Chinese Grand Prix 2014, Shanghai - Race 4/19

drunkenmaster said:
The pitlane has dozens, maybe hundreds of people potentially in the way of a run away tire. Out on track there is safety fences, tire walls, etc. There is supposed to be no one effectively in danger out on the track, in the pits there are loads more people that have to be there. The pit lane has significantly more people in danger than any other place out on track so yes, the rules and penalties should be harsher.

Riccy's tire could have come off and hit an entire pit crew, with bad luck it could have hit a couple pit crews and hit a team on the pit wall. Maldonado hit Guti and there was no risk of other people being hurt.
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Rubbish. I understand the potential of severe incidents in the pitlane, but causing yet another accident through incompetence and/or rage is far more damaging to a race event than leaving your pit with a wobbly wheel. What your suggesting is that anything that happens in the pit lane is automatically more severe than anything that happens on track due to there being more people about. Should doing 81km/h in the pitlane be handed a more severe penalty than speeding through double waved yellows with marshals about on track?

Both the incidents need to have been punished, but the randomness of the penalties is unbalanced. Ricciardos 'crime' is not twice as severe as Maldonados.
 
Skeeter said:
Rubbish. I understand the potential of severe incidents in the pitlane, but causing yet another accident through incompetence and/or rage is far more damaging to a race event than leaving your pit with a wobbly wheel. What your suggesting is that anything that happens in the pit lane is automatically more severe than anything that happens on track due to there being more people about. Should doing 81km/h in the pitlane be handed a more severe penalty than speeding through double waved yellows with marshals about on track?

Both the incidents need to have been punished, but the randomness of the penalties is unbalanced. Ricciardos 'crime' is not twice as severe as Maldonados.
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The entire point I was making is the number of vulnerable people in the line of fire in the pit lane. Having marshalls out on track, which was NOT the case when Maldonado hit Guti, does precisely the same thing and is why simply speeding a little without anything "bad" happening can also be pretty severely punished.

In "normal" conditions out on track there should be no one else out there except drivers in extremely well protected cars. In "normal" conditions in the pitlane there are dozens of people that can be hurt. I didn't make mention of a pitlane speeding being a more severe punishment than speeding under waved yellows, but again yes it should be. Marshalls out on track effective won't be out on track with cars racing, they might be close to it but if marshalls are required ON track or even that close to it we get a safety car. IN the pit lane in normal circumstances drivers get within inches of their own crew, often only a couple feet from other pit crews and the pit wall. They aren't comparable.
 
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quiet in here this morning.

vettel doing well splitting the mercs in q2, think they are saving some though.

both mclarens looking to be out in q2 with kimi.
 
So is the merc a double edged sword.... so so damn powerful that it's harder to control in the rain than a slower car with a bit less acceleration. :p

One Mclaren missing q3 in Aussie, both meh in Malay and pretty terrible today. Williams mostly terrible in the rain it seems. Mclaren seem to be doing the usual, start the season with a little raw pace but drop back fairly quickly in pace compared to some others.

Massa did actually qualify ahead of bottas in the first two races so surprised by such a big gap today.
 
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The converse of that Hamilton message to Rosberg must be a bit hard to take "you're faster than Hamilton in turn 7, but you're slower in every other corner" :p


Quite surprising how little time Rosberg actually lost with that lock up and crazy slow hairpin as he was only 1.2seconds down or something. Hehe, think that last lap for Rosberg might have been even slower :p


Awesome laps, both of them for Hamilton. Think his first time would have been pole anyway, still great lap and great time from Riccy.
 
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Did Riccy sound a bit disappointed there, sounded a bit like he was saying he got basically the perfect lap and thought he could get pole. I think that is a good attitude to have to be honest. He really looks good in that car, fast and really putting the pressure on Vettel. Vettel does not seem at all happy both with the car not being perfect and being under pressure for the first time in years.
 
Hamilton has been so awesome this season. Genuinely think he's the most talented driver in F1 right now.

It's all a bit embarrassing for Vettel though, been out qualified by his rookie team mate 3/4 races so far this season.
 
I can imagine Vettel is really not happy with the situation right now, plenty of ammunition for the Vettel haters that it was more the car than the driver these last 4 years.

Early days but I suspect he wasn't expecting Ricciardo to be challenging him right from day 1.
 
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