Can Red Bull make it a three-way fight in China?

21 comments on “Can Red Bull make it a three-way fight in China?”

1. 

   budchekov (@budchekov)
   13th April 2019, 19:17

   “Can Red Bull make it a three-way fight in China?”

   Here’s hoping..
   1. 

      Chaitanya
      14th April 2019, 4:05

      Only if it rains… and we caertainly van hope for rains.
   2. 

      greg-c (@greg-c)
      14th April 2019, 4:18

      Can Ferrari make it a 3 way fight ?
2. 

   Darryn Smith (@darryn)
   13th April 2019, 19:33

   Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems like the are drifting back to Renault rather than toward Ferrari. That is if Renault can finish.
   1. 

      Aiii (@)
      13th April 2019, 20:17

      Yeah I don’t see how you came to conclusion. Max obviously didn’t have a final run, but split the Ferrari’s in the first run so even despite not having the same oomph in the engine part, seemed to be able to be on the right track.

      Given that the teams are generally in the same ballpark on race day, he should definitely be able to contest for a podium.

      Gasly is another story, but that’s obviously not the car’s actual pace, and he still edged ahead of the Renault.

      Now the midfield is closer to the top 3 and generally on better pace as a whole, but that is compared to all the top teams, not just RBR.
   2. 

      Johnny H.
      13th April 2019, 22:28

      I guess you’re missing something. Ferrari – RBH > 0.2 sec RBH – Renault > 0.9 sec
      1. 

         Cristian (@panzik)
         14th April 2019, 0:16

         If you put togheter all hulk’s best sectors it’s RBH-Renalut =0,6. That’s not too bad
         1. 

            Cristian (@panzik)
            14th April 2019, 0:17

            *together
         2. 

            juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
            14th April 2019, 2:39

            With Soft tyre degradation at these levels you cannot simply use the best sectors to get a drivers “best lap”. Go hard in the first sectors and you pay in the last, or go easier and get a good final sector time. But you cannot simply take sector times from one lap and combine them with another, unless you’re sure that they were set under the same sector-push circumstances.

            Indeed, Keith has fallen into this trap with Lewis by claiming “Hamilton will know this should have been his 85th career pole position. He was fastest in all three sectors, but didn’t string the lap together.“. Lewis’s first run was a “go easy in the first sectors and reap in the final” lap, but was beaten by VB’s “go hard in the first sectors and pay in the last”. The second runs were the opposites with LH “go harder in the first sectors and pay in the last” which was also beaten by VB’s “go easier in the first sectors and come home strong” run. VB was better at keeping the tyres alive over the entire lap. He has been the faster driver all weekend and Hamilton will know this would have been a very lucky 85th pole position, if he had in fact achieved it.
3. 

   David BR (@david-br)
   13th April 2019, 19:36

   Verstappen definitely will be a problem for the Ferraris and any slow starting Mercedes at the start. Whether they can sustain the same pace is less certain. Also the first time we’ll see Gasly starting from a decent position on the grid after starting 17th and 13th. He has to start proving he’s worth that seat.
4. 

   IJW (@ijw1)
   13th April 2019, 19:42

   Pirelli has also tweaked the tyre temperatures since teams did their long runs on Friday

   @keithcollantine Shouldn’t that be “tyre pressures”?
5. 

   minnis (@minnis)
   13th April 2019, 19:42

   Interesting that the Ferrari’s, despite being fastest through the speed trap, are not fastest in the final sector which comprises all of the long back straight. Perhaps they are struggling more to put the traction down through T13? That would explain why they have a higher top speed but can’t beat the Merc’s over the sector.
   1. 

      anon
      14th April 2019, 7:02

      @minnis, that is indeed the case – Ferrari are significantly slower through the slower speed corners in the final sector, and that poor performance in the corners is why they are slower overall through the final sector.

      It is true that Vettel was noticeably quicker on the back straight than Bottas – Vettel had the highest recorded top speed, at 327.1kph, with Leclerc second fastest at 326.1kph: Bottas, meanwhile, was clocked at 322.0kph.

      Similarly, if you look at how fast the cars were when they crossed the finishing line, Vettel was the fastest again, being clocked at 275.6kph, with Leclerc second at 274.6kph: once again, Bottas was slightly slower, only hitting 271.9kph at the finishing line.

      When you look at the onboard footage, it looks like Vettel and Leclerc were both losing a lot of time in the slower speed corners. In Turn 11, for example, Vettel’s apex speed was only 90kph, versus about 105kph for Bottas: they did take slightly different lines through Turn 12, so a comparison there is harder, but again Bottas’s apex speed looked slightly higher. It therefore means that, when they entered the back straight, Bottas entered the straight going about 3kph faster than Vettel was (245kph versus 242kph), although by the end of the straight Vettel went from beign 3kph down to 5kph up on Bottas.

      You can see a similar tend in Turn 14 – Vettel’s straight line speed before he hits the brakes is higher, but he has to start braking slightly earlier and slows down to about 65kph at the apex of the corner, versus about 74kph for Bottas. Despite the fact that Vettel’s apex speed was lower than Bottas’s apex speed through the hairpin, Vettel was matching Bottas for straight line speed (260kph for Bottas, versus 259kph for Vettel) before they started braking for the final corner.

      There is a similar trend through the final corner – Bottas went through the apex of that corner at 182kph, whereas Vettel was 11kph slower at 171kph. However, as I’ve noted above, although Bottas was much faster at the apex of the corner, and despite having a clean exit, by the time that they reached the finish line, Vettel was faster through that speed trap.

      Although there are not many corners in the final sector, most of those corners are low to medium speed corners, with several having an apex speed below <120kph. Even though Ferrari's acceleration rate is higher and their end of straight speed is higher, they are so slow in relation to Mercedes in the low speed corners that the time lost in those corners is outweighing what they can gain on the straights.
6. 

   Patrick (@anunaki)
   13th April 2019, 19:56

   If there is the slightest opportunity to do so, we can be sure Max will do it.
   1. 

      Mog
      14th April 2019, 0:07

      Hope he can contain th raw urge though seeing as how he was too optimistic last year in china
7. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   13th April 2019, 20:22

   Not so sure about that, but we shall wait and see.
8. 

   Boomerang
   13th April 2019, 20:58

   The answer is: NO!
9. 

   Bart
   13th April 2019, 21:51

   I very much doubt there will be even a two way fight. Mercedes is so much quicker than Ferrari and Red Bull on the medium tires they’ll start the race at. I’m afraid they’ll drive off and won’t be seen again until the flag falls.

   Gasly on the softs is something to watch though. He’ll probably be the first of the front runners to get new tires and may undercut someone, if he was able to maintain the same pace at first that is. His FP race pace wasn’t too bad?
10. 

    ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
    13th April 2019, 21:52

    We asking too much from Max Verstappen. Red Bull really are just F1.5 constructor champion not a part of big league. The only fair on how good a car is by looking where the 2nd driver. And I don’t believed Gasly is that bad.
    1. 

       Bram (@br444m)
       13th April 2019, 22:51

       Gasly is not a bad driver but misses confidence at corner exit which results in slower acceleration out of the corners (for instance, he is 3km down on Max on the long straight). If Max is equal to the Ferrari’s in quali (RB thinks he would have been if he had done the second run in q3) he should be at least competitive in the race, if we look at RBs track record (in China).

       I expect an exiting race, also between the 2 Mercedes’ who will be very close.
11. 

    javier javier (@j3d89)
    14th April 2019, 1:56

    I wish there were more info about race pace..

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