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vro0m · 3 years ago

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vro0m’s rewatch - 133/310

2014 Chinese GP

Hi! It's round 4! Everybody has high expectations following the Bahrain GP. I worry that we'll all be disappointed.

Apparently there's a lot of graining here, and it was a wet quali, so the track was washed clean and they can choose their tyres. It's going to be strategic then.

We see Lewis in the drivers' parade. He says they get more and more fans here every year. He says it's gonna be a tough day and degradation is going to play a big part. He's not focused at all, he's waving to the fans. He says the graining is less of a concern as it gets hotter so he hopes it's going to be less of an issue during the race.

The journalists think Lewis is starting to get in Nico's head. They think Lewis is playing games, for example when he said after the race that he was slower than Nico. Nico is still leading the WDC but he has to win today to turn this situation around, because Lewis is coming for him.

Quali report. It was indeed very wet. So that's 3 wet quali out of 4 so far this season. Maldonado didn't go out at all because the car was broken, with an oil leak. Q1 went down without surprises. In Q2, it was Lewis who set the pace on inters. Massa and Raikkonen basically raced each other down the straight trying to get some clear track. But Raikkonen messed up and starts in 11th. The McLarens were also out in Q2. Jenson seems dispirited. Grosjean and Seb struggled to stay on track in Q3. Seb got the hang of it and he starts 3rd on the grid, but Daniel managed to outqualify him and starts P2. And guess who's on pole? It's Lewis again! 3 poles out of 4! Rosberg spun trying to catch him, and so he starts 4th.

That's Lewis 34th pole already! Damn these numbers are starting to add up. This rewatch is really going along isn't it?

There's a whole segment about Domenicalli resigning from his job. They're talking about the lack of results, Alonso listing the championships they could've won and didn't. He's being replaced by a man who has zero F1 experience (why tf would you do that jesus christ), enters Marco Mattiacci, until then president and CEO of Ferrari North America. He said even he was surprised by the job offer. Then Alonso and an Italian journalist say you don't need racing experience and point out the example of Briatore who sold t-shirts before he got involved in F1. I mean sure, but that didn't end well did it? Mattiacci says he loves racing and does so in his spare time. For some reason the background music is the Game of Thrones title theme????? (note : actually the timing of posting this review in 2022 when Binotto just left Ferrari is very funny)

Brundle and Bruno Senna analyze the fight between Lewis and Nico in Bahrain. First Rosberg's overtake on Lewis that didn't work out, and how very close to a catastrophe they got as the contact could've resulted in a broken front wing for Rosberg and a puncture for Lewis (spoiler : foreshadowing.......). We are shown their respective lines on the track, just like I told you about in the last review, Lewis realizing he will be overtaken and going slightly wider to turn in sooner and keep the inside line. And then the second try, when it didn't work and Nico was ahead. They demonstrate how Lewis was strategizing his lines as they went, giving up on the current corner to position his car in a way that would allow him to overtake him in the next one, thinking ahead like a chess player. It's very impressive. They switch to show us Seb and Daniel also doing it well in Bahrain, and then Seb and Webber crashing in the 2010 Turkish GP compared to Jenson and Lewis fighting fairly in the same race. (And that really shows you how fair and clean a driver he usually is, contrary to some ridiculous claims that have been made in 2021 lol)

Now we get Lewis telling us about his pole lap as usual. He said it was very slippery. You try to figure out where to brake as you fight the understeer, all the while taking the wind into account. He shows the spot where he lost a lot of time locking up one of his front tyres which also affected the next corner. Then he thought he needed to gain more time in the rest of the lap. He shows the areas of standing water. He thought he'd miss a turn because he went in too deep but fortunately his car turned at the right time. Brundle says the title is clearly either coming to him or Nico. He makes a gesture with his microphone and a face that says "man come on…"

But Brundle presses further. Lewis says "well at the moment" but the Redbulls have a very good car and good down force. "If they can get their engine sorted I think they'll be fighting us hard."

He thinks it's "naturally" going to happen at some point in the season and he hopes Mercedes keeps moving forward as well. Brundle asks if he can take a psychological advantage from Rosberg making loads of mistakes while he himself is putting on the pressure. He says yes, when you're in practice and you put in a lap you think is good and realize your teammate is a few tenths faster than you… he says he knows how it feels, and it makes you think you have to push more. Brundle says in F1 you're either giving pressure or taking it and Lewis chuckles as he answers he likes it better when he's giving it than taking it.

He reiterates the race is going to be difficult, the track is really hard on the tyres.

Formation lap

Lewis backs them up to the point it looks like he's stopped on the track completely lol. Brundle says it makes a lot of sense to do that and he's surprised they don't see it more often. It kind of became standard since then didn't it?

And they're racing!

Massa overtakes Rosberg who has a bad start. Alonso is also ahead of him, BUT HE MAKES CONTACT WITH MASSA! Alonso still gets ahead and overtakes Daniel to go fight Seb who also got ahead of his teammate into turn 1. Lewis is getting away already! Hulkenberg and Rosberg are fighting for P6. At the end of the first lap, Lewis is 1.5 seconds ahead of Seb, then come Alonso, Daniel, Massa, Rosberg, Hulkenberg, Grosjean, Raikkonen and Bottas. And Valtteri overtakes Raikkonen for P9. Hulkenberg complains he has front wing damage. Valtteri overtakes Grosjean as well! And Rosberg overtakes Massa for P5. Sutil retires for the third time in a row. Alonso complains of graining. Lewis says he also has graining on the left front but the tyres are doing quite good and it's not causing any problem. Seb also reports "serious graining on the front left" but he's told there's no good gap behind. There's telemetry problems for Rosberg, but Lewis is fine.

We're 10 laps in. Lewis is almost 10 seconds ahead. The order hasn't changed : Seb, Alonso, Daniel, Rosberg, Massa, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Raikkonen as Grosjean pits and Kvyat now in P10. We're told Massa also has telemetry problems. Massa and Raikkonen pit in response to Grosjean but there's an issue for Massa! It's long… he shakes his head. They seem to not have had the correct rear tyres ready or something… and even now that they have them they struggle to put them on. He throws his hands in the air, shakes his head again and lift his visor. It's so long my god. The mechanic finally lifts his hands, the brakes are smoking from being stopped for so long, and even then they take a long time to set the car back down for him to leave. Terrible. Alonso comes in. Hulkenberg comes in. Rosberg asks his team to check his front wing when he comes in, and they say there might be rubber stuck in it. Seb pits. He comes back out behind Alonso though! Rosberg is called in. Seb is closing on Alonso, they're fighting for P3 but virtually for P2. Bono : "okay Lewis, so Ricciardo the only car that's in our pit window at the moment, you're 4 tenths faster than him last lap." Seb says they're too slow in the straights to overtake Alonso, he asks if it's worth backing off. He's told yes. Daniel pits from P2, he's out in P5. That should clear Lewis’ window? But he comes on the radio to say "surprisingly the front tyres still feel really good, as well as the rears." But Crofty points out his lap tyres aren't as good as they were so he'll have to come in anyway to keep Alonso and Seb at bay. Oh and we see he did lock up a bit, and went wide. He's actually struggling with grip. Yep. He pits. It's a good 2.9 stop and he's back out in the lead still, but of course Alonso is significantly closer now. Mercedes has to ask Rosberg to read certain numbers on his steering wheel so they can calculate the amount of fuel he has left as they can't get his telemetry data. He's told he's good on fuel.

It's lap 20. Lewis is 5 seconds ahead of Alonso. Then we have Seb, Rosberg, Daniel, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Raikkonen, Grosjean and Perez. It's not a fascinating race so far ngl. Daniel is told his pace is good and only the Mercedes are quicker than him. Indeed Rosberg is closing on Seb. And they're wheel to wheel in the straight! He goes a bit deep in the corner, but he manages to stay ahead while Seb has to carefully avoid contact. Now they're in the pit straight, one behind the other, very very close still. Seb takes the outside line, they're wheel to wheel again! But as the track turns to the left, the advantage goes to Rosberg, who stays ahead. Seb has to fall back a bit and Daniel is right there, watching, waiting. And there he goes, attacking Seb in the next lap. DRS for Ricciardo while Seb lost the DRS over Rosberg. But it's too far still. Oh and Seb is told once again to let him through. Daniel is told to get close and overtake him. Seb asks what tyres he's on. "Primes, but he stopped later than you," says Rocky. "Tough luck," Seb answers. So he's not obeying is he? Brat (affectionate). And yep. Seb defends against Daniel. But Ricciardo is close, and he has the DRS advantage. He takes the inside line, and Seb gives up. Crofty and Brundle debate whether he yielded or made a mistake. We hear another team radio message. "Sebastian, Daniel is on a two-stop." Seb tells them to think about boxing. Grosjean is told to use 4th gear as little as possible as they are having problems with it. He exclaims that he can't! But he's told they have to or it's DNF. Rocky : "Sebastian, stay out, it helps us, please stay out. We are aware." And Grosjean goes off track and joins back. He comes in and retires.

It's lap 30. Lewis complains about his tyres. He’s still in the lead of course, 13.3 seconds ahead of Alonso. Then the order goes Rosberg, Ricciardo, Seb, Hulkenberg, Bottas, Raikkonen, Perez and Kvyat. And here we go for the second wave of pit stops with Hulkenberg and Bottas. Rosberg is told to push to overtake Alonso, but he's still 1.5 behind so. Idk about that. Alonso pits. Then Seb pits. There's 20 laps to go. Rosberg and Ricciardo pit. Lewis is called in, they say they will clean his front wing for some reason. He was a bit slow to leave the box, 3.9. He's still in the lead though. Like. BY FAR. Earlier we saw the fuel use of the top 10 and for some reason there wasn't any data for Bottas. Ted says it's because his telemetry isn't working either. But we had Rosberg's, which prompts Crofty to ask whether they fixed his issue but Brundle says it might affect some components of telemetry and not others. However he did have to tell them what his fuel consumption was earlier so. Idk.

Lap 40, and indeed they ask him for it again. He says : "33.5. It really annoys me to do that so I need to stop doing that now." He's closing on Alonso. And here you go. He overtakes him easily. Ricciardo is faster than Alonso as well, but he's 6 seconds down. Can he make it? 10 laps to go. Now Daniel is told Alonso is matching his pace. "Keep pushing!" 5 laps to go. Ricciardo gets the DRS from a back marker but actually loses a bit of time overtaking him. Final lap. Lewis says he got the checkered flag, for some reason.

And it's the end of the race!

It's the first time Lewis wins three races in a row. Rosberg P2, Alonso P3. It wasn't a very interesting race.

Rosberg is still leading the WDC but only by 4 points now.

Nico doesn't look too happy in the cool down room. The Mercedes representative tries to make small talk with him and he barely answers and kind of shrugs it off. Lewis and Alonso are talking off camera I believe. These men don't have too much to say to each other. Rosberg sarcastically asks Lewis if it was a tough race. Lewis laughs a bit.

For some reason Lewis hands his trophy over to Nico to let him feel its weight I think? They do look unusually light.

Just like Seb once, Lewis sprays the podium girls and the cameraman. I don't like it when they do that, I find it a bit obnoxious tbh.

Brundle says it looked easy from where they stood. Lewis says he couldn't have done it without the hard work from the team. He can't believe how good that car is. He says surprisingly the tyres did very well even though the quali was wet. He says he was racing himself really. He's happy Nico is up there with him, he really deserves it. Later Brundle jokes they can't improve this car any more than that! Lewis says the team is on a roll and they have to keep working hard because the others are pushing to catch them.

In the garage, some guys are dancing as they drink.

Lewis is getting ready for the team photo and already trying to get the champagne bottle out of his team member’s hands.

He does so forcefully and then sprays the guy who had it with it lol.

Nico's there and Toto and they take the photo as one of them sprays the champagne in the air.

(idk what Nico was saying but he looks so annoyed AND annoying in this gif lmao, absolute diva)

And that's how they interview him, as he wipes his eyes from the champagne.

They talk about his hair? Simon says "the power of the mohawk!" Lewis smiles wide. He says he didn't plan to have his hair look like this, it just grows that way.

Simon asks if they can have a look, he says no and Johnny tries to take away his cap, which. Consent, man? Ever heard of it?

Lewis laughs it off and gets the conversation back on track : he's so proud of his team, the energy is great and he hopes it is as good in the factory as it is there. He's grateful he can put in performances like today. Simon says they often travel with these guys and they seem very very happy. He says though Lewis still has to do the work on the track and it seems to be going so well at the moment, with three 1-2. Lewis says of course it's great when you're winning but they're not getting complacent, they're working hard, the guys are pushing hard. They're still trying to improve the car even though it's very good. He says he feels like he's growing with the team and the car. He's more comfortable with the car this year, he understands it better and that's what you see in the results. Johnny says his messages on the radio sound so positive, is it what he's feeling : positivity? Lewis nods "it is, it is… are you gonna give me your mic?"

Johnny forgot he didn't have one. They laugh at him. Lewis says he's had amazing support here from the fans, he sees them at the airport and in the hotel, they're amazing. Simon says that's 25 wins now, equal with Niki and Jim Clarke. He says he's pushed Fangio out of the top 10.

Simon says he always says he doesn't know but he must know! Lewis says he doesn't, he doesn't know the stats until they tell him. He gets reflective, he says it's remarkable for him to come from Stevenage and he never believed he'd end up there. All the work his dad and family put in to get him there, he is so grateful. "And to be up there with the greats, I hope my dad's proud, I hope my family's proud because, I mean, I'm working to continue on the journey that they helped me get on." He's way more serious as he says that. I wonder how they get along at that time, we haven't seen Anthony in a while.

It's awful btw because talking about consent you see these men forcing their way to take photos with him. First while he's blinded by the champagne some guy comes, puts his hand on his shoulder without asking and takes a photo. And when they start the interview he's still behind him taking selfies, leaning in very close to him where he can't see him. And then during the interview you see this other guy behind him trying to get his photo taken next to him while he talks. It must be so annoying. It's like he's not a person but just a monument or something. I don't like seeing it.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #vro0m's race reviews #2014 #2014 chinese gp

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