Friday Practice Notes

Red Bull:

While tensions are high in the pits, the car is performing well on track. They have maintained their usual smoothness, and might go 1, 2 in qualifying. They also seem to be able to use DRS for a lot longer and hence go extremely faster in the corner. Obviously though, Vettel is faster, which will make Webber even angrier so, I'm not sure what might happen.


Lotus:

The car looks nice and grounded. Able to utilize all of the track (which could induce a spin), and follow the line well. However, as a wise man once said, it everything is under control, you're just not going fast enough. They also seems to have a very wobbly car, going up and down under braking and going over kerbs. They will be fast in qualifying, but maybe not in the race.

Ferrari:

The car looks quick. My resident expert for this site even considered that they might score a 1-2 in qualifying. It looks grounded and stable like the Lotus, but on edge and quick like the Red Bull. Expect some quality racing from these guys during the weekend.


Mercedes:

They seem to have a lot of pace. Rosberg has been challenging for 1st in both free practice sessions. The car's main advantage seems to be late breaking, getting extremely close to where it has to turn before braking. Also, it only loses .9 seconds when switching from option to prime, while Red Bull loses about 1.6 seconds. The car seems to be a bit uneven though, in that the grip is not constant, this was evident for Hamilton, who took many different lines in the first corner complex. The late braking will probably help him move up at the beginning of the race. Since he's a great starter, it could move him up a few places. All eyes will be on them, because Rosberg got his first win here, and has also led 46% of the laps in the last 3 years. Not to mention Hamilton who is the most successful driver in China ever. Plus, they are about 7 KPH faster than the Red Bulls in the speed trap. It appears as if the top two teams right now are Red Bull and Mercedes.


Force India:

The car looks like it has improved enough to even get a podium. The only thing I see wrong is a bit of understeer in the faster corners. It still looks like a mid-field car, but a fast one.


Sauber:

The car looks pretty bad, on cold tires especially. Gutierrez could barely drive it on his out lap. Then there's Hulkenburg has been able to control it, but not make it fast. They have a lot of work to do. Their main issue seems to be that the car is 'loose'. Otherwise known as having oversteer. This can be fixed for FP3, but it will be difficult to fix a main issue in just one session.

Mclaren: Not great. The car's brakes are performing poorly, as Perez proved when he went off when trying to go into the pits. To sum it up, the car looks like the F2012 did. Understeer and not great individual lap speed.

Toro Rosso:

The car looks good, and they set some fast times, going to 4th and 6th for a time in FP2. The only issue it seems is going over kerbs. It looks like it might slide when it goes over kerbs. Again, other than that they look good. The only other thing that might become an issue is that they haven't done many long runs, so tires might be an issue for them.

Williams:

It seems as if their woes are continuing. Maldonado was having issues topping Bianchi, and Bottas didn't put in that many laps in FP2. The main point of the Williams is that it looks like the drivers are forcing it through the corners. It looks stiff and practically undrivable (thank you Maldonado for that word).

Marussia:

It looks about the same as Malaysia to me, but they seem to have gained on Williams. It might even look like Williams first driver, then Marussia's first driver, then W's 2nd driver, and finally Marussia's 2nd driver/Caterham's first. (Probably: Maldonado, Bianchi, Bottas, Chilton/Pic.

Caterham:

They are not doing well. Minus Chilton, they can offically be called the cars at the very back of the grid. While they might beat Chilton, Bianchi is well out of reach for them so far. I think they do have a chance to improve though, and it is possible that they could overtake Marussia later in the season.