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Post by RyRy on Mar 31, 2015 20:24:14 GMT
2015 FORMULA 1 CHINESE GRAND PRIX SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL CIRCUITFirst Grand Prix | Number of laps | Circuit Length | Race Distance | Lap Record | 2004 | 56 | 5.451 KM | 305.006 KM | 1:32.239 BY MICHAEL SCHUMACHER (2004) |
Fri 10 – Sun 12 Apr 2015Practice 1 | Friday | 10:00 - 11:30 GMT+8 | Practice 2 | Friday | 14:00 - 15:30 GMT+8 | Practice 3 | Saturday | 12:00 - 13:00 GMT+8 | Qualifying | Saturday | 15:00 - 16:00 GMT+8 | Race | Sunday | 14:00 - 16:00 GMT+8 |
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Track LayoutThe Shanghai International Circuit was designed as the race circuit for the new millennium. And the modern track, with its stunning architecture, has achieved its goal of becoming China's gateway to the world of Formula One racing since it debuted on the calendar in 2004.
Circuit architects Hermann Tilke and Peter Wahl on their creation: “The 5.4 kilometre racing track is shaped like the Chinese character 'shang', which stands for 'high' or 'above'.
Other symbols represented in the architecture originate from Chinese history, such as the team buildings arranged like pavilions in a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. Here, nature and technology are carefully used to create harmony between the elements.”
Not only is the course remarkable for its change of acceleration and deceleration within different winding turns, making high demands on the driver as well as the car, but also for its high-speed straights. These offer crucial overtaking opportunities and give an intense and exciting motorsport experience to the spectators. The main grandstand with 29,000 seats provides a spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the circuit.
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Post by RyRy on Mar 31, 2015 20:36:02 GMT
It looks like the weather is going to be AT LEAST 10°C cooler in China, which will bring us down to the 25°C range. If it clouds over and rains we will get temperatures of anywhere between 15°C - 25°C which will be like winter testing which could see Ferrari drop back from Mercedes and we might see Sauber doing better. Cooler temperatures are vital for McLaren because they're having a lot of overheating problems. EDIT: Thanks LRW/WB for pinning Hope you like the pretty thread
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Post by Wß on Mar 31, 2015 20:37:45 GMT
Very similar turn one here to Malaysia, a little longer, almost a subtle double apex but the same idea. Make the first turn "exiting" for the fans. Translation, a large potential for incidents.
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Post by RyRy on Mar 31, 2015 20:39:45 GMT
Very similar turn one here to Malaysia, a little longer, almost a subtle double apex but the same idea. Make the first turn "exiting" for the fans. Translation, a large potential for incidents. Isn't China also very hard on tyres normally because of the heavy braking, fast corners and course texture of the track? Later in the race we usually get a lot of lockups in turn 1.
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Post by Hammer on Apr 3, 2015 6:29:33 GMT
My favourite track on the game, love the flow and ebb of the whole circuit.
What can Ferrari do in cooler conditions?
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Post by racechick on Apr 3, 2015 9:24:53 GMT
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Post by Wß on Apr 3, 2015 9:30:10 GMT
Interesting all the variables. Pirelli adjusted the tires for this year to anticipate the additional horsepower gains but temperature is still the primary factor.
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hotlap
Junior Member
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Post by hotlap on Apr 3, 2015 13:36:01 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing how McLaren/Honda do...my guess is one car just outside of the points and the other DNF.
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Post by Wß on Apr 3, 2015 15:07:13 GMT
I'm looking forward to seeing how McLaren/Honda do...my guess is one car just outside of the points and the other DNF. HEY! That's what happened in Australia, this is the Chinese GP thread.
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Post by Hammer on Apr 3, 2015 15:26:58 GMT
If Mclaren are to be believed, they should have one car scoring points and another DNFing.
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Post by racechick on Apr 3, 2015 16:53:34 GMT
Well according to Alonso, despite their woes , they're making excellent progress. But maybe he's just saying that to stop himself feeling suicidal.
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Post by RyRy on Apr 4, 2015 0:35:33 GMT
Well according to Alonso, despite their woes , they're making excellent progress. But maybe he's just saying that to stop himself feeling suicidal. Their progress in the first 5 races should be significant otherwise they're doing crap. They made a bigger step than I expected from Australia to Malaysia. Obviously the improvements will get less and less but being a top team with money, sponsors and a engine supplier who is 100% behind them they should get up there pretty quick.
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hotlap
Junior Member
Posts: 10
Likes: 7
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Post by hotlap on Apr 4, 2015 1:17:14 GMT
Well according to Alonso, despite their woes , they're making excellent progress. But maybe he's just saying that to stop himself feeling suicidal. a top team with money, sponsors and a engine supplier who is 100% behind them they should get up there pretty quick. Don't forget that BAR was a top team and spent tons of tobacco money with Honda as their engine partner from 1999 to 2005, in those six years Honda never won a race.
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Post by RyRy on Apr 4, 2015 3:27:36 GMT
I personally don't rank BAR anywhere near to the likes of McLaren or Ferrari and to some extent Williams.
A problem BAR had is that in 1999 they started of with a Supertech Engine which was beyond awful, they paired with Honda in 2000 but will certainly of had some bad influences from the previous car, in 2001 they improved even more. We get to 2002 and they they made a bad decision replacing their team principle which ended up just messing the season up a bit. We get top 2003 which was the first official year of 100% honda backing and Villeneuve was already wanting to leave, he eventually left and was replaced with Sato at the last race of the season.
We get to 2004 and BAR Honda were even better, they managed to get a pole position and many podiums with Jenson leading the team, if you compare the two drivers Sato was no where near good enough. They had the second best car and ended up second in the constructors thanks to Button.
Now for 2005, they started of with a shocker of a car just like McLaren and Ferrari have done before but as soon as they started to look like they were getting it together they were disqualified and excluded for the next 2 races, they fixed their car and after a poor race they managed to get pole position with button once again they came back with avengence managing pull themselves up to 6th place even with Jordan and Minardi getting a healthy points dose at USA with the tyre fiasco.
They weren't that bad as a team, just had a few bad decisions like signing Sato and sacking their Team principle as they were getting better and better which delayed their progress.
When Honda took over they asserted themselves as the 4th best team behind 3 big names, McLaren, Ferrari and Renault. Sure in 2007 they had a shocker which ultimately was probably their undoing because they ran with an earth livery which had no sponsorship. We get to 2008 and now they were struggling budget wise and eventually they sold the car to Ross Brawn in 2009 which was nailed by Brawn, but fast caught up by Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren.
The next year Mercedes took over and they realised pretty early on that Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari had all made massive gains over the winter putting them well ahead of Mercedes and this is where Mercedes started to plan for the future (V6 Turbos), over the next two years they kept getting decent points finishing 4th and 5th but showing signs of testing because one weekend they'd be fast but the next they'd be slow. We get to 2013 and Mercedes now have another great driver in their team replacing Schumi.
We saw a lot of races where the Mercedes cars had a lot of speed in them but according to some sources they were working on how on their tyre strategies, we saw how they were fast in quallifying but ate the tyres up massivley during the race. They still managed to get 3 wins between them and should of had much more but Pirrelli changed the tyres which straight away helped Red Bull stupid amounts and ultimately Vettel managed to get 8 wins in a row.
We get to 2014 and their car is stupidly fast, not just on the Engine side (customer teams have 100% identical engines) and they walk the season.
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Post by Hammer on Apr 4, 2015 5:14:13 GMT
a top team with money, sponsors and a engine supplier who is 100% behind them they should get up there pretty quick. Don't forget that BAR was a top team and spent tons of tobacco money with Honda as their engine partner from 1999 to 2005, in those six years Honda never won a race. BAR was a different kettle of fish compared to McLaren. McLaren have proved they can make massive gains during a season without wasting a lot of time so I wouldn't count them out out a couple of podiums before the season end.
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Post by pistnbroke on Apr 4, 2015 14:40:25 GMT
I think the problem with the 2010 Merc was that 2009 Brawn was run on a shoe string, and had to keep developing to the end of the year because of the championship. So the 2010 car was very late to get any real engineering time put into it. Was it Ant Davidson that said the Brawn was the most expensive F1 car ever, but it was run on a shoe string.
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Post by CookinFlat6 on Apr 4, 2015 15:28:58 GMT
Lets not forget the short lived resource restriction agreement - the self policed gentlemans agreement to each spnd a fixed amount, which Merc stuck to and RBR and Ferrari cheated. The 2009 Brawn benefitted from stupendous investment the year before on aero, 2 windtunnels etc, but had no money in 2009 to continue developing. When Merc took over they stuck to the RRA and it was only a few years later that they decided to punish the chequebook.
This time round Honda and McLaren should be right up their with their ability and willingness to spend to develop. And I think they have don it the right way - designed a potentially insanely quick car (think RBR aero + an engine designed with the benefit of hindsight) that just needs to expensively sorted out for reliability and the famous McLaren 'unlocking th potential' - this can be done without tokens, yet they still have enough tokens to bring a redesigned engine 3 more times this year
McLaren really will have no excuse if we dont see the largest in season gains ever seen on an F1 car
btw, is hotlap downforce?, either way wellcome, I like your style
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Post by Wß on Apr 4, 2015 19:30:30 GMT
That or that side pod will remain title sponsor free for quite some time to come.
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Post by Wß on Apr 6, 2015 13:20:35 GMT
Interesting factoid; Around 80% of the lap in China is spent cornering.
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hotlap
Junior Member
Posts: 10
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Post by hotlap on Apr 7, 2015 0:28:07 GMT
Below is a video on youtube of Michael in China in 2004, don't forget to turn up the volume
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