April 14, 2018
F1 Quals: China 2018
A gray, unpleasant-looking day greeted the teams and drivers as they worked on their vehicles with differing degrees of urgency. Some, like Ferrari, were desultorily polishing the carbon-fiber bodywork to a mirror finish, knowing in their heart of hearts that a shiny car goes through the air better. Some, like Williams, just stared at their cars with ill-disguised hatred. And then you had the left side of the Red Bull garage, filled with a frantic but well controlled amount of energy bordering on panic.
This because Smiley Ricciardo had a pretty comprehensive-looking engine kablammo with a half-hour remaining in P3, requiring an engine change. On the positive side, they had a new Renault engine in their traveling kit. On the negative, however, Renault never did finish putting it together before delivering it to the team... at least according to Christian Horner, Red Bull team boss. So instead of just bolting it in place and away they go (ahem), they had to build the engine (including scavenging parts from the recently-deceased power unit) then attach the rest of the car to it. There was no real chance they'd get it done in time for Ricciardo to qualify, but they tried anyway. And got him out with two minutes left in Q1. Where did he qualify? How about the rest of the field? Here's the provisional grid for the 2018 Grand Prix of China:
| Pos |
Driver | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:32.171 | 1:32.385 | 1:31.095 | |
| 2 | 1:32.474 | 1:32.286 | 1:31.182 | |
| 3 | 1:32.921 | 1:32.063 | 1:31.625 | |
| 4 | 1:33.283 | 1:31.914 | 1:31.675 | |
| 5 | 1:32.932 | 1:32.809 | 1:31.796 | |
| 6 | 1:33.877 | 1:32.688 | 1:31.948 | |
| 7 | 1:33.545 | 1:32.494 | 1:32.532 | |
| 8 | 1:33.464 | 1:32.931 | 1:32.758 | |
| 9 | 1:33.315 | 1:32.970 | 1:32.819 | |
| 10 | 1:33.238 | 1:32.524 | 1:32.855 | |
| 11 | 1:33.359 | 1:32.986 | ||
| 12 | 1:33.585 | 1:33.057 | ||
| 13 | 1:33.428 | 1:33.232 | ||
| 14 | 1:33.824 | 1:33.505 | ||
| 15 | 1:34.013 | 1:33.795 | ||
| 16 | 1:34.062 | |||
| 17 | 1:34.101 | |||
| 18 | 1:34.285 | |||
| 19 | 1:34.454 | |||
| 20 | 1:34.914 |
Smiley made it to Q3, ending up in sixth. Pretty sure those mechanics earned their pay this week. The rest of qualifying, however, wasn't all that much of a much. The Ferraris simply slapped down the Mercs, and even when Bottas topped Q2, you just knew the red team had it under control. And so it was.
There is talk that the Mercs are set up for warmer weather, expected at race-time. It was 53 degrees and windy during quals, and the track wasn't much warmer... hard to bring tires up to temps like that! If Ferrari set their cars up to heat the tires quickly, they'd get the advantage during quals, but would possibly overheat their tires if the track gets warmer.
We shall see... race is late tonight/early tomorrow!
PS - so much for Toro Rosso, huh?
Posted by: Wonderduck at
04:06 PM
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