2026 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, March 13-15

[search]

Do we really have hot laps now? The battery charges so quick, then can go faster lap after lap, if tyres are OK

as far as I could see, everyone did push-charge-push today, or even with two charge laps in between. I would be surprised if Norris really planed to do several push laps in a row.

[FittingMechanics]

Do we really have hot laps now? The battery charges so quick, then can go faster lap after lap, if tyres are OK.

Saw Colapinto do it in Australia

We do have hot laps but the difference between a warmup lap and hot lap is smaller then in previous years. TV director is struggling to figure that out.

[FittingMechanics]

Btw, TV director is awful.

We have Mercedes and Ferrari on slower laps, they finish them and then they switch to an ALPINE instead of two McLarens that were purple in first sector. Norris was also (IIRC) faster than Leclerc in both S1 and S2.

[SS-89]

Am I right to say leclerc didnt improve much if at all from his sq2 time on mediums to softs? For whatever reason ferrari have been poor at both races on the softest compounds.

[ginobeppe]

leclerc had a deployment issue, lost 4 tenths to hamilton on last straight

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I just had another look at the Norris/Antonelli incident. It happened at the start of his 2nd lap of SQ2, which was very likely to be a 2nd warm-up lap.

McLaren did two warm-up laps on Mediums in Q1, Piastri did two warm-up laps on Mediums in Q2, and just before it happened Norris got confirmation on the radio to do the "same run plan".

[zubster]

Season over. Its 2014 again.

how much of this over is due to PU?

Well McLaren should be the benchmark given same engine. I know they still haven't optimised use of their engine yet but it cannot be all of it. Clearly some of it must be better chasis

[search]

leclerc had a deployment issue, lost 4 tenths to hamilton on last straight

not sure this is really it. I don't see it in the data (more like <2 tenths), and still wouldn't explain why he lost half a second in the middle second on his 1st lap.

[ginobeppe]

on the live italian feed they say he binned it on first lap, didn't show the replay tho

[Sevach]

[101FlyingDutchman]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDR2NjCa0AA ... ame=medium

Is that just drag or more power in the circled area. Doesn’t look right to me. It looks like straight up less hp

[Sevach]

leclerc had a deployment issue, lost 4 tenths to hamilton on last straight

Leclerc's engine going limp

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HDR2NjCa0AA ... ame=medium

Is that just drag or more power in the circled area. Doesn’t look right to me. It looks like straight up less hp

That's their speed trace, Mclaren keeps up under acceleration, but ends up short...
Decision from the team, aero or anything else... open to discussion.

[ginobeppe]

all mercedes engines have that strange flat area, and rpm are constant on the telemetry, however on live feed you can hear russel's rpm go down a little

[nico5]

all mercedes engines have that strange flat area, and rpm are constant on the telemetry, however on live feed you can hear russel's rpm go down a little

FIA collusion hiding Merc going over harvesting limit?

[.poz]

Well McLaren should be the benchmark given same engine. I know they still haven't optimised use of their engine yet but it cannot be all of it. Clearly some of it must be better chasis

Sure, Alpine qualified three-tenths ahead of Red Bull thanks to a superior chassis.