Malaysian GP 2010 - Sepang

[Mr Alcatraz]

I guess that Vettel has stamped his authority over Webber and that Webber will loose the psychological battle for the championship sometime in the next three or four races.

I think that comment is a bit far fetched. Whilst Webber I am sure will be kicking himself for not shutting the door and Vettel drove a great race you cannot after 3 races say anyone has stamped their authority. Going by your reasoning we might believe that Alonso, Hamilton , Schumacer, Liuzzi Petrov etc etc just go home as they are behind their teammates in the points. Lets wait until mid season to see what happens eh?
P.S If it interests you I do believe that Vettel IS the better driver so dont even bother with the whole Australian -Webber thing.

Why such a logical comment?

[mr moda]

Oh I am sure in some peoples eyes it will not be logical at all. It will be full of hate and blatant spamming.

[ggajic]

Nico went out for single lap - and managed 2nd position behind Webber. Scumacher tyres were gone and there was no chance that he could enter pits for fresh set of rubber and do some quick lap. Don`t write Mercedes GP chances off. During qualifying I would say that Schumacher was determined and dedicated as he was during his best days.

[WhiteBlue]

During qualifying I would say that Schumacher was determined and dedicated as he was during his best days.

+1

Everybody who watched Q2 saw that Schumacher dominated the first 7 minutes of that segment while his inter tyres lasted. He then missed the driest part of the segment to bolt on a new set of inters. When he was back on track it had started to rain stronger. So he ended in a lowly 10th position in Q2.

In Q3 he had a temperature issue with the tyres and never got them up to the temp for a good run. It is evident from the fact he set his best time in the first flying lap while all other drivers set their fastest time later. I assume it was a wrong tyre pressure that prevented him to improve. That would be a team issue and not down to driver motivation.

Back on topic: There is no way around the fact that Nico Rosberg does better with the Merc. He won most sessions they drove. But I would not conclude that Nico will be always the faster Merc driver from now. It should depend of how much effort will be made to adapt the car to Schumacher's style. So far the effort to do that has also helped Nico and he has been positive about it. So the W01 development is also done for Nico as demanded by ringo.

[Ganxxta]

Everybody who watched Q2 saw that Schumacher dominated the first 7 minutes of that segment while his inter tyres lasted. He then missed the driest part of the segment to bolt on a new set of inters. When he was back on track it had started to rain stronger. So he ended in a lowly 10th position in Q2.

In his last lap in Q2 he had also the fastest time in sector 1+2 (purple ), but lost everything because of the heavy rain in sector 3, at least he managed it into Q3 despite other actors like Alonso and Hamilton (I know, team strategy...)

[mx_tifoso]

Please stick to the thread topic!

If you want to respond to someone about an offtopic remark please do so by PM.

Only Malaysian GP content will be allowed, any other may be at risk of deletion or editing.

[Raftaar]

Hello everyone! I wasn't online for a day, can't believe this thread is still on.
[ AND CERTAINLY CAN'T BELIEVE THE "WEAVING" DEBATE HAS BEEN STILL GOING ON AND ON !! ]
Anyways, I wanted to share a point, I couldn't do it early on; I am sure it is fair to say that McLaren certainly had an advantage in straight line speed, they did so all weekend. The "experts" and commentators were tireless in siting that it was down to the F-duct mechanism! I don't know how much fact there is to that, but whatever it was, the advantage was clearly showing in the race; Hamilton really did most of his overtaking in or around the back or the starting straight, so much that he was able to go flat out down the straight, break very late at the hairpin, run wide, and still gain a position.

But, after he came up to Sutil, we really couldn't see any of that till the end! I mean, sure, Sutil did fantastically well defending his position, but still, Hamilton couldn't even make an attempt to pass, couldn't come side-by-side even once. On the contrary he said to his team on radio "This guy(Sutil) is just too quick on the straight" !!!
Was that the case, that the VJM03 was quick (people are saying though, that the car is good at overall aerodynamic efficiency, judging from the peformances so far), or was it a case of sour grapes from Hamilton, that he JUST WASN'T ABLE TO PASS HIM!!

[roost89]

that was the case with the Fi last year. It was super-fast down the long straights. IIRC more of their grip comes from the tyres (more so than the other teams) and because they're slower in the corners, they optimise the car for going fast down the straight, so you'll almost always see a Force India near the top of the speed traps, if not, at the top.
It could also come down to the engine, they both use the Mercedes engine, so their throttle pick-up and acceleration, I'd imagine, would be pretty similar.

Their slippery aero was why they had such a good showing last year at the tracks like Spa and Monza.

[Mr Alcatraz]

Hello everyone! I wasn't online for a day, can't believe this thread is still on.
[ AND CERTAINLY CAN'T BELIEVE THE "WEAVING" DEBATE HAS BEEN STILL GOING ON AND ON !! ]
Anyways, I wanted to share a point, I couldn't do it early on; I am sure it is fair to say that McLaren certainly had an advantage in straight line speed, they did so all weekend. The "experts" and commentators were tireless in siting that it was down to the F-duct mechanism! I don't know how much fact there is to that, but whatever it was, the advantage was clearly showing in the race; Hamilton really did most of his overtaking in or around the back or the starting straight, so much that he was able to go flat out down the straight, break very late at the hairpin, run wide, and still gain a position.

But, after he came up to Sutil, we really couldn't see any of that till the end! I mean, sure, Sutil did fantastically well defending his position, but still, Hamilton couldn't even make an attempt to pass, couldn't come side-by-side even once. On the contrary he said to his team on radio "This guy(Sutil) is just too quick on the straight" !!!
Was that the case, that the VJM03 was quick (people are saying though, that the car is good at overall aerodynamic efficiency, judging from the peformances so far), or was it a case of sour grapes from Hamilton, that he JUST WASN'T ABLE TO PASS HIM!!

For some reason FI was using a very small rear wing! not quite a Monza wing But for some reason they didn't set up for a wet race. actually a big gamble for them, but it paid off in spades. Their cornering speeds were slow but the McL' or any one ele could not take advantage of that!

Roost you beat me to it. You also almost won our sig bet!!!

[ringo]

@ Raftaar It's not a matter of Lewis not able to pass him. It would be naive to think this guy could not pull off the simplest of passes, which is the slip stream pass.
Secondly most of the impressive passes were not on the straight in that race.
Most of them were done on high fuel as well, where more feel for the brakes is needed and drivers are more error prone. Hamilton excels at braking so he has more of an advantage earlier in the race.
The other drivers are less likely to make mistakes when the car is light and the tyres are predictable. Especially on a straight forward defensive move in turn one. If the Force india keep it's gap and hold the line, not even Lewis can do much about it.

If Hamilton cannot make a pass in a specific situation, i don't think it's possible for another driver. And that's not fanboy talk, just observation. Sutil could not be passed that day, he had to make a mistake and he didn't. He drove very well.

I don't think it's sour grapes that he radioed in that he couldn't pass, It's a reality check for the team of what the physical limits of the car and implications of the technical regulations.

It's also interesting to note how well the Force Indias are on tyres, I can't recall a complaint from them about tyre wear.

[ISLAMATRON]

If there is any 1 driver that LH can pass it is Sutil... straight humiliated him in F3 when they were teammates. The FIF1 was just enough of a match for the MCLN on the straights and actually faster in the twisty bits. Good on that team for dumping Gascoyne and producing an increasingly better car for the last two years.

[Chaparral]

......

[Pedro]

Pit-stops



I omitted second Kovalainen's almost 12-min pitstop.

There is also missing Chandhok's and Trulli's one (they both did it in 15th lap of their race) as they are also missing in official records (see here: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... ummary.pdf) - I wonder why?

Also TV graphics was showing different numbers of pit-stops in some cases but it looks as they were rather rolling the dice to generate a number instead of accurate timimng. You can check that with on your own with stopwatch while watching replay of the race (for example see Hamilton's or Webber's pit-stop).

Source: F1news.cz
http://f1news.cz/novinky/34461-zastavky ... pky-rezie/

[Mr Alcatraz]

Pit-stops



I omitted second Kovalainen's almost 12-min pitstop.

There is also missing Chandhok's and Trulli's one (they both did it in 15th lap of their race) as they are also missing in official records (see here: http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre/f1 ... ummary.pdf) - I wonder why?

Also TV graphics was showing different numbers of pit-stops in some cases but it looks as they were rather rolling the dice to generate a number instead of accurate timimng. You can check that with on your own with stopwatch while watching replay of the race (for example see Hamilton's or Webber's pit-stop).

Source: F1news.cz
http://f1news.cz/novinky/34461-zastavky ... pky-rezie/

Thanks Pedro! Nice snapshot of a single race. Most establised teams doing around 4 sec stops. Brilliant stop for Britney, The Ferrari system was fast in this race, but mot fast enough to make any sustantive dif'
Bless you all

[BreezyRacer]

Nice graphs, but really useless. You cannot compare of the pace of lead cars that have already got the race in hand with those that are running to make positions.

Qually tells all, except for this last race, due to boneheaded moves by team Ferrari and McLaren. Let's see how that goes in China .. We all do know, of course, how it has gone in Bahrain and Albert Park .. advantage RB.