2026 Chinese Grand Prix - Shanghai, March 13-15

[langedweil]

This formula is dead .. just watched the race-in-30, and even skipped half of that.
Can't be bothered tbh .. it's plainly ridiculous and has nothing to do with racing.
Plus side though is, lot's of more free time during the weekends.

Is this F1Technical or Twitter?

As someone has mentioned previously, F1 has had some form of "gimmicks" for years now. Heck, many would argue the days of Automatic up shifts and preloaded downshifts wasn't real "racing". And that was 25 years ago, in the heart of those heavily lauded V10 days.

Yeah, well whatever .. at least driver skills were a part of the equasion.
Aside from the Ferrari battle maybe there was little overtaking but lots of powerup-passing-by.

[PlatinumZealot]

Yeah, big mistake from Leclerc but he will be relatively happy, he looked to have a clear pace advantage over Hamilton.

There was no pace advantage whatsoever. They will be nip and tuck in this regulation. Lazy assumption to think Leclerc is simply quicker, because of a previous regulation. The landscape has changed.

Even when Leclerc made the error, Lewis was all over his gearbox. Leclerc even admitted in the post race interview, that Lewis was quicker this weekend. Lewis out qualified him in Q & out managed him & outfought him in the race. No disgrace. Tables may be tipped in Japan. This duel is probably the only exciting thing happening in all honesty.

We must have watched another race, I mean numerous times Leclerc closed up to Hamilton with a comfortable gap. When Charles passed Lewis he was just managing the pace, Lewis couldn't really make any inroads, it was a pure unforced error.

It's called tyre management, bro!


Anyway, congrats to Kimi Antonelli on his first win.

Great show by the Ferraris. I'm pressed with how Charles seemingly just turns on his tyres at will to pressure Lewis, but it seemed to have cost him shorter tyre life.

Lewis was classy in not getting too excited over his first Ferrari podium. The crowd was loving his return to the front!

It's going to be an intriguing season. The Ferrari is still in the fight for the WDC and George and Kimi will remove the gloves after acertain pressure point.

[PlatinumZealot]

This formula is dead .. just watched the race-in-30, and even skipped half of that.
Can't be bothered tbh .. it's plainly ridiculous and has nothing to do with racing.
Plus side though is, lot's of more free time during the weekends.

I think I know why you aren't liking the racing...

[venkyhere]

Guys, we have had a sample size of 2 races in this current era, that too in a regulation where the driver isn't challenged in the traditional sense of 'finding grip', the challenge is more in the vein of consistency and lack of mistakes (which are important too).
Do we really need a 'which driver is better' this early in the season ? This thread could do with some less 'my favourite driver is better than yours' for atleast the first half of the season. What say ?

[langedweil]

This formula is dead .. just watched the race-in-30, and even skipped half of that.
Can't be bothered tbh .. it's plainly ridiculous and has nothing to do with racing.
Plus side though is, lot's of more free time during the weekends.

I think I know why you aren't liking the racing...

You'd say, but that is not my point at all.
Don't care at all my team is midfield at best, and even the current gaps aren't that big of an issue (hats off to the MB PU) as they will converge somewhere along the line.
Been around long enough to enjoy any battle on track. It's just the power-up blasting past that makes it ridiculous, combined with the power starvation on straights that lead to insane speed drops and the granny cornering speeds.
Lec explained it well yesterday.

[langedweil]

Do we really need a 'which driver is better' this early in the season ? This thread could do with some less 'my favourite driver is better than yours' for atleast the first half of the season. What say ?

To me this isn't about any driver tbh ..

[hollus]

I get the lack of finding the last mm to brake in the biggest braking zones.

But I don't believe that the driver's modulation of brake/throttle/steer is less important or brings less lap time than before. It is just less obvious and there is more room for slow-in fast-out than in previuos regs. They'll still want that slow-in as late as possible, but the penalty is no longer a smoking tire, at least not always (we saw some of those anyways).

But overtaking...
... to overtake you need a long straight then to be 5 or 6 tenths behind at corner exit, and then to have no large speed deficit at corner exit. If you fullfull a+b+c, then in the straight you press a button and from half of the straight, approximately, DRS makes sure that you have a large speed differential and the pass is done and dusted before the braking zone.
See what I did there?

[upsidedowntoast]

Guys, we have had a sample size of 2 races in this current era, that too in a regulation where the driver isn't challenged in the traditional sense of 'finding grip', the challenge is more in the vein of consistency and lack of mistakes (which are important too).
Do we really need a 'which driver is better' this early in the season ? This thread could do with some less 'my favourite driver is better than yours' for atleast the first half of the season. What say ?

Actually according to lowerlaptime, finding grip is still a problem. Not necessarily in the traditional late braking and cornering bravery, but these cars are lighter and have less downforce than the GE cars so grip is a problem everywhere. In his latest video he mentioned that qualifying has been worse which makes racing better.

[LeQuick]

There was no pace advantage whatsoever. They will be nip and tuck in this regulation. Lazy assumption to think Leclerc is simply quicker, because of a previous regulation. The landscape has changed.

Even when Leclerc made the error, Lewis was all over his gearbox. Leclerc even admitted in the post race interview, that Lewis was quicker this weekend. Lewis out qualified him in Q & out managed him & outfought him in the race. No disgrace. Tables may be tipped in Japan. This duel is probably the only exciting thing happening in all honesty.

We must have watched another race, I mean numerous times Leclerc closed up to Hamilton with a comfortable gap. When Charles passed Lewis he was just managing the pace, Lewis couldn't really make any inroads, it was a pure unforced error.

It's called tyre management, bro!


Anyway, congrats to Kimi Antonelli on his first win.

Great show by the Ferraris. I'm pressed with how Charles seemingly just turns on his tyres at will to pressure Lewis, but it seemed to have cost him shorter tyre life.

Lewis was classy in not getting too excited over his first Ferrari podium. The crowd was loving his return to the front!

It's going to be an intriguing season. The Ferrari is still in the fight for the WDC and George and Kimi will remove the gloves after acertain pressure point.

I very much doubt his tyre management plan was to slow down that much so that his teammate would pass him.

I did notice that Lewis was keeping a tight line in turn one, trying to take it easier on the front left, but I don't think it really helped him out as he wasn't dropping Leclerc at the end of the stint. It's more likely that Leclerc ruined his tyres with the lockups.

[pantherxxx]

I don’t want to come up with conspiracy theories, but McLaren recently complained that Mercedes isn’t sharing enough data with them about the engine, and now they’ve had a double DNF suddenly. There isn’t some kind of kill switch in the Mercedes powertrain that they give to their customer teams, is there? Because that would be even ruthless from Wolff.

[GrizzleBoy]

Ham, Leclerc and even Russell were ruining their tyres fighting each other.

They were all just barely hanging onto the cars under traction as they put their foot down on the corner exit onto the back straight. Rear of all their cars were swinging left and right as they fought to keep the car pointing forwards.

Thats something that I see as a counter to the "artificial racing" complaints.

Yes there is a computer deciding when and where each car is fast and when and where it isn't.

But watch the race again as even one of the cars with (supposedly) the best chassis in the Ferrari is snaking left and right under braking as the drivers fight to stop the rear end coming round as the cars balance shifts forwards.

These cars require the driver to be DRIVING the car at all times.
No more:
- brake gently (you know what i kean)
- coast round the apex
- accelerate gently out of the corner
- dont disrupt the balance of the car at any cost

Now its:
- Brake hard enough to get the regeneration going
- BALANCE the car round the apex,INCLUDING using the brakes to shift the balance upto the apex
- CONTROL the rear of car as you accelerate as hard as the car will go without the back end getting too out of control.

Now when it comes to wheel to wheel racing, low grip situations and elongated high tyre deg stints, these cars are WAY WAY WAY more sensitive to who is behind the wheel and we've seen already that mistakes are much easier to make and are much more punishing if there are other cars around you with the same pace