Already in the first round, a small preliminary decision was made at the China Grand Prix. Afterwards it was all about finding the best tire whisperers – to the dismay of Max Verstappen, whose RB21 claimed the tires too much and the pace was missing. There was a stick for Ferrari. And not just because of the double disqualification.
In the sport.de-Berbrief you learn why Max Verstappen was never a candidate for victory at the Formula 1 race in China, Ferrari slipped into a crisis from one day to the other and ultimately drove Oscar Piatri to victory without resistance:
Oscar Piatri experienced a race Sunday in Shanghai to enjoy. The Australian implemented his pole position into a controlled victory that never seemed in danger. In the end, however, Team colleague Lando Norris was exciting again.
About ten laps before the end, Norris began to complain about a longer brake pedal. The reason was suspected in the integrated brake system of the rear axle, in which the hydraulic brake works with the motor brake and the energy return system (MGUK).
Since the problem was getting worse, it began to worry about the McLaren box. The attack on his leading teammate was planned by Norris was canceled, from now on it was only necessary to bring the car to the finish line and ideally remain before the catching up Russell. With a remaining advantage of 1.3 seconds compared to Russell, Norris crossed the finish line in second place.
Russell cannot take his only chance
Russell (starting place in two) tried to take his probably only chance of attacking Piatri at the start, but was unhappily trapped and lost a position against Norris. In the no man’s land behind the superior McLarens and clearly in front of the other pursuers, as in Australia, he drove to the podium with third place.
Only during the pit stops could Russell shove in front of Norris again thanks to an undercut. After three rounds, however, Norris restored the original order and settled from the Mercedes pilot.
At the top, a relatively unspectacular race developed. Actually, before the race, a clear two-stop race (medium/hard/hard) was assumed. However, since the hard Pirelli tire turned out to be much more constant, the strategists switched to a one-stop strategy, so they did not stop. In return, however, this meant that the drivers had to intensify their tire management.
Verstappens Red Bull only works on the hard tire
Verstappen (fourth place) already lost two positions to the two Ferraris in the first round. In the first stint with medium, the distance even increased. Only when Red Bull switched to the hard tire did Verstappen began to go along the Ferraris Pace.
From the middle of his second stint, however, the world champion turned up and first attacked Hamilton, who only avoided the inevitable overtaking maneuver by switching to a two-stop strategy. Even at Leclerc, Verstappen came up four laps before the end of the race and also over.
The pace shown from round 33 was identical to that of the victorious McLarens. However, it seems that Red Bull still has to find the ideal mix of attack and tire management.
Hamilton a shadow of himself
At Ferrari you could not build on the performance from the sprint race. On the route one was clearly only the fourth best team behind McLaren, Mercedes and Red Bull. Hamilton was a shadow of himself, his change to two-stop was a very logical strategy under the circumstances, but did not change the result.
This time Leclerc was the faster of the two red. Although he pulled out damage to the frontwing (unfortunate touch with teammate Hamilton) at the start, he was initially able to follow Hamilton without any problems. This was also recognized by the Ferrari strategists and asked Hamilton in round 20 to leave his teammate past. Once in front of him, Leclerc quickly settled and briefly opened Russell on Russell, but without being able to put him under seriously.
Shake in seconds of the individual cars on Piatri
That is why both Ferraris were disqualified
After the end of the race, however, it was even more bitter for Ferrari. Initially, the Leclerc car was determined as too easy during the technical follow -up control. By switching to just one stop, the tire wear was probably higher than the Ferrari engineers expected (a mistake that Alpine also made at Gasly). The disqualification of Leclerc was the inevitable episode.
At Hamilton, an increased wear and tear of the floor slab was found after the race. In a new condition 10 millimeters thick, it must still have a thickness of at least 9 millimeters after the race. At Hamilton, however, only 8.5 to 8.6 millimeters were measured, which, as with Leclerc, resulted in a disqualification. The disaster was completely with the Italians.
To person:
Christian Danner made the leap into Formula 1 in 1985 with winning the Formula 3000 European Championship. Until 1986 he ran four World Cup points in the premier class for several small teams and won four World Cup. Then he drove in the US Indycar series and became the first German racing driver to score points in Formula 1 and Indycar. In the DTM, Danner won five races between 1988 and 1996, in 1997 he retired from motorsport. From 1998 to 2022, Bayer commented on Formula 1 at RTL alongside Heiko Wäßer. Danner works as a TV expert and driving safety trainer. Follows Christian Danner on Instagram.
Steffen Kosuch, a former Moto-cross driver, has been part of the Formula 1 team at RTL since the early 2000s. As a former racing engineer and advisor to the FIA, he takes care of racing strategy, performance analyzes, regulations and advertising planning at RTL.