What to expect from China 2018
After a great race in Bahrain last Sunday, the F1 circus has landed in China. This weekend we are back in Shanghai to see how our hero's will perform during the 2018 Chinese Grand Prix.
After 2 races in Melbourne and Bahrain it's not yet clear which team is the quickest. Ferrari F1 had some luck in Australia and Mercedes had some bad luck in Bahrain and was to conservative with their strategy. Red Bull sure looks quick, but both drivers haven't got the change to show the full potential of the Red Bull RB14.
Red Bull driver Max Verstappen did bravely pass the Mercedes of 4 times world champion Lewis Hamilton last race, but didn't leave enough space for Hamilton to enjoy it for long. Daniel Ricciardo had a major electrical power glitch. Both drivers were expecting to get to the podium...
We don't know how to bet on the Grand National but If nothing goes wrong I predict an even better fight in China for the podium than last weekend in Bahrain!
2018 China Facts & Figures
The first race here was held in 2004 and this season the 15th edition will take place. the Ferrari F2004 with Michael Schumacher behind the wheel still has the lap record of 1:32.238 min and was set in 2004 with the mighty V10 engine.
The track is called the Shanghai International Circuit and is also designed by Hermann Tilke. Therefore it has again similar characteristics as last weeks Bahrain circuit. The circuit has again long straights with slow corners at the end with fast and fluid corners between them.
The big difference that the Bahrain circuit doesn't have are the 2 very long corners in the track. The first extremely long corner is first corner after the start. This corner is endless and gets tighter as you turn into it. It's for sure the longest corner on the calendar. In this corner the drivers will decelerate from 310 km/h in 8th gear to 4th gear to turn into the 2nd corner. The second long corner is number 13. In this corner the drivers will accelerate as the corner opens up to the long back straight of 1.200 meters.
Lewis Hamilton won this GP 5 times, but also lost his 2007 drivers championship here, because he asked to much of his tyres and ended up in the gravel entering the pit lane! He won the race 2 times for McLaren and 3 times for Mercedes and scored 8 podiums in total Fernando Alonso won the race 2 times and Sebastian Vettel only once in a Red Bull. Ferrari has won here 4 times and Mercedes 5 times.
In fact it was Nico Rosberg who in 2012 delivered Mercedes their first pole position and race win in China after their comeback in Formula 1. It's a track that suits Mercedes very well,. The track also seems to fit the Red Bull team. Because Sebastian Vettel also scored the first ever victory for Red Bull in China back in 2009
This year the teams are allowed to use 3 different Pirelli compounds. The Medium, Soft and Ultra Softs. The asphalt has a medium tyre wear. The Ultra soft tyre will be used for the first time on this track and will give huge grip. It will be interesting to see how many laps this purple tyre will last.
Last years 2017 Chinese GP
Last year the race was held a week earlier and the air temperature was only 12 degrees. At the start the track was damp and all cars started on intermediate tyres. As the track dried out all cars switched to normal slick tyres. But because of the low temperatures the drivers had a hard time to get the tyres on the ideal working temperature and had poor grip.
Max Verstappen who started on P16 showed his passing talent again and fought his way trough the field and even drove on 2nd place for a while. Both Red Bull s had some great fights with the Ferrari drivers. At the end of the race Verstappen was passed by Vettel again and had to settle for 3rd because his tyres were worn out. Lewis Hamilton started from pole and led the whole race. Sebastian Vettel started from P2, finished 2nd and could not fight for the lead.
Shanghai Weather Forecast
The current weather forecast for this weekend tells us that Friday could be wet with some showers and a temperature around 20ºC. Saturday will be cloudy and dry with temperatures around 17ºC. Sunday it will be mostly sunny with a maximum termp of 20ºC.
History tells us that the weather around the Shanghai International circuit can change very quickly and might even change into very low temperatures and wet conditions.
Who will be on the 2018 China podium?
Current Championship leader with 50 points Sebastian Vettel scored 5 podiums; 1x 1st, 3x 2nd and 1x 3rd and got 3 pole positions on the Shanghai track. He never retired during the race.
Pole position on this track is not very important, because due to the long DRS zone, passing is not very difficult. This circuit seems to be one of Hamilton's favourites. He scored 6 pole positions already on this Asian circuit. He even scored 4 race wins with a pole position and only retired once. So statistically he has a big change to end up on the highest podium.
The Shanghai circuit isn't a high downforce track, so Red Bull will again have a hard time if the track is dry. In the wet the car will have huge advantage, because of their great chassis and amount downforce.
Ferrari did qualify pole position in Bahrain and occupied first row for the first time since Hungary 2017. Hungary is very different track compared to Bahrain and must be seen as a huge step forward for Ferrari and statically the driver who won the first 2 races won the championship since 1982.
When Lewis Hamilton finished in the points, he will break the consecutive-points-finish-records of Kimi Raikkonen. The Ferrari driver holds this record 27 races. Hamilton equals this record after Bahrain and can raise the amount to 28 in China.
Our podium prediction in dry conditions is: 1. Hamilton, 2. Vettel, 3. Bottas.
Our podium prediction in wet conditions is: 1. Verstappen, 2. Hamilton, 3. Ricciardo.
What's your prediction?
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