No spoilers here yet, I just finished watching the race myself. I'll only say Wow! and leave it at that...plus this very short clip of Webber pulling a wheelie. Here's hoping this video stays up for a while. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2cwOCha8PU]Formula 1 2012 Chinese GP - Mark Webber jump - YouTube[/ame]
Just watched it too. Now that was a race. Incredible. Well worth watching. Sure is shaping up to be a fun season
But was it? Wasn't it the same as what happened most of last year? The lead car drives off into the distance while his teammate holds the others back slightly, just enough to get out of DRS range? The real race was from 2nd on back......just like last year. But, major Kudos to the race winner! They took a page right out of Red Bull's book from last year IMHO, and made it work. So much for hard on tires, fast in qually but no race pace, etc etc, eh? Three different team winners in three races - gotta love that too! I think Big Mac will be the team to win it all tho, they are strong in every area, although the Reds Bull are not out of it yet. Mock Webba is definitely making a bid for recognition within his team, isn't he? I think all the teams need to do a little more work on pit stops tho, how different could the race have been if the only car to drop out had stayed in the race? And if Button hadn't had his long stop, could he have contended for the win? And what the hell happened to the Kimster at the end there? He went from a brilliant 2nd to 12th in two laps? Did his tires give up or did he?
Yup, it was for me. Like you said, the real race was from 2nd on back, but that was real racing that got better as the race wore on! As long as there's action and good racing I'm happy, and there was! There was unending uncertainty and without any rain! Do I care that the leader was usually all alone with no traffic to scramble through? Nope. That was an interesting part of the race IMO because I love all the strategy and the fact that thanks to pit stop numbers and timing and tire degradation you never knew for sure he would be able to hold that lead to the end. Look at what happened to Raikkonen when his tires fell off the cliff. As interesting as those aspects were (to some of us) they were also, thankfully, secondary plots because of all the close racing and other action going on. I wish the Mercedes crew hadn't botched Schumacher's tire change. He was losing ground to the pack behind Rosberg when he hit the pits so I think he would have been another of the active scrum ("2nd on back") and that might have been fun to watch. As to Raikkonen, my guess is it was all about his tires dropping off, though I can imagine how demoralizing it would be if you suddenly can't stay ahead of anyone so I suppose he might have lost a bit of drive at some point as well. I suspect he was still fighting through at least the first half of those passes though, so mostly tires. There were cars already queued up behind him when Vettel finally popped the cork and then he was slipping all over the track trying to keep speed and position(s).
OK got up early this morning and googled the race just to see what time the TV coverage would come on and....saw the winner. But it is coming on now and from the sounds of it, I'm going to enjoy watching it anyway!!!
Yep, great competitive race, exactly what it should be!!! .......now the venue with the smog was positively apocalyptic.
I'm intentionally avoiding any comment on the politics, etc, of F1 in Bahrain, but this is different IMO as it's down to actual safety issues encountered by one of the teams. If you haven't been following along, the protest mentioned here experienced by Force India crew members included a molotov exploding near their car. A few members left the country after this and the team elected to skip a practice session yesterday so they could travel from the track in daylight. Muppet Head Bernie hurried down to "express his concern" while they were packing up and speculation is he threatened some sort of penalty. No one involved will admit anything but here's the first sign (also discussed by Speed announcers during the quali broadcast). Force India not shown on TV in qualifying (GPUpdate.net)
Yes, but let's talk about what's really important - a Red Bull on Pole - and it's Vettel! Could we have yet another team in the winner's circle again this weekend?
Yep, 4 teams on pole in 4 races, but the big player this year is tire management post-quali and from the sound of it the temps and abrasive track surface will make tires an even bigger factor this round. Frustrating for the engineers, potentially entertaining for the rest of us. Stepping away from tires, I'm curious to see whether Vettel will be able to pull out that plus 1-sec gap in the first few laps like last year before DRS is enabled. Fingers crossed for another good race.
Looking at the grid, I'm just hoping it won't be last years' races in rerun. Looks awfully familiar in that lineup....
Well for everyone who commented on what a fantastic race the last one was, I pointed out repeatedly that it was exactly like last year, just a different guy leading. All the action happened from 2nd on back.....from that perspective it was fantastic. but the race win was almost a forgone conclusion after the first lap, barring a wheel coming off his car. Is Schumi ever going to have any good luck this season?
The difference between last week and last year is that instead of watching the "battle for 14th, it was a battle of extremely equally matched cars for Second. I think Nico only got so far ahead because Shumi gave him a lead and tied everyone up, whether that was intentional, or not is debatable. It probably wasn't intentional, but it nevertheless affected the entire race. It wasn't a case where the car and driver were so far ahead of the curve in terms of performance that no one else had a chance. Last year Red Bull had figured out how to exploit the blown diffuser a bit better than everyone else, and this year, without that edge, their cars have moved back into the pack. It's a very different situation this year. The cars are much closer in performance (the "double DRS" notwithstanding). At least, that's how I see it
I agree with most of what you said, but that's exactly the same play used by Red Bull last year - fast car is the rabbit, 2nd car holds the pack back letting the rabbit escape.....worked particularly well when Mock Webba manged to get a decent start. Yes, the pack is definitely more compacted this year, playing field more level and so on. The one who figures out the tires goes to the head of the pack and stays there for the race (unless it rains, then all bets are off - see Alonso and Malaysia), and so far every week has been different - just what the Bernie ordered. I think it's great too!
Spoiler Alert! Vettel leads from flag to flag, just like he used to, but boy howdy it was close at times! Lotus finishes 2nd and 3rd and Kimi looks like he's ready to take the fight to the rest of the world. Watch Lotus Renault this year, they will be a factor, no doubt. What the heck has happened to Big Mac? Bad pit stops, poor strategy and just mediocre performance - not quite what I expected from them....they have a ways to go to get back to the front, but with three weeks to do so, i expect them to be back on form come Spain. Fun race! And a Force India finishes ahead of both Ferraris! Oh my.....
Overheard during the race: Hamilton's Crew on the radio: "Go to plan B, go to plan B" SpeedTV's commentators: "We don't know what plan B is" My wife: "I know. They are telling him to take a pill and abort" :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:
Don't forget Varsha's "one swell foop" BTW, the stewards looked at all the video and aquitted Rosbug of all guilt and will not penalize him at the next race.