Malaysian GP 2012 - Sepang International Circuit

[raymondu999]

Nope.

I wasn't putting up my view of the situation - I was summarising Karthikeyan's.

Check the footage I linked to in the post above yours at 1hr 42mins 34sec.

I can't.

[jddh1]

I thought it was Vettel's fault when his tire got punctured by Karth's fw. I think the passing cars should be held more accountable.

[ringo]

NK and Vettel incident is 50/50 in my view, both moving over at the same time.
Overall though Vettel could have done better to avoid Narain. Faster car, better acceleration and he had the whole track to the right and front of him.
No point is weaving and bobbing in front of an HRT, why not be cautious?
Vettel was just a little hot under the collar and he saw Hamilton up the road and got too frisky.
I expect more red mist and mean bugging in the races and interviews from the champ.

His true colours will come out this season if he doesn't get a dominant car.

As for Alonso and Perez, those cars were dialed in for those conditions. Ferrari always had a good wet weather car, this race proves that aero is really the cars problem and not the pullrods.
Sauber showing the pace they always had as well. This car is a better race car than the mercedes.
I wanted Perez to win, but i believe he made an honest mistake. You can't try to follow alonso on the limit. He will ward you to the deep end and drown you. He's done that many times with cars trying to chase him.
Hamilton for some reason couldnt get any pace out of the car. mclaren also helped to make his race dificult.
we should not look at pit stop time, but look on the time wasted going round for 2 or three laps on the wrong tyre when he should have come in for a tyre change.

Alonso would not have been ahead at the stops had Mclaren did a good job. They need to stop giving Button priority everytime; all in the name of not hurting his feelings. Or maybe he's the one who has some kind of mind control over them.

mclanen simply need to put their eggs in the leading drivers basket. Last race Hamilton wanted to pit, he said the tyres were going off, they told him to stay out, as button didn't pit as yet. This cost him a spot to Vettel. This time around Button is the one radioing in and they let him pit. Somethings going on with that team and it's engineers.
Anyhow, entertaining race, and glad to see so many different cars in the points.

[jddh1]

I wanted Perez to win, but i believe he made an honest mistake. You can't try to follow alonso on the limit. He will ward you to the deep end and drown you. He's done that many times with cars trying to chase him.

Agreed. I think Perez put the left front tire on the white paint, which was still wet, and lost the car under braking. He opted to go straight than try to turn right and risk spinning. I think he would have won had he not made that mistake.

[myurr]

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

Ferrari were able to demonstrate to the FIA that their oscillating wing was not flexing, showing a problem with a perfectly okay car after a race distance shouldn't be too difficult.

[GrizzleBoy]

Alonso would not have been ahead at the stops had Mclaren did a good job. They need to stop giving Button priority everytime; all in the name of not hurting his feelings. Or maybe he's the one who has some kind of mind control over them.

mclanen simply need to put their eggs in the leading drivers basket. Last race Hamilton wanted to pit, he said the tyres were going off, they told him to stay out, as button didn't pit as yet. This cost him a spot to Vettel. This time around Button is the one radioing in and they let him pit. Somethings going on with that team and it's engineers.
Anyhow, entertaining race, and glad to see so many different cars in the points.

First stop:

-Button gets first dibs on the wet tyres even though Hamilton is leading.
-rear jack man spend about 2 seconds just trying to get the jack under Hamiltons car
-which means Hamilton waits even longer for other cars to pass
-which means Hamilton emerges from the pits behind Button



Second stop:

-Button gets first dibs on the slicks, even though Hamilton is in front
-they spend about four seconds removing some tape from his brake ducts


Not bad McLaren.

Not bad.

[zeph]

With all this bickering back and forth it feels like I never left.

Fuel for a rainy sunday morning fire:

Karthikeyan was bribed by Ferrari to take out Button and Vettel. The McLaren pitcrew was also bribed by Ferrari to botch up Hamilton's pitstops. Horner was also bribed by Ferrari in a ultimate attempt to DNF Vettel.

They didn't need to take out Webber as he is a loyal Ferrari lackey and would never challenge BFF Alonso on track. And Sauber was held ransom (failing engine threat) if Perez were to challenge Alonso's lead, too.

What's more, Charlie Whiting is also in the Scuderia's pay and SC'd and RF'd the race at the strategically most opportune moments for Alonso, who was his usual mediocre self and couldn't drive his way out of a parking lot.




But seriously, it did look a little odd, the way McLaren seemed to fail Hamilton.

[Jeffsvilleusa]

First stop:

-Button gets first dibs on the wet tyres even though Hamilton is leading.
-rear jack man spend about 2 seconds just trying to get the jack under Hamiltons car
-which means Hamilton waits even longer for other cars to pass
-which means Hamilton emerges from the pits behind Button



Second stop:

-Button gets first dibs on the slicks, even though Hamilton is in front
-they spend about four seconds removing some tape from his brake ducts


Not bad McLaren.

Not bad.

True, they didn't do Hamilton any favors on the stops, but maybe Button got first dibs on tires to be the guinea pig. I think on at least one occasion, I think it was the first change to full wets, Massa went in a lap before Alonso, Ferrari obviously favoring Alonso.

[MuseF1]

Not really. The real guinea pig is the first guy to switch tyres, which was i think Vergne in the Torro Rosso for the dry's. Thats the guinea pig. When he starts setting fast sectors, which he did, then thats the time to pit, not 3 laps later

[andartop]

First stop:

-Button gets first dibs on the wet tyres even though Hamilton is leading.
-rear jack man spend about 2 seconds just trying to get the jack under Hamiltons car
-which means Hamilton waits even longer for other cars to pass
-which means Hamilton emerges from the pits behind Button

I thought Hamilton was still leading after the first stop.

[raymondu999]

He was

[andartop]

Sauber denies suggestions that Perez was ordered to not attack Alonso in Malaysian GP:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98393

[raymondu999]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnI3iabPn3I[/youtube]
In this vid Vettel quite clearly stays level, no? The distance from him to the left track boundary stays constant; before he finally turns right.

[Ray]

Two things I got from this race:
1. The FIA should tell HRT to pack up and go home. There's no reason to have cars that slow on the track, they are moving accidents waiting to happen.
2. I love Massa, I really do. He showed the most genuine emotion I've ever seen in F1 when he lost to Lewis in Brazil 2008. He's got to go to another team. He's wasting that seat at Ferrari and don't forget, Fisi finished second to a Ferrari in Spa and the next week was behind the wheel of one. I'd say Massa has effectively written his own pink slip. 97 seconds behind Alonso who won the race. His prospects are very grim.

Great race overall. Shame to see McLaren ruin Hamilton's pit stop and HRT effectively take out Button. HRT should NEVER race anyone, much less a McLaren. They are too slow and don't belong on the track with everyone else. 107% rule be damned. I'd bet Bernd could out qualify them both. I'm very surprised to see Webber besting Vettel two weekends in a row.

[GrizzleBoy]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnI3iabPn3I[/youtube]
In this vid Vettel quite clearly stays level, no? The distance from him to the left track boundary stays constant; before he finally turns right.

Nope.

Vettel from a distance sees Karthikeyan already killing himself to make way for other cars (which pretty much kills the "he has an attitude problem and wont let cars past" thing).

Karthikeyan then proceeds as normal.

Vettel attempts a dive bomb down the inside from way back and gets a wheel on the inside curb.

Vettel spins his wheels up at 6 seconds as he tries to accelerate out of the turn before he had good control. You see him fight the wheel to keep the car straight at 7 seconds.

By the time he recovers at 8 seconds (pause at 8 seconds and look), his nose is pointing towards the inside of the next turn.

This path means he is cutting across the track, and also cutting across a car that had no one in their mirrors a second ago.

Karthikeyan said in his interview that he put himself at risk going onto the curb to get out of the way for other cars just before.

If you're Karthikeyan and you now suddenly see this coming at you at 100+kph, you either think, "okay, this guy is looking to push me off the track" and brake suddenly so you dont end up in the grass (braking suddenly isn't a good idea especially in these conditions), you try and get out of the way or both.

Karthikeyan said before that he was getting wheel spin on the curbs when he had just let other cars past (and Vettel was looking to push him into more curbs), so he decided to go right to avoid what seemed like a dangerous situation and to try and not almost lose control of his car again on the curbs but unfortunately, Vettels wheel was there.