2015 Chinese Grand Prix review

It was an ok race but I wasn't very happy how the race ended behind the safety car. This hasn't happened that many times in F1 history but I have seen all of those races and it has never been a good thing if you ask me.

Let's talk about how the race started shall we.

After the warm up lap Lewis Hamilton placed his car in an angle at his grid spot so that he could easier go in front of Nico Rosberg without turning the wheel as much. Was he really that worried about Nico? I would have been more worried about the Ferraris!

Speaking of Ferraris did you see how well Kimi Räikkönen's start went? He jumped from 6th to 4th by overtaking both of the Williams's (Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas).

Bottas had a good start because he overtook Massa. Unfortunately for his sake he didn't hold that position very long because when Kimi overtook him he also lost the position back to Massa. You can clearly now see that Ferrari has done a better job than Williams. Last year Williams were in front of them most of the time and Red Bull was the second best team. Now Williams is still the 3rd best team but Red Bull has dropped even further back. Ferrari might even catch the Mercs at some point of the season just like Red Bull did with Brawn in 2009. But in 2009 it was too late to win the championship.

Red Bull and Renault are really struggling. Daniel Ricciardo's start was a disaster when his car went into antistall and didn't move forward very fast. He got overtaken from both sides in an instant. Daniil Kvyat retired again even though he drove well. What a pity! Ricciardo and Kvyat are both great drivers and they are wasting their time at Red Bull if they can't get things moving forward. Should Red Bull try to use Infinity engines or should they just wait for Renault to solve the problems? Who knows... that's probably what's on Christian Horner's mind right now. Max Verstappen also retired once again. He also had a great race and showed better skills than Carlos Sainz, but if you can't bring the car to the finish line it doesn't count or even matter.

Pastor Maldonado and Romain Grosjean did a very good job! Lotus has also made huge progress if you haven't noticed. Maldonado was just flying and overtook several cars one by one. Then he crashed with Jenson Button but this time the blame wasn't on Maldonado. Button even admitted that it was his own fault.

The funniest moment was when Kimi said on the radio "get these two McLaren's out of the way!". Listen to this clip:



The end part of the race was boring because after the last retirement the safety car was deployed just 2 laps before the finish. They didn't have time to restart the race before it was all over. Hamilton asked Mercedes if he had already won it just to make sure. Rosberg was second followed by the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen.


As usual it's time for the predictions and the results.

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

The race:

1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT
2. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari - WRONG. He was 3rd.
3. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. He was 2nd.

Fastest lap: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - CORRECT

Surprise: McLaren will do better this weekend! - CORRECT. They managed to finish with both cars!

POINTS: 1st - 3
2nd - 5
3rd - 10

+ possible bonus points

HOW IT WORKS: the aim of the game is simply predict who comes where in the race (top3). A total of 18 points can be won on a race day. For example if you get winner and and 3rd place right but 2nd wrong you get 13 points.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PREDICTIONS: send an email to f14lifeblog@gmail.com or message the Facebook page to submit your predictions. You have until lights out to make them. If you submit them when the race has started they won't count. So be quick!

THE PRIZE: the winner of the league will win themselves a admin place on the F1 4 LIFE page along side AE, JT, MW & MH. If you don't want to be an admin you are welcome to participate anyway.

F1 2015 Chinese GP: Drivers Press Conference (video)

2014 Chinese Grand Prix review

Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg and Mercedes continued proving that they are unstoppable. Nobody had a chance! The only way that the 1st and 2nd places will be different if there is an accident or a technical problem.

Right at the start Hamilton took a strong lead from the others, Rosberg got stuck in traffic and smashed into Valtteri Bottas' Williams. Both of the drivers could continue the race without making a pitstop.

The other Williams driven by Felipe Massa had a small crash with Fernando Alonso's Ferrari. They both blamed each other but later Alonso said that it was a racing incident. Massa continued blaming Alonso.

The other Ferrari driven by Kimi Räikkönen was much slower all weekend and Kimi was very frustrated:

Kimi managed to overtake one car in the start though.. In the end he was 8th so a little better than last race but still. 

Why can't they get the car as he wants it? His driving style is totally different to Alonso's and the car is mainly built for the spaniard. He has been working on the car since last year and Kimi has had his first chance to work in January. In the last tests Alonso tested both cars and Kimi wasn't even there. Alonso said that there was something strange with Kimi's car and it was more difficult to drive for him as well.

Back to the race! Kevin Magnussen smashed his front wing again in the beginning of the race. He has complained that he can't see it from the cockpit which makes it more difficult to protect.

What about Williams' pitstop with Massa? That was just terrible to watch! I mean come on guys! How hard can it be to take the right tyres to the "box"? Ever heard of double checking? But mainly it ruined Massa's race and he stayed the whole race at the back.

One good thing about Williams though, they finally managed to get their tyres right in the qualifying session. They even showed some improvement in wet conditions.

What about Sebastian Vettel? Daniel Ricciardo has been much better than Vettel in every race!

It was embarrassing when Vettel disobeyed teamorders (didn't let Ricciardo through) and then he got overtaken anyway. Later he confessed that he didn't wanna let him pass but after he thought about it he changed his mind. I guess he changed his mind when Ricciardo was overtaking him.

Later Kamui Kobayashi overtook the champ with his Caterham and Vettel got really pissed off. He shouted on the radio that it's easy to overtake when his tyres are newer. So what? He was still one lap behind and Vettel had to make his pitstop anyway.

What else happened? Adrian Sutil retired again which means that he has finished only one race for Sauber this season. When he was interviewed he said that he isn't worried because it can't get any worse than this. He knows that everything that happens after all of this must be an improvement.

The race ended 1 lap earlier because someone counted the laps wrong. Hamilton was going on his final lap and they already waved the flag. He asked on the radio about it and Mercedes told him to finish the last lap and ignore the error.

The FIA changed the results so that the last lap didn't count because according to the rules if you wave the checkered flag it means the race is over.

The last thing, my guesses and the actual results:

Pole position: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - RIGHT

The race:

1. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - WRONG. Rosberg was 2nd.
2. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes - WRONG. Hamilton was 1st.
3. Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull - WRONG. Ricciardo was 4th and Alonso was 3rd.

Fastest lap: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes - RIGHT

Surprise: Nico Hülkenberg, Force India - For me the biggest surprise was probably Ferrari's pace.. well.. at least one of the Ferraris. Fernando Alonso was 3rd!

That's it for today and if you want to send me feedback then email me: f14lifeblog@gmail.com

FIA post-qualifying press conference - China

Drivers: 1 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes); 2 - Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull Racing); 3 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

Q: Lewis, congratulations, your third pole this year. That must have been so difficult with so many difficult and different conditions out there. What sort of satisfaction do you get from that?
Lewis Hamilton: Definitely the most when it’s raining. It’s so slippery out there, trying to find the grip, obviously not making mistakes on your lap, and really putting it together, especially when you have these guys pushing you. So, it was a tough session. I really enjoyed it. The car was feeling great. We always have stuff we can improve but the team have done a great job this weekend. A good position for the race and I hope we can follow through tomorrow.

Q: Daniel, you’re second on the grid, your equal best ever grid position. What sort of satisfaction for you to put together such a good lap in these conditions - right at the end there?
Daniel Ricciardo: Yeah I think that was very pleasing to do it at the end. To be honest, I struggled a bit throughout the session, at least personally I didn’t feel like I was getting on top of the conditions but then the last set of inters right at the end of Q3 we managed to get a bit more out of it and I put a good lap together, so pretty pleased to be on the front row. Yeah, a good day.

Q: Sebastian, is this Red Bull Racing coming back and getting on terms with Mercedes back at the front? 
Sebastian Vettel: Well, in wet conditions I think we have a bit more of a chance. In dry conditions they are still quite quick and a little bit too far away. But let’s see what happens tomorrow, I think the weather forecast is dry so for sure we’ll try. I think we are in the best positions to try to give them a very hard time tomorrow.

Q: Yes, what is the weather forecast for tomorrow, Lewis? What are you expecting? What are you looking forward to in the race tomorrow 
LH: I was told it is going to be a good day tomorrow - I don’t know if it’s going to be the same for you guys? So, we don’t know. Here it’s always hazy, you don’t really know what’s going to happen with the weather but it will be cold for sure. Today you didn’t see the track drying up at all. But I hope it’s a dry race. Obviously these guys are a little bit closer in the wet, but we’ll have a good race either way.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q: Lewis, going into that session I think you just did one lap this morning - so how well prepared were you for that session?
LH: Yeah, I mean, we all had to save our tyres. It’s interesting because I’ll have to go and analyse it ‘cos I know at least one of these guys was driving a few laps in FP3 but I didn’t feel the need to go out really. I think it’s kind of… I don’t think it’s great for the fans that we don’t have a huge amount of tyres to… just to go out and run so they can see us driving. I’m sure people are tuning in and turning up to the track to watch us drive and we’re kind of a little bit restricted, obviously with the engine mileage and also with the tyres, so it’d be cool if we had a little bit more tyre life, then we would do some more running. But otherwise it was no different for me. The car felt good in qualifying.

Q: And in dry conditions, how do you feel?
LH: Yesterday was not a good day for me, so I struggled through P1 and obviously didn’t get to run through P1 and then P2, the car wasn’t very good. But we made some changes so I’m hoping… it’s kinda strange because we made all those changes overnight and then today it’s been wet so I’ve no idea if it’s in the right direction. It looked good in the wet so hopefully it’s the same tomorrow in the dry.

Q: So in a way you go into the race tomorrow with a bit of an unknown car.
LH: Yeah, definitely. I do particularly, because I missed P1. So it’s a little bit of an unknown - but it shouldn’t be too far off.

Q: Daniel, this circuit, just looking at the streams across the track, the changing condition, the rain came and went… tell us all about that.
DR: Yeah it’s a challenging circuit, I think, in general. Especially when a bit of water falls on the track it always makes it more challenging wherever you are. And there’s a few places across the track here where there’s a tarmac change and you get quite a big difference in grip through some of these corners - so trying to basically find the right line and the best way to drive around, particularly these trickier parts of the track with tarmac changes, is a bit complex. Took a bit of time to understand that but I think we got it in the end. Looking forward to tomorrow. If it’s dry I think we can race up the front. I’ll be ducking my head down the straight, like in a go-kart but yeah, we’ll hopefully hang on and fight for at least a podium I hope.

Q: And how do you feel going into the race in dry conditions?
DR: Yeah, as I say I think we’ve got a good chance to at least stay up the pointy end. It’s probably going to be a big strategy game tomorrow with two or three stop. It’s pretty close. If you can make a two-stop work successfully I think it’s going to help out but y’know, we’ll see what happens in 24 hours.

Q: Sebastian, pleased to be back in our press conference again, in third place?
SV: I missed probably one race, so it’s not a disaster.
LH: He’s been in quite a few times over the years so…

Q: But in terms of being competitive again and in the dry, you didn’t sound as though you were very convinced you would be [competitive] in the dry but perhaps in the wet more so? 
SV: Yeah, just if you take yesterday as a reference we were in good shape but I think missing the Ferraris this afternoon compared to yesterday afternoon. Yeah, we knew that in wet conditions probably we can be a little bit closer probably similar to what we’ve seen so far in qualifying, unfortunately only in Australia, where Daniel I think finished… qualified P2. Malaysia we were pretty close and again here. Maybe not that close this time but closer than we were yesterday probably… and the last race.

Q: And in terms of the race tomorrow, what’s the major factor? It’s interesting to see how much wind there is out there. 
SV: They say the weather should be fine tomorrow but I think around here you cannot really trust the weather forecast, so the best is to look out the window in the morning and see what you have. I think that’s fairly much the plan. In terms of tyres a bit compromised for the race, should it be wet, because we used most of the tyres today but I think most people were confident to do so because tomorrow should be dry so long story short we expect dry conditions and hopefully we can finish similar to where we started.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Livio Oricchio - Universo On Line) Sebastian, you have a more competitive teammate this year; does it change your approach to the weekend? 
SV: Well, that’s a compliment to Mark, I should say, in his absence. I think this year is very, very different, the cars are very different so I don’t think you can compare last year to this year, first of all, but nevertheless, I think Daniel is doing a very good job, he has not just had one good weekend, he had good weekends and so far he seems to be able to get the maximum out of the car. On my side, maybe I’m struggling a little bit more, but at the end of the day we have the same car - there’s nothing between cars, so if he manages to beat me, then he beats me on the circuit, fair and square. Of course, that’s not to my liking but equally, I know that I have to do a little bit better.

Q: (Frederic Ferret - L’Equipe) Daniel and Sebastian, there are two Red Bulls in front of one Mercedes; do you think there is a chance that we see a Red Bull winning tomorrow or are the Mercedes untouchable? 
SV: Well, I think if we put two chicanes in all the straights then yes.
DR: The idea is to get a good start for both of us and just drive side by side the whole race and then just fight it out on the last lap! Yeah, I don’t know. Realistically we have to wait and see but if we do I’m sure it won’t come easy.
SV: But do you agree on the chicanes still?
LH: Nah.
SV: It was worth a try!

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto, Motor und Sport) Daniel, you said you only found the right grip on the last run; was it because of what you explained before, because you had to find the lines where the tarmac changes or was it because you used different tyre pressures or whatever at the end? And can you tell us where the tarmac changes here at the circuit? 
DR: I think that with a bit more water than we had this morning - I only did one timed lap this morning - but with a bit more water out there this afternoon, it probably changed more than I expected so maybe some of the lines or the approaches I had on track this morning had altered a bit. Yeah, it took me a little bit of time, I guess, to figure that out. With tarmac changes, there’s a couple across the track but the main one I think that we feel in the race car is probably turn eight, I think, it’s after the long fast left and then into turn eight, there’s a tarmac change there and the car sort of bounces around a bit there. That’s just a bit of a challenge, I guess, in these conditions, so trying to get around there was... fun.

(source: f1.com)

2014 FORMULA 1 UBS CHINESE GRAND PRIX - Qualifying

1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:55.516	1:54.029	1:53.860	21
2	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:56.641	1:55.302	1:54.455	23
3	1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:55.926	1:54.499	1:54.960	23
4	6	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:56.058	1:55.294	1:55.143	22
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:56.961	1:55.765	1:55.637	21
6	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.850	1:56.757	1:56.147	24
7	77	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes	1:56.501	1:56.253	1:56.282	24
8	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:55.913	1:56.847	1:56.366	23
9	25	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Renault	1:57.477	1:56.584	1:56.773	23
10	8	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:58.411	1:56.407	1:57.079	22
11	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Ferrari	1:58.279	1:56.860		17
12	22	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.783	1:56.963		17
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	STR-Renault	1:57.261	1:57.289		18
14	99	Adrian Sutil	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.138	1:57.393		17
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	McLaren-Mercedes	1:57.369	1:57.675		17
16	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1:58.362	1:58.264		17
17	21	Esteban Gutierrez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:58.988			10
18	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Caterham-Renault	1:59.260			10
19	17	Jules Bianchi	Marussia-Ferrari	1:59.326			10
20	9	Marcus Ericsson	Caterham-Renault	2:00.646			10
21	4	Max Chilton	Marussia-Ferrari	2:00.865			10
DNQ	13	Pastor Maldonado	Lotus-Renault	No time			0
		Q1 107% Time		2:03.602