[morini]

As I understand it when Bottas dropped his car during quali in Melbourne he also took a grid penalty for changing his gearbox, as to quote Allison they weren't even sure which bits of metal they collected were even from the gearbox. Mercedes also informed us they needed to replace the Energy Stores on his car as they were utterly ruined and destroyed and the Control Electronics apparently took a massive static shock from the ES and were also utterly covered in cooling fluid, and therefore kiboshed. So yeah, we knew about Bottas.

Fair enough, I don't remember hearing or reading those comments anywhere though. I must have missed it. It was a big impact, but I kind of assumed the energy store and CE were self contained and depending on the type of impact would survive a crash? I don't know enough about it to comment either way, but what this tells me is having any type of shunt could be a double whammy as there may well be damage to PU components as well.

[Jody Barton]

Major shunts have always done damage to components either destroying them fully, or damaging them and shortening their life span. So in that regard dropping your car into a wall has always had the potential to be a 'double whammy' as you put it, but yes, this season with the ridiculous limits on components dropping your car into a wall could really, really hurt this season. So I think rather than it being anything new to F1, I just see it as an amplified concern this season, but yeah, we now know for certain that both Bottas and Vettel will be taking penalties later on this season, no doubt about it I think.

[morini]

This is kind of why I asked the question to be honest. We've seen drivers throw cars into walls over the years and I can't ever actually remember noticing a CE being a casualty (not saying it hasn't happened). Gearbox, yes, electronic components I was not expecting to be so vulnerable. Also I assumed they were protected to a certain degree. But if, as you say, the ES was damaged and subsequently fried the CE then that is understandable.

The drivers are going to need to avoid binning cars more than ever this year.

[Jody Barton]

Morini I've actually looked into damaged CE's after shunts... since 2014 it has happened 6 times from what I've seen, and that's actually really, really low compared to other items, after binning cars, so no question it is rare, but at the end of the day electronics as you know are like anything else, fragile. It'll be silicon chips on PCBs with transistors etc. etc. etc. and those things are vulnerable. At a basic level they need to be kept cool, mostly to ensure the PCBs don't warp and pop the silicon off of them. However, you can't keep them totally insulated from damage and harm, I personally thought only 2 ES and 2 CE per car this season was utterly, utterly dumb. However, I then saw that many teams last year only used two. So what do I know. lol.

[LotusLover]

Looking forward to a nice morning race here in the UK seeing as I am up with the kids So in truth although this has Mercedes written all over it, I am hoping for a bit of Ferrari domination, I would like to see Mercedes and Lewis come under a bit of pressure which has been something of a rarity over the recent years, also I feel they would need this buffer as Mercedes will come strong further down the line. In my opinion I think Lewis will probably get a podium at the very least, not sure where RB will come into play as they seem to do fairly well here.

[Jody Barton]

I think Mercedes were put under a lot of pressure last year until Ferrari imploded. Reality is Ferrari gifted Mercedes points in Singapore they never had a real chance of getting, and in Suzuka Ferrari clearly had the race pace, ditto Malaysia. Last year I still think Ferrari and Seb lost the WDC rather than Mercedes 'winning' it. Don't want to take anything away from how exceptionally well Lewis drove after the summer break, but Ferrari had the biggest brain fart going.

This year Ferrari have clearly built another solid car, and I expect they'll be much much harder opponents. I think China will, or historically SHOULD favour Mercedes, but I think not by much this year. Ferrari will be even closer than they were last year, and if RBR can have a clean weekend they'll be snapping at the heels too.

[forzaferrari]

https://formulaone21.wordpress.com/2018/...preview-2/

[Jody Barton]

Good summary Forza, thanks.

[Monster Hesh]

Best Chinese GP's on boards, F1 YT channel.

Vettel's pitlane entry overtakes, love it.

[Monster Hesh]

Not by much at all Jody, especially if Ferrari continue drilling upgrades onto their car. I think I read that new floors are due in China as well. The pace unlocking from the car may be coming quicker than the F1 world would give credit to Ferrari for. That's all it takes, their new concept could be the perfect blend of long wheel base and rake. Ensuring this year, they do have the best package on the grid. The big update events will be the true tellers, Barce being the next one (Traditionally).

Mercedes still have the outright pace advantage. So if we think high temps don't agree with Merc then, Sat and Sun temperatures may play into the hands greatly. Cue Mercedes spoon rear wing, they usually run it at tracks with Shanghai's characteristic's to nail the high speed corners.

A RedBull win though......Might be worth a couple of bet's at Q=11/1(ish) R=20/1(ish) odds......

A wet Friday still forecast, could hinder Ferrari more, Monza showed they do need to dial the car in and will really struggle with no running before Sat.