2014 UBS Chinese Grand Prix

[Barra333]

They probably have wider gears in lieu to Monza

All of the other cars I have seen in this session have used 8th gear to 11,000prm though.
And the straight here is longer than the front straight at Monza. Not sure where they are saving the gears for...

 

[m8h3r]

This is probably a stupid guess but could you drop down to 7 gears and have an extra spare for slower races? Or does it have to be 8 gear gearbox?

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

All of the other cars I have seen in this session have used 8th gear to 11,000prm though.
And the straight here is longer than the front straight at Monza. Not sure where they are saving the gears for...

Because they probably know something that their other users don't since they are the main team. Just like how they have the best packaging since their the works team and it is taking longer for their customers to get use to it. I'd say that's probably why. Also Monza is far more flat out around the entire circuit than China, even though China has an incredibly long straight.

Also speaking of the crashing demon from the west, Maldonado crashed heading into pits...

This is probably a stupid guess but could you drop down to 7 gears and have an extra spare for slower races? Or does it have to be 8 gear gearbox?

8 gears are mandatory sir...

 

[GTPorsche]

Can Maldonado be parked for the weekend? Or the year? Or permanently?

 

[Ninners]

Can't believe Maldonado is this pathetic.

 

[Barra333]

PM: I just crashed
Team: Oh... OK
PM: Sorry

 

[GTPorsche]

Looks like Ferrari's upgrades are working, at least for Alonso. Kimi hasn't done anything yet today.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Can't believe Maldonado is this pathetic.

Oh but he is, oh but he is...

PM: I just crashed
Team: Oh... OK
PM: Sorry
View attachment 143509

TEAM: This time we need more than a sorry Pastor, we can't be rebuilding your car ever GP weekend.

EDIT:

I'm quite impressed with Jules so far this weekend he's doing quite well.

 

[Ninners]

Hamilton P1. Wasn't expecting that considering the running he's lost today. Was expecting him to be behind Rosberg by some margin.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Hamilton P1. Wasn't expecting that considering the running he's lost today. Was expecting him to be behind Rosberg by some margin.

I don't really see why he's quite good at this track and even with lost running he'll be fine and the same would and could be said if it happened to Rosberg.

 

[Dhalism]

on sky, they asked both Merc drivers the same question.

"have you had a chance to sit down and talk about bahrain, particularly incident on lap 18?"
lewis: no not at all.
"you didnt talk at all"
lewis: no

"have you had a chance to sit down and talk about bahrain, particularly incident on lap 18?"
rosberg: yes we sat down and had a very productive conversation and put that all behind us.

lol

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

on sky, they asked both Merc drivers the same question.

"have you had a chance to sit down and talk about bahrain, particularly incident on lap 18?"
lewis: no not at all.
"you didnt talk at all"
lewis: no

"have you had a chance to sit down and talk about bahrain, particularly incident on lap 18?"
rosberg: yes we sat down and had a very productive conversation and put that all behind us.

lol

Who cares though...if they had any issues it was probably with the team and not each other and the fact that Sky are reducing themselves to a tabloid group almost in asking both of them just for giggles is annoying. I mean watching Lewis talk about it you could see he probably thought it was none of there business and Nico looked as if "oh this again".

 

[Imari]

All of the other cars I have seen in this session have used 8th gear to 11,000prm though.
And the straight here is longer than the front straight at Monza. Not sure where they are saving the gears for...

That was my thought as well. If you're not at least getting into 8th down that straight, you're not going to get serious use out of it anywhere else. It's a pretty quick entry corner into the longest straight in the calendar. They might end up going faster in Monza or Spa, but not significantly.

Then again, if you've got a stupidly powerful engine, you could only use 7 gears to reduce the number of gearshifts per lap and presumably thus the wear on the gearbox. Not sure how much that would help, but I suppose every little bit helps.

 

[Barra333]

I would have thought that using 8th, and therefore using less rpm for the same speed (saving fuel and engine) would be better than 2 less gear changes per lap. But they know more than us and would have thought it over...

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Who cares though...if they had any issues it was probably with the team and not each other and the fact that Sky are reducing themselves to a tabloid group almost in asking both of them just for giggles is annoying.

Why get the facts get in the way of a good story? If the drivers don't have a juicy little falling-out, then you can always manufacture one. Especially if you were hoping for it.

Besides, by phrasing the question in the negative, they take advantage of one of the stupid nuances of the English language - there is no clear way to answer a negative question. If you ask "did you talk about it?", then the answer is straightforward; yes or no. But if you ask "didn't you talk about it?", then both yes and no can be taken to mean that they did not talk about it. And that can be used to manufacture a dispute.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

Why get the facts get in the way of a good story? If the drivers don't have a juicy little falling-out, then you can always manufacture one. Especially if you were hoping for it.

Besides, by phrasing the question in the negative, they take advantage of one of the stupid nuances of the English language - there is no clear way to answer a negative question. If you ask "did you talk about it?", then the answer is straightforward; yes or no. But if you ask "didn't you talk about it?", then both yes and no can be taken to mean that they did not talk about it. And that can be used to manufacture a dispute.

I know what they're trying to do and there is more to F1 than that, hence why drivers have been robotic for a while now because the media doesn't know who to give breathing space for stories to come to them. If they did then they wouldn't need to manufacture stories because of the daft moments they created in the first place. It's an issue because what was a good battle last GP has been turned into "well they can't race against each other without one of them being a sore loser in the end". Not every F1 moment that is a team battle needs to become a Mansell vs Piquet or Senna vs Prost, or Hill vs Villeneuve

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Also speaking of the crashing demon from the west, Maldonado crashed heading into pits...

Plus his spin in P1, when he drove straight off the road because he wasn't looking where he was going..

Honestly, I haven't seen such awful driving since... Well, last weekend actually; there was a Russian fella driving a Ferrari at the Blancpain Endurance at Monza who was comically bad. But at least he was classed as a gentleman driver, which isn't a term you could ever apply to Pastor..

 

[Dennisch]

So, Rosberg didnt even use 8th on the straight...
View attachment 143506
View attachment 143507

So, where the Williams tops out, the Merc can use another gear. That should create a nice gap for Lewis and Nico.

 

[Samus]

All of the other cars I have seen in this session have used 8th gear to 11,000prm though.
And the straight here is longer than the front straight at Monza. Not sure where they are saving the gears for...

Much skinnier wings at Monza and Spa though.

 

[05XR8]

At what point will Lotus say, "Screw your money. Had over the keys!!!"

 

[Famine]

He actually forgot he was driving a car:

 

[pyrates]

He actually forgot he was driving a car:

It is actually unbelievable that he did that. They should use this footage in some don't text and drive campaign.

 

[Samus]

That is hilarious.

 

[Barra333]

They should use this footage in some don't text and drive campaign.

Fixed

 

[prisonermonkeys]

At what point will Lotus say, "Screw your money. Had over the keys!!!"

They won't. Formula 1 cars don't have keys.

 

[pyrates]

And here is the other gem.

 

[Imari]

You can do it, Pastor! Go for the high score!

I hope PDVSA is paying Lotus a lot, because he seems to be costing them a fair bit in carbon fibre.

 

[Samus]

I wouldn't be surprised if his money is the only thing keeping them going.

 

[BHRxRacer]

Take it easy on Crashdonaldo. Seriously. He's bad enough on his own, but now he's poured his money into the wrong team and found himself right where he was last year. Imagine the frustration. His apology on the radio kind of made me feel sorry for him.

Are Ferrari putting on a show for the new salesman guy or did they bring a new car?? Alonso was flying. Ate his tyres faster than RBs and the Mercs, but the pace was there. That said, we all know the Mercs are sandbagging. The surprises in FP1 and FP2 were the relativelack of pace by Force India.

Hamilton P1. Wasn't expecting that considering the running he's lost today. Was expecting him to be behind Rosberg by some margin.

Rosberg eased off in the last corner because of Maldonado's yellow flag. IIRC he was on a faster lap. Doesn't matter anyway, not the first time Hamilton complains despite having no problems. He often tries to save face in advance.

 

[Samus]

Haha, you really can't miss an opportunity to give an excuse/reason why Hamilton was better than Rosberg, can you? Even when it's just practice and nobody really cares you can't let it pass.