Anyway, on to the subject at hand. The Chinese Grand Prix held at the Shanghai International Circuit.
Track and history
The track is 3.39 miles long and was 1st raced by F1 in 2004 where Rubens Barrichello recorded the 1st win and, believe it or not, JB was 1 sec behind him!
2005 saw Alonso win and in 2006 Schuey took the top step. Last year was Kimi's turn and I wonder if we'll have another different winner this year.
China saw what was happening in nearby Macau with the prestigious F3 invitation races and fancied a bit of action itself.
Originally it built a track in SW china at Zuhai in 1996 and hosted races with hopes of attracting F1. Unluckily the finances werent quite there and the facilities werent good enough to host F1.
And thus the Shanghai circuit was born.
Built on what was originally a 300m deep swamp it was decided that the track should be built on polystyrene piles to prevent the track from sinking into the soil.
It is in the shape of a chinese symbol, Shang, which means either high, above or rising. Chinese wasnt one of my school subjects but you can see what it implies, basically a track risen out of a swamp. Poetic eh??
The Chinese GP comes near the end of the season which is usually when the title fight is bubbling over!
It has overtaking opportunities too. The back straight is quite long. The corner leading to it is taken in 2nd gear at its slowest point and into 6th gear by the exit onto the straight.
Nearly 200mph down the straight into a hairpin taken in 1st gear.
The first and second corners are really one corner, about a 270 degree right hander from 7th on the straight, into turn 3 in 2nd gear a hairpin left. Slippy as you like in the wet and usually chaos on the start!!
Not quite as demanding as Istanbul but nevertheless a good circuit.
7 lefts and 7 rights give the car a good workout as well as the drivers.
The season so far.
Its been an intriguing season with comments about F1 being heard all over the place. Some welcome, some unwelcome, but I suppose even bad PR is good PR?!
The driver championship.
5 points separate the top two drivers, Lewis and Felipe.
As an outsider Kubica is 12 points behind the leader.
20 points are left up for grabs.
You can all work out the positions and who must finish where. Myself, I'll just watch race by race!
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 84
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 79
3. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 72
4. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 63
5. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 56
6. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 51
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 48
8. Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 30
9. Jarno Trulli Toyota 30
10. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 21
11. Timo Glock Toyota 20
12. Nelson Piquet Jr Renault 18
13. Nico Rosberg Williams 17
14. Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing 11
15. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 9
16. David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 8
17. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 4
18. Jenson Button Honda Racing 3
The Constructor championship.
Ferrari lead McLaren by 7 points.
BMW are in a safe 3rd.
Renault lead Toyota by 16 points for a fairly safe 4th and lower down Torro Rosso, Red Bull and Williams are separated by just 8 points.
1. Ferrari 142
2. McLaren Mercedes 135
3. BMW Sauber 128
4. Renault 66
5. Toyota 50
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso 34
7. Red Bull Racing 29
8. Williams 26
9. Honda Racing 14
I've driven around China on my F1 game on the PS3. I love the track, its fast and flowing and it's quite challenging to get your car set up well.
The fastest lap is held by Schuey, who struggled to master this track.
He set a time of 1m 32.23secs.
The times have actually increased since then to 1m 37.58 in 2006 and I cant find the fastest lap for last years wet race. Perhaps the batteries ran out on the stopwatch half way around!!
News.
Unsuprisingly, it seems the teams have told Bernie and Max to poke off with their single engine ideas. Linky
Further to Grumpyoldb's thread about Alonso saying he'd help Massa, he might well be able to. He qualified 4th last week with a realistic fuel load. The pace would appear to be there in the Renault and Alonso is optimistic about wins during the last few races. Linky
Honda reckon that China will be rubbish for them as was Fuji.
They stopped developing the car a few months ago and the only real hope they have is mayhem or weather changes.
Luckily for them there are predictions of rain showers over the weekend! Linky
With all the action and wheel banging going on I wouldnt discount one of the Toyota boys getting a podium. Glock is coming on really strong now and can match his team mate for raw pace. Trulli is fast but sometimes seems a bit bogged down, I reckon he thinks he's a touring car driver and carries ballast!
Toyota were disappointed after Fuji and reckon they're well up for it at China. Linky
Kubica hopes he can find a few tenths and a bit of luck. Last year Lewis led Kimi by 17 points and lost. Kubica is only 12 points adrift, still considers himself a contender and, if we have some dodgem car antics this weekend, he might well steal 10 points!
Finally, McLaren are happy to let Lewis race balls out. No holding back and settling for the points game. To be honest it sounds like they cant reign him in!
Linky
No pretty pictures this week, I wanted to concentrate on attempting to write an informative full article but here is a link to the official F1 websites' track diagram. It labels corner speeds etc and I think its pretty good.
Here's hoping for a good, clean race without any dodgy decisions from the teams or the stewards.
DT_Xtremez_28:
Track and history
The track is 3.39 miles long and was 1st raced by F1 in 2004 where Rubens Barrichello recorded the 1st win and, believe it or not, JB was 1 sec behind him!
2005 saw Alonso win and in 2006 Schuey took the top step. Last year was Kimi's turn and I wonder if we'll have another different winner this year.
China saw what was happening in nearby Macau with the prestigious F3 invitation races and fancied a bit of action itself.
Originally it built a track in SW china at Zuhai in 1996 and hosted races with hopes of attracting F1. Unluckily the finances werent quite there and the facilities werent good enough to host F1.
And thus the Shanghai circuit was born.
Built on what was originally a 300m deep swamp it was decided that the track should be built on polystyrene piles to prevent the track from sinking into the soil.
It is in the shape of a chinese symbol, Shang, which means either high, above or rising. Chinese wasnt one of my school subjects but you can see what it implies, basically a track risen out of a swamp. Poetic eh??
The Chinese GP comes near the end of the season which is usually when the title fight is bubbling over!
It has overtaking opportunities too. The back straight is quite long. The corner leading to it is taken in 2nd gear at its slowest point and into 6th gear by the exit onto the straight.
Nearly 200mph down the straight into a hairpin taken in 1st gear.
The first and second corners are really one corner, about a 270 degree right hander from 7th on the straight, into turn 3 in 2nd gear a hairpin left. Slippy as you like in the wet and usually chaos on the start!!
Not quite as demanding as Istanbul but nevertheless a good circuit.
7 lefts and 7 rights give the car a good workout as well as the drivers.
The season so far.
Its been an intriguing season with comments about F1 being heard all over the place. Some welcome, some unwelcome, but I suppose even bad PR is good PR?!
The driver championship.
5 points separate the top two drivers, Lewis and Felipe.
As an outsider Kubica is 12 points behind the leader.
20 points are left up for grabs.
You can all work out the positions and who must finish where. Myself, I'll just watch race by race!
1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren Mercedes 84
2. Felipe Massa Ferrari 79
3. Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 72
4. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 63
5. Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 56
6. Heikki Kovalainen McLaren Mercedes 51
7. Fernando Alonso Renault 48
8. Sebastian Vettel Scuderia Toro Rosso 30
9. Jarno Trulli Toyota 30
10. Mark Webber Red Bull Racing 21
11. Timo Glock Toyota 20
12. Nelson Piquet Jr Renault 18
13. Nico Rosberg Williams 17
14. Rubens Barrichello Honda Racing 11
15. Kazuki Nakajima Williams 9
16. David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 8
17. Sebastien Bourdais Scuderia Toro Rosso 4
18. Jenson Button Honda Racing 3
The Constructor championship.
Ferrari lead McLaren by 7 points.
BMW are in a safe 3rd.
Renault lead Toyota by 16 points for a fairly safe 4th and lower down Torro Rosso, Red Bull and Williams are separated by just 8 points.
1. Ferrari 142
2. McLaren Mercedes 135
3. BMW Sauber 128
4. Renault 66
5. Toyota 50
6. Scuderia Toro Rosso 34
7. Red Bull Racing 29
8. Williams 26
9. Honda Racing 14
I've driven around China on my F1 game on the PS3. I love the track, its fast and flowing and it's quite challenging to get your car set up well.
The fastest lap is held by Schuey, who struggled to master this track.
He set a time of 1m 32.23secs.
The times have actually increased since then to 1m 37.58 in 2006 and I cant find the fastest lap for last years wet race. Perhaps the batteries ran out on the stopwatch half way around!!
News.
Unsuprisingly, it seems the teams have told Bernie and Max to poke off with their single engine ideas. Linky
Further to Grumpyoldb's thread about Alonso saying he'd help Massa, he might well be able to. He qualified 4th last week with a realistic fuel load. The pace would appear to be there in the Renault and Alonso is optimistic about wins during the last few races. Linky
Honda reckon that China will be rubbish for them as was Fuji.
They stopped developing the car a few months ago and the only real hope they have is mayhem or weather changes.
Luckily for them there are predictions of rain showers over the weekend! Linky
With all the action and wheel banging going on I wouldnt discount one of the Toyota boys getting a podium. Glock is coming on really strong now and can match his team mate for raw pace. Trulli is fast but sometimes seems a bit bogged down, I reckon he thinks he's a touring car driver and carries ballast!
Toyota were disappointed after Fuji and reckon they're well up for it at China. Linky
Kubica hopes he can find a few tenths and a bit of luck. Last year Lewis led Kimi by 17 points and lost. Kubica is only 12 points adrift, still considers himself a contender and, if we have some dodgem car antics this weekend, he might well steal 10 points!
Finally, McLaren are happy to let Lewis race balls out. No holding back and settling for the points game. To be honest it sounds like they cant reign him in!
Linky
No pretty pictures this week, I wanted to concentrate on attempting to write an informative full article but here is a link to the official F1 websites' track diagram. It labels corner speeds etc and I think its pretty good.
Here's hoping for a good, clean race without any dodgy decisions from the teams or the stewards.
DT_Xtremez_28:
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