MAURIZO Arrivabene and the Prancing Horse team are raring to goat the China Grand Prix this Sunday!
After having won the Malaysian Grand Prix, there is a completely new spirit in the team, and Fiat have approved a larger budget for the racing team.
Mercedes, on the other hand, say that they need to react and Toto Wolff has asked for an advancement of the development plan for their WO6 car.
The game is really on.
Let us hope that this weekend proves to be another cracker with real competition between the two top teams.
Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari cannot wait to let the red cars loose on the Shanghai track.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg are equally confident that they can defend the three-pointed star’s rightful position.
Next in line should be either the Williams Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa or the Red Bull Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat. It will be interesting to see whether the junior Toro Rosso team of Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jnr can upstage their elders again at Red Bull.
Also raring to go is the potentially quick Lotus Mercedes pair of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado. So far this team has been unlucky or unreliable.
Sauber is the next team with a strong driver pairing and a lot of flair. Their Ferrari engine is strong and the car handles well.
Again they have youth on their side in Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Masr and we can expect another good showing from this small young team.
At Force India Mercedes both Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez will be trying hard and could do particularly well if there is wet weather.
McLaren Honda are making big strides although still far from the top. I expect another determined race from them with an improved showing this weekend.
Maurissa, with Will Stevens and Roberto Merhl, should bring up the rear of the pack.
The weather this weekend should be very hot and dry with tyre strategy again very important.
He who gets his tyre sums right could win the race. Hamilton won the race last year in Shanghai. Can Vettel take it away from him this time around?
Qualifying is 8am on Saturday and the main race at 9am on Sunday.
