2012 Formula One World Championship - Round Three - Chinese Grand Prix (13-15 April 2012)

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Sven

Sven

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Round 3 of the 2012 Formula 1 season sees the teams at the Shanghai Circuit for the Chinese Grand Prix. As usual, here's Mark Webber's track preview:

[youtube]yqBn36TBJcI[/youtube]

The Shanghai Circuit is a mix of high and low speed and favours a car with good overall balance.

Drivers Championship

Alonso's unexpected win in Malaysia sees him leading the driver's championship, with a consistent Hamilton (two successive third placed finishes) in second place. Button and Webber are narrowly behind in 3rd and 4th, with the surprising Sergio Perez in 5th position. Vettel's championship defence is not off to a good start and he'll be looking for much need updates to the Red Bull to close the gap on the leaders.

1 Fernando Alonso 35
2 Lewis Hamilton 30
3 Jenson Button 25
4 Mark Webber 24
5 Sergio Perez 22
6 Sebastian Vettel 18
7 Kimi Räikkönen 16
8 Bruno Senna 8
9 Kamui Kobayashi 8
10 Paul di Resta 7
11 Jean-Eric Vergne 4
12 Daniel Ricciardo 2
13 Nico Hulkenberg 2
14 Michael Schumacher 1


Constructors Championship

McLaren and Red Bull's good start to the season continued with good points in Malaysia, but Ferrari and surprise packets Sauber secured the lions share of points in Malaysia. Williams gained their first points since 2010 at Malaysia and currently look to be right up there with the likes of Force India and Lotus. Mercedes must be shaking their heads after a second consecutive strong showing in qualifying yielded next to nothing points wise, albeit one point is an improvement over nothing!

1 McLaren-Mercedes 55
2 Red Bull Racing-Renault 42
3 Ferrari 35
4 Sauber-Ferrari 30
5 Lotus-Renault 16
6 Force India-Mercedes 9
7 Williams-Renault 8
8 STR-Ferrari 6
9 Mercedes 1

Last Year

Qualifying

Qualifying for the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix was dominated by Vettel who took any easy pole, this was in sharp contrast to mark Webber who didn't make it out of Q1. The McLarens of Button and Hamilton filled the next two positions on the grid with Rosberg and the two Ferrari's after that.

1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:33.706
2 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.421
3 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:34.463
4 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:34.670
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:35.119
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:35.145
7 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.158
8 Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1:36.190
9 Sébastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:36.203
10 Vitaly Petrov Renault no time

Race

Lewis Hamilton took the win in the 2011 race, his first for the year. Both McLarens beat Vettel off the line and a superior three stop strategy for Hamilton made a win for the two stopping Vettel impossible. Webber drove a stroming race to enetually finish on the podium with Button fourth. During the race Button stopped in the Red Bull pit and was furiously waved through by the Red Bull mechanics who were waiting for Sebastian Vettel; the incident was definitely one of the funnier happenings in the 2011 season.

[youtube]aTxJyH3EdVw[/youtube]

1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:36:58.226
2 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault +5.198
3 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault +7.555
4 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +10.000
5 Nico Rosberg Mercedes +13.448
6 Felipe Massa Ferrari +15.840
7 Fernando Alonso Ferrari +30.622
8 Michael Schumacher Mercedes +31.026
9 Vitaly Petrov Renault +57.404
10 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari +1:03.273

2012

The tyre's available for the Chinese Grand Prix are the medium and soft (as per Melbourne).

I'm expecting more of the same at the Chinese Grand Prix, with McLaren and Red Bull at the top of the list. I'm not expecting Ferrari to be in a position to compete for the podium, but they should be in the mix with Mecedes, Sauber and Williams for positions in the top 10. It will be interesting to see how Massa performs in China after his recent extended debriefing session at Maranello. Whether or not Massa is "on notice" from Ferrari is unknown, but his position at the team must surely be on thin ice based on his recent performances.
 

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BBC Sport has a nice article on the timing of car updates in Formula 1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17593531

The gap between the Malaysian Grand Prix last month and the next race in China is longer than normal at three weeks, and the Formula 1 teams will be using that time to do everything they can to improve their competitiveness.

The teams sent their cars straight from Kuala Lumpur to Shanghai - although Lotus did bring a chassis back to the UK for repairs and some other tests .

Most will be bringing new parts to the race in Shanghai, which is 13-15 April, but those developments will mostly be products of a programme that started during pre-season testing.

Developments take time - and teams need to plan what they want and when.

Three weeks is not long enough to make major new parts for an F1 car - although it is just about sufficient time to build a small development.

In the gap between the two races, it will have been possible to make simple bits if they were considered necessary - perhaps a front-wing flap or endplate, or a part of a sidepod around the exhaust exits, or something like that.

But a major structural part such as a front wing takes a bit longer - more like four weeks. So most developments that appear in China will have been in the pipeline since before the first race of the season in Australia.
Click to expand...

For most teams the race in Spain (Round 5, 11-13 May) will be the first opportunity to introduce major updates to their cars. The race is preceded by the in-season test that is being held at Mugello over May 1-3 which provides an ideal opportunity to determine on on track effectiveness of these updates.
 
Merc cars will qualify well here as the drs can be open quite abit.

Redbull to own race pace, as per usual when no DRS (but 1 spot).

RBR can win this championship for Webber if they can do something about getting the RB8 in front early in races.

2 things though hamper that, Webbers a crap starter and those mclarens are drag cars.

If we can get a mix match of results from the merc cars before the Eurpean season kicks in with Webber being consistent?

The back end of Europe will be tougher if Mclaren are chasing tail.
 
rayven said:
Merc cars will qualify well here as the drs can be open quite abit.

Redbull to own race pace, as per usual when no DRS (but 1 spot).

RBR can win this championship for Webber if they can do something about getting the RB8 in front early in races.

2 things though hamper that, Webbers a crap starter and those mclarens are drag cars.

If we can get a mix match of results from the merc cars before the Eurpean season kicks in with Webber being consistent?

The back end of Europe will be tougher if Mclaren are chasing tail.
Click to expand...

No doubt about it. But last year with around 5 races to go they went back to using the 2010 system and his starts went from downright shocking to just a bit sub par.

Maybe they should stick with it from the start of a season.
 
royboy2 said:
Lewis will cop a 5 grid spot penalty for changing a gear box
Click to expand...

I wouldn't necessarily see Hamilton's penalty as a race destroyer. The advantage from DRS at the Shanghai circuit is huge due to the long straight and the generally high downforce settings that cars need to get around the rest of the circuit. Webber's 18th to 3rd performance last year is a classic example of what is possible in Shanghai.
 
Lotus protested the Mercedes "Double" DRS system at China, and the protest was dismissed by stewards.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns24013.html

Although Charlie Whiting had previously stated he thought the system was legal, the Lotus protest is a necessary step in the path for adoption of the system by other teams.
 

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Sven said:
Lotus protested the Mercedes "Double" DRS system at China, and the protest was dismissed by stewards.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns24013.html

Although Charlie Whiting had previously stated he thought the system was legal, the Lotus protest is a necessary step in the path for adoption of the system by other teams.
Click to expand...
Why was it necessary? The FIA's deemed it legal 3 times already.
 
ManWithNoName said:
Why was it necessary? The FIA's deemed it legal 3 times already.
Click to expand...

Without a protest the status of the Mercedes DDRS is not certain. Now that it has been protested, and a decision published, the system can be implemented by other teams without the risk of the system being protested and found illegal.

Whiting was offering an opinion - in his opinion the system was legal, which is different to the system being ruled legal as a result of a protest.

Lotus could, if they wished, take their protest to court, but this is unlikely.
 
FP1 Top 10

Hamilton (1:37.106), then Rosberg, Schumacher, Perez, Kobayashi, Webber, Vettel, Button, Ricciardo, Vergne (all under 1:40)

Hamilton's time is faster than any set in FP1 (1:38.739) or FP2 (1:37.688) last year.

Not a surprising list with McLaren, Mercedes, Sauber, Red Bull, and Toro Rosso filling the top 10.

1 4 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:37.106 7
2 8 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.116 1.010 14
3 7 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1:38.316 1.210 14
4 15 Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.584 1.478 13
5 14 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:38.911 1.805 12
6 2 Mark Webber Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:38.977 1.871 15
7 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing-Renault 1:39.198 2.092 12
8 3 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:39.199 2.093 6
9 16 Daniel Ricciardo STR-Ferrari 1:39.748 2.642 16
10 17 Jean-Eric Vergne STR-Ferrari 1:39.768 2.662 14
11 5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:40.056 2.950 14
12 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:40.153 3.047 14
13 19 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Renault 1:40.298 3.192 8
14 12 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1:40.328 3.222 13
15 18 Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1:40.540 3.434 12
16 20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1:41.071 3.965 14
17 10 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1:41.204 4.098 14
18 24 Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1:42.330 5.224 14
19 21 Giedo van der Garde Caterham-Renault 1:42.521 5.415 11
20 11 Jules Bianchi Force India-Mercedes 1:44.118 7.012 8
21 22 Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1:44.227 7.121 10
22 25 Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1:44.500 7.394 15
23 23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1:47.204 10.098 12
24 9 Kimi Räikkönen Lotus-Renault 1:50.465 13.359 11
 
Tracks a bit hotter today and will only heat up...

sorting threw the ducks and drakes, Hamilton doesn't like the hard tyer and the heat, loves the soft though.

Webber was the fastest on the hard tyer and never really tried after that.

Vettels struggling with more than the car, rear suspension issues with the RB8's

Vettel and webber are running completly different exhaust set ups.



Lotus???
 
Simple Jack said:
Anyway, anytime you are unhappy with One, on google search: "sky f1 vipbox" and click the first link.
Click to expand...

I've had the english f1 show running online for hours, yes they are biased towards the english drivers but so will be our countrys olympic coverage this winter...

On another matter , Only mad men will go to Bahrain cause the locals wont be happy and the army won't be undestanding of the locals "unhappyness'..
 
Webber will own this race if the cards fall his way, again he was fastest man on the hard tyer in q1.

Now we know the merc powered cars with drs available in qualy is not a true reflection of race pace with no drs freely avaialble as much as the renault powerd cars.


Hamilton and the red bulls and mercs never bothered in q1 with the soft.
Riccardio scraped threw into q2 ( don't know if used a set of softs) but his teammate has a half hour off and wil start 18th.

edit: In q1 the sauber ferrari of perez was faster than the ferrari sauber of Alonso (both softs)

Edit mark II

Vettel made 11th in q2 and thus has 15 minutes off.

Webber used up two sets of softs and was fastest on softs in q2..the RB8 is losin nearly half a second down the straight in qualy.

And the sauber ferrari is faster than the ferrari sauber...

If webber front rows it Hamilton will be at east 2 rows back, Buttun struggled in q2 with a ninth and could be 4 rows back .
 
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