Chinese Grand Prix practice 1 live blog
Review the live blog for the first free practice session for the Chinese Grand Prix below…
Some of the teams have already revealed details of changes this weekend.
On the KERS front, Ferrari are ditching the device having run it for the first two races. Robert Kubica, meanwhile, will be trying out the system for the first time at a race weekend. If he’s happy with it today, he could run it in qualifying and the race.
McLaren and Renault are both expected to have new diffusers – here’s a sneaky pic of McLaren’s. But will it be enough to get them in among the leaders?
Ferrari have also replaced Luca Baldisserri on the pit wall and brought back chief track engineer Chris Dyer as they bid to eradicated the mistakes that have plagued them in recent races.
This weekend the teams will be using the medium and super-soft tyres – the super-soft tyres have the green stripe.
Change to live blogging
There’s also change on the live blogging front. For the first time in over a year, we’re not using CoverItLive this weekend. The live blogs have been so busy this year that it’s become very difficult to moderate them, so as a trial for this weekend please post your comments below as you would on a normal article and we’ll see how things go.
Sadly, this will mean having fewer features to play with. But it should also mean far fewer comments being missed. I haven’t set the page to refresh automatically as it may cause a problem when you are typing a new comment. Click refresh on your browser (or press F5) to see new comments.
I have been looking for alternative live blogging solutions without much success. If you know of a good one please post a comment below or drop me a line.
Useful links
Toby Thwaites 93 said on 17th April 2009, 3:12
What does it say on the back of Nick Heidfeld’s rear wing? It doesnt say BMW Power?
Rob Wilson said on 17th April 2009, 3:13
yeah the bbc coverage online isnt working! not good bbc! c’mon, get it sorted!
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:13
Teams talking about having a super-soft tyre stint as short as 5-6 laps! That’s crazy.
Jose Arellano said on 17th April 2009, 3:14
why no one is doing laps??
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
Not sure! !5 minutes in, no timed laps so far. Presumably they’ve taken stock of the conditions on their out laps and are making changes and/or waiting for other people to clean the track up and start rubbering it in.
Andrew White said on 17th April 2009, 3:15
brawn have a new sponsor according to Kravitz
Robert McKay said on 17th April 2009, 3:15
Apparently Brawn do have a new sponsor, so I stand (only partially) corrected.
Al Gorringe said on 17th April 2009, 3:15
Does Renault have their new diffuser already?
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
Apparently not.
BNK Racing said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
ok bbc seems to be back up…sound quality and video much better :)
Toby Thwaites 93 said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
Yep :)
Mark Roberts said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
Enjoying Mike G’s commentary so far.
Morning everyone.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:18
Yeah I thought he’d only be standing in for Eddie Jordan, but using his technical expertise in the pitwall commentary is very good.
Rui said on 17th April 2009, 3:16
Al Gorringe – some websites stated they only present something
Andrew White said on 17th April 2009, 3:17
hamilton on track
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:18
And he’s got the super-softs on.
Alianora La Canta said on 17th April 2009, 3:18
Hooray! Hamilton and Buemi are on track!
Toby Thwaites 93 said on 17th April 2009, 3:18
haha Kimi’s icecream :D
Macca said on 17th April 2009, 3:19
Sorry guys but I don’t really like this way of bloging. I feel the same as Steve_P, I really don’t feel like I participating. It also takes to long for the page to load with live streaming opened as well. I hope you can go back to the old way for practice session two.
Rui said on 17th April 2009, 3:20
Feel the same way Macca
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) said on 17th April 2009, 3:22
Thanks for the feedback guys. We’ll be using this system this weekend and I’ll see what I can to improve it. Top of the list is finding a way to have the page refresh automatically but not cut people off as they’re typing a comment. I’m looking for solution at the moment, and any help anyone could offer would be appreciated.