14
votes
Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix 2024 - Results
Safety cars made that more interesting than it might've been. I was hoping for some rain!
Feel bad for RB (VCARB). Yuki had a poor weekend of course, but Daniel was doing pretty good today, until Stroll rear-ended him before the restart of the first SC. Both DNF'd.
Sainz and Checo did alright, but I was expecting more from them both.
Norris did great (and was DOTD), but my personal DOTD was Alonso, especially after his crazy save.
Race Results -- SPOILER
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Laps | Time/Retired | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 56 | 1:40:52.554 | 25 |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 56 | +13.773s | 18 |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 56 | +19.160s | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 56 | +23.623s | 12 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 56 | +33.983s | 10 |
| 6 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 56 | +38.724s | 8 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 56 | +43.414s | 7 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 56 | +56.198s | 4 |
| 9 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 56 | +57.986s | 2 |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 56 | +60.476s | 1 |
| 11 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 56 | +62.812s | 0 |
| 12 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 56 | +65.506s | 0 |
| 13 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | 56 | +69.223s | 0 |
| 14 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 56 | +71.689s | 0 |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 56 | +82.786s | 0 |
| 16 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 56 | +87.533s | 0 |
| 17 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | Williams Mercedes | 56 | +95.110s | 0 |
| NC | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | 33 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 26 | DNF | 0 |
| NC | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 19 | DNF | 0 |
Fastest Lap: Fernando Alonso
Source: F1.com
what a race! It had everything. I love having Nico in the box, too.
I think I'd find Rosberg a bit of a nightmare to work with, but I also love the chaotic, contradictory energy in the box. His willingness to outright reject statements made by the others is great. At one point, Croft said something about (Alonso's?) race coming good, or the strategy going well, and Rosberg just chimed in with "It's going terribly!" (I'm paraphrasing), and they compromised more or less on the fact that Alonso was making the best of a bad job. Really good commentary. I don't enjoy fictional hype, particularly when Croft (generally it's Croft) just invents possible excitement (will XXX pass YYY at pit exit – of course not, there's easily five seconds between them, but he brings it up) for the sake of enlivening a dull moment. Rosberg is much more willing to criticise a team and praise it when something truly is good. That said, I'm sure he has his own biases, I'm not saying he's truly neutral.
I'll I only joined in about 50 minutes in to this race, just couldn't summon the enthusiasm for another predictable podium. Norris was an agreeable surprise, nevertheless.
Nepo-baby Stroll continues to be Stroll, poor guy should just quit already. I hope he's not being pressured by his father, but I can't imagine it's fun to be shown up by Alonso's quality each time they're on track.
i am eager to see Stroll out and Theo in, if that’s their direction.
I agree with you completely wrt Nico. it’s just refreshing. F1TV has some of the blandest commentary for absolutely no reason. Buxton and Alex Brundle just don’t work. So with them being weak and me not speaking spanish, Nico on the mic is a godsend.
I loved this race. I’m watching with f1tv and multiviewer along with my little irc group and the r/formula1 discord. It’s nice to share the experience and makes even lacking races enjoyable.
I was also watching Hammy’s onboard for the entire race (main feed, Hamilton, Sainz, AI transcriptions of the team radios, live timing) — it was fun to see him down then up etc.
My one chat went nuts when Max hit some debris. The lust for a puncture was both cruel and thrilling… even though nothing came of it. :)
As a fellow multiviewer willing to tinker with a quieter chat than a discord full of all r/formula1... hi?
So, I had an experience I don't have every race.
After Alonso pitted in the last third of the race to ditch his softs for the mediums, I appreciated watching him take back a few places. But I was looking from his spot up the intervals and it was clear nothing else was going to happen, throughout the order.
At that moment there were just two cars within 1.5-2 seconds of each other.
That was combined with a few of the final laps where there were some shots from the end of the back straight, and you could see the gap between Max, Lando, and Perez. And then just a gulf behind them.
I'm not looking for some magic. And I get how Formula 1 is. But yeah. I mean. End of the day I'm watching a massive global emissions entertainment event in so many ways. I started watching F1 in 2010. My older brother was a fan in the 90s and the Schumi years. I was a Vettel fan and got shat on for supporting him during his four wins, only to see what true dominance meant in the Mercedes years. And now I'm watching the Red Bull years of true true dominance.
I think I'm mostly irked by tight regulations and an inability of the teams to shake up a calcified pecking order during each window of stable regulations.
It feels artificial. It's always been artificial. Why do I still care week in, week out? Formula 1 is just something I do. But I pine for more competition and I pine for more engineering intrigue.
When was the last time someone rocked up with ground effect and we had some genuine conflict with everyone moaning? Ferrari got in some private trouble for burning engine oil or something when it was VET/RAI or VET/LEC. I can't think of any other spicy tries since.
I enjoyed the race. But I could have enjoyed it a lot more if it was better.
if you haven’t already, it’s a great time to get into MotoGP. This is my first full year and there isn’t a single dominating force like we’re seeing with Max. There’s also a young rookie who is really quick and not shy. he’s fun to watch.
The clip of that rookie and an interviewer talking about what time the flight home was, to which the rider answered that he's going home in his van, no money for a flight, right after a good result, was very funny. He really emanates strong petrolhead energy. I imagine that he drove all of his neighbours up the wall by revving and tinkering and revving and fixing bike (and other) motors in his garage every evening and weekend, but finally he's come good.
I'm not an expert, but I've been watching F1 for a few decades and there has been a long line of regulations that don't make sense to me.
For example, in the late 90's they added grooves to the tires to reduce grip because the cars were getting too fast. But this was complicated because you have to make sure that the teams don't run the tires bald which would result in more grip. Seems like they could have just mandated narrower tires.
In the last decade or so they have been trying things to reduce the turbulence behind the cars so passing is better. But you know what would make the turbulence less of a problem? Reduce the downforce available to the cars. Maybe even take the wings off the cars. You might object that this is taking away a lot of the technology that comes out of F1. But the advertised purpose of the technical gains from racing is to benefit regular cars, which generally don't use wings or spoilers.
Supposedly most of the grip now comes from ground effect. I'm not sure if that is affected much by turbulence, but if it is, just reduce the problem by making the teams raise the cars a bit.
The cars are also hybrid which makes them too big an heavy. It's nice to get development in hybrid tech, but if they can't use full electric cars yet in this series they should transition to ever smaller gasoline engines.
I agree with your points, being only a 14 year viewer.
I'd like to underscore what you've said about ground effect and simplifying the wings: based on my time watching through reg changes, we'll see the relatively simple front wings of the current regulations get more and more complex each year. Regs will be relaxed slightly, complexity will increase with the params of the regs, and we'll see the massively complex wings again. My opinion, of course.
Now. Complex aero? Fine! In fact, I love to see the war. I loved seeing the double tusks, single tusks, whatever the Caterham did, etc. Some worked, some failed. I understand and respect the arguments around needing to control cost for competition as well. But yeah. Meh.
Regarding engines, weight, efficiency, and emissions. I deeply miss the V8 and V10 noise. I get that was wasted efficiency. But what hooked me on Formula 1 was the volume and percussion at the track. It wasn't until I was there in person that the sport hooked me.
I remember hearing the cheers for Danny Ric in Australia in the first year of the turbo hybrid era and just being crestfallen. Show me 2% better conversion of fuel to power than a traditional engine. And show me that progression year over year. I don't need to lose the noise. 😰
I get the inherent contradictions and dissonance in some of my perspectives. But it's how I feel. Thanks for sharing your breath of perspective on the sport. I appreciate it.
I agree with pretty much everything you've said, but it should be noted that they're finally starting to remove the parts of the hybrid system that has no trickle down potential to the real world in the 2026 regulations, namely the MGU-H part of the system. This is a good move.
What is generally considered a terrible mistake by the experts as well as the spectators is the move to 1.6L V6 engines. As much as we all loved the V10 and V8 era, it should have moved to an inline 3 or 4 cylinder ~1L engine - this is the future of IC engines lie and where the majority of research money should be spent, improving efficiency per litre of these small engines.
When Mercedes rocked up at one of the pre-season practices and were filmed pulling and pushing their steering wheels, that got a lot of people riled up. That was a genuinely smart loophole that they found in the rules and by priming the authorities first, they very much pulled up the ladder behind them for that year they had it.
DAST, right? Yeah, you're right. That was a fun one!