Rate the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix

[Darkbird]

1 - Best Driver: Rosberg
2 - Best Team: Williams & Sauber
3 - Best Overtake: Webber on Raikkonen
4 - Best Moment: Webber almost flipping the car again
5 - Worst Driver: None
6 - Worst Team: Ferrari (not that they're a bad team, just bad so far this yr)
7 - Best Rookie: None
8 - Biggest Surprise: Raikkonen's tyres falling away so fast

9 - General Comment: This would have to be the hardest race Ive ever rated. Because the racing was close, it really showed everyone fighting hard for positions

[JoostLamers]

1 - Best Driver - Nico Rosberg
2 - Best Team - McLaren
3 - Best Overtake - Lots of overtakes involved 3 drivers, loved them.
4 - Best Moment - Last 15 laps
5 - Worst Driver - none really
6 - Worst Team - Force India, expected more of them after FP1 and FP2
7 - Best Rookie - Vergne
8 - Biggest Surprise - Rosberg's win

9 - General Comment(s) - Best GP of 2012 so far, but it will be high at the end of the year

[tderias]

1 - Best Driver: Rosberg
2 - Best Team: McLaren
3 - Best Overtake: Can't recall/too sleepy
4 - Best Moment: Watching a train of cars at the end, and realizing some of them aren't going to pit again.
5 - Worst Driver: -
6 - Worst Team: Force India/Ferrari
7 - Best Rookie: -
8 - Biggest Surprise: Vettel in P5, especially after poor start.

9 - General Comment: Great race to watch. Not too many races have cars finishing so close to each other. Rosberg finally got what he deserved, now he should be thinking about another race win, and then about the WDC.

@alex1369: F1 teams and drivers are not stupid. If top speed was everything, then Sergio Perez would win the race! The higher top speed an F1 car has, the slower it is through corners, or the car balance will be very poor and will require a lot of effort and corrections from the driver to keep it pointing in the right direction. Also, high gear ratios can allow for more speed if the aerodynamics allow it, but they certainly decrease acceleration, which means the car will be very slow as it leaves the corners. The opposite can be said for a car set-up for low top speed (high downforce). It will be fast through corners, very stable and well balanced, plus the short gear ratios will allow for fast acceleration, but will limit top speed in a long straight.

Monza and Monaco are tracks where those two extremes can be chosen, but generally, teams and drivers always want to reach a good balance between top speed and cornering. It all depends on the nature of the car as well. For example Mercedes can sacrifice more aerodynamic top speed for more downforce (better handling), because they know that their W-Duct can give them that added speed which compensates for that sacrifice.

[snake_f1]

1 - Best Driver: Nico Rosberg
2 - Best Team: Williams
3 - Best Overtake: Webber on Raikkonen
4 - Best Moment: Webber almost flipping the car again + last 15 laps of the race
5 - Worst Driver: None
6 - Worst Team: Ferrari with bad strategies
7 - Best Rookie: Grosjan
8 - Biggest Surprise: Raikkonen from 2nd to 14th in one lap

9 - General Comment: that was a superb race. cars' performances were so close. no one had the upper hand

[The Immortal Dragon]

1 - Best Driver: Nico Rosberg
2 - Best Team: Mercedes. Let's face it, without that faulty pit-stop, Schumi could brought home a 1-2 for them. It would have been awesome!
3 - Best Overtake: Webber on Raikkonen
4 - Best Moment: Most of the last 20 laps
5 - Worst Driver: Massa?
6 - Worst Team: Ferrari
7 - Best Rookie: None
8 - Biggest Surprise: Raikkonen dropping to 14th within two laps

9 - General Comment: Great race, so so close!

[mileso]

1 - Best Driver Jensen Button, Rosberg won the race but Button was the best driver.
2 - Best Team McLaren had the best team of drivers
3 - Best Overtake All of Button's
4 - Best Moment When Webber DIDN'T go flying into the stands
5 - Worst Driver Nobody stuck out as bad
6 - Worst Team The worst was Mercedes and second worst was McLaren (10 seconds to change a tire?)
7 - Best Rookie Grosjean (He completed a race and did some acceptable passes!))
8 - Biggest Surprise Mercedes winning. A nice surprise!

9 - General Comment(s) While I agree that Massa is not the equal of Alonso, Massa does not have a competitive car. Neither of the Ferraris are very competitive this year. It was a great race to watch and I can now definitively state that BBC are the class of F1 broadcasting. Sky truly suck. The Force Indias were a disappointment. I notice no one is mentioning the big difference between last year and this year. Obviously Red Bull had the blown diffuser working better than anyone and that was the difference for the whole season. In this race the DRS zone was too short and there should have been 2 not 1. Also no one has mentioned Schumacher's much slower pace at the beginning of the race. This allowed Rossberg to open a 4 to 5 second gap and sail without contention through to the end. We also didn't get to see whether Mercedes' "double diffuser" is worth anything but hot air. I'm looking forward to the European leg.

[The Immortal Dragon]

1 - Best Driver Jensen Button, Rosberg won the race but Button was the best driver.
2 - Best Team McLaren had the best team of drivers
3 - Best Overtake All of Button's

Do I sense a slight bias towards Jenson?

6 - Worst Team The worst was Mercedes and second worst was McLaren (10 seconds to change a tire?)

I think you have got to explain this one.
Mercedes started 1st and 2nd on the grid and Rosberg took their first victory since 1955 and they have been the worst team of the weekend?
I get that they lost a potential 1-2 with the problem in Schumi's pit-stop, but they can't possibly be the worst team of the event.
And McLaren? Didn't you just claim they were the best team, too?

I am very baffled.

9 - General Comment(s) While I agree that Massa is not the equal of Alonso, Massa does not have a competitive car.

Alonso doesn't have a competitive car, either.
And I would highlight that Massa is the only driver - apart from the slowest 3 teams' - to not have scored a single point. That's just embarassing.

[mileso]

@ Immortal:
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anyone with my post.
I thought I was specific in my comments about the teams. I commented on the best team of drivers and when I alluded to the poor performance in pit lane I was referring to the pit crews.
Yes, I agree that Rossberg and Mercedes deserved congrats on their win. Great performance on Rossberg's part, but I didn't see any great driving from him, did you?
My bias is probably more towards Webber than Button, but Button was the best driver out there. Great passes, persevering despite the bad show by his pit crew. Hamilton did well to overcome his penalty as well.
As to Massa and Alonso, it appears to me that there are lots of critics of Massa but we know Ferrari has team orders laid out and to say that the 2 Ferraris are identical is nonsense. Massa fought off a string of contenders until his tires gave out.
I also think there is way too much sympathy for Schumacher this year. I read the comments about him probably coming second but for the foul up with his tire. This is hogwash to my point of view. He's too old.
I think the upshot of this rating questionnaire is to break down what we mean by teams.
In any event, new race on Sunday and thankfully BBC is broadcasting it.

[Arrows_F1]

1 - Best Driver: Nico Rosberg
2 - Best Team: McLaren
3 - Best Overtake: Webber on Vettel
4 - Best Moment: Webber overtakes Vettel
5 - Worst Driver: Massa
6 - Worst Team: Mercedes for giving Schumacher another DNF
7 - Best Rookie: Grosjean
8 - Biggest Surprise: Räikkönen drops to 14th at the end of the race

9 - General Comment: Very nice race, I enjoyed it so much! Definitely the best in '12 so far

[The Immortal Dragon]

@ Immortal:
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to confuse anyone with my post.
I thought I was specific in my comments about the teams. I commented on the best team of drivers and when I alluded to the poor performance in pit lane I was referring to the pit crews.
Yes, I agree that Rossberg and Mercedes deserved congrats on their win. Great performance on Rossberg's part, but I didn't see any great driving from him, did you?
My bias is probably more towards Webber than Button, but Button was the best driver out there. Great passes, persevering despite the bad show by his pit crew. Hamilton did well to overcome his penalty as well.
As to Massa and Alonso, it appears to me that there are lots of critics of Massa but we know Ferrari has team orders laid out and to say that the 2 Ferraris are identical is nonsense. Massa fought off a string of contenders until his tires gave out.
I also think there is way too much sympathy for Schumacher this year. I read the comments about him probably coming second but for the foul up with his tire. This is hogwash to my point of view. He's too old.
I think the upshot of this rating questionnaire is to break down what we mean by teams.
In any event, new race on Sunday and thankfully BBC is broadcasting it.

Right, I get it now. I was just considering the teams to be drivers and pit crews, all together.
I think Rosberg drove a great race, actually. But it was a different race to the one that Button and Hamilton had to make. They had to pass drivers through the field, which is always very exciting, while Rosberg had to look after his tyres carefully.
I remind you that for the first 2 races Mercedes struggled a lot with their tyres and this time not only they didn't struggle and didn't fall through the pack, they managed to make a stop less than the McLarens! That's incredible tyre management for you! And as Rosberg said in an interview, he had to look after his tyres so much that not one of his laps was flat out.
As I said, it's a completely different kind of race compared to the two McLaren boys, and definitely less entertaining, but it definitely showed he has talent. He deserved his win 100% and that also means he drove a great race.

For the team orders at Ferrari... well, that's just pure speculation, isn't it?
You (and I) don't know whether the 2 Ferrari cars aren't identical. But I give you that if Ferrari bring only one unit of an update, it would go onto Alonso's car.
But it's in Ferrari's interest to give Massa the best cars they can, too. The Constructor Championship is source of a lot of money, so Ferrari (like any other team) want to do as good as they can.
But just look at the points..
Alonso - 37
Massa - 0
There is no way that's just down to team orders. No way. That's talent. Massa clearly isn't good enough for Ferrari, as he hasn't been for about 3 years.


Regarding Michael Schumacher being too old for the sport, do you forget that he outqualified Rosberg twice out of 3 races? And that he only scored one point for no fault of his own? (Mechanical problem, Grosjean hitting him from the back, ill-fitted tyre)
He sure isn't too old if he started all 3 race within the top 4.
But it's pointless I prove to you he isn't too old. He will prove that himself when he will win a race.

[zoefrances]

Best driver:- nico rosberg, was awesome to see his first gp win.
best team:- mclaren
best overtake:- webber on vettel
best moment :- kimi in 2nd place for few laps
worst driver :- kartakyan ( spelt it wrong)
worst team :- hrt
best rookie :- grosjean
biggest surprise :- nico winning his 1st race

[naiego]

1 - Best Driver

Rosberg, I don't believe he has the class that other drivers have (for instance the 6 world champions competing thiis year) but a win is a win especially the first for him, besides he drove well out there in the front therefore he deserves it.

2 - Best Team

Mercedes, they blew it in Schumacher's pit stop but I give them credit for solving their tyre issue...at least for this certain race.

3 - Best Overtake

None in particular

4 - Best Moment

The last 12 laps

5 - Worst Driver

None did something very foolish or underachieved that much to get in this category

6 - Worst Team

Torro Rosso

7 - Best Rookie

Jean Eric Vergne

8 - Biggest Surprise

The limited advantage the use of DRS gave the cars in the main straight, especially in ths beginning of the race.

9 - General Comment(s)

Dull race in the beginning, ecxiting towards the end, as the last impression counts it was nice to watch.