2015 Malaysian Grand Prix - Sepang

[djos]

What happened to Kimi? I was watching a Spanish feed so missed a lot of the detail.

Got bogged down behind a sauber.

Bugger, so didn't make it into q3.

[SectorOne]

Lewis and Vettel qualifying comparison. Look at the water in Lewis' lap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o154jMv7Hz0

Yea quite the difference.

[De Jokke]

Alonso(and Schumacher) showed in 2012 that they are the absolute class of the field on wet track.

Alonso put a dog of a car on pole in a wet Silverstone and Hockenheim, while Schumacher was 3th and 4th in both(outqualifying Mclarens, Red Bull(s), Lotuses) while Rosberg was 13th on Silverstone and last in Hockenheim's Q2(17th).

However, Vettel is not that far off. His results on wet are most of the time very impressive and these last two Malaysian Q3's just highlight that.

Hamilton would come on a, somewhat distant, third tier imho

Haven't seen Alonso, schum or Vettel doing a 2008 Silverstone performance.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Alonso(and Schumacher) showed in 2012 that they are the absolute class of the field on wet track.

Alonso put a dog of a car on pole in a wet Silverstone and Hockenheim, while Schumacher was 3th and 4th in both(outqualifying Mclarens, Red Bull(s), Lotuses) while Rosberg was 13th on Silverstone and last in Hockenheim's Q2(17th).

However, Vettel is not that far off. His results on wet are most of the time very impressive and these last two Malaysian Q3's just highlight that.

Hamilton would come on a, somewhat distant, third tier imho

Haven't seen Alonso, schum or Vettel doing a 2008 Silverstone performance.

Go to youtube and watch Barcelona 96, the best wet performance ever for me. When was the last time you see a driver 2-3 seconds faster all the race on full wet condition ? During the race the Ferrari lost a cylinder but he was one second faster than everybody.

edit :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK7iodc ... 1E7E0B7917

[De Jokke]

The best wet weather performances are Senna in 93 at donington and Lewis in Silverstone '08, one minute clear!

[Andres125sx]

We can find all excuses (engine, aero, track) you mentioned them all, but it wont change the fact that 11 (yes that is 11) years ago (or 16 if we take 1999) the cars were faster. If you dont move forward you are moving backward. For sure we have hybrid tech and all gizmos but where is the thrill?

I dont know why there cant be a way for the FIA to make these cars a bit faster. It is not a problem of going faster just for the sake of it but I cannot help it to look at previous years and it kinds of make me sad everytime.

I guess i am just an old grumpy F1 fan that uses forums to spit my anger at the FIA

That´s a different problem and I agree with you on this, but you can´t point turbo engines as the problem as you did on your previous message because that´s not the problem, and I´m sure you know it

Most powerful engines in F1 ever were turbo engines, and not fighting with any other configuration, they were the most powerful ever by a huge margin. They provided more power than any other engine (V8, V10, v12...) with the lowest displacement F1 has ever used (1.5 vs current 1.6) and no hybrid part at all. And that was 30 years ago... 3 decades ago!!

Today current engines, if not restricted by fuel flow, 4/5 units per season, turbo restrictions, etc. they have the potential to provide probably around 2000hp or even more. F1 cars could be faster, that´s sure, but turbo engines are the only thing you can assure they´re not the problem

Blame restrictions with aero (EBD, DD, wings size, ground effect...)
Blame restrictions with turbos (max pressure, max number, variable turbos banned...)
Blame restrictions with PU allocations (if an engine must last 4-5 GPs that limit power output quite a lot)
Blame restrictions with fuel flow
Blame restrictions with total fuel allowed
Blame restrictions with technology used on production cars wich are banned on F1 (active aero, active suspensions...)
Blame these crappy tires designed to wear on purpose
.
.
.

There are many aspects to blame current cars because they certainly are slower than 2004 era, but never blame turbo engines, they´re far from a problem

[De Jokke]

Why didn't the mercs improve?

Lewis blocked by Rosberg on second attempt and last attempt with more worn tyres ??

Rosberg wasn't on it, except for the last one but messed up in the final corner ??

Or am I missing something?

[Juzh]

There are many aspects to blame current cars because they certainly are slower than 2004 era, but never blame turbo engines, they´re far from a problem

They're not. Still, more power is always nice, wider tires, loosen aero restriction just a little bit. What we have now is just too slow.

[GPR-A duplicate2]

Can someone clean the thread please? This is Malaysian GP thread and not about a driver's racing abilities OR how good or bad today's cars are.

[Artur Craft]

Just for the sake of it:

Lap record at Sepang is 1'34''223 (2004, Montoya).

Oh yea F1 turbo cars are fast, no doubt about it. Pathetic.

A decade ago, Alonso did the fastest lap ever in Sepang: 1.32.5.

Last year, Rosberg already did 1.39.0 on FP3 and, this year, the fastest lap done was 1.39.2

I was expecting 1 to 1,5s of improvement(majorly due to PU improvement) of 2015 cars. There were some enthusiasts claiming 3s.

How pathetic slow these cars are

So, pole is likely to be around 1:38.5. That's about 4 seconds off the best ever lap at the track that's probably the single worst for these cars of the entire year.

Meanwhile:
At Bahrain, we can expect to see pole around 1:31 (within a second of the lap record)
At Spain, we can expect around a 1:23 (within 2 seconds of the lap record despite it being an extremely high downforce circuit)
At Monaco, a 1:13 (a second faster than the lap record)
At Canada, a 1:12 (a second faster than the lap record)
At Austria, a 1:06 (2 seconds faster than the lap record)
At Silverstone, a 1:33(within 2 seconds of the lap record, despite it being an extremely high downforce circuit)
...

Basically, we're there or there abouts the lap records. Malaysia is almost the archetypal worst case for the current generation of cars.

Sepang has lot's of long DRS straights to benefit these cars.

They are much far because Montoya's lap is a RACE lap, overall, 1.38.5 would mean 6s off.

Also, they did 1.18 on Barcelona when testing with slicks in 2008. Barrichello in 2009 and Webber in 2010, brought it 1.19.

Watching these cars onboard seems like a "cruising lap" through corners if you're used to videos of 2004-2013

We can find all excuses (engine, aero, track) you mentioned them all, but it wont change the fact that 11 (yes that is 11) years ago (or 16 if we take 1999) the cars were faster. If you dont move forward you are moving backward. For sure we have hybrid tech and all gizmos but where is the thrill?

I dont know why there cant be a way for the FIA to make these cars a bit faster. It is not a problem of going faster just for the sake of it but I cannot help it to look at previous years and it kinds of make me sad everytime.

I guess i am just an old grumpy F1 fan that uses forums to spit my anger at the FIA

+1
Meanwhile, Porsche destroyed LMP1 Paul Ricard record yesterday and today at the Prologue

[De Jokke]

Just read that Lewis did complain about Rosberg over the radio.

Nice move in the press conference then, well played Lewis.

[Juzh]

At Spain, we can expect around a 1:23 (within 2 seconds of the lap record despite it being an extremely high downforce circuit)

[arahman_93]

this was the incident

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/32099184

[ringo]

I don't think the lap Lewis was blocked was his fast lap or his last lap. It did affect how much life was in the tyres though. As he could have improved right then and there without nico in the way.
As for Nico, i don't think he intended to block Lewis. He simply was in the wrong place at that time. Had he come on the inside, he may have surprised Lewis a bit, as the relative speeds between the two was very big.
Nico should have just got on with it and try his best, and forget about all the cerebral stuff to get some kind of talent independent advantage. He is starting to look like Jenson Button when he can't beat Lewis on speed and must use wiley tactics to level things out. The only thing is Button is much much wiser, and a bit more smoooth when it comes to wiley tactics.

[ringo]

Just for the sake of it:

Lap record at Sepang is 1'34''223 (2004, Montoya).

Oh yea F1 turbo cars are fast, no doubt about it. Pathetic.

A decade ago, Alonso did the fastest lap ever in Sepang: 1.32.5.

Last year, Rosberg already did 1.39.0 on FP3 and, this year, the fastest lap done was 1.39.2

I was expecting 1 to 1,5s of improvement(majorly due to PU improvement) of 2015 cars. There were some enthusiasts claiming 3s.

How pathetic slow these cars are

So, pole is likely to be around 1:38.5. That's about 4 seconds off the best ever lap at the track that's probably the single worst for these cars of the entire year.

Meanwhile:
At Bahrain, we can expect to see pole around 1:31 (within a second of the lap record)
At Spain, we can expect around a 1:23 (within 2 seconds of the lap record despite it being an extremely high downforce circuit)
At Monaco, a 1:13 (a second faster than the lap record)
At Canada, a 1:12 (a second faster than the lap record)
At Austria, a 1:06 (2 seconds faster than the lap record)
At Silverstone, a 1:33(within 2 seconds of the lap record, despite it being an extremely high downforce circuit)
...

Basically, we're there or there abouts the lap records. Malaysia is almost the archetypal worst case for the current generation of cars.

Sepang has lot's of long DRS straights to benefit these cars.

They are much far because Montoya's lap is a RACE lap, overall, 1.38.5 would mean 6s off.

Also, they did 1.18 on Barcelona when testing with slicks in 2008. Barrichello in 2009 and Webber in 2010, brought it 1.19.

Watching these cars onboard seems like a "cruising lap" through corners if you're used to videos of 2004-2013

We can find all excuses (engine, aero, track) you mentioned them all, but it wont change the fact that 11 (yes that is 11) years ago (or 16 if we take 1999) the cars were faster. If you dont move forward you are moving backward. For sure we have hybrid tech and all gizmos but where is the thrill?

I dont know why there cant be a way for the FIA to make these cars a bit faster. It is not a problem of going faster just for the sake of it but I cannot help it to look at previous years and it kinds of make me sad everytime.

I guess i am just an old grumpy F1 fan that uses forums to spit my anger at the FIA

+1
Meanwhile, Porsche destroyed LMP1 Paul Ricard record yesterday and today at the Prologue

These cars are very heavy remember? So that's also where they are losing out. But i know for sure that pound for pound they are lightyears ahead in terms of handling and drivability and control.