Grand Prix thread Official Not606 Chinese Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

The Hulk like he seems happy where he is and that isn't good.. I think he is better than that. Bottas is not that bad...he just needs to show some emotion one in a while. He just seems very robotic at times.

 

Bottas for me is hugely overrated based on a 2014 season where Williams got a good Mercedes PU and hence picked up some very cheap points & podiums. He's decent, but this chat about Ferrari etc is nonsense in my view.

 

So we have Nico Rosberg as odds on fav for the drivers title at the moment.

History is in his favour- no driver winning the opening 3 races has ever not won the world title, but I think there are many twists to come in this.

Great to see Red Bull looking competitive to add some spice to things, if we could somehow add a McLaren into that mix at some point things might start to look up.

 

I know what you mean, if only he'd show some emotion like all the other Finnish racing drivers have done (Keke aside!)

 

Agree with Hulkenberg and Bottas drifting away from the spot light. That comment was 'spot' on.

 

I think McLaren are on the cusp of some good progress assuming their development pipeline is up to scratch.

However, certain moments worry me and none more so than the Ron speak that Eric Boullier delivered on their website yesterday:

"Last but not least, it’s encouraging to note that, when we fitted Options to Jenson’s car for his fourth and final stint, he immediately began to fly, clocking the then-fastest lap of the race on lap 46, a spirited circumnavigation of the Shanghai International Circuit that was thereafter eclipsed by just two other drivers.”

 

Nico has a chance to make history then!
On a fairer note Lewis needs to focus his mind this is not 3 races he has missed it is 6. If anyone things Nico is not in the right frame of mind they could be wrong. The tester will be the first time he comes under pressure from Lewis, will he crumble. Not convinced he will...he gave Lewis a taste of his own medicine. Also, no excuse for Lewis losing his front wing, he should have been more circumspect.

 

To be fair, I don't think there wasn't much he could do about losing the wing in China, not really sure who was to blame there possibly Vettel, though I think if he hadn't moved Kvyat would have hit him. Bahrain was his fault imo, but they daren't say anything, he never gives anyone room and never gets taken to the stewards, I don't think Rosberg will be allowed to give him a taste of his own medicine. Like in football, certain players and teams are allowed to get away with things other players would be red carded or concede penalties for (Pulis teams for example, they constantly foul, dive and cheat but because the ref knows he would have to blow the whistle every 30 seconds, they let things they do go so as not to spoil the game)

 

Was it back in 2014 when Rosberg started the season well but lost it towards the European races?

 

He had a big lead after Belguim in 2014 and Hamilton clawed it back with a lot less races remaining than now.

 

Having just about watched the race, can't see why Vettel was so upset with Kvyat.

He left a gap, Kvyat went for it, kept his line around the inside and it was only the surprise factor that made him cack his pants and jump into Kimi

 

vettel faked it. he was in a bad position and he needed a scape goat.

I thought vettel drove great after that. really made a decent race.


I think rosberg is also very very wise. He's not kicked lewis when he is down and has learned the hard way not to make hamilton mad or give him any motivation.

If hamilton continues in this vein i think we can say theres a good bit of hunger missing.

The season's barely started imo, the main question is reliability as a 0 point race at any time and this thing flips about. but put another 3 wins wihtout reply up on the board and it gets serious.

 

I think they would have collided if Vettel hadn't moved, Vettel was in the middle of a closing sandwich and neither driver on either side could see the other, so both expected Vettel to give them a little room he simply didn't have, if anyone was to blame it was Kimi as it was his lockup and drift wide that opened the door to both.
From Vettels point of reference it was Kvyatt's fault, Vettel knew there was no room for Kvyat because he could see kimi, so he assumed that Kvyat could too and therefore was pissed off that Kvyat had gone for it knowing it would cause a crash. It really all comes down from the lack of visibility the cars have

 

Agree that all three of them are to be held accountable, bit of a rookie mistake by all of them. Apologies to Kvyat for my rant during the race (it seems he didn't even touch Vettel).

 

tbh it's a pretty standard first corner incident, someone comes bombing up the inside of someone too close and the instinctive reaction to move away takes them into the car the other side, and the design of that corner just makes it worse.

 

totally agree...

 

I'd only seen the start from Vettel's onboard and thought Kvyat was the only one who was blameless. Looking at it again I can kind of see Vettel's point, Kvyat was well behind hence Vettel not covering the move, and if you look at the line Kvyat's car takes while the Ferraris are colliding then there's no way the three of them could have got through without a collision or Raikkonen being forced off track. Perhaps Vettel should've collided with Kvyat rather than his team mate but all his attention would've been on avoiding Kvyat after he caught him by surprise. Braking wasn't an option (I've seen it suggested other places) he would've been hit from behind. Looks like Raikkonen's lock up was triggered by him being chopped by Rosberg and that's why he ended up out of position. It's just a racing incident, a lot of cars trying to avoid each other without losing position.

 

There's a video on the official f1 site showing the on boards of Vettel and Kyvat side by side. To my mind Kyvat makes a legitimate move, but as a result Vettel ends up in a closing wedge. It's a genuine racing incident in my mind and just one of those things that will occasionally happen.

On another note, did I miss Hamilton damaging his car somewhere mid race? Straight after the safety car Brundle mentioned how well the car was handling and how Ham could drive any line he wanted through the corner, but later when he couldn't pass Massa he was saying that the car must be damaged?

 

I'd assume there'd be damage to the floor when he drove over his own wing, and potentially suspension damage from the clout from the Sauber. Wasn't a great race for him in the end but you just have to keep pushing on. He kept himself out of trouble on the first corner only to be swiped by the Sauber darting well off line to avoid the Ferrari.

Bet he's looking forward to driving his 2016 Mercedes with all the parts still attached in Russia