Topic: Malaysia 2010

[Ultra]

After a fantastic race in Australia, anyone want to put some thoughts out there about this weekend in Malaysia.

Vettlel to lead and break down. 

FA to win. Lewis to throw his toys out of the pram.  Jenson to finish the race on the tires from FP1.

[Allan L]

Melbourne is a good racetrack, almost traditional in that it was made from roads that were already there, and were modified as little as possible when the track was made, so that they still work as roads for the rest of the year. That makes for good racing as there are some quite challenging sections which sort out the racers from the posers.
Since the Malaysian circuit was designed by Tilke, like the Bahrain track that was raced on earlier this year, the prospect of an interesting race is reduced considerably.
I may say that the locals seem to think the same, as the vast grandstands of Bahrain were no more than  about  25% full, whereas Melbourne seemed to be packed solid everywhere. Malaysia may have a greater spectator density, but in my opinion that would be because on-course betting was available (something with a tremendous following there) and there was a chance of an outsider coming in first.

[MG]

Lewis to throw his toys out of the pram.

   

Jenson to finish the race on the tires from FP1.

   

Good thoughts, Allan. Barring rain, I would expect Vettel to FINALLY get his first victory. He should be solidly leading the championship at this point but is mired in 4th (I think).

Your thoughts about Hermann Tilke parallel my own. Bernie's butt boy wouldn't know a race track from a penitentiary. It is just another design job to him. He knows as much about racing as I know about the insides of the Lubyanka Prison.   

For anyone interested, here is my race report for the Melbourne race: Right On  The Button

[Allan L]

Good thoughts, Allan. Barring rain, I would expect Vettel to FINALLY get his first victory. He should be solidly leading the championship at this point but is mired in 4th (I think).

I hope you mean his first this season - you will remember 14 Sep 2008 at Monza, and as it was a wet race and practice, rain at Sepang might not spoil his day.

[MG]

Ah, yes, I DID mean of the current season. My wife and I saw young Mr. Vettel in his inaugural F1 drive at Indianapolis, filling in for Bob Kubica after Kubie's horrific crash in Canada. We said at the time "That boy has got the goods!"  He is consistently fast but has suffered a few thrashings at the hands of the stewards and a few collisions with other racers that have kept him out of a championship. So far. I have no doubt he will be a WDC someday.

Steve Martchett of the Speed TV crew is always saying how intense Adrian Newey is about the aero on the cars. He is always butting heads with the engineers about the size of the brake ducts. Could it be that he forced Vettel's car to be fitted with front brake ducts that were too small, thus making the brakes overheat?  I dunno. It's just a theory of mine. It is so unusual to see a brake failure in Formula One these days, unlike at the beginning of the carbon brake technology.   

[Ultra]

It's just a theory of mine. It is so unusual to see a brake failure in Formula One these days, unlike at the beginning of the carbon brake technology.   

Brembo denies Vettel's brake failure

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/82546

[Ultra]

Red Bull get it done.  Mclaren's F-duct makes their race pace as good as Red Bull.  FA collects more points.  The Spaniard will be there at the end.

SV
FA
LH

[Dan Speed]

60% chance of rain in Sepang on Sunday.

[MG]

I won't spoil if for you sleepy heads on the Left Coast, but if you recorded qualifying on your DVR, this is one you probably WON'T want to erase this one after viewing!   

[Dan Speed]

Should make for a very interesting race.

[faksta]

Caution! Spoilers!

The quali was impressive with its complete unpredictability. Both Ferraris and practically both McLarens out in Q1 and a great progress by Virgin and Lotus boys, even though the weather mixed everything up.

And I can't avoid predicting that statistically after +6 and +8 positions during the first lap, this time Petrov will be 2nd after lap 1 with +10 positions  I just hope he will finish this race...

[MG]

There are always those who say starting the fast cars at the back of the field is one way to perk up  The Show. Tomorrow, we should get a pretty good test of that theory!      I still think that installing sprinklers at every track rather than high intensity lighting would be a better use of money from the fans' point of view.   

I continue to be angered by the compromises to the racing that $%%&^%Bernie&%%&^ insist on so that Lord Droopy Drawers back in Jollye Olde Englande won't have to get up too early to view the racing. THAT, imho, is STOOPID!!!!   

Lessee, it rains pretty much every day in Sepang in the late afternoon so let's start the race and hold qualifying in the late afternoon.  BRILLIANT!  The late afternoon sun makes it hard for the drivers to see at Albert Park so let's start the Australian GP late enough to blind the drivers. Again, BRILLIANT!!!  Bernie, I loathe you so.......

And faksta, ONLY + 10 places? Surely, glorious comrade of Soviet Union can be several seconds a lap faster than western European sluggards, finish the race a half hour sooner than the next place car, can drink the champagne, be done with the press conference and on the plane back to Moscow before the other drivers even make it back to the pits!      One would expect nothing less of young Vitaly!   

[Allan L]

Funny thing that: when I had to go to Kuala Lumpur from time to time in the 1970s/80s (at this time of year) you could set your watch by the late afternoon thundery downpour. It seems to be the same now, but those highly-paid racing team organisers can't have noticed.
Wonder if they will plan their racing better.

[Ultra]

Here come the Red Bulls.

[Otto Puzzell]

A pretty active race (outside of the RB's running off and hiding) The "pass from last" contingent made for for more bobbing and weaving than an Ali vs. Weeble fight.

I'm gonna pass you!

Oh, no you ain't!

[MG]

WOW!  What a race!!!!    

Those who advocate for reverse grid starts may have a point.  

FANTASTIC move by Vettel to jump Rosberg and Webber at the first turn. The point standings don't show it, but Vettel has dominated all three races so far this year, and, imho, will dominate the next 16 as well. Vettel will be the 2010 WDC. You read it here first.

But the drive of the day goes to Fernando Alonso, who battled a gearbox problem all race long and STILL managed to set very competitive times. Well done, Fernando. A great shame that his engine done blowed up just a few miles from the finish.   My respect for Alonso has gone up several notches as a result

Also, kudos to Nico. Just as Alonso showed his true talent once he got out of the evil MInardis, Rosberg has shown himself to be a top tier driver - and more than a match, so far, for his famous teammate.  Well done to you too, Nico.    

Condolences to our Moscow contingent, but you can take solace in the knowledge that your boy Petrov got a chance to shine today and looked very good while dueling with Hamilton. The lad has a future, that's for sure.  

And lastly, well done to Adrian Sutil. Like Vettel, he was denied points that he should have scored in the first two races through no fault of his own. But holding off Hamilton for 16 laps at the end of this race showed me he has the stuff to compete in Formula One. Good for him and good for Force India in being competitive all season so far. They should get an award for Most Improved Team.

Oh, and honorable mention to HRT for completing a full race distance.

The weather was the story again this weekend, as it was a failure by McLaren and Ferrari to manage their wet weather qualifying strategies that put so many of the fast boys at the back of the grid.

EDIT:

more bobbing and weaving than an Ali vs. Weeble fight.

AHAHAHAHAHAH!   

[Allan L]

I have to admit that it was a lot less dull than I expected, got most of the reasons MG's just posted.
The Red Bull*****ing certainly stopped there!
Also impressive was the standard of spoken English by the two Germans, Vettel and Rosberg, in post-race interview which made their explanations of what had happened clear and interesting. Real sentences and real vocabulary, and not a "for sure" or TXT SPK abbreviation between them.

[Allemano]

We shall see what Barcelona will bring...(Mr. Chin talked about some significant modifications for the upcoming events)

[faksta]

Condolences to our Moscow contingent, but you can take solace in the knowledge that your boy Petrov got a chance to shine today and looked very good while dueling with Hamilton. The lad has a future, that's for sure.  

That sweetens the pill, but only a bit. The contract still specifies that he will get a 2011 seat if he gets 25% of Robert's points, which doesn't seem to obvious now as it was before the season start. Surely being not the slowest one, Vitaly is now 24th and last in a general classification because of his three DNFs. Very notable was that he was much slower on hard tyres than he was before on softs. Don't think it was that STRs were much faster, because Hulkenberg has also easily escaped.

Of course, great race by RBRs. Finally back to the pace. Webber looked so upset during a press-conference, though - if there was no such time loss during a pit stop he could have been the winner. Must feel very pity.

[Bezor]

That was time well spent, a very good race fo sho.

[MG]

Here is my Race Report.

[Ultra]

Here is my Race Report.

(From your article)

Nico Rosberg brought his Mercedes home 2nd

No, 3rd. 

[mpatrizio]

Meh...   I thought it was a bit boring.  If not for the qualifying rain, we'd likely have seen very similar results at the end of the day, with the exception that it would likely have been a Ferrari in the third spot on the podium behind the Dietrich Dynamic Duo.  My logic being that this Ferrari has proven to be very easy on the tires and works well with both the compounds brought by Bridgestone, as evidenced by the Red cars reeling in the McLarens late in the race.  The red cars have outstanding race pace, but second to the RBR.

It's becoming an interesting season, and I suspect we'll see more winners this year including Mr. Schumacher, MW, Lewis, and a surprise winner (say Kubica or Sutil).

Notably absent to me is Massa, both from my list above and the races in general.  I just don't think he's been bringing the goods this year.  Sure he's finishing ahead of Alonso, but that's just been circumstantial in my eyes.  Massa has lacked the killer instinct and has essentially been driving clean, workman like races.  In Melbourne he was consistently the slowest driver in the top 5, but somehow ended up on the podium.  The fact that he's leading the championship makes my skin crawl at the moment.  But, to his credit the first few rounds have always been very rough on him, if he's leading the title hunt when they return to Europe, he might just look racy again.  Time shall tell....

[Ultra]

Overtakes in Malaysia.  The statistics are counted up by the guys at ClipTheApex.com - the statistics for Malaysia can be found here which makes for interesting reading:

QUOTE
Lap 2 - 2 Hamilton passed 16 Buemi for 12th
8 Alonso passed 1 Button for 15th
9 Barrichello passed 19 Kovalainen for 21st
9 Barrichello passed 21 Senna for 20th
9 Barrichello passed 25 di Grassi for 19th
9 Barrichello passed 24 Glock for 18th
9 Barrichello passed 18 Trulli for 17th
19 Kovalainen passed 21 Senna for 21st
20 Chandhok passed 21 Senna for 22nd

Lap 3 - 2 Hamilton passed 17 Alguersuari for 11th

Lap 4 - 2 Hamilton passed 23 Kobayashi for 10th

Lap 5 - 2 Hamilton passed 12 Petrov for 9th
18 Trulli passed 21 Senna for 21st

Lap 6 - 12 Petrov passed 2 Hamilton for 9th
18 Trulli passed 20 Chandhok for 20th

Lap 7 - 2 Hamilton passed 12 Petrov for 9th

Lap 9 - 1 Button passed 8 Alonso for 14th
9 Barrichello passed 19 Kovalainen for 17th
9 Barrichello passed 25 di Grassi for 16th

Lap 22 - 17 Alguersuari passed 12 Petrov for 11th
16 Buemi passed 12 Petrov for 12th

Lap 31 - 17 Alguersuari passed 10 Hulkenberg for 10th

Lap 43 - 16 Buemi passed 9 Barrichello for 12th

Lap 44 - 7 Massa passed 1 Button for 7th

Total overtakes: 24
Drivers: most overtaking moves: Rubens Barrichello (7), Lewis Hamilton (5)
Most times overtaken: Vitaly Petrov (4), Bruno Senna (4)


Outside of the first 10 laps, there were only 5 overtakes in the entire race. Saying that, the statistics so far* this year show that there has been an average of 28.67 overtakes per race, the highest number since 1991. Are the statistics deceiving... or are people expecting too much?

* note, Malaysia not yet included in link, I've updated the average in this post to reflect Malaysia.

In comparison to past Malaysian Grand Prix's:

Sepang International Circuit
1999 - 11 overtakes
2000 - 28
2001 - 44 *note, rain
2002 - 22
2003 - 16
2004 - 13
2005 - 07
2006 - 16
2007 - 10
2008 - 05
2009 - 28
2010 - 24
Average = 18.9 overtakes.

It was lower than last year, which might surprise some, but still on the higher scale of things, although that may be because of rain shaking up the order halfway through. Saying that though, if you removed all the overtakes with the 'new' teams involved, there were only 13 overtakes, which is probably about average,

Melbourne had the highest ever for that circuit, and Bahrain had the highest since 2006.  Again though one must factor in the new teams and their affect on the numbers.

[mpatrizio]

Interesting tidbit, thanks Ultra...