Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[PlatinumZealot]

Sorry, but someone needs to get some new guys in the McLaren garage......absolutely horrible show from them.

So far this season, Hamilton has lost places in the race literally every time he went into the pit lane. Not a good statistic at all.

They also struggled with Button too.


Away from all that, PEREZ!!!!! WOW!

Excellent race, I'm happy to see the young guys being given REAL opportunities this season as opposed to just being in a car that gets lapped constantly.

It was a great race to watch and I'm truly happy for Perez and to see the guy on top of the podium have a REAL smile as opposed to the "yeah...we won again..woo!" of yesteryear.

F1!

His engineer is no good and the team has no more interest in him. Sort of like the forgotten step child. Those mechanics were not even trying to get the guy out of the pits quick enough either. Hamilton has to beat his TEAM to win this WDC. How will he do it I don't know.

[Giblet]

There was a time when the back markers didn't have to get out of the way of the leaders at all and making your way through the field was considered a skill that the top F1 drivers needed to have.

Well that was then and now is now. The rules are clear and we have a bunch of technologies that were not available in the past. The drivers even get a blue light in the cockpit when they are required to make place for the leaders. Hence the rules have been adapted to the changing situation. You have to consider that many championships hinged on one or two points and that drivers have enough obstacles with the rain, the tyres and technical failures. Twelve Points is a big hit too loose. They do not need their lives to be made more difficult by unnecessary obstacles. And nobody wants a championship in the end decided by a back marker to be lapped not getting out of the way.

DRS in a way makes it so we don't really need to blue flags as much other than info. With the anti-blocking rules and the ability of DRS, there is no reason a car will not pass a backmarker they have come up on within that same lap. Likely within a corner or two.

In every other lower racing series I have seen or participated, the usual rule of thumb is for backmarkers to stick to their line so they are predictable.

The blue flags and yielding for them was for more important in the "v10 can't pass anyone until a fuel or tire stop" days, as you just couldn't get close enough int he corners to keep speed on the straight to slipstream. The ground effect cars of the 80s and the poor aero cars of the 70s and earlier were able to slipstream and not caught in trains all the time.

The rules needs to adapt with the cars IMO.

[MuseF1]

I believe the Vettel 'retire the car' was entirely just to get a new gearbox.

If his brake duct on one corner of the car was damaged (from contact with Karthikeyan) surely the other three brakes are up to the job of stopping the car if the rear right fails. And im sure it would have held out at least till the end of the race, considering he lasted from lap 48 to 55 with the brakes being ok, whats one more lap going to do. Also, going into the pits is also the same distance as going across the finish. If its brake related, he'll actually need to brake even more by retiring into the pits, as he's got to negotiate the pit lane left hander and also the speed limit line, whereas on track he wouldnt really need the brakes once he's taken the last corner

The first call calling him into the pits on the last lap to retire. Then they realised ( i think) that he'll still cross the finish line as the finish line is towards the rear of the grid and that he'll be crossing it in the pitlane instead.

So then the next calls were to retire on track.

I think that a car retiring shouldn't purely for a fresh gearbox shouldnt be allowed, because then if all teams had that mentality we'd have 10 cars finishing with the rest retiring to get a fresh gearbox.


On a sidenote, McLaren need to wake up and starting giving Hamilton the tyres when he needs them, too late to switch onto the intermediates and the dry's.Great drive from Perez

[beelsebob]

[MuseF1]

Could that black line not be something dragging along the track? Surely with 7 laps to go and an oil leak like that the car engine/gearbox would have failed before the finish?

[ParanoiD]

whenever I come to this forum post-race. I always get clearer explanation than I get from the media.

Thanks for all the knowledge.

Anyway I think the race was really intense and a lot of unexpected things happened. I rarely take off my eyes from my phone (for live timing) and the TV screen. I ignored my surroundings and just focus on the race.

Good for Ferrari to win to get off some of the pressure. Really good performance from Perez and Really unfortunate for Grosjean. He just did few laps on the last 2 races.

Anyway, can someone explain why are Ferrari and Sauber really good in condition like this? Was it the setup? or more of the driver?

[WhiteBlue]

DRS is no excuse for not obeying blue flags. You can easily loose a lap behind a back marker and several seconds if a driver refuses to cooperate being lapped. They must respect the fact that they are not racing the fast guys.

Kartikeyan

We do not want to be a hindrance but this does not give them the right to bully you.

The guy clearly has an attitude problem. Since when is it bullying when the race leaders expect to be made way by the back markers? Drivers are getting the blue light when the faster drivers are some 50m away and they should stay off the racing line if they are not on it. It is best to immediately drive with the clear intention of letting the other guy pass as soon as possible even if you loose pace yourself. In an hairpin you should not try to get back on the racing line if you were further to the outside of the corner.

[kilcoo316]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... SGtU#t=43s

Seb's Error no doubt Nk's Trajectory was linear seb cut off in front of him.
Similar to the " strike" in Turkey 2010

+1


Vettel cut across the racing line - which is the line we should all be paying attention to - not the track perimeter line.

[Bomber_Pilot]

@beelsebob That black line is already there vhen Vettel pits. There are also two black lines going parallel to this one thats under the car, on the right of the car. +there is no line behind him when he enters the pits or when he leaves them.

[kilcoo316]

Since when is it bullying when the race leaders expect to be made way by the back markers? Drivers are getting the blue light when the faster drivers are some 50m away and they should stay off the racing line if they are not on it. It is best to immediately drive with the clear intention of letting the other guy pass as soon as possible even if you loose pace yourself. In an hairpin you should not try to get back on the racing line if you were further to the outside of the corner.

Complete utter rubbish.

20.5 As soon as a car is caught by another car which is about to lap it during the race the driver must allow the faster driver past at the first available opportunity. If the driver who has been caught does not allow the faster driver past, waved blue flags will be shown to indicate that he must allow the following driver to overtake.

Where does it say they must get off the racing line?

[GrizzleBoy]

Since when is it bullying when the race leaders expect to be made way by the back markers? Drivers are getting the blue light when the faster drivers are some 50m away and they should stay off the racing line if they are not on it. It is best to immediately drive with the clear intention of letting the other guy pass as soon as possible even if you loose pace yourself. In an hairpin you should not try to get back on the racing line if you were further to the outside of the corner.

Complete utter rubbish.

20.5 As soon as a car is caught by another car which is about to lap it during the race the driver must allow the faster driver past at the first available opportunity. If the driver who has been caught does not allow the faster driver past, waved blue flags will be shown to indicate that he must allow the following driver to overtake.

Where does it say they must get off the racing line?

This.

The middle of a sharp hairpin bend is also hardly the ideal area for overtaking anyone, ESPECIALLY in the wet.

Or maybe we should forgive Hamilton for his impossible overtaking attempt on the hairpin in Monaco?

Also, JENSON WAS RACING FOR POSITION. Karthikeyan had no obligation to move over for him for any reason.

Karthikeyan has a point about the bullying though.

Vettel was very reckless while trying to overtake Karthikeyan.

He pretty much divebombed Karthikeyan, nearly lost his rear end, cut wide across the racing line and created a situation where Karthikeyan had to either slow down on the exit (due to Vettel losing traction on his rears) or be squeezed off the track for it to work without problems.

[langwadt]

I believe the Vettel 'retire the car' was entirely just to get a new gearbox.

If his brake duct on one corner of the car was damaged (from contact with Karthikeyan) surely the other three brakes are up to the job of stopping the car if the rear right fails. And im sure it would have held out at least till the end of the race, considering he lasted from lap 48 to 55 with the brakes being ok, whats one more lap going to do. Also, going into the pits is also the same distance as going across the finish. If its brake related, he'll actually need to brake even more by retiring into the pits, as he's got to negotiate the pit lane left hander and also the speed limit line, whereas on track he wouldnt really need the brakes once he's taken the last corner

The first call calling him into the pits on the last lap to retire. Then they realised ( i think) that he'll still cross the finish line as the finish line is towards the rear of the grid and that he'll be crossing it in the pitlane instead.

So then the next calls were to retire on track.

I think that a car retiring shouldn't purely for a fresh gearbox shouldnt be allowed, because then if all teams had that mentality we'd have 10 cars finishing with the rest retiring to get a fresh gearbox.
..snip

they can't just retire because they want to, rule says:
"If a driver fails to finish a race due to reasons beyond his or his team's control, he may start the next meeting with a different gearbox without incurring a penalty."

I'm sure you'd have to convince technical control that retirement was for valid reasons, strange radio messages isn't going to help with that

[Abarth]

WhiteBlue has too much of pro Vettel emphasis on. You have to blame Vettel for not taking into account the backmarker making his return on the racing line a bit too early. Apart that, did you _ever_ see such mistakes from, say, Alonso?

And, after rechecking again the situation, on the videos available: do i see some quite "dominant" closing from Vettel, kind of "i'll give you what, being exactly in this corner in front of me and having me to overtake you here instead of you lifting on the previous straight"?

[FrukostScones]

I can understand Vettel complaining about the HRT and NK, ridiculing them as "lame cucumbers", but in my opinion he caused the collision. Why take "the risk of the arrogance" and do the killer swerve on NK when you could pass him more safely without loosing much time. Ah yeah, he wanted to catch HAM(or was it Webber)... now he got nothing.

HAM was quite good today, PEREZ was unbeatable today, damn this lucky (and very skilled Alonso)... the lap time diagram we have seen says it all... once again PEREZ near win:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ATzOeO32yY[/youtube]

Grojean is the 2lap wonder, beautiful start and then off to the grass...
Can someone tell him to use is brain when he is overtaken..?! Thi swas a very long race and he was once again to overeager.

[PlatinumZealot]

DRS is no excuse for not obeying blue flags. You can easily loose a lap behind a back marker and several seconds if a driver refuses to cooperate being lapped. They must respect the fact that they are not racing the fast guys.

Kartikeyan

We do not want to be a hindrance but this does not give them the right to bully you.

The guy clearly has an attitude problem. Since when is it bullying when the race leaders expect to be made way by the back markers? Drivers are getting the blue light when the faster drivers are some 50m away and they should stay off the racing line if they are not on it. It is best to immediately drive with the clear intention of letting the other guy pass as soon as possible even if you loose pace yourself. In an hairpin you should not try to get back on the racing line if you were further to the outside of the corner.

Your boy just cut over a little bit too early that's all.