2015 Malaysian Grand Prix - Sepang

[MOWOG]

My take (assuming anyone cares) is that Mercedes gifted the race to Ferrari through poor strategy calls. In the end, they made one more pit stop than Ferrari. The pit stop delta at Sepang is about 23 seconds.

That's all she wrote.

Putting Lewis back out on hards for the end of the race just showed the team recognized they had blown it and were content to have Lewis come second. Can you imagine having all those smart types manning all those computers and crunching all those numbers and STILL getting your sums wrong? How embarrassing.......

[Phil]

The pit stop delta at Sepang is about 23 seconds.

True, but that's not the delta Mercedes lost. Remember, their first pit-stop was effectively "free" and neutralized by it being under the safety car. The only thing that did cost them time, roughly ~11 seconds, was the fact that they ended up in traffic and couldn't run at their pace. So the time they lost through that "3rd pitstop" isn't 23 seconds, it's ~11.

If they hadn't pitted under the safety car, they might have had to come in on lap 12 or so (my humble guess) and then could have run two prime stints which would have enabled them to do that 2 stopper. But pitting on lap 12 would have perhaps equally put them into a bit of traffic and at a disadvantage relative to Seb, due to his better tyre wear being able to do OOP instead of OPP. I think the gap would have been quite small by the end of the race, but I still think Seb would have got it, thanks to better pace on the quicker tyre with less deg vs. Mercedes on the prime.

[WaikeCU]

My take (assuming anyone cares) is that Mercedes gifted the race to Ferrari through poor strategy calls. In the end, they made one more pit stop than Ferrari. The pit stop delta at Sepang is about 23 seconds.

That's all she wrote.

Putting Lewis back out on hards for the end of the race just showed the team recognized they had blown it and were content to have Lewis come second. Can you imagine having all those smart types manning all those computers and crunching all those numbers and STILL getting your sums wrong? How embarrassing.......

There was a lot of errors in radio traffic too. On lap 42, we hear his race engineer telling him the following:

Lewis you are scheduled to catch Vettel with five laps remaining.

Lap 42? There was still more than 10 laps to go. I really didn't understand why they told Lewis, there's only 5 laps remaining.

[WaikeCU]

The pit stop delta at Sepang is about 23 seconds.

True, but that's not the delta Mercedes lost. Remember, their first pit-stop was effectively "free" and neutralized by it being under the safety car. The only thing that did cost them time, roughly ~11 seconds, was the fact that they ended up in traffic and couldn't run at their pace. So the time they lost through that "3rd pitstop" isn't 23 seconds, it's ~11.

If they hadn't pitted under the safety car, they might have had to come in on lap 12 or so (my humble guess) and then could have run two prime stints which would have enabled them to do that 2 stopper. But pitting on lap 12 would have perhaps equally put them into a bit of traffic and at a disadvantage relative to Seb, due to his better tyre wear being able to do OOP instead of OPP. I think the gap would have been quite small by the end of the race, but I still think Seb would have got it, thanks to better pace on the quicker tyre with less deg vs. Mercedes on the prime.

I doubt it tbh, because after the safety car got released, the pack was really bunched up. If they would have pitted on lap 12, I think the pack would have been more stretched.

[evered7]

Lewis you are scheduled to catch Vettel with five laps remaining.

Lap 42? There was still more than 10 laps to go. I really didn't understand why they told Lewis, there's only 5 laps remaining.

They meant he will catch Vettel when there are 5 laps to end of the race. Didn't mean only 5 laps were left.

It was wrong again as Lewis was nowhere near the pace he would require to put in, to catch Vettel.

[ChrisM40]

Personally I think it was Mercedes arrogance that cost them this weekend. They assumed they had the fastest car and nothing they did would change that. They went conservative on the set up, too draggy, not 'racey' enough' and thought Ferrari would just fall back like all the other teams that have shown any promise.

The main problem was that they didnt expect so many cars not to pit under the safety car, and pitting as early as they did meant that their stints were too long.

[Andres125sx]

Just a quick reminder for all those saying Ferrari will be a title contender and/or Alonso must have stayed in Ferrari...

Alonso won 11 GPs driving a red car, including his very first (Barhein 2010) and we all know how succesful Ferrari era was for him.

I don´t think we will see many races with a track temp of 61ºC/142ºF like it was in Malaysia wich obviously favoured Ferrari, plus a very debatable strategy for Mercedes

Ferrari is on a best position than last season, but that was easy. Alonso moved from Ferrari because winning GPs was not enough for him, he want titles and even when Ferrari has improved a lot this season will be for Mercedes anycase. This season for Ferrari will be very similar to past seasons when Alonso was driving for them, exactly the situation he got tired, driving for a team that on best case scenario can win some GP if conditions are favorable

I´m sure he knew before hand first half of 2015 season, or even the whole season, will be dificult. I don´t think he cares too much about being 2nd or 12th on the WDC

I agree it´s frustrating watching his old team winning when his car is not able to pass Q1, but he didn´t change to McLaren to win from first GP. It´s just too soon to state his move to McLaren has been wrong, he probably was thinking about 2016 more than 2015 so we must be patient before judging his move

[windwaves]

to the complainers... you really dont have to watch if you dont like what you see

Don't worry, according to the viewing figures a lot of people have already taken your advice.

yep, and can you blame them ?

[ChrisM40]

Exactly, I'm sure he would prefer to win races than not, but he wants a title and he isnt winning a title this year in a Mclaren or a Ferrari.

[windwaves]

how come alonso keep making wrong career decisions at very apt time ?. that guy will be wearing a smirk but deep down the heart he knows . he is not going to win soon unless honda is hiding something behind their reliability woes. i still feel mercedes complacency cost them a win, they did nt see it coming and from next race onwards they will not look silly but boy feeling so sorry for fernando , he leaves and that index figure with yesss rises again..

I feel the same, poor Alonso ! Sadly I myself have no expectation or hope whatsoever that Honda is hiding anything. They just got it all wrong. McL is showing their best, fighting with Manor

[iotar__]

- Now after one race Mercedes is worthless because a driver fell off the pedestal, what happened to superior tyre management? Maybe FRIC ban wasn't that pointless. Bottas can't start well to save his life and Williams is in competitive no-man's land, negative conclusion from Malaysia. There's no point in speculating about McL until they achieve some reasonable level.

- Verstappen looks like a visually tidy driver (which means little and marketing works on everybody) but hype is annoying. He finished just in front of his rookie team-mate that started 9 places behind, was a mess at the start, for a quarter of the race and before pitstop (normal and happens) but they only talk about record points. In Melbourne he would have finished way behind Sainz. I bet Magnussen, not worthy of F1 because he had a benchmark in Button could do better than either. Why can't they wait until something spectacular?

If someone in every racing thread was bringing how Monaco laps from the 90s (perfect selective fact with Senna or Schumacher) were slow compared to 2014 Rosberg's it would be weird but clinging to 2004 as a benchmark of displeasure with current F1 race is considered good manners here.

[windwaves]

Not sure how you have managed to come to that conclusion. Hes had some bad luck, thats it.

bad luck ? I mean do you recall anything from last year ? with that sort of performance it is a miracle Ferrari even gave him another chance this year. Of course, as #2 nonetheless.

[ChrisM40]

I dont think Honda got it all wrong as such, they probably have the most powerful and advanced PU on the grid, it just cant handle being in an actual car!

[Jordan44]

I dont think Honda got it all wrong as such, they probably have the most powerful and advanced PU on the grid, it just cant handle being in an actual car!

I'm not sure how you can come to the conclusion that they have the most powerful and advanced PU. They can talk the talk but that doesn't mean anything. We haven't seen anything special from them yet.

Infact what worries me the most is that they've had to change some of the fundamental design of the engine because of a flaw. This has surely impacted them somewhat.

[Chene_Mostert]

I dont think Honda got it all wrong as such, they probably have the most powerful and advanced PU on the grid, it just cant handle being in an actual car!

The PU can only be as advanced & as powerful as wat the regulations and fuel flow restrictions allow.
Even the engine CoG is regulated...