Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Review : 2009 Formula One Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai - Race Day


It is definitely Schumacher-esque.

A superb drive in the rain legitimise Sebastian Vettel's status as the wet-race master. Two career wins, both in the rain, and both in Red Bull chassis. To make it sweeter, Mark Webber made it home second, completing a first Red Bull 1-2.

The performance so far, however, is not surprising as Vettel has shown remarkable pace since the opening race in Albert Park.

Jenson Button provide half of the entertainment in the race as he got to fight wheel to wheel for second place with Mark Webber. In the post race interview he later confessed that his BGP001 simply lack the pace in the rain.

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The race started under safety car, which work well for the Red Bull strategy, but not so kind to Fernando Alonso. Alonso, although starting second on the grid, did not make most of his strategy. His Renault is only two lap lesser fuelwise, but his first pit is enough to stranded him in the midfield. He misses the point by finishing ninth, just in front of Raikkonen.

Kimi Raikkonen meanwhile, finished in his best result so far, a mere tenth place. The Ferrari team got it all wrong again this weekend as the rain forced Raikkonen to be under pace and to make it worse, got held up in the midfield after his pit stop.

Felipe Massa, running as high as third, retired with an electrical failure, which caused his F60 to misfire a few times before halted to a dead stop. At first it was thought the car got issues with the KERS system but later it was confirmed the issue is with the ECU unit.

Ferrari, according to principle Stefano Domenicalli, will not be integrating new components before Catalunya. It appears they will take longer to come up with a double rear diffuser solution, as the car have issues with KERS, which must be address first. BMW, McLaren, and Renault has been working on the rear diffuser for some time now.

Both McLarens finished in points, pointing out the improvements they made with the car. They used new front wings and an interim double diffuser at the back to provide extra downforce. This goes the same with Renault, with a new rear diffuser for Alonso.

The last of the big boys, BMW finished a low 12th and 13th. The car simply lost the handling in the rain, aquaplaning everywhere as shown by the BMW of Heidfeld. Robert Kubica have a suspense moment piggy backing Jarno Trulli in the front. Luckily he was on the way to the pit lane, and thus saving him time. But Trulli end up in the pit garage as his rear wings are destoyed in the crash.

This is the second time after Malaysia that BMW with all its Computational Fluid Dynamics research, do not handle well in the wet. A few races ahead has the risk of raining, i.e Spa-Franchorchamps and Fuji. Mario Theissen has a lot to think of in terms of improving the BMWs.

Glock was the best Toyota, finishing seventh as Trulli retired. The Williamses seems to be the only diffuser gang that has failed repeteadly to make use of the double diffuser. Although topping the timesheet in practices, they failed to deliver in racing distance.

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