[zenren]

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

If they use all their talent and experience I think Alo and Kimi both can climb atleast 2 places just a few seconds into the start.

With Ferrari lacking the top speed and having faster Merc engined teams all around them, it would be difficult to hold off the guys behind for long on the start-finish straight.

Here is my analysis of possible pit stop strategies for the teams.

Pit stop strategy should be interesting. Most teams other than Merc might opt for different strategies within the teams.

For Mercedes, they might stick to the same strategy for both drivers so that they can fight each other for the win. Given their speed difference to others, they could actually go for 2 stops for both drivers and still manage to lap faster than other cars, while not taxing the engine so much.

RBR could be running 3 stops for Ricciardo since he seems to be clearly faster than the anything other than Mercs. For Vettel, it could be 2 stops if they are unable to resolve all the issues and we might see them gamble with a start on mediums for VET.

Force India likewise could go with 3 stops for Perez and 2 stops for Hulk considering their starting positions. I wouldn't be surprised if Hulk starts the race on mediums.

Williams might opt 3 stops for Bottas to fight with Perez while putting Massa on 2 stops since he is likely to get stuck looking at Button's gearbox for most of the race. If they have any reliability concerns for the engine, we could see both cars on 2 stops.

McLaren is again an unknown quantity for the race - their starting positions and overall pace suggests 2 stops but even the 3 stops wouldn't be a bad idea for Magnussen as he is comparatively less experienced than Button in nursing the car without taxing the tyres and still maintaining enough pace to hold up the faster cars behind long enough to spoil their strategies. Button is most likely going to attempt 2 stops.

Ferrari might opt for 2 stop strategy for Alonso as this seems to be the sensible option for them with a slower car. For Kimi, it could be 3 stops as he doesn't seem to be comfortable on the medium tyres. They'll have to do 2 stints on medium if they are doing one stop less and it could prove to be slower if he is not getting the right balance from the car for 80% of his race while on medium tyres. It could be a decision they keep open during the race and decide half way through the second stint or so depending on how easily he can pass other cars on soft tyres. If he is getting held up even on soft tyres due to lack of top speed, they might switch him back to 2 stops.

Remaining 5 teams will only serve the purpose of holding up others based on their performance so far this weekend. With the grip levels of Lotus, they might actually play a crucial part in the race and the pit strategies of others with a potential safety car intervention.

Originally Posted by Octane_Power

1st place fight will be only between the two Mercs and can't see anyother driver challenging them, whoever will be ahead after the 1st lap will begin just going farther and farther from the rest of the pack and go all the way to the finish.

It is more likely that the 2 Mercs would pull away from the rest of the pack unless someone manages to squeeze in between them into the first corner. I don't see a gap opening up between the Mercs unless there is some other car in between.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Hatari

It was quite obvious to me Alonso had a problem with the car. Had to be a reason for being 6 tenths off Kimi all of a sudden.

There may well have been a small issue, but so far there are no indications of an issue in Ferrari's official statements.

Pat Fry: “The results we’ve seen so far here are not a surprise because we knew we would be racing on the defensive and that we would see a bigger gap to the Mercedes, who are currently on their own out in front. The track characteristics do not highlight the potential of our car and the long straights favour the teams that can get the highest top speed. To do a perfect lap here is always difficult and today, Fernando and Kimi found themselves fighting four teams, all within a few tenths. Qualifying was complicated for both drivers and Kimi did a good lap, confirming the improvement we’ve been looking for, while with Fernando, we didn’t manage to exploit all our potential. - See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/bah....mznfXAmt.dpuf

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso will start from the third and fifth rows tomorrow night in Sakhir. The Finn struggled in Q1 and Q2, but strung it together to post an encouraging 1.34.368, good enough to go sixth fastest in Q3.

As for the Spaniard, he looked on the pace in the first two session, but did not get the most out of the car in the final part and had to settle for tenth place with aq 1.34.992.

- See more at: http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/bah....mHupOo82.dpuf

Originally Posted by Hatari

Same thing with Vettel too, downshifting and top speed issues.

Vettel clearly mentioned in his post-qualifying interview that he did not want to blame his pace on technical issues and "there was something more in the car that I couldn't get to".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTjKvO-HhRE

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

There may well have been a small issue, but so far there are no indications of an issue in Ferrari's official statements.

Both are from official statements.

http://www.gptoday.com/full_story/vi...the_defensive/

Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal
“A superb lap from Daniel to finish qualifying in third. It’s unfortunate he has to take the ten place penalty, but nonetheless a really impressive qualifying performance from him today. Unfortunately Sebastian’s qualifying was plagued by a couple of issues that cost him straight line speed and some compromised downshifts. Hopefully that can be rectified overnight. Sebastian will start tenth tomorrow and, with freedom of choice of tyres, it still puts us in a reasonable position for the race.”

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlin...4/4/15681.html

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by Hatari

Both are from official statements.

What I meant is that at Ferrari, there is no indication from anyone else than Alonso himself that there was a car issue. The statement from Pat Fry does not mention any such issue. There may well have been an issue which Alonso felt as he drove around the track, but I would guess any significant issue would've been picked up by the team in the telemetry.

At RB, the team has noticed some issues and Horner mentions it (even Vettel did in the pit communication after his Q2 lap), but Vettel himself thinks he should've still done better.

[shashi63]

If we see the track record i wont be surprised if Kimi is on the podium today.

Clearly from what we have seen till now unless Red Bull screws up Riccardo's car Vettel is going to have his hands full fending his team mate more than the others.



I would so like Force India to do well and i have my fingers crossed Huljenberg has impressed in every outing.

I would think Hamilton will win the race and with Rosberg in second.

Let the best man win!

[zenren]

Originally Posted by shashi63

Clearly from what we have seen till now unless Red Bull screws up Riccardo's car Vettel is going to have his hands full fending his team mate more than the others.

Vettel had no problem in admitting that RIC was able to extract more from the car than himself and that the car was not perfect.

Vettel is an intelligent driver and would know that Ricciardo would pass him in any case. If he tries to defend his position and holds up Ricciardo for a few laps and ends up losing the battle, he will just prove that Ricciardo is a better driver than him this season which would considerably change the dynamics within the team. He cannot blame the car or say that the car had more potential after the race if he tries to defend his position since that would clearly be admitting that he is working against the interests of the team by trying to prevent his team mate who had better pace from gaining more points for team.

The reason RBR tolerated Vettel's behaviour in Malaysia last year was because they were already running 1-2 and the order in which they finished didn't make any difference for the total points for the team. That won't be the case if there is at least one position ahead that was within Ricciardo's reach but was prevented by Vettel and he himself couldn't get it. We can expect them to race each other for P3 (given 1-2 is written off this season) but I doubt if they might hold up the faster driver between the two of them if there are more cars in front who could be chased down.

[Vid6639]

No HD broadcast for the race!!! This is outright ridiculous.

[Akhilash95]

Quick question- is there any website for free F1 live broadcast?

[zenren]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

No HD broadcast for the race!!! This is outright ridiculous.

T20 World Cup Finals is certainly a much more significant event than just one of the 19 races in a year of Formula 1.

It was always just a matter of SS HD2 slot but it looks like a regular Premier League match has a wider audience than a regular F1 race in India.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by zenren

T20 World Cup Finals is certainly a much more significant event than just one of the 19 races in a year of Formula 1.

It was always just a matter of SS HD2 slot but it looks like a regular Premier League match has a wider audience than a regular F1 race in India.

T20 world cup final I can understand but what's up with the football match vs F1. That can be shown as a rerun in HD but F1 HD is totally different experience cause of the details which you can never observe in SD.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

T20 world cup final I can understand but what's up with the football match vs F1. That can be shown as a rerun in HD but F1 HD is totally different experience cause of the details which you can never observe in SD.

I guess the football fans might want to see the stitching pattern in the football to understand where a goal kick or a corner would go

P.S: If there are any true football fans here, please excuse. I watch football only during world cups.

[tharian]

Does anyone know of a free F1 link to watch the race live? With this Hathway blacking out Star Sports, I won't be surprised if I can't watch it.

[aim120]

We have a Indian team in F1 and we also have a Indian race track in F1 but in football there is no Indian presence internationally.So why is Star Sports giving preference to Football.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by aim120

We have a Indian team in F1 and we also have a Indian race track in F1 but in football there is no Indian presence internationally.So why is Star Sports giving preference to Football.

Because there are more "Indian" fans and audience for football than F1. That's what Star Sports and advertisers really bother to look at.

India's FIFA ranking has always been a good approximation in case I wanted to get the number of countries in the world.

P.S: Indian race track is no longer part of F1 and it doesn't look like its getting back.

[akshay380]

Stupid Star Sports. I paid for the HD pack for the sole reason of watching F1 and this is what we get. Stupid stupid people :