“I think people will remember exciting races a lot more than anniversaries,” remarked Sebastian Vettel after he finished third in the 1,000th round of the world championship in Shanghai yesterday.
He’s right, and it’s why the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix is unlikely to live long in the memory for many. This wasn’t a classic; the outcome was more or less settled once lap two began.There will probably be two exceptions. The first is Lewis Hamilton, who looked out of sorts in practice but rebounded to beat his team mate to victory.
The other will be Charles Leclerc, who for the third time in as many races was reminded what Ferrari really mean when they say their drivers are “free to fight”.
Mercedes cruise to a one-two
This was billed as the 1,000th Formula 1 race. Strictly speaking this was in fact the thousandth world championship race but for the past 35 years ‘Formula 1 race’ and ‘world championship race’ have meant the same thing, and in that time the two have become conflated.
Valtteri Bottas’s explanation for how he lost his advantage also made one think back 35 years, to the time Nigel Mansell crashed while leading a soaked Monaco Grand Prix, and blamed it on a slippery white line. In Bottas’s view, crossing the starting line while his rear wheels were making their maximum traction demand cost him precious car lengths to Hamilton, who started alongside him.
Now he was in clear air and Bottas found he couldn’t stay close. “Lewis had a pretty strong stint,” he admitted afterwards. “I was initially close by but obviously when you are behind, you are sliding a bit more, overheating the tyres a bit more.”
By lap 20 Hamilton was five-and-a-half seconds up the road – a sufficiently comfortable lead that Mercedes could afford to pit Bottas first to minimise the danger from the cars behind him. This cost Hamilton over three-and-a-half seconds of his advantage, partly due to Bottas enjoying the quickest pit stop of the race, but within 11 laps the race leader had re-established his advantage.
That proved important as the cars behind pushed themselves into making second pit stops. As last year, when Bottas stunned Ferrari by jumping ahead of him at the first round of pit stops, the power of the ‘undercut’ was strong. Vettel’s first flying lap out of the pits was 1.6 seconds faster than his next tour, no doubt aided by enhanced engine modes.
“It was an interesting situation because it was clear that Valtteri in that situation was under pressure from Sebastian,” explained Toto Wolff. “So if Sebastian would have stopped, he would have undercut Valtteri. So the logical choice is to stop Valtteri first.
“But if we would have stopped Valtteri, he would have undercut Lewis. We didn’t want to interfere with the order and we were just about to have the gap to stack them properly.”
Fortunately for Wolff, the chairman of Daimler was there in person to see this first-rate display of F1 teamwork. “It was impressive how the guys did it, the choreography, anyone who understands Formula 1, it was impressive – even Dieter Zetsche called all the mechanics together and said he hadn’t seen anything like this.”
Hamilton managed his lead over the remaining stint and duly notched up his sixth victory at a track where no one else has won more than twice.
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Ferrari fumble to a three-five
Whatever the reason, it meant they weren’t an effective threat to Mercedes in the race. Vettel got off the line well but as he explained he wasn’t able to make good use of his advantage and was more concerned about keeping Max Verstappen behind than losing a place to his team mate.
“I thought I had a decent start and then basically no place to go,” he said. “I decided for the outside which I knew, by the time I decided, is not going to take me anywhere but I didn’t want to just lose my advantage because I knew Charles would be somewhere on the inside. I wasn’t quite sure where Max will be. So I wanted to stick with that train as long as I could and probably give Charles the inside and just make sure I don’t lose an extra position.”
As the Mercedes drew away, Vettel’s willingness to let Leclerc by at the start increasingly seemed like a mistake. He stuck closer to his team mate, within DRS range, but didn’t make a move to pass. Asked if he could go quicker, Vettel replied that he could. Leclerc was told to up his pace and, quite soon afterwards, Ferrari made the call to swap their drivers.
Before the season began the team had insisted their two drivers would be “free to fight” but that Vettel would be favoured in “50-50 situations”, whatever that meant. This was the third race time in three races the team had intervened to favour Vettel, so we can now see that by “50-50 situations” Ferrari meant: When Leclerc is much quicker at the end of a race (Australia); When Leclerc is quicker at the beginning of a race (Bahrain); and when Leclerc is possibly slower at the beginning of a race (China).
Leclerc lost around one-and-a-half seconds letting Vettel through. The upshot of this for Ferrari was that their leading car was now 4.9 seconds behind the closest Mercedes instead of 3.7 seconds. And over the following laps that deficit grew at a quicker rate than it had before the swapped.
This wasn’t the greatest tactical blunder an F1 team has committed in Shanghai. But it was a respectable attempt to surpass McLaren’s 2007 effort with Hamilton.
The lost time meant the Ferrari pair were now in greater danger from Verstappen. The Red Bull driver might’ve out-qualified at least one of them if he had started his final Q3 run in time to complete a lap, but he didn’t. The Ferrari swap meant the Red Bull was almost a second closer, and when he pitted before either of them on lap 17 he was guaranteed to at least pass Leclerc. Ferrari had no option but to bring Vettel in and leave Leclerc out to try to extend his stint.
There were other opportunities with Leclerc’s strategy which Ferrari missed. They left him out for three laps after Bottas passed him. Although this meant he ultimately had the benefit of eight-lap fresher tyres for his final stint, it cost him in the region of six seconds to Verstappen. Without that, he might have ended the race with a sniff of the Red Bull’s DRS.
That can only really be said with the benefit of hindsight. But it’s true also that even when it became clear Leclerc wasn’t going to catch Verstappen, Ferrari didn’t bother giving him another set of newer tyres so he could try to set the fastest lap and take a bonus point. Perhaps they didn’t want him to take it from Vettel, who held it at the time?
If so they reckoned without Red Bull bringing Pierre Gasly in for a set of softs and snatching the bonus from Vettel by less than a tenth of a second. It was the only time all weekend the number 10 Red Bull had looked fast…
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Albon goes from pits to points
At least his Renault kept going until the end. Team mate Nico Hulkenberg dropped out again, much earlier than he had in Bahrain, with a software-related MGU-K problem.
The points-scorers were rounded off, remarkably, by Alexander Albon. The rookie had smashed his Toro Rosso up so badly on Saturday it needed a new survival cell, power unit and gearbox.
In the race he wielded his factory-fresh STR14 to superb effect, cutting his way past the stragglers early on, ekeing out his soft tyres before profitably mugging Lance Stroll by pitting before the Racing Point driver. Unfazed by Romain Grosjean breathing down his neck in the final laps, this was as hard-fought a point as you could take.
In contrast team mate Daniil Kvyat reverted to type on lap one, swiping into former team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr and bouncing into the other McLaren of Lando Norris, ruining both their races. A penalty of some kind was deserved; whether it needed to be quite as harsh as a drive-through was up for debate.
The Williams pair limped in 16th and 17th. For them right now every race is one they’d rather not remember.
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Quotes: Dieter Rencken
2019 Chinese Grand Prix
- Vettel explains “we had it” radio message in China
- China tech review: Haas’s front wing failure, McLaren’s low-drag aero and more
- Top ten pictures from the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix
- 2019 Chinese Grand Prix Star Performers
- Hamilton cruises to sixth China win as Ferrari tactics backfire
2019 F1 race reviews
- Untouchable Hamilton ends season with 11th victory
- Verstappen’s ruined masterpiece becomes Hamilton’s latest triumph
- Verstappen’s win, Hamilton’s title in tyre-dominated Mexican GP
- Error-free Raikkonen shows Vettel how it’s done
- Hamilton on cusp of fifth title as Vettel throws in the towel
ColdFly (@)
15th April 2019, 18:10
Thanks @KeithCollantine,
I like these when-all-has-settled-down reviews.
Suggestion: maybe end the review with your ‘rate the race’ score.
Ekynox
15th April 2019, 18:12
I wonder; could Leclerc have finished before Verstappen with a one stop Strategy.
It felt like there was enough time to nurse the tyres home
erikje
15th April 2019, 21:23
That’s what i thought to.. he had enough time. But maybe the tires degraded faster then expected.
When he pitted his times were stable, so it looked a 1 stopper: plan A.. but they changed to plan B triggered by the RBR strategy.
MacLeod (@macleod)
16th April 2019, 7:55
Max was gaining and they expected Max would catch Charles 2 rounds before the end so they went for the softer tyre and try to catch Max. I think they should pit Charles 3-4 ronds earlier to atleast get behind Max at the end.
Anthony Vertue
16th April 2019, 8:51
Would be nice to see some of actual analysis of this scenario (Charles staying out).
Also a comparison/analysis of Vettels and Charles second and third stints – this should give us a clear indication if Vettel was the faster Ferrai driver on the day or not.
I thought one of the best pieces of action was Vettel v Max – especially considering what happened last year and Sebs recent struggles – he actually appeared to handle it with a cool head for once…
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
15th April 2019, 18:37
Vettel’s right. The next time this race might be mentioned again might be when we celebrate the 1100th GP, and even then, it could very well have been forgotten
Darryn Smith (@darryn)
15th April 2019, 19:18
It’s easy for Vettel to be right when 950 out of the 1000 races have been like this. What a stupid comment from Vettel. Having said that I thought it was a decent race. Seeing a little more of the problems Vettel and Leclerc will have with each other in the future. They can’t all be exciting otherwise they would not be exciting and there has to be decent filler in a season like this race.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
15th April 2019, 19:57
It should be forgotten…..boring race. I’m hoping at the Baku Bumper Car Track somebody torpedoes both Mercs so we can get a good race.
Phylyp (@phylyp)
16th April 2019, 6:28
Kvyat’s up for the job, he showed us he’s capable of it in China. Now if we could only get that TR between the Silver Arrows…
cm (@cm-cm)
15th April 2019, 19:26
No wonder f1 fans are down on the sport… we can’t even get thru an f1 fanatic headline without it being shoved down our throats how bad the racing in f1 is….
I thought it was an average f1 race, but maybe it’s time to wrap up your motorsports blog if your getting to be soo poo poo about pretty much every f1 race. Maybe they need an indycarfanatic.co.uk.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
15th April 2019, 19:59
CM, it’s because nothing is happening and the races are basically decided within the first couple of corners of lap 1, when a Merc gets the lead. It’s just bad racing, sorry, but unless you’re a Hamilton/Merc sycophant, this is incredibly boring to watch and it seems to be getting worse.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
16th April 2019, 0:33
Well, it always has been like this. But F1 and their journalists and fans love to talk itself down. Indy race in Long Beach was horrible, absolutely horrible, but the headlines hailed Rossi instead of talking bad things about the racing.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
15th April 2019, 19:55
One of the most boring races I can recall in the 12 years I have been a fan of the sport. Literally nothing happened.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
15th April 2019, 21:30
Literally untrue.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2019, 12:04
Really? Well I’m all ears, please go through all the memorable moments then.
Ed Marques (@edmarques)
16th April 2019, 0:37
Quit the whining, please.
Jason Blankenship (@jblank)
16th April 2019, 12:04
Found the Hammy fan.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
20th April 2019, 5:28
Nothing happened, literally, verstappen tried to overtake vettel, didn’t make it, a single attempt, there was a battle for around 10th place towards the end, nothing happened.
F1oSaurus (@f1osaurus)
15th April 2019, 20:45
No need to go that far back, Rosberg said the same thing after he lost the lead at the 2016 Hockenheim start.
pSynrg (@psynrg)
15th April 2019, 21:44
@f1osaurus That’s interesting, during Rosberg’s vlog he was definitely cynical about Bottas’ ‘excuse’.
erikje
15th April 2019, 21:25
The only remarkable action was the double stack pit strategy by Mercedes.
A bit team orders in disguise i think. They did not wanted to give Bottas a change to undercut Hamilton by his defense against Vettel.
David BR (@david-br)
15th April 2019, 23:00
Hamilton had already complained that the team giving Bottas the first pit stop first had allowed him to eat away the lead Hamilton had built up – with the fact he had tyres fresher by 1 lap hardly compensating.
Lucas (@datguylucas)
15th April 2019, 22:55
Here before article on “Mercedes worried about Ferrari pace for Baku GP”
David BR (@david-br)
15th April 2019, 23:11
Leclerc seemed less than thrilled this time round. Vettel being allowed past but then dropping back faster from Bottas than Leclerc had been was really pretty poor on various counts. Leclerc in a similar situation in the previous race had been able to get past Vettel with no help from the team. And basically Vettel got gifted the place, the favourable race strategy, and the podium and extra points at the end. Given the uproar when Mercedes did the same for Hamilton in Socchi last year – when Bottas was already out of contention for the title – it’s quite something that this is mostly just accepted as normal Ferrari practice.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
18th April 2019, 20:15
Max started the race in 5th place, but may have got a higher place. He only posted one fast time in Q3, which turned out to be 0.224 seconds behind Charles, so I think Max could have got a faster time if he’d done a second fast lap.