2017 Malaysia Grand Prix - Sepang, 29 September-01 October

[Vasconia]

Hello guys and girls, it's been a while.

Regarding the absolutely weird accident: I'm still not able to comprehend how this was even possible. Both drivers must have been busy with settings on their steering wheels and totally oblivious on their surroundings. Regardless of analyses who is wrong or who is correct, both were in a position where they could have backed out of their upcoming collision, and both should have taken avoiding action. It's a situation outside of competition, and one getting the pickup line later than the other should not have made any difference.

I certainly would not want any of those 2 next to me in normal traffic... .

I think Stroll has a bigger responsability in this incident but yeah, both drivers should have paid more attention to what was happening around them. The incident is pretty stupid and ridiculous if you take into account that we are speaking about (theoretically) the best drivers in the world.

[Vasconia]

Onto different drivers now that was a chamion's drive from Max. Colour me impressed! Where did he get that from man?? Ha.

5 different race winners so far this season. Can Kimi make it 6?

Mercedes struggling with the heat and thus struggling to get tires working properly?

I´m afraid Malaysia was HIS chance for this season. Unless Vettel has more problems I can´t see Kimi winning a race if Vettel is just behind him.

[NathanOlder]

Stroll even takes a tighter line to the left just before suddenly counter steering to the right (in a sharp left hander no less).

It wasn't turn 2 dude. It was turn 5. Probably 7th gear in these cars. Sharp left hander lol

[Restomaniac]

Somewhere out there, there's a fan seething, because in the end it must be Hamilton's fault.

Let it go, you'll suffer less, all suffering is caused by wishing things were different. We've got Japan and the most beautiful example of a track designed by someone who didn't have a ruler coming up.

...and everything is right with the world.

Did you guys catch the post race interview of Vettel complaining of how Mercedes used Bottas to give him a hard time while overtaking him? @the 2:16 mark. Priceless.

https://youtu.be/Cp_B8VN3wB0?t=2m8s

Amazing and hypocritical by Vet. Someone needs to remind him that his teammate did that for a full race when Vet's wheel wasn't straight.

[Vasconia]

Great performance by Vandoorne finishing 30 seconds ahead of Alonso, and also got ahead of Alonso in points.

Yes, he definitely beat Alonso on merit this weekend. And I'm an Alonso fan.

The worrying part has been that Alonso was using the new package. So, as it has happened with Mercedes, it seems that new parts have not worked at all.

[Juzh]

Stroll even takes a tighter line to the left just before suddenly counter steering to the right (in a sharp left hander no less).

It wasn't turn 2 dude. It was turn 5. Probably 7th gear in these cars. Sharp left hander lol

Semantics, it's a sharp turn as in it's not just a flick.

[digitalrurouni]

I don't think the Mercedes performance at this track is as shocking as some people are making it. The car flounders when there's slow corners and when there's high temps. I have a feeling at Suzuka it will be back on top. Mercedes has not really won at Sepang since 2014 have they?

[SectorOne]

Hoping we get to see more of this in the future, driver briefings.

[Artur Craft]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ggTVGANegs
Unsurprisingly, RB had more speed on the corners than Mercedes. On this track, though, it's impossible to know if that's due to better overall downforce or if Mercedes has simply ran with less downforce(thus lower drag config) relative to it's maximum.

I was very surprised to see the pace of the Mercedes on this race. I thought they would dominate the whole weekend and even on QLF the others were close. I already expected Mercedes to be slower than the other two on Singapore but to happen again on a completely different track might mean more. Who knows, as unlikely as it is, maybe Vettel could still have a shot. If the W08 was poor on Sepang, it can be poor on other tracks too.

I was already surprised at how much closer the likes of Mclaren, FI and etc.. were(to the pole) than they normally are. Vandoorne was "just" 1.5s slower than pole and, on Barcelona, a shorter track, the gap was well over 2s. The other cars improved far more than the top two(hence why RB also caught up) which is quite normal as those on the top are always on diminishing returns, reaching the roof.

Bottas was so pathetic all weekend( well, very slow since Canada whether due to him, Mercedes or both is anybody's guesses) and there was a time even Vandoorne and Perez were keeping up with him .

[TAG]

Given the performance on Sunday, Saturday's pole lap from Hamilton must have been something that astonished the Mercedes engineers.

[Phil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ggTVGANegs
Unsurprisingly, RB had more speed on the corners than Mercedes. On this track, though, it's impossible to know if that's due to better overall downforce or if Mercedes has simply ran with less downforce(thus lower drag config) relative to it's maximum.

I was very surprised to see the pace of the Mercedes on this race. I thought they would dominate the whole weekend and even on QLF the others were close. I already expected Mercedes to be slower than the other two on Singapore but to happen again on a completely different track might mean more. Who knows, as unlikely as it is, maybe Vettel could still have a shot. If the W08 was poor on Sepang, it can be poor on other tracks too.

I was already surprised at how much closer the likes of Mclaren, FI and etc.. were(to the pole) than they normally are. Vandoorne was "just" 1.5s slower than pole and, on Barcelona, a shorter track, the gap was well over 2s. The other cars improved far more than the top two(hence why RB also caught up) which is quite normal as those on the top are always on diminishing returns, reaching the roof.

Bottas was so pathetic all weekend( well, very slow since Canada whether due to him, Mercedes or both is anybody's guesses) and there was a time even Vandoorne and Perez were keeping up with him .

Nice post.

From what I've been reading, the crux of the problem are tires. The updates apparently worked, but for whatever reason, they were unable to work the tires to bring them into the right operating range. Much of what AMuS reported after having spoken to Mercedes engineers sounded very similar to Monaco. Either the fronts were overheating or the rear. One or the other, it created a car that's very difficult to manage, as it would either oversteer or understeer. The car did show moments of brilliance though during QF when Hamilton somehow (and thanks to the state of the track, the cooler temperatures) was able to hit the right window and get a lot out of the car (also thanks to QF performance mode obviously).

Long runs during practice however did suggest to Mercedes that they would most likely face a difficult time during the race. The data suggested (according to LH post-race interview) that RedBull had 4 tenths on them, Ferrari 8 tenths. That's a mighty gap, but probably exaggerated because the car wasn't able to work the tires properly. From what I observed, they struggled quite badly on the SS, but the S tire was better (still slower than RB and Ferrari, but better overall).

It's gonna be interesting to see how things will pan out from here on...

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Given the performance on Sunday, Saturday's pole lap from Hamilton must have been something that astonished the Mercedes engineers.

What we saw this past weekend, was so reminiscent of the first part of 2013. Rocket of a car for Saturday and struggle with tyres due to temperatures. Only this time, it was so much unexpected due to upgrades failing and pushing the team on a territory that was unknown. Over a lap, the car was still very quick despite having all those issues, but only with Lewis as has been the case throughout the season.

If the Q3 was done on Softs, the margin would have been far bigger to the next best car (around 3 to 4 tenths ahead) and if it was on Ultra Soft, Lewis would have been on most likely 3rd. So, the performance on SS was so marginal. Clearly points to issues with suspension setup, that was overworking the tyres. It was evident in race too. From the early season difficulty in putting temperature in tyres, to over heating the tyres at this stage of the season, Mercedes went from one end of spectrum to other (albeit an exception in this race with higher temperatures and humidity).

If anything, this was a role reversal from Silverstone, where Ferrari was almost a second down on Mercedes (cooler temperatures helping Mercedes and hurting Ferrari). That shows, no car loses a second over a race unless there are some gray areas that the team did not cover.

[Wynters]

One could say Vettel should have been a bit more careful when driving by other cars at high speed.

No, one couldn't. Stroll was going piss slow, and the speeds were not "high" at all. Stroll should have checked his mirrors when deciding to just veer across the track, it's not vettel's job to do it for him. He was giving him plenty of space.

Much as Vettel should've checked his mirrors in Singapore? Although apparently Vettel was totally blameless for that.

Perhaps Stroll "simply forgot to countersteer after he got alongside", much as Vettel apparently did in Baku? Although apparently Vettel was totally blameless for that.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, it was just an unfortunate combination of circumstances with Vettel approaching quickly on the right, Grosjean approaching quickly and moving to the left and Stroll caught in a sandwich where no driver realised more than two cars were involved.

- More importantly, interesting press conference from Bottas post-race.
- Disappointing to see Renault falling away.
- Where was Alonso whilst VD was delivering an excellent drive (on the heels of his Singapore performance, too).
- A shame to see Hamilton keeping out of Verstappen's way although a) I doubt he'd have been able to keep him behind due to the undercut and b) it was sensible thinking from both of them.
- Although this is the end of the most troubling 'Diva' tracks for Mercedes, Red Bull's outstanding development so far means they are a real threat for getting between the Ferraris and the Mercs. Hamilton is ahead by a lot of points but it's far from over.

[NathanOlder]

One could say Vettel should have been a bit more careful when driving by other cars at high speed.

No, one couldn't. Stroll was going piss slow, and the speeds were not "high" at all. Stroll should have checked his mirrors when deciding to just veer across the track, it's not vettel's job to do it for him. He was giving him plenty of space.

Much as Vettel should've checked his mirrors in Singapore? Although apparently Vettel was totally blameless for that.

Perhaps Stroll "simply forgot to countersteer after he got alongside", much as Vettel apparently did in Baku? Although apparently Vettel was totally blameless for that.

Or perhaps, just perhaps, it was just an unfortunate combination of circumstances with Vettel approaching quickly on the right, Grosjean approaching quickly and moving to the left and Stroll caught in a sandwich where no driver realised more than two cars were involved.

- More importantly, interesting press conference from Bottas post-race.
- Disappointing to see Renault falling away.
- Where was Alonso whilst VD was delivering an excellent drive (on the heels of his Singapore performance, too).
- A shame to see Hamilton keeping out of Verstappen's way although a) I doubt he'd have been able to keep him behind due to the undercut and b) it was sensible thinking from both of them.
- Although this is the end of the most troubling 'Diva' tracks for Mercedes, Red Bull's outstanding development so far means they are a real threat for getting between the Ferraris and the Mercs. Hamilton is ahead by a lot of points but it's far from over.

Totally agree with all of that.

As for future races, Red Bull are well in the mix, and if they are able to win more races then that will hurt Vettel more as he needs the 7/10pt gains on Hamilton. If they both finish behind Red Bull it will only be 3/6pt gains. I can see Red Bull being very strong in Japan and Brazil, this will be very interesting to watch.

And we only have to wait a few days and we get the next chapter

[ferkan]

Except Vettel didnt crash into Verstapeen in Singapore and Stroll did in Vettel. But dont let the facts get into way of good story...