Sebastian Vettel has won the Malaysian GP after passing his teammate following an extremely hard fought battle 10 laps from the end. Mercedes impressed as well with Hamilton finishing on the podium, just ahead of his teammate Nico Rosberg.
SilverArrow10 wrote:Who had the fastest top speed in the speed trap in Australia. Because that will surely be an advantage in Sepang with its two long straights. Something Mercedes is suprisingly struggling with.
Surprisingly Lewis had the highest speed trap in Qualifying.
4km/h faster then Rosberg.
"Il Phenomeno" - The one they fear the most!
"2% of the world's population own 50% of the world's wealth."
raymondu999 wrote:How can you say red bull is the favorite? For pole maybe. But from what we've seen so far, they're 3rd fastest at best in equal conditions race pace.
Though as I say - the warmer climates could change all that. Remember lotus last year? The Red Bull could very well be the similar in that it becomes competitive in race pace in the heat. Considering their pole advantage in Melbourne, they could probably bias their setups more towards the race now anyways as they can afford to weaken their qualifying to increase race pace.
Genuine question - how easy is this to do? I only ask because if it were straight forward, surely for example Mercedes would have done this last year?
Simple – gear shorter, add more wing. Done. All you're doing is setting up the car to be more stable and drivable under heavy loads, and worn tyre situations, even if it means having more drag, or lower top speeds under light loads and fresh tyres.
last year RBR seemed to be geared quite short already, most of the time hitting the limiter when using drs
SilverArrow10 wrote:Who had the fastest top speed in the speed trap in Australia. Because that will surely be an advantage in Sepang with its two long straights. Something Mercedes is suprisingly struggling with.
Surprisingly Lewis had the highest speed trap in Qualifying.
4km/h faster then Rosberg.
I thought in the race it was terrible? But that sounds like good news
"Leave it to Lewis Hamilton to ruin Redbull's day" - Martin Brundle
"Ok Lewis, Its Hammertime!!" - Peter Bonnington
"Fresh tires, 15 laps. What do you think Lewis Hamilton is going to do?" - Martin Brundle
A wet Friday and perfect hot death weather the next two days is what it's looking like. It will certainly be interesting to see the pace of the cars in this weather. I expect the medium to last about 10-12 laps but they will be very fast, the hard tire will be three tenths slower but will last a good eight to 10 laps more. Given a 56 lap race, I'm guessing a two stopper for hards will be the default strategy. The winning albeit tricky strategy will pulling off a two stopper, one for hards one for mediums, and not necessarily in that order.
SilverArrow10 wrote:I thought in the race it was terrible? But that sounds like good news
It sure looked like it when Raikkonen went past so quick it looked like he had an extra engine fitted to the car.
Keep in mind that speed trap was with DRS enabled so they probably handicapped themselves top speed wise with no DRS.
I'm not sure with the numbers for Hamilton, but I distinctly remember that Alonso topped the chart for a while. I was watching online. The trap read 308+kmph for him. Couldn't get the final charts.
Finishing second is being the first one of losers....
I do agree , Everyone remembers the legendary durability of the Birdgestone ..( ex:Petrov , Kubica , Rosberg Abu dhabi 2010)
These tires suit more ALMS than F1 , Pirellis are great only if you understand them if not they "sublimate", they do give interesting races but only for the first half of the season, once they have been understood by the teams a hierarchy is established
My Predictions : Qualifying
1-2 Red bull
3-Alonso
4-Hamilton
The task is,not so much to see what no one has yet seenbut to think what nobody has yet thought, about that which everybody sees. Erwin Schrödinger
1. Alonso
2. Hamilton
3. Raikkonen
4. Massa
5. Vettel
If someone said to me that you can have three wishes, my first would have been to get into racing, my second to be in Formula 1, my third to drive for Ferrari.
SilverArrow10 wrote:Who had the fastest top speed in the speed trap in Australia. Because that will surely be an advantage in Sepang with its two long straights. Something Mercedes is suprisingly struggling with.
Completely different set ups on the cars so can't compare performance from track to track.
Jackuar wrote:I'm not sure with the numbers for Hamilton, but I distinctly remember that Alonso topped the chart for a while. I was watching online. The trap read 308+kmph for him. Couldn't get the final charts.
raymondu999 wrote:How can you say red bull is the favorite? For pole maybe. But from what we've seen so far, they're 3rd fastest at best in equal conditions race pace.
Though as I say - the warmer climates could change all that. Remember lotus last year? The Red Bull could very well be the similar in that it becomes competitive in race pace in the heat. Considering their pole advantage in Melbourne, they could probably bias their setups more towards the race now anyways as they can afford to weaken their qualifying to increase race pace.
I wonder what will happen if Lotus has last year pace on warm weather. They sucked last year on cold, but this year they win Melbourne in those conditions, if their pace is even better on warm conditions, well goodbye everyones see you in next lap
I think it remains to be seen whether it will play out like that, or if in fact their efforts to rectify their cold weather lack of competitiveness means that they will be losing their hot-weather advantage.
I still think they got issues with cold weather in that they can't heat up the tyres for that hot quali lap. Otoh, they still preserve the tyres better than all other teams and given that this years tyres are softer and quicker than last years, they don't have so much of an issue on slightly cool race conditions. My 2 cent lay theory.
p.s. why is Kimi wearing his dad's overalls this year?
Last edited by Tamburello on 18 Mar 2013, 15:46, edited 1 time in total.