

Very... thorough. :pac:

Vettel will win barring reliability problems, though I did dream he'd have have mechanical issues in one of the practice sessions. :pac:

BoardsRanger

I have a feeling its time for Schumi to step up this weekend. Not a win, but a good drive will see him on the podium. And at 28-1(boylesport) - i think its worth an each way.

amacachi

That was ****ing scary. Seems everyone's ok thankfully.

I think the bump on the way into turn 1 is going to be a big thing this weekend.

Grim.

amacachi wrote: »

That was ****ing scary. Seems everyone's ok thankfully.

I think the bump on the way into turn 1 is going to be a big thing this weekend.

thank **** no one seems to have been hurt

amacachi

Grim. wrote: »

thank **** no one seems to have been hurt

Was gonna say "thank ****" but some people don't like that term. :pac:
Really awful to watch, even with the camera live, just glad he got down.
Only thing annoying me is that I don't remember hearing anything about injured marshalls the last couple of times they died. Tyres seem to be accounted for so fingers crossed that's it.

Don't know how he could get back into a car for the rest of the weekend after that tbh.

Ghost Train

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84-egMy9GTM

pretty strange to have the two sides fail, even though they say it was one upright failure, plus tethers not doing anything for this type of failure

hopefully it wont happen to the team again

Cookie_Monster

thats really wierd :eek:

Shane732

Holy ***k that's unbelievable!

frostie500

Ghost Train wrote: »

pretty strange to have the two sides fail, even though they say it was one upright failure, plus tethers not doing anything for this type of failure

According to Autosport it was a new suspension design for STR. With no in season testing there is always the possibility of these failures occuring

Ghost Train

frostie500 wrote: »

According to Autosport it was a new suspension design for STR. With no in season testing there is always the possibility of these failures occuring

You can see it happens when it hits the particular bump on the track, I'd still wonder what changed from the old suspension to the new suspension to make such a failure possible. If the old and new design are completely different then fair enough, if the new design is based on the old, theres a chance its something the old could be susceptible to

BoardsRanger

mmm - not so sure about a good result from Schumacher now - watched a few onboards during practise and that car looked horrendus to drive. Constantly correcting it. I hope he gets a front end soon.

EvilMonkey

Wow brown trouser moment for Buemi and the camera man, I love how he tries to steer away from the barrier

Cookie_Monster

has there been any indication if this will affect their (toro roso) race? Willl they simply revert to the old suspension parts and design or pull out?

Ghost Train

EvilMonkey wrote: »

Wow brown trouser moment for Buemi and the camera man, I love how he tries to steer away from the barrier

yep, had a laugh at him steering

another clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNszX6_XsAI

Grim.

Grim.

amazing lap by vettel

Silvio.Dante

Delighted for Red Bull. They seem like a great team to work for.

vectra

Schumi dropped by Rosberg again in quali..
Was expecting better at this point.. Maybe he has his car setup towards a wet race in hopes ?

lord lucan

vectra wrote: »

Schumi dropped by Rosberg again in quali..
Was expecting better at this point.. Maybe he has his car setup towards a wet race in hopes ?

Not sure but he seemed to be constantly adjusting brake balance during quali 2&3. He doesn't seem comfortable in the car at all whereas Rosberg seems to have found the cars limits and set-up straight away.

Interesting race ahead,predictions of rain which could shake things up nicely. A dry race and i can't see beyond one of the Red Bulls winning,reliability being their biggest opponent.

BoardsRanger

lord lucan wrote: »

Not sure but he seemed to be constantly adjusting brake balance during quali 2&3. He doesn't seem comfortable in the car at all whereas Rosberg seems to have found the cars limits and set-up straight away.

Interesting race ahead,predictions of rain which could shake things up nicely. A dry race and i can't see beyond one of the Red Bulls winning,reliability being their biggest opponent.

Both Mercedes drivers were adjusting their brake balance alot. The simple fact is that until Michael gets a front end on that car that he can be confident to throw into corners and not understeer- hes not going to be fast. Apparently- things might change in the coming races...

lord lucan

BoardsRanger wrote: »

Both Mercedes drivers were adjusting their brake balance alot. The simple fact is that until Michael gets a front end on that car that he can be confident to throw into corners and not understeer- hes not going to be fast. Apparently- things might change in the coming races...

Yeah,BBC mentioned there were new changes coming for Barcelona that would suit Michael better. We shall see.:cool:

vectra

Hopefully you are both right as I would love to see him challenging at the front again.
But he did say along with front grip (lack of) he also complained that he couldnt get the power down coming out of corners.

On another note.
Lord Lucan mentioned that Rosberg has seemed to find the limit faster than Schumi,,
I know it has been 3 years but wasnt Schumi the "Guru" of how to set a car up?
The basics surely havent changed that much..Have they??

mickdw

Surely Button deserves a huge amount of credit for the start of this season. No one gave him a hope yet he is really getting on hamiltons wick. How long before there is a full scale burst up from hamilton I wonder.

vectra

LIGHTNING wrote: »

That would be great!. I`d pay good money to see Button throwing a dig at Hamilton.

Certainly would be interesting to see who would come out tops at the other end of it :pac:

Cookie_Monster

Only caught the end of quali when they were parking up the cars

The after coverage was once again quite tedious, blabbing on and on about red bull again. Now I fully realise they were and pole and all but it would be nice to talk about someone else and someone other than Horner.

Superbus

My favorite thing about this morning's qualifying was Eddie Jordan's pointless phone call. It was a bad line, and just accentuated the usually less than fabulous punditry he provides.

Hoping it rains on the morrow - though if the last race thought us anything it's to not hope for rain. You'll just get disappointed. If it doesn't rain, Vettel's a near dead cert for the win, barring some more Red Bull reliability problems. If it does rain - Sutil ftw .

amacachi

Heavy showers according to the BBC. Fingers crossed.

vectra

amacachi wrote: »

Heavy showers according to the BBC. Fingers crossed.

Brilliant
If it does I hope that the "Real Schumacher" Stands up

Iron Hide

Anyone watching on bbc.co.uk? Keeps saying "content is not working try again later" anyone know how to get around this?

lord lucan

Lol @ Lewis' defence of his outburst over team radio!:D

Yay for rain forecast!:)

Yay for last early start on a sunday morning for a while!:)

vectra

Morning. :cool:

Looking like rain for the race.?
Class.
Gonna grab a mug of coffee and settle down..

Darwin

I forgot about the race but noisy birds on the roof woke me up. Looks like a good 'un with rain imminent

Grim.

rofl at the virgin fuel saving?

Grim.

alonso jump start surely

lord lucan

Grim. wrote: »

alonso jump start surely

Lol @ Charlie Whiting pointing at Alonso from the control booth!:)

Grim.

ouch for vettel he got mugged there

amacachi

Silly altogether from Vettel pointing like that tbh, lucky for him Alonso jumped the start.

Any particular reason they couldn't let the race continue til the start/finish line?
In fairness, in the replay he didn't jump it by much at all.

Great bit of strategy from Sutil. :pac: Have to say his car looks nice to drive. Don't understand people not pitting, but I wait to be proven wrong again by Jenson.

lord lucan

Doesn't look wet enough for Inters. Schumacher obviously thinks so too!

Grim.

this is pretty funny the cars look like there on ice

amacachi

The drivers are working for their pay today anyway. Heh, replay of Alonso doing a Hamilton there. :pac:

Schmacher showing some nice pace, should be on for a high finish.

Grim.

rain drops starting on the camera lens again

amacachi

I've got the live timing in front of me, what the **** is Legard looking at!?

amacachi

That was odd, laptimes dropped by 1.5-3 seconds then the next lap they were setting purple sectors.

Hamilton properly flying, Rosberg and Button are the only 2 near his pace. Well, until this lap, some driving from Hamilton.

lord lucan

Schumacher is doing his best to stop Hamilton getting by,great defensive driving!

Grim.

horrible traction from schumacher's car

amacachi

Safety car? Pfft. Totally screws the leaders.

Anyone outside the points should be coming in for dry tyres.

Grim.

haha fair play to alonso

Darwin

Are we going to see a record number of stops from some teams? Alguersuari has stopped 4 times so far, not at half distance yet and more stops look likely! Edit: 4 stops for Alonso too, perhaps that includes the drive-through?

amacachi

Some amount of overtaking in the pit lane today.

Same crap with this safety car as has affected other races, taking longer for everyone to catch up to it than the cleaning up lasts, ****in ridiculous.

lord lucan

Hulkenberg taking a gamble,great stuff.