[treadmark]

This is what finger boy had to say after race on what led Ricardo through.

"Yes, there was no point holding him back further.
He was quite a lot quicker. At the stage we had different strategies and once I was told that I decided to let him go. I started to realise towards the end I couldn't hold him back."

"I think it made more sense, I was not quick enough. The team priority at that point from a team point of view, which was probably correct, was to push Daniel and give Fernando a hard time which didn't work. It was quite obvious that he was quicker today."

Cheers!

[Hatari]

What was the Chinese official with the Chequered flag smoking? ending the race 2 laps early!?

Originally Posted by nipcarlover

The conversation where Vettel refused to follow team orders was epic.

2nd time in 4 races!
And Seb's reaction when a Caterham passed him!
A newbie, beating him at Red Bull, a team and car he knows like the back of his hand! #Insult

Good race this.. nice to Ferrari and Red Bull get closer to the Mercs. China updates clearly working for the Scuderia.
Vettel and Kimi clearly struggling, Kimi will be key to the constructors battle for P2.

This race should be the last time Nico leads the WDC. Unless he really really digs deep.

Last words from Kimi on ESPN

Asked if his lack of results affected his motivation, Raikkonen said: "I don't know why you always come up with motivation. If I didn't have motivation I wouldn't be here answering these kinds of questions. It's f*** all to do with that. We have bad races and it's an unfortunate thing, but the aim is to improve and get where we want to be."

He is trying. Hope he finds some pace soon.

[LandCruiser]

Superb race by Lewis, Alonso, Nico and Riccardio. Well done guys. Seeing Alonso on the podium after long was good. There were only Ferrari and Finnish flags all over the grand stand!

We need more competition between the top 3 teams. The difference in pace was still huge, Mercedes far far ahead.

[Mpower]

Looking more and more like the Schumacher era from 2004. Hamilton is winning by a country mile

Disgusted to see team orders again at Redbull and happy that Vettel ignored it and gave a fight.

[dj78]

Frankly it was a very boring race - think the most boring of this season. The top few drivers just went through the motions with only a few interesting passes in the middle of the field.

With the teams slowly sorting out the issues with the massive changes this season it seems that MB is becoming the new RB.

Think I need some NASCAR fix to make up for some of the lost excitement towards F1.

[zenren]

Originally Posted by dj78

Frankly it was a very boring race - think the most boring of this season. The top few drivers just went through the motions with only a few interesting passes in the middle of the field.

With the teams slowly sorting out the issues with the massive changes this season it seems that MB is becoming the new RB.

Think I need some NASCAR fix to make up for some of the lost excitement towards F1.

If you ignore Merc as a team and their drivers, F1 is still exciting enough. The battle for 3rd in WDC and 2nd in WCC would most likely go down to the wire with a lot of drivers in the equation. That's the way I'm looking at this season. The final podium spot is equivalent to a race win for all other teams. With 25 & 18 already reserved for Mercs, it is difficult for anyone else to build a big lead over the others in the overall standings which would ensure that the 3rd to 8th positions in WDC are close enough all the way.

Except for Ferrari and Red Bull, no one else would have really thought of fighting for the championship coming into the season. It is just 2 teams among the 11 that are really under-performing. Others are more or less where they expected. With Vettel and Alonso fighting with each other on similar equipment, their battle would still be interesting to watch.

Drivers like Ricciardo, Hulkenberg, Perez and Bottas would still continue fighting this season just like any other season for their career best position in the overall WDC standings. They were never in the fight for WDC even in the earlier seasons and wouldn't feel this season any different. If anything, this is one season where they have a good shot at finishing 3rd or 4th in WDC - something that was nearly impossible unless they were in one of the big budget teams.

[asr245]

Interesting fact from Joe Saward's blog

Lewis Hamilton’s race time over 56 laps in Shanghai would have been 1h36m52.810s. Compare that to last year and the year before and you will see that the race took about 26 seconds longer than it did in 2013 and 2012. Not even half a minute. In percentage terms, therefore, there was a loss of less than half a percent in terms of performance. In contrast, this result was achieved using around 33 percent less fuel.

Don't remember 2012 but 2013 was a dry race without SC. Considering that, what a waste of energy those V8s were (though they did make music).

[zenren]

Originally Posted by asr245

Interesting fact from Joe Saward's blog



Don't remember 2012 but 2013 was a dry race without SC. Considering that, what a waste of energy those V8s were (though they did make music).

Tyres are the real performance limiter in the recent years when it comes to race pace.

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by asr245

Don't remember 2012 but 2013 was a dry race without SC. Considering that, what a waste of energy those V8s were (though they did make music).

I think such a direct comparison with the V8s is unfair because this year, the use of electrical energy over every lap is much greater than V8 era.

[asr245]

Originally Posted by zenren

Tyres are the real performance limiter in the recent years when it comes to race pace.

Yes, but Hamilton was in cruise mode this year (more so than Alonso last year). Maybe a better comparison can be made towards the final races (they changed tire construction mid season so those those races were less tire limited). Also need to remember that engine saving would be more this year due to the 5 races per engine rule.

Originally Posted by StarrySky

I think such a direct comparison with the V8s is unfair because this year, the use of electrical energy over every lap is much greater than V8 era.

Yes and that electrical energy is being recovered (which went waste earlier - besides the KERS) so doesn't cost any fueld. So it goes to show that a V6 with ERS is almost as fast as a V8 with KERS, and consumes 33% less fuel.

[zenren]

Another point when you think about it is the pit strategy. Thanks to the fuel flow limit, lesser number of stops is likely to be the more competitive strategy. If someone is doing an extra stop, he needs to make up that 30 seconds during the race and with most teams opting for the lesser stops strategy, it makes it even more difficult for others to go with an extra stop and overtake slower cars twice without losing much time.

Even without the fuel limit to help, Lotus successfully implemented lesser stops to come out in front of others in several races in the last 2 seasons. Last year in Australia, Vettel and Alonso had no clue they were fighting Kimi for win till he actually stayed out long enough on second stint to make one stop less. That has influenced all race directors in focusing on the slow and steady model this time as a safer bet.

[Hatari]

Originally Posted by zenren

Another point when you think about it is the pit strategy. Thanks to the fuel flow limit, lesser number of stops is likely to be the more competitive strategy. If someone is doing an extra stop, he needs to make up that 30 seconds during the race and with most teams opting for the lesser stops strategy, it makes it even more difficult for others to go with an extra stop and overtake slower cars twice without losing much time.

Even without the fuel limit to help, Lotus successfully implemented lesser stops to come out in front of others in several races in the last 2 seasons. Last year in Australia, Vettel and Alonso had no clue they were fighting Kimi for win till he actually stayed out long enough on second stint to make one stop less. That has influenced all race directors in focusing on the slow and steady model this time as a safer bet.

Pit strategy is mostly dependent on tire wear. Early last year, actually first half of the season, Lotus were the best in the field in terms of tire wear, thats why they could go longer and make it work.

The other factor influencing pit strategy is top speed, as we have seen upto upto 18 km/hr differences between teams this year. Red Bull, which is team low on top speed will not opt for the extra stop simply because overtaking a Force India/Williams will be impossible on the straights and they will need to make it work out of corners rather than into them, thus losing precious time. They will be unable to overtake Ferrari/Mercedes anywhere ontrack.

At China, Ric could have challenged Alonso as he was on fresher tires and catching up at upto a second a lap. But getting past was close to impossible.