Chinese GP – Freak Race or sign of exciting races to come?
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I’ve spent the last 2 days looking up just about everything about this race, and have watched it 2/3 times since it ended yesterday morning. Now, we all (pretty much) agree that it was one of the best dry races and certainly the best of the season. But its got me thinking, is this what we can expect Turkey and the following races to be like, or will we have a more ‘normal’ race where being P1 in qualy is as more of a benefit then being P18.
Melbourne was a fairly standard race to me, there was some action here & there and some nice racing. But we didn’t get to see DRS properly used due to the limited run it had on the track and the weather played into keeping the tyres alive longer then in the following 2 races. Malaysia gave the DRS a better chance to show what it could bring to F1 (which it did, with some different strategies used with DRS in mind) and the Pirelli tyres showed themselves to be a lot quicker wearing, which we knew they should be but was accused (by some) of being to confusing to follow. China then, was the pretty much the perfect balance, DRS & KERs both played their parts for the racing and the Teams employed different strategies forced on them by the Pirelli’s making for an exciting race that was China 2011.
We have 3 weeks now till the next GP. If China really is what we can expect the rest of the season to go like, it could be a blinder. Imagine, exciting races at Barcelona and Yas Marinas! The brief that Pirelli had was to make more races like Canada [2010], so what the hell is Canada 2011 going to be like?!
Im interested in hearing what everyone else thinks? Has F1 2011 peaked too early or has it found a winning formula (pun intended) that will be more open then any season before it?
Well I guess we’ll have to see before we know the answer.
By the way, I don’t see Canada being mad. It was only mad last year because it hadn’t been used in 2 years. It should be more like Malaysia this year. Korea, on the other hand, has only had one race and that was wet, so I’m hoping for madness there!
I’m sure the teams will get to grips with the tyres (HAHA!) and the strategies; and races will settle down a bit
but these tyres and the DRS are going to make this year full of action.
I can’t see every race being like that but I can see elements of China recurring throughout the season. There were some silly strategies over the weekend, like RBR running a 2-stopper with Vettel when that long straight was never going to favour them. Usually the straights don’t matter as much but they were significantly slow enough for Hamilton to catch Vettel in time.
Personally I think China might end up going down as an anomaly this season – a race to remember, and probably one of the highlights. I’m sure there will be a few more races as good if not better at some point, but I think the DRS/KERS situations will settle down a bit eventually, and the teams once they’ve raced at a few more circuits will have a better idea of how the tyres are going to work – providing Pirelli don’t change them too drastically at any stage.
I really hope its a one off. Races like that are seriously exciting but if they happened week in, week out? The novelty would soon wear off.
@Icthyes, Canada is traditionally mad, the boring seasons go to Canada cap in hand for entertainment. It’s also fairly unusual in layout so throws up unusual results.
Frankly, I’d be happy to get lots more races like that, not because I think chaos is good, but because what made that race good is what traditionally makes races good. Cut and thrust overtaking, strategy, entertaining narrative, etc. I think the tires and the DRS facillitaited it, not caused it, as we might have had something simular in Malaysia.
It’s usually mad because it produces Safety Cars and has high brake wear, plus the long straights force compromises on the aerodynamics (like Spa, funny coincidence that – not). I really can’t see the 5-stop strategies everyone seems to be predicting.
It’s good that there are a lot of overtakes, but I hope there isn’t a lot of the kind of type where the driver in front cannot defend because his tyres are shot
Indeedy, those things produce great races, no reason they shouldn’t happen again. Pirelli might well bring quite “hard” tires to the race.
That’s the one thing I find slightly gimmicky about the Pirelli’s, the hards arn’t hard in that they last longer, they merley provide less grip.
How do you know that about the hard tyres, Scribe? We haven’t seen them under competitve conditions yet. Are you just basing that off pre-season testing or have I missed something?
Basing it on the drivers comments, an indeed what we’ve seen in the race with the current load of primes. Although I don’t trust Webber not to twist things his way, the characteristics of a harder tyre should be a higher opertating tempreture and higher durability, sacrificing grip to the cause.
What we’ve seen so far is a tyre with much less grip, but not much in the way of duraility and when it comes to facing the undercut hards are absolutley awful, there’s no point in staying out longer if the guy on options is catching you by seconds a lap.
Now I don’t know if this applies to the actual “hard” tyres but so far it seems the options are merley softer rather than less durable, I reckon this will always be a problem with the single supplier.
@Dan Thorn –
I really hope its a one off. Races like that are seriously exciting but if they happened week in, week out? The novelty would soon wear off.
Partly, I agree. Surely if we all have spectacular races when a race proves a little boring it will seem the worst race ever. But I’d like to see many races like this and the remaining with some action, but not too much. Monza 2010 was a good race in my opinion, maybe because I was thrilled for Alonso and he was so close to Jenson that I couldn’t miss a second of their fight, but some races like this won’t ruin the sport’s reputation.
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