Gary Anderson's trackside F1 verdict

Aside from the predictable Mercedes one-two, the Chinese Grand Prix produced a very different result for the chasing bunch.

This can be confusing, but the reality is that you need a car that works at all tracks if you are to fight for and win championships. That is what Red Bull has had for the past four years and it's what Mercedes now has.

The question is, why does this happen and why can teams not simply adapt the car set-up to suit the demands of each circuit?

The fundamental problem is the DNA of the car, rather than it simply being about set-up. It is down to how teams set the specification of how the chassis platform generates its grip. So it's more about the overall concept than the sum of the individual components.

Front-limited, rear-limited, traction-limited

We hear a lot about front-limited, rear-limited or traction-limited circuits. So it's worth explaining what these really are and why they affect some teams, or more importantly cars, more than others.

At a circuit with long continuous-radius medium-speed corners like Shanghai's Turn 1/2 and Turn 13 onto the long back straight, a lot of load is put into the outside front tyre. In this case, that is the left front.

Turn 1/2 at Shanghai actually decreases in radius and comes back on itself, so in effect you are turning through something like 200 degrees, making it even worse on that left-front. If it is cold, this leads to a lot of graining which increases understeer. Graining is when the top surface of the tyre literally shears away from the rubber supporting it and the car slides on its own marbles.

Rear-limited is when the corners are faster and opening up in radius, so the car is accelerating all the way through it. This increases the stress on the rear tyres and leads to overheating and a loss of grip.

Traction-limited is when you have a circuit where it is basically all stop and go. You are always accelerating out of slow corners, so you are stressing the rear tyres with each acceleration and, by the nature of the circuit, don't have time to give them a rest.

Nearly all the cars have different characteristics, so each circuit will either highlight or even camouflage an inherent car balance problem.

The ideal car

The sign of an ideal set-up is when the car understeers a very small amount in a fast corner - anything above 200km/h. This eases the load on the rear tyre and gives the driver confidence that he knows what the car will do.

Below this speed, you need more front grip to get the car to turn in and hold onto the apex. This will reduce the stressing of the front tyre, but on corner exit you need good traction. To get both of these together is very difficult, but it can be achieved with the aerodynamic characteristics induced by varying steering lock and/or weight transfer.

By definition, the slower the corner, the more steering lock is required so you need to use that as one of the tools to move the balance of the car.

In simple terms, in a straight line the car's centre of pressure (or more importantly, centre of grip as we can call it) needs to be located rearward. This means that under braking, the rear of the car will be more secure and when you turn into a fast corner the car will understeer that little bit, again giving the driver confidence in the rear of the car.

As the corner speed reduces, the driver needs to apply more steering lock because the corner is a tighter radius. This is when the centre of grip needs to move forward to give more front grip. As the driver then removes the lock on corner exit, the grip will move rearwards again, giving better traction.

If you can get these characteristics, and you know what creates them, you will have a very drivable car that is good to its tyres and will suit most, if not all, circuits.

Shanghai is a front limited circuit, so based on the various cars' performances in China, what are the inherent car characteristic problems? Why did some cars suit Shanghai and some not?

I am not taking into account anything to do with engine, just chassis characteristics. The teams are ranked in what I believe is order of chassis performance.

1 RED BULL

Red Bull has been the class of the field in recent years. Watching trackside, I have to say that it still is. At least, it is in Daniel Ricciardo's hands.

He is so precise and consistent with his lines. As for Sebastian Vettel, he is still trying to drive a car with the exhaust-blown diffuser. With that design, at the corner exit it was all about getting the throttle open and getting the extra rear grip the exhaust gases offered.

In 2013, he was the master of this and the Red Bull had the best system. But that is all gone now and he needs to change his driving style to suit the current specification cars.

2 MERCEDES

For quite a few years, Mercedes has had a car that overworked its rear tyres. This year's car, although much better than in previous seasons, still has that tendency. In fact, the characteristics of the Shanghai circuit helped reduce this, which is why Hamilton was saying on the radio on his first stint on the soft tyre that he didn't have any problems with his front tyres graining.

If the car was well-balanced for normal track conditions he should have had some graining during his first stint, mainly because the track was not rubbered-in and the circuit temperature was also low.

Rosberg's car during the Friday practice sessions didn't look as well balanced as Hamilton's. He was working a lot harder and the car was moving around a lot more.

Other circuits like Barcelona could bring back the Mercedes trait of overloading the rears.

3 FERRARI

When I watch the Ferrari on the circuit and the driver puts that extra bit of effort in, it is always the rear end that tends to give up. As Shanghai is front-limited, this brings the car more towards a good balance and as Fernando Alonso said his third position last Sunday surprised Ferrari as much as anyone else.

As for Kimi Raikkonen, he doesn't like a car that understeers and that's what he had in China. He shows some glimpses of the performance level we expect from him, but it is not consistent. That shows that the car is on a knife-edge when it comes to overall performance.

This needs to be addressed to get some consistency to allow him to gain confidence and then to move forward.

4 WILLIAMS

The Williams is a bit like the Ferrari in that if anything gives up it is the rear so I believe the characteristics of the Shanghai circuit played to the FW36's strengths. The car looks like it has a very positive front-end and turns in very abruptly.

This is normally a good attribute for qualifying when on new tyres, but when it comes to the longer runs in the race it can damage the rear tyres fairly quickly. Last weekend it didn't look quite so aggressive on turn in.

5 FORCE INDIA

Force India is punching well above its weight. I have no doubt that a bit of extra downforce wouldn't go amiss but to me the car's characteristics look good. It is pretty good on its tyres and that is always a good pointer that the balance and how it varies is in line with what the driver requires form the car.

The biggest thing I noticed out on track was that the drivers weren't really happy to just stand on the brake pedal, suggesting the feel isn't quite right.

6 TORO ROSSO

Toro Rosso has also started the season well and is doing a much better and more consistent job this year than in the past. It is the Red Bull junior team so you would expect a lot of crossover, or a least a reasonable technical relationship as both teams are now using the Renault engine.

The car looks well-balanced and like the Force India it looks after the tyres well. So if the team can keep up with development it should be competitive at most tracks.

7 McLAREN

McLaren is another story. It started the season very well in Melbourne, but since then it has struggled.

I went trackside in China to watch where the first corner blends into the second. This is a critical area for front grip and I have to say that both McLarens were on a different line every lap through there. I have never really seen this before.

If the drivers tried to be in the middle of the road where everyone else was, the car would just understeer wide. So then they would try to hug the inside kerb, and this would mean they had a much tighter entry into Turn 2 to contend with. It didn't look pretty.

The team talks of needing more downforce and I am sure that is what every team would love. But for me, it is aerodynamic or grip consistency as opposed to just more overall load.

Everyone has a development plan in place but over the last couple of years McLaren doesn't seem to have anyone picking up on what is holding the car back and then steering that development plan to overcome those problems.

8 LOTUS

Lotus has had a torrid start to the season. After missing the first test and then having serious power unit installation problems, it has taken until Bahrain before it actually got any meaningful running.

At Shanghai, Grosjean qualified 10th in the wet and I am pretty sure the conditions played into the car's hands. In the dry it looks a bit of a handful and the drivers seem reluctant to be aggressive with the steering wheel.

It is as if they are not sure what the car will do if they try to hustle it so it doesn't look too confidence-inspiring.

9 SAUBER, MARUSSIA, CATERHAM

As for Sauber, Marussia and Caterham, they just don't have the grip levels of the top teams and more importantly the balance. Every corner is a new experience for their drivers.

I am not criticising them as I have been there and suffered this frustration. It is tough for smaller teams that don't have the budgets to throw at continual development but as long as the owners understand that and set their sights to suit then they will make slow and steady progress. If someone in the organisation expects any of these teams to challenge at the front then there will be an internal implosion.

It is possible to go out to trackside, have a look and compare your own car's characteristics to the others. When I go out I don't see many team members out there.

The bucketloads of data that everyone gathers is only about their own car so they should get out and have a closer look at the competition. Perhaps a change in the priorities of your development programme or at least its implementation might just bring an improvement that bit earlier?