What did you think of today’s race? Share your verdict on the Chinese Grand Prix.
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Join in the latest poll and give your verdict on the race: 10 being the highest and 1 the lowest. Please vote based on how entertaining and exciting you thought the race was, not on how your preferred driver or team performed.
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Rate the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix out of ten
- 10 (1%)
- 9 (1%)
- 8 (3%)
- 7 (9%)
- 6 (26%)
- 5 (20%)
- 4 (19%)
- 3 (9%)
- 2 (8%)
- 1 (5%)
Total Voters: 281
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2019 Chinese Grand Prix
- Top ten pictures from the 2019 Chinese Grand Prix
- 2019 Chinese Grand Prix Star Performers
- Hamilton cruises to sixth China win as Ferrari tactics backfire
- Third consecutive one-two gives Mercedes chance to break record
- Paddock Diary: Chinese Grand Prix day four
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- Are Williams right to bench Sargeant so Albon can race after crash?
- Is the FIA right to make ten seconds the new standard for penalties?
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2019, 8:47
I have to say, the Mercedes era since 2014 has become even more tedious and boring than the Ferrari/Schumacher era.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
14th April 2019, 8:53
Agree, finally someone who also says this, now ofc as a schumacher fan (not ferrari) I’m biased, but in the schumacher era there was competition from outside the team, like in 2000 there was a very strong mclaren and hakkinen, in 2001 there was at least competition for wins from williams, they had the best engine, in 2003 there was competition between 3 teams all year long, this domination mercedes is having since 2014 has been crazy long lasting, in 2017 they still had the clear edge overall, the only season where they had opposition all year long was 2018.
AlAmmari (@alammari)
14th April 2019, 8:54
Excluding 2014, 2015 and 2016 coz of Roseberg, Mercedes were dominating but Nico did not make it easy for Hamilton atleast.
Me
14th April 2019, 9:02
Those years were the worst
Me
14th April 2019, 8:58
Yep, so boring again, and Full of bs. The First years of Vettel at Ferrari were Nice, but its all boring now
F1oSaurus (@)
14th April 2019, 9:20
@kingshark Indeed. If only Ferrari would put a better driver in their car. They would have easily taken the 2017 and 2018 titles.
Hoped they would give Leclerc a chance, but unfortunately it’s the same story again.
charlied
14th April 2019, 9:38
2017 wasn’t even close. Why the VET-hate?
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th April 2019, 9:53
@f1osaurus it wouldn’t have changed a thing, the reason why vettel was so edgy was because in order for Ferrari to win, the whole team had to perform to 100% and then expect Mercedes to drop the ball, like australia 2018, obviously Mercedes have always had the quicker car, better strategy and cooler driver.
Ferrari were correct in letting vettel past, vettel was on charles DRS, charles was barely on Seb and in the end, on lower fuel, he didn’t beat vettel’s fastest lap, sometimes it’s hard to judge because sky sports is not only anti Ferrari, (Croft, Kravitz and Brundle) but also anti-vettel (rosberg also included). After last couple seasons team rules fest, I hope for a slightly less farcical intra team championship fight for the title, like Ham vs Ros. Mercedes used more team rules in the past 2 seasons than the whole grid in 10 years.
F1oSaurus (@)
14th April 2019, 10:35
@peartree That’s just nonsense, they don’t need to perform 100%, but they simply need (Vettel) not blunder so much.
Ferrari had a car on pace with Mercedes in 2017. Vettel blew it in AZE, CAN and SIN where he threw away at least 57 points (points lost+points gifted to Hamilton). That alone cost him the title. Plus there were more poor performances like in Silverstone and Mexico.
Ferrari actually had the faster car over 2018, but Vettel also stepped up his game of throwing points away. AZE, FRA, AUT, GER, ITA, JPN and USA cost him 113 points towards Hamilton and the title plus some to spare in 2018. Plus there were races like ESP, HUN and SIN where he simply underperformed. Especially SIN was bad.
This year Vettel hasn’t been blundering so much (yet) perhaps, or not that big at least. Still he’s not performing that well either. He really should have won Bahrain instead of spinning around.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
14th April 2019, 17:58
@f1osaurus
You are as per usual missing the point, just because Mercedes had competition in 2017 and 2018 doesn’t mean that the 2014-2019 era hasn’t been firmly dominated by Mercedes. 2000 and 2003 were titanic title battles and people still remember 2000-2004 as the Ferrari era.
Since the start of 2014, there have been only 5 podiums without a Mercedes on it, which is a ridiculous record. That means Mercedes average one race per season not on the podium. They have also won 75% of the races since 2014.
By every objective measure, 2014-2019 is the most dominant era any team has ever had. No other era even comes close.
This is why we need Verstappen in the other car instead of the mediocre Bottas, we need some competition, although I doubt Lewis would allow that.
F1oSaurus (@)
14th April 2019, 19:15
@kingshark I’m not missing any point. I agree that Hamilton dominated also the last two seasons, but I add the distinction that that it is solely because indeed he’s such a great driver. While Vettel could have won those last two crowns easily, but he threw it away.
Not sure what’s wrong with that. I puts things in perspective.
From that perspective you should really try to grasp the fact that we don’t need Verstappen in the other Mercedes, since people would call that just as boring. It’s not Mercedes where the issue lies. It’s the poor #1 driver in the Ferrari where the issue lies. Just too many blunders.
Even if Vettel has by far the fastest car he bins it . Like in Azerbaijan, Monza, Germany and USA. Plus Austria if you consider both Mercedes cars had DNF’s. He would have won all of those easily if he actually was able to think further than one corner ahead.
It’s that constant throwing away of wins or podiums and gifting points to Hamilton that makes it so easy for Hamilton.
We need an actual worthy driver in that Ferrari. Verstappen would have been WDC in 2017 and 2018. Just as Hamilton, Alonso or Ricciardo would have been. Probably even Bottas, because I doubt Vettel could beat Bottas over a season. Vettel was no better than Raikkonen in 2018 and Bottas is a lot better than Raikkonen.
Now Leclerc could be that driver and then they cripple him just as much as they did with Raikkonen.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
15th April 2019, 2:54
@f1osaurus
Once again you are completely missing the point.
No one is arguing that Mercedes was dominant in 2017 and 2018. Please find an exact quote of where I made such a claim. You won’t, because you are arguing with a strawman.
The argument is that the 2014-2019 Mercedes era as a whole was dominant. Do you not understand the difference between these two concepts?
2000-2004 is wildly regarded as the Schumacher/Ferrari era, this is despite the fact that 2000 and 2003 were both titan title fights.
You’ve lost any credibility you had with this ridiculous claim.
Bottas was teammates with Massa over three years at Williams, and he was 23-23 against Massa in a two car finish. Vettel absolutely destroyer Raikkonen over four years at Ferrari, and Massa and Raikkonen are fairly similar drivers.
Your claim that Bottas is better than Vettel shows that you have very little knowledge of Formula 1, and that you are an exceptionally poor judge of talent.
F1oSaurus (@)
15th April 2019, 20:02
@kingshark You were crying about the Mercedes era since 2014. So you are missing your own point. If you ever had one besides just crying about how boring it is that Vettel cannot even compete with Hamilton when Vettel has the fastest car. Like I said, sure that is boring, but don’t blame Mercedes for that. It’s Ferrari’s fault that they stick with Vettel.
Vettel didn’t destroy Raikkonen. He was barely better. Plus you see what it means to be #2 at Ferrari. Leclerc was better than Vettel all races so far, yet he ended up on P5 instead of P3 in the last race and behind Vettel in the first race.
Alonso destroyed Massa and Raikkonen. Vettel is Just a little better. Bootaas was miles better than Massa too. It DOES make sense that Bottas would be better than Vettel.
Just as Ricciardo totally destroyed Vettel in 2014. Plus without all the help from Ferrari, Leclerc would be destroying Vettel too.
The fact that you don’t see any of this,m indeed shows that you have no clue what you are talking about.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
15th April 2019, 20:20
You are a very dishonest poster.
Bottas was 23-23 against Massa in a two car finish. Vettel finished ahead of Raikkonen 40-15. You really need to stop lying and embarrassing yourself.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
15th April 2019, 20:21
@f1osaurus
F1oSaurus (@)
15th April 2019, 20:40
@kingshark Yes Bottas had a lot more bad luck than Massa, still when he did get to the finish in a working car then he was miles ahead of Massa.
Leclerc was better in 3 out of 3 races yet he finished ahead only once. That’s just how it works at Ferrari.
The problem with you is that you don’t know what you are talking about. You look up some stats and you completely misinterpret them
Either way, you are completely missing the point again. The only reason the last two seasons were so “boring” was because Vettel is such a poor racer. Deal with that instead of blaming it on Hamilton and be more upset at how Ferrari is still backing Vettel when he clearly is not up to the task.
Kingshark (@kingshark)
15th April 2019, 21:14
@f1osaurus
Lies, lies and more lies. Massa was screwed with enormous bad luck in 2014, taken out of the race in Australia, Canada, Silverstone and Germany, as well as a broken car in Belgium and a minute long pitstop in China. In 2015 and 2016 there was no discernible difference in luck.
Why do you lie so much?
Wrong on both accounts.
In Australia Vettel was miles quicker than Leclerc. The only reason Leclerc even came close at the end was because Ferrari messed up Vettel’s strategy.
In China, Leclerc only got ahead because Vettel got boxed in behind Bottas at the start. Leclerc used a higher engine mode after Ferrari told him to speed up, then after he let Vettel through he continued using the higher engine mode.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/reports/f1/2019-chinese-grand-prix-report
Despite that, Vettel was able to drop Leclerc from his DRS zone, something Leclerc didn’t have the pace to do in the first 12 laps.
Vettel has also outqualified Leclerc 2-1. Where are the team orders on Saturday btw?
Why do you lie so much? Or are you just very unintelligent?
F1oSaurus (@)
15th April 2019, 21:54
@kingshark I’m not lying, you are.
Ferrarri messed up Vettel’s strategy in Australia? Lol, funny. He didn’t make his stratgey work, you mean. In fact he utterly failed at making the strategy work. So he had a slow race ie he was (much!) slower than Leclerc. 100% certainty.
Hamilton on the other hand, made the exact same strategy work perfectly well. Again, that’s where your problem lies. Vettel is incapable of thinking further ahead than one corner.
That article you linked to is even more hilarious. Are you seriously pretending that Leclerc was on a higher engine mapping and that’s what caused Vettel to lock up over and over, resulting in him destroying his tyres in one or two laps? How brilliant a defense. It only enforces how poor Vettel is in dealing with any kind of pressure.
Also since everyone listens in to the radio conversations, we would have heard that radio conversation if Leclerc was actually told to use a higher engine mode. The laptime shos nothing of him turning up the engine either. It’s all just lies again.
Seriously you really are only lying to yourself. Even a blind person can see how Vettel utterly failed the last two seasons. And how this year he’s getting beaten by a rookie. Just find a more competent driver to root for and stop being so bitter.
Vettel is just like Massa. He can do a decent qualifying lap and that’s it. Put other cars around him on track and odds are that he crashes or spins.
Give Vettel a car that’s much faster than the rest and cripple his team mate, THEN Vettel can win races. If he has only a marginally faster car he cracks under pressure. If he has a team mate on par with him, he cracks under pressure. It’s just sad. Hilarious, but still sad.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
15th April 2019, 22:31
@f1osaurus Don’t agree, the charles vs vet I didnt een comment that, ferrari needed to be further in front of RBR to avoid the under, leclerc showed his race pace was not as good, in the end ferrari failed to ward off verstappen, that’s where they failed, they made a decision that didn’t backfired, it was utterly pointless. 2018 nobody but sky sports actually believes ferrari had the quicker car. Vettel made many mistakes where he was guilty of trying too hard, pressure did get him hard, bahrain this season is another example, Lewis was already way past him but vettel desperately went full throttle as he wouldn’t have any other chance of keeping lewis behind. Ferrari is good at some tracks, if Lewis was past vettel on a ferrari track then ferrari is not good enough. If Lewis had 2 sets if the medium as did charles, I think he would’ve won the race regardless.
Merc has broken all records you are the one who’s been lying to yourself, you can partly blame sky for it, they make up alot of drama
Kingshark (@kingshark)
16th April 2019, 2:19
@f1osaurus
Yes, they made a strategic mistake with in Australia. They pitted him far too early to attempt an impossible undercut on Hamilton who was 4 seconds up the road. That’s despite the fact that Vettel’s tyres were in fine condition. On equal tyres (the first 16 laps), Vettel was faster than Leclerc on every lap.
You don’t even know what the definition of a rookie is. Sad.
If with perfectly fine, you mean finishing 20 seconds behind his teammate? Hamilton himself asked his engineer on the radio “why did we pit so early?” and he pitted a lap later than Vettel did.
Mark Hughes is one of the most respected F1 journalists around. If you want to go argue with him, go ahead in the comment section of the article. He’ll respond to any questions you have.
Also, Vettel’s lockups don’t change the fact that Vettel was able to get out of DRS once he was ahead of Leclerc, something Leclerc was unable to do in the first 12 laps.
The rest of your post is just cheap shots at Vettel, because you don’t actually have any reasoning to respond to. But hey, at the end of the day, Vettel is a 4 time WDC and filthy rich, while you are just an internet poster. A very unintelligent and dishonest one too.
F1oSaurus (@)
16th April 2019, 6:31
@peartree What on earth are you trying to say?
F1oSaurus (@)
16th April 2019, 6:39
@kingshark You are still completely missing the point. The only reason the last two seasons have been so easy for Hamilton are that Vettel is such a poor racer. That’s really all there is too it.
Vettel truly can only only win in by far the fastest car and only from the front row and only if there is no opposition during the case. I mean even driving the fastest car he couldn’t win in AZE, AUT, GER, HUN, ITA and USA. It’s utterly embarrassing.
Again, just deal with it and stop being so bitter about Hamilton being so much better.
Besides, be honest to yourself for a change. Did you truly believe that Hamilton would win in Australia before the weekend had started? Did you really not think Vettel would be on top? Well Hamilton didn’t win, but Vettel got beaten by his rookie teammate.
Did you truly think that Hamilton would win in Bahrain after Q3?
Before the China weekend, did you really not think that Ferrari would be faster in China too as they were in Bahrain? I’ve seen plenty of pre weekend votes where people thought Leclerc would win, or Vettel and Hamilton was only third.
So how “boring” is it if only a small fraction of people actually guess upfront that it’s going to be the same result again with Hamilton winning. Either way, it’s not Hamilton’s fault that he maximizes almost every race and that Ferrari is backing the wrong driver.
Michal (@michal2009b)
14th April 2019, 9:25
@kingshark – it’s not even close. Ferrari truly dominated in 2002 and 2004, semi-dominated in 2001 and there was a titanic battle in both 2000 and 2003. Mercedes had three straight years of absolute domination (Scuderia’s two had been interrupted by ultra-competitive year) and the two had been semi-dominated. And do not forget that Ferrari only won six-car race in 2005 while Mercedes started the year with dominant car in 2/3 races and scored 1-2 in every GP so far. I thought we were turning the page on this era midway through 2017 season but little good happened since then.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th April 2019, 9:42
@kingshark I agree particularly as the dominance didn’t come from the rules, RB’s dominance the same thing clearly not rule bound. f1 keeps taking longer to give the rules a proper effective shake that weird 2005 tyre rule that favoured michelin cars, 09 new tyres new aero and then 2014 PU era, since then only small year to year things, 2017 slightly wider track and tyres can’t be compared to the big change that happened in 98. now only 2021 and I hope they open the PU rules a bit. Pretty clear they’ll win every championship with these power units. Mercedes even does things like Ferrari used to do back then as in being so far ahead on development that this winter Brackley introduced a new car for week 1 of testing and then for week 2 an even better car that was developed slightly later last season.
Ever since the late 80’s we’re getting ever bigger periods of dominance. Back in the Ferrari days the cars looked great off track looked frantic on track, sounded big and anything could happen, reliability wasn’t what it is, refuelling meant strategies and races could always change particularly on wet days, with teams fuelling their cars according to the weather making gambles all the time, close racing was just as hard, though when it happened it was special.
Michal (@michal2009b)
14th April 2019, 10:00
@peartree
More data nowadays decreases the amount of unpredictable events. It can only help those at the top, able to spend hundreds of millions on everything they wish.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th April 2019, 10:21
@michal2009b yup. Also on no refuelling, less of a chance of a mistake on that department, like massa singapore 2008 or misjudging how long your tyre stint can last, or how much fuel do I put in if it is or will rain. Pu rules are set for reliability, less dramatic and unpredictable dnfs, you can’t really push the engine for a better result on a iven Gp as it will impact future gp’s. Less real safety cars, more vsc albeit a good tool it makes races more predictable as well. tracks have big run offs so driver mistakes are less critical and cars have to nursed so drivers don’t make big mistakes anyway, people used to crash from driving too hard, not today.
Jere (@jerejj)
14th April 2019, 8:48
A relatively straightforward race for a predominantly two-stopper. The worst of the season thus far although not the worst ever.
ColdFly (@)
14th April 2019, 9:47
6 for me.
It might have been relatively boring for the top 5, but some interesting racing behind them.
ColdFly (@)
14th April 2019, 10:04
PS I loved the FLAP; smart thinking of RBR to give Gasly some motivational reward and steal the point from Ferrari.
I even though that Gasly would bin it, and protect Verstappen’s 4th place like that.
Nitzo (@webtel)
14th April 2019, 8:49
A rather average race.
Congratulations to Daniel Ricciardo for winning the F1.5 Chinese Grand Prix.
Tim
14th April 2019, 8:52
Wasn’t it Vettel?
Esploratore (@esploratore)
14th April 2019, 8:55
The gap is like half the gap there was in the mercedes domination era, think it’s a reasonable gap, the problem is for a reason or another not only you can’t stop mercedes from winning a race, but not even getting 1-2, back in 2017 and 2018 there were races with this gap, both for ferrari and mercedes, and no team was considered dominant then.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
14th April 2019, 10:07
@esploratore really? Gasly was the last car on the same lap as Ham.
Nitzo (@webtel)
14th April 2019, 16:19
@peartree
Yeah. I think it even happened last year.
@esploratore: I agree; Mercedes dominated the race. But it isnt fair to compare seasons already. We saw how capable Ferrari were in Bahrain. If i remember correctly, there was a radio conversation during quali in which Sebastian acknowledged that they were slower but knew the reason. Keith covered it in an article which also mentioned something about tyre pressures. Perhaps that compromised their set up. Lets wait on and reserve our judgement at least till the summer break.
Nitzo (@webtel)
14th April 2019, 16:13
@Tim: i chuckled at that one. But isnt it a little too early to be scathing ?
Dutchguy (@justarandomdutchguy)
14th April 2019, 8:51
Dreary
not much action after lap one, team orders, a dominant 1-2 for Mercedes, this race had it all; a complete anti-climax.
Good drive by Albon though
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
14th April 2019, 13:23
Some action on the warm-op lap. When was the last time that two cars spun off going to the grid on a dry track, and one driven by Wonderboy?
AliceD (@aliced)
14th April 2019, 8:52
2 -Pathetic
Another Mercedes domination thanks to Pirelli adjusting the type pressures for the benefit of Mercedes.
anon
14th April 2019, 9:05
@aliced, the thing is, in the past it was normally the case that Mercedes tended to do better when the tyre pressures were lowered, whilst normally Ferrari gained slightly when the pressures were increased.
If that historical form is anything to go by, then increasing the tyre pressures slightly might have been more likely to work in Ferrari’s favour instead of Mercedes – indeed, most of the pressure changes that Pirelli have made in recent years are more likely to have been detrimental to Mercedes instead of favourable.
Dougracing (@dougracing)
14th April 2019, 8:54
Really, really boring.
Troy
14th April 2019, 8:55
No action. The cars are too easy to drive. The tracks are not challenging. The grid isn’t full. There are no surprises.
Its garbage.
JR Love (@dermechaniker)
14th April 2019, 8:55
Should have just handed out points and not bothered to run the cars.
Hell of a way to celebrate 1000.
EC (@dutch-1)
15th April 2019, 17:44
I was saying the same to my son. As a race is like this one, just give the points after qualy so we don’t have to get out of bed this early. What a waiste of time to watch this.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
14th April 2019, 8:55
Dull. Only Ferrari antics kept me sort of awake. But nothing else. Nothing.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
14th April 2019, 8:55
When there all cruising around managing tyres for most the race it’s never going to be that good a race.
And Gasly was super fast all weekend & fully deserving of that extra gimmick point for fastest lap. Still really don’t like it.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
14th April 2019, 8:57
It’s 1 point, hardly matters really, but ofc, this shows clearly that the fastest lap goes to the slowest of the “best”.
StefMeister (@stefmeister)
14th April 2019, 9:07
@esploratore
Every point matters & championships have been lost by less in the past.
I just still don’t think it’s worthy of a point, Especially when we see something like we saw today. It could (And likely one year will) be a deciding factor in the championship & for me that will do nothing but devalue the championship.
Points should be awarded & championships decided based purely on where drivers finish. Pitting late for fresh/soft tyres to get a point to me is not deserving of a point & should not be a factor in the championship.
ColdFly (@)
14th April 2019, 9:51
I would even argue it’s 2 points.
1 for Gasly/RBR and one less for Vettel/Ferrari.
FA
14th April 2019, 10:30
Everytime when you go arithmetics, you go astray.
krxx
14th April 2019, 10:25
“(..) ofc, this shows clearly that the fastest lap goes to the slowest (..)”. – It doesn’t show that at all. Both BOT and LEC were dominant in the previous 2 races.
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
14th April 2019, 13:15
@stefmeister The drivers weren’t really managing the tires. They could only use maximum engine power for a few laps, that’s why they were so slow in the race. Vettel set a 1:34 immediately after his last stop, only to lap in the 1:36s until the end of the race. Gasly was pretty slow as usual, but it was nice for him to just beat Vettel’s fastest lap on softer tires and with a lighter car.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
14th April 2019, 8:56
Yes, I gave it 5, but reading some comments I might have been too lenient, boring, getting excited for a fight for 10th place, really?
Verstappen like always tried to give some action with his vettel attempt, leclerc resisted as best as he could from bottas with used tyres, that’s it I think.
Sham (@sham)
14th April 2019, 9:01
I feel like Ferrari killed the race when they let Vettel through. I can’t help feeling that LeClerc would have been racier at the end.
5.
joe jopling (@jop452)
14th April 2019, 9:02
7 for me…..although not the most thrilling race, there was plenty going on….Ferrari were poor considering how fast their car could be…although it looks as though they may have turned it down slightly for reliability…and there strategy (quite often their downfall) seems to be to do the opposite of everyone else …Leclerc is just realising he is not a joint number one driver in the team
I am impressed with the Honda engine in the Red Bull, and it is still improving, but driver of the day has to be Albon
bukester (@bukester)
14th April 2019, 9:02
Incredibly boring, even NASCAR was more interesting and that says it all.
PKMNF1 (@alfir3dz1)
14th April 2019, 9:05
Boring race, especially that Ferrari team order is just no excuse.
HK (@me4me)
14th April 2019, 9:07
1.
Went back to sleep with 10 laps to go. Very disappointing.
Michal (@michal2009b)
14th April 2019, 9:09
Terrible 1000th race, Mercedes walked away with it, Ferrari tainted it with unreasonable team order, lack of any real action.
Blaize Falconberger (@)
14th April 2019, 9:12
I thought it was great – I always enjoy China – 7 from me – Great seeing the Merc’s, and Ham especially, doing well – drives that haters nuts (you know who you are). Typical and all to predictable Ferrari team orders crap, another mediocre performance from Super Mario, Red Bull a solid third team, awesome drive from Albion… what’s not to like.
Jay
14th April 2019, 9:13
Get rid of the souless tilkedromes.
DAllein (@)
14th April 2019, 9:42
Wait, but how is then Liberty going to please shareholders?!
We have to think about them! Protect them!
They are very sensitive and need to be constantly fed with increased profits.
(of course it was a sarcasm! ;)
ColdFly (@)
14th April 2019, 10:00
LOL
(that’s sarcasm for you!)
F1 in Figures (@f1infigures)
14th April 2019, 13:18
The track is alright. The race just happened to be boring.
DAllein (@)
14th April 2019, 9:39
My score: 7.0
The astonishing: 3 races – 3 Mercedes 1-2s! Who could have predicted that?!?
The best: unfortunately nothing, maybe 1000th race? Round numbers are nice…
The good: despite all the negativity mentioned by Mercedes dislikers, this year is very close. Yes 3 1-2s in 3 races look a bit ominous, but they were not won by sheer domination, but by really hard work and a bit of bad luck for Leclerc.
The so-so: I never liked China, and this proved to be yet another quite dull race.
The bad:
– Kvyat continues to torpedo people! I wonder how many races before he is finally dropped for good?.. He might be kept as a strategic weapon in Monaco, but after that I don’t see him staying in F1.
– Is it me or did Ferrari play some very questionable strategy with Leclerc?
For what? Pleasing Vettel?
– The worst: FLAP. I hate this thing. The most stupid and artificial invention after FE’s FanBoost.
David BR (@david-br)
14th April 2019, 13:46
@dallein I think it’s important there’s a race in China, but I never think, oh great, China next race. Just too wide, too much tarmac and too plain dull to produce any real excitement. A track where there is no memorable corner or sequence of corners shouldn’t be on the calendar.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
14th April 2019, 14:53
@david-br while I agree that it is a very dull track the first corner sequence is interesting. Not worth staying on the calendar as is though.
David BR (@david-br)
14th April 2019, 15:10
@spoutnik It’s the best bit, true, I did think of that, but is it actually ‘memorable’ in the sense of really distinctive? It still seems anonymous and it’s not really an exciting sequence to drive (in a game, obviously!)
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
14th April 2019, 15:24
@david-br i like the idea of having multiple trajectories available. But it is really entertaining on the first laps only. After that it’s just a front-left tyre killer. It’s far from enough to be considered as a decent track indeed.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
14th April 2019, 9:56
Scored it a 4 – dull race but some interesting performances.
hobo (@hobo)
14th April 2019, 23:02
Same score, similar reason.
thegamer23
14th April 2019, 9:58
Afwful race, just not worth watching.
3/10
AMG44 (@amg44)
14th April 2019, 10:55
A dull race. After Max and Kub spinning on formation lap, i was expecting more spins and overtaking in the race. I guess drivers took it easy in the first stint as it was tricky with low grip track and wind. 5/10
paulipedia (@paulipedia)
14th April 2019, 11:10
1.
Ferrari ruined the only potential interesting thing today, oh and Kvyat
Depailler
14th April 2019, 11:37
Dull race.
Hamilton is no doubt one of F1s greatest drivers. However the dominance of Mercedes over the last few years detracts from his input and makes it hard to really evaluate him. It also makes a nonsense of any stats when he only has to beat one other driver.
The 1000th GP was not a great race, but nevertheless very representative of F1 in recent times.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
14th April 2019, 13:31
Whereas Schumacher had to battle against a host of rivals in equal or better cars and never, ever benefitted from team orders…
petebaldwin (@)
14th April 2019, 12:12
2/10. Thankfully, there’s an Indycar race later
Invisiblekid (@invisiblekid)
14th April 2019, 13:01
what, you think maybe seeing a 4th different driver win the 4th race is better?! /s
budchekov (@budchekov)
14th April 2019, 15:27
Well DOH! Absolutely, it’s called RACING.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
14th April 2019, 12:55
Boringly dull. Nothing of interest happened. Not all races need to be exciting and stunning but at least not so… nothing, as that one.
This Mercedes domination, that’s been going on for years now, is really making the races an absolute bore.
GnosticBrian (@gnosticbrian)
14th April 2019, 16:05
You don’t think that the Mercedes double stack pit stop rated a ‘well-done’?
KaIIe (@kaiie)
14th April 2019, 13:00
“What was the main thing you’ll remember about it?” Probably that it was the 1000th race, and nothing else.
a (@aaaa)
15th April 2019, 11:42
Double stack pit stop by the Mercs….
Glad I woke up for it.
Ronald (@mosquito)
14th April 2019, 15:06
could not keep my focus on this race. Did anything really happen apart from the dreadful teamorder from Ferrari?
Imre (@f1mre)
14th April 2019, 17:09
Poor, boring. Zero excitement for the podium places. I was thinking during the race: Is watching F1 just a bad habit for me? It is clear that before 2021 Mercedes and Hamilton are going to be world champions, Ferrari or it’s drivers will screw any slight chance they are going to get (as they did many times), others have no chance. So, what’s the point?
Again, Formula E was much much much much more exciting.
yare
14th April 2019, 18:48
Copy some dirty trick from wsbk & motogp,
ex. Drop max rev 1% cost Bautista’s leading down to 50%+.
Dave
14th April 2019, 20:25
Enough with these team orders, Ferrari.
Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
14th April 2019, 20:36
I don’t know why I hated that so much. The team orders didn’t get my back up, the Vettel Verstappen fight was good, Albon was excellent, I’m not a big McLaren fan and I’m used to Williams now. It’s just that prior to the season I was so excited with all the changes. Now though, I’ve realized that name changes aren’t all that exciting, Ferrari and Vettel are just the same, Gasly is painful, and the order is basically the same as last year save for McLaren being slightly better. This wasn’t by any means bad on paper, but it all felt samey. The TV directing didn’t help, but when the midfield is nothingy anyway it doesn’t really matter. It’s the first time in ages that I wanted to turn it off before the end. It’s probably just because the hype is gone a bit. Anyway, thank Christ I wasn’t alive in 2002, otherwise I’d wouldn’t know who Charles Leclerc even was!
Thomas Bennett (@felipemassadobrasil)
14th April 2019, 20:37
3 BTW
Bobby (@f1bobby)
14th April 2019, 21:13
Couple of moments were exciting, not much to write home about though. 5/10.
Trido (@)
15th April 2019, 1:25
I was amazed at how weak DRS was. Poor race with the only intrigue being LEC and GAS going for fastest lap.
Bryan (@ruz234014)
15th April 2019, 1:41
Voted 3. Boring. Some interesting strategy calls and Albon drove brilliantly. The Mercedes dominance is really tedious now. For a while I respected what they have accomplished. Now it’s just tedious.
Call me cynical, but Mercedes talk of Ferrari being faster the past couple of years really smells like them just trying to create artificial uncertainty of the outcome.
CHIKANO (@chikano)
15th April 2019, 7:09
I am reading all these negative comments and I have to say it is nothing but sour grapes.
I am tired of everyone complaining about Merc. There has been two major rule chnages since 2014 and Merc came out on top.
I think it’s time for everyone to step up instead of waiting for Merc to fail just so there can be competition.
Estesark (@estesark)
15th April 2019, 12:21
I don’t care about Mercedes winning. If I had to choose, I’d rather they win than Ferrari and Red Bull. It was still a dull-as-ditchwater race. My attention span might not be what it once was, but most races at least manage to hold my interest for 20 laps or so. With this race, I found very little to get excited about after the first lap, and it wasn’t even a great first lap.
EC (@dutch-1)
15th April 2019, 17:32
Wondered why I was up this early on a Sunday morning.
What a boring race after not even a full lap. After that it was clear how much difference there was between the top 3 teams and only a Ferrari strategy blunder could change position 4 and 5. And that was all……..
PJA (@pja)
26th April 2019, 22:27
Although I had typed up my comments the day after the race I did not post them at the time, but I thought I may as well still post them.
When I look back at the race I can’t think of much that was good, yet at the time watching the highlights I thought it was actually okay and do not remember being bored, so probably a rating of 6.25
After bad starts in the opening two races and dropping places Hamilton finally made a good start from second on the grid taking the lead and from then on he never looked troubled and just maintained a comfortable gap to Bottas in second.
Three races in and not only has the pole sitter not gone on to win the race for various reasons but they have not led into the first corner either.
The Ferrari team orders seemed to be done half-heartedly and then they messed up Leclerc’s strategy by leaving him out to long when it was obvious he was losing too much time to be able to make it up later.
I don’t think it will be a race that will live long in the memory, the main thing of note was that it was the 1,000th race.
For all the hype beforehand of this being the 1,000th F1 race there didn’t seem to be that much actually done to mark the occasion, or maybe Channel 4 just didn’t include it in the highlights.