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[Hansy]

Well, this wasn't the best of races, but I thoroughly enjoyed Jaime getting a bunch of points, Renault screwing up their strategy and of course, watching Massa make a fool of himself

To answer your question FF, Webber needs Bridgestones, Massa needs Jesus and Hamilton needs an iPhone app that tells him where Massa is on track and to stay well away from the wee man. Out of them Hamilton is the only one who will bounce back stronger next year.

About the circuit, I feel it is good and will deliver good racing in the future (I think it's like a mix of Sepang and Suzuka, both nice tracks), the key factor in my opinion was the conservative tyre choice. Pirelli didn't know the track conditions and played it safe, I think if they had brought the super-softs along with soft/medium compound, things would've been more interesting it wasn't like there wasn't overtaking (Jaime passed a bunch of cars on his way to 8th place), most cars were just running by their own so couldn't overtake/being overtaken, and that can only be solved if there are pitstops to mix the field up. Also with the Lap 1 incidents, the midfield battle was reduced to 3/4 cars because the others were either out of the race, or in the back overtaking HRTs and the like.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Opinion is one thing. Records are quite another.

There were 25 total 'contested' overtakes at India (ignoring positions yielded and mechanical failures). Sixteen of them were overtakes of a Virgin, HRT or Lotus car. The top four teams accounted for just three of the 25.

Lack. Lustre.


And this has been the theme for the entire season. Overtaking among the top tier teams is so rare as to be newsworthy. It mostly happens only when mid-level teams overtake the low-hanging fruit, usually involves DRS and often is given back at the very next DRS activation zone.

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Autosprint Italia are being a bit miserly with their accounting of the overtakes, but, otherwise ....

GP India: e lo spettacolo?

Sono stati soltanto 22 i sorpassi sul nuovo circuito di Noida, che ha però superato l'esame. Le cause: asfalto poco gommato e traiettorie obbligate

[LewEngBridewell]

Chinese GP? Turkish GP? Malaysian GP? Singapore GP?

All of those Grands Prix were FAR from dull this season. China was one of the best infact!

Bloody hell, Tilke-bashing is simply unsupported drivel. Just because we've witnessed a relatively dull race (amongst the FRONT teams) in India, doesn't mean this will get repeated again and again.

Even Spa can throw up a dull race the odd time, but everyone still creams themselves over that one don't they? Infact Shanghai was a better race than Spa this time round. Maybe India will have a thriller next season. Everyone will rate it as Tilke's best, just you watch....

[f1ea]

Couldnt watch it. Silly schedule for me...

But... another Vettel win??!!

[acosmichippo]

Finally watched the race earlier today. Quite boring, despite being a cool track and good buzz from the crowd.

If we can please move past the "Tilke sucks" argument for a moment... Why are they given so many F1 track projects? Does no one else aspire to design F1 tracks? Regardless of what you think of their design strategy, surely it would be a good idea to have more than one design group do new F1 tracks. This is one reason I was kind of excited to hear the New Jersey GP will be a road course.

Also regarding the dust on track... would it be too much to ask to power wash the tarmac before the race weekend? Or did they and it just gets dirty again too quickly?

[zurich_allan]

Personally I don't blame the tracks. As some other have mentioned already, I genuinely think the problem is related to the cars qualifying almost in formation in terms of their relative race pace - the odd car or two aside either due to a crash in quali or a penalty. With the top six slots consistently filled by Red Bulls, McLarens and Ferrari's, followed by Mercedes / Renaults etc. why would there be a lot of overtaking? They take off in formation, chance for the odd overtake initially due to good / bad starts, then after about 4 laps settle down into formation running.

To me, the solution is a combination of a few things.

1. Keep DRS and Kers
2. Allow competition between tyre manufacturers so it's not two compounds simply chosen by Pirelli for all - soft tyres and grip vs durability, entirely the team's discretion.
3. Bring back refuelling to allow for different strategies - some light cars, some heavy ones.
4. Bring back one lap quali for each session - this would ensure a slightly mixed up grid as no way would all front runners put in the perfect lap every session of every race.

I'd be pretty confident that all of this in conjunction with the lack of TC and slightly less aero reliant cars we have now compared to '02-'08 when some of these rules were in place at different times would at least improve the first half of all GP's whilst cars fight for their true position

A potential 5. would be to introduce ballast for all cars that finish on the podium prior to the next race weekend so that a dominant car would be gradually reeled back in by the field, this is perfectly common amongst many other racing series. Not so sure about this, but it should be a genuine option as there's not really much of a reason why it couldn't be done. Would be safe so long as the teams knew about it some 18 months in advance and so had to build a car that can safely take it on board.

Just my tuppence worth!

[darwin dali]

Ballast for underweight jockeys - sure, makes it fair(er). But penalizing good performance in F1? I wouldn't want that.

[IheartKimmi]

I was bored very quickly, it is a lovely track and probably loads of fun for the drivers but for the viewers on TV it was terrible. I'm not an aero mastermind but with the fast, sweeping bends does that not keep everyone even? I thought hairpins or tight corners helped overtaking. I have read BigPats (apologies if I have the wrong name) posts with huge interest and maybe he can explain it to me.
My son was a karter, still would be but exams are imminent, he raced in Malaysia in the Rotax Max Series as a Singaporean karter and won a place at the Rotax Max World Finals in Egypt 2009. He was totally outclassed but he learned so much in the week we were there and it made him love his sport even more. I wish I had the money to let him race in higher Formulas. Maybe this could be a new thread and get some discussion?
And RaceChick.....

[LewEngBridewell]

A potential 5. would be to introduce ballast for all cars that finish on the podium prior to the next race weekend so that a dominant car would be gradually reeled back in by the field, this is perfectly common amongst many other racing series. Not so sure about this, but it should be a genuine option as there's not really much of a reason why it couldn't be done. Would be safe so long as the teams knew about it some 18 months in advance and so had to build a car that can safely take it on board.

I remember when they previously considered using ballast in F1, and that was after Ferrari swept the board in 2002. It was one of the options they mulled over to make the racing tighter at the front. As it turned out, 2003 was much closer anyway, so it was never used.

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea though. To me, a great car like this year's Red Bull should be applauded, not punished.

[bud]

I'm not sure how I feel about the idea though. To me, a great car like this year's Red Bull should be applauded, not punished.

[racechick]

I dont like the idea of ballast. Its another artificial aid. I dont like it the BTC

[PartsaS]

It is somehow a non writen law in f1 ;

punish the best so the others can follow

(they just don't apply it when ferrari wins for some strange reason...)

[QuoththeRaven]

A potential 5. would be to introduce ballast for all cars that finish on the podium prior to the next race weekend so that a dominant car would be gradually reeled back in by the field, this is perfectly common amongst many other racing series. Not so sure about this, but it should be a genuine option as there's not really much of a reason why it couldn't be done. Would be safe so long as the teams knew about it some 18 months in advance and so had to build a car that can safely take it on board.

The problem with this is that it would discourage teams to take third place if they already have ballast on board. Better to take fourth, lose the ballast and finish first in the next race.

[bud]

Yeah, what incentive does RBR have by building a car 1 second faster? why put all that money and effort in to get that gap when its taken away by ballast. Teams would be better off working half asses and hope they are around the mark say for Example McLaren and take advantage of RBR having Ballast.

Sorry performance Ballast makes baby jesus cry.