Chinese GP 2009 - Race 3/17

Just finished. Very very happy for RBR. Vettel was nigh on flawless, can't say he didn't deserve it.

Glock did a good job again to get up there, despite some awful spin offs and the like. We had some nice Trulli train action going on... :/

Buemi doing a fantastic job, can see him being snapped up by a bigger team when a slot becomes available; perhaps as a replacement for Piquet?
 
Hxc said:
Buemi doing a fantastic job, can see him being snapped up by a bigger team when a slot becomes available; perhaps as a replacement for Piquet?
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Why would he want to go to Renault? Toro Rosso are effectively the same car as Red Bull, which is now a race winning car, whereas Renault are decidely average? If anything he should stay in STR for a year or 2 and be first inline to replace Webber.
 
Rybo89 said:
recorded this, juts finished watching it.

boring race but really happy vettel got 1st, always liked the lad and think he's soundest driver out the lot! well deserved!

but hamilton will be back soon ;)
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I dont think the car is entirely to his liking just yet. He has proven himself in the wet so we know he is plenty capable in those conditions. But we saw what happens when pushing the current MP4.

I'm just pleased Kovi decided to go round the track more than once.
 
gord said:
I'm just pleased Kovi decided to go round the track more than once.
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Whitmarsh probably wondered what was going on when he parked it where it should be at the end of the race.

"Who is this man and where has he been with our car?" :p
 
Red Bull are 3/1 second favourites for the WCC now, Vettel 5/2 for the WDC.

I think we can safely say he's the new rainmaster :D
 
Flibster said:
My £10 at 20:1 on a Red Bull 1-2 isn't looking quite so stupid now. :D
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:eek: nice odds!

Watched the race this afternoon (we used my mates crazy freeview box to fast forward the dull bits) and im very impressed with RBR (and race control for not being too silly with the safty car for once).

Hopefully they should be good in a normal dry race too....

Nig shame about Sutil though, he's quite a good driver, but has back marker team syndrome (with fisi) where in quali they always seem to dissapoint a little and run at the back.

Still Piquet is looking more like odd's on to be the first driver change of the season... :D
 
Type_R said:
Button shows why he is not World Champion material - come on Red Bull!!
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stop being an idiot - nothing at all like that

Brawn hasnt had ANY wet weather testing at all - it was always likely to cause problems (considering how many different settings have to be changed for heavy rain)

Brawn did fantastically well to come in at all let alone 3rd and 4th

I think Button proved in the last race (in changable conditions) how decent a driver he is - and well worthy of putting together a championship run

if anything RBR have proven less so far
 
el_dazza said:
Red Bull are 3/1 second favourites for the WCC now, Vettel 5/2 for the WDC.

I think we can safely say he's the new rainmaster :D
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I think I remember reading somewhere that Vettel's parents couldn't afford any wet tyres for him during his karting days so he used to race in slicks, not sure how much truth there is in that though.

FrankJH said:
Brawn hasnt had ANY wet weather testing at all - it was always likely to cause problems (considering how many different settings have to be changed for heavy rain)
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Can't find the quote now (probably on Autosport somewhere though) that said they were having problems with the rear suspension as a direct result of having to move the gearbox up to mate with the Mercedes engine and this is what caused them to be slower on this circuit than they otherwise would be (holy run-on-sentence batman!).
 
The Brawn looked to be understeering quite severely in China. Even in the dry in qually it was understeering slightly. But in the wet it was just comedy watching it understeer to the outside of corners all the time.

Jenson said after the race he was having major issues keeping the tyres warm.

Reminds me of the issues Ferrari's F2008 was having. Very quick in the dry but not as quick in the wet.

This isn't a "testing" thing either. Even the teams that did test on rainy days didn't really focus on wet setups, they focused on mileage and testing systems like KERS, adjustable front flap etc.
 
I remember Rubens commentating at Australia that he found the car a bit to understeery so maybe thats just a quality of the setup that they havent been able to iron out yet. Its probably such a relatively small 'issue' in the dry that it wasnt percieved as an issue until they got the Brawn on a wet setup - I wouldnt expect something like this to be overlooked but considering the timescales I can understand Brawn working to priorities...

Also Buttons first question to the RBR guys as they walked up to the podium at China was 'How the heck do you get all that downforce? Your car looks so planted' - it definitely looks like the RBR works the air better than the Brawn on wet setup which I find slightly surprising considering all the hoo-rah regards their rear diffuser.

I guess there will be a lot of mechanics hidings things around the RBR when they are on the grid :p

NathanE - Im sure the tyres warm issue was just due to when they were behind the safety car, I doubt they suffered significantly more than most - Rubens fastest lap supposedly was just after he pitted where his tyres were upto temperature even with fuel load (though theres confusing regards how he got the fastest lap :p)...

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
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Impressive drive by Vettel, I now wish I hadn't missed the Monza race last year, he really is the new rainmaster, more so than LH given he was keeping heat in his tyres and so was quicker than his main rivas where it matterred.

As mentioned above looks like Brawn have to work on their wet setup, and so the race was a bit of a test session for them, but they will be happy with the 3/4 finnish.

Anyone going to chance a rain dance for next weekend? At least it's almost guaranteed to be a dry race
 
The teams are catching up a bit, great to see. Eve nbetter to see Ferrari getting pasted even by a Force India, just a shame Sutil couldn't handle his tyres getting worn at the lake in turn 5. Great effort by him though.

We're seeing two new top teams. McLaren and Ferrari have been replaced by RBR and Brawn, but RBR and Brawn are two very respectable and honest teams. I like it when the good guys win especially becasue there's too much politics when you look at McLaren and Ferrari where RBR and Brawn are there for racing and enjoy it for what it is.

Remember, it's not about winning every race and a podeum by Button is still a great consisten result. The conditions were just on the border of being unsafe yet he drove it till the end and only made one big mistake. LH won the title and didn't eve nfinish eveyr race, so if Brawn can keep up with this kind of maturity and consistency we could see a very good title battle this year and maybe have 2/3 drivers in the running.

We've yet to see a full dry race yet and of course there a lot of development coming. Wet races are always seen as an anomaly when compared to dry results but to see nearly all the field finish and such good racing is a testament to the new rules and driver talent on the firld at the moment.
 
Dup said:
We're seeing two new top teams. McLaren and Ferrari have been replaced by RBR and Brawn, but RBR and Brawn are two very respectable and honest teams. I like it when the good guys win especially becasue there's too much politics when you look at McLaren and Ferrari where RBR and Brawn are there for racing and enjoy it for what it is.
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Brawn=Honda, who are the only team I remember getting race bans for deliberately using illegal parts ;)
 
Owenb said:
Brawn=Honda, who are the only team I remember getting race bans for deliberately using illegal parts ;)
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That was BAR IIRC and only Honda by engine at the time. Honda wouldn't have done anything like that to damage their brand.
 
philjohn said:
Can't find the quote now (probably on Autosport somewhere though) that said they were having problems with the rear suspension as a direct result of having to move the gearbox up to mate with the Mercedes engine and this is what caused them to be slower on this circuit than they otherwise would be (holy run-on-sentence batman!).
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Im confused as to why such a drastic change would be necessary for one track

I can appreciate this being an issue while getting the engine in place initially - but they have had no issies relating to this for Aus or Malaysia , maybe Im reading it wrong but what you are saying dsesnt sound like a wet/dry change at all!!

Dup said:
We've yet to see a full dry race yet ..........
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Australia wasnt affected by rain as far as I recall (although I know my brain is going crazy lol)

Although it was affected by the sc

Im still not 100% sure we have seen the full dry race pace of the Brawn as there where suspicions during Aus and Malaysia that they where protecting the engines a little...... really not sure if this is true, but certainly yesterday they wouldnt have been at anywhere near full throttle either
 
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