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

[foxmulder_ms]

I am going to miss this track. Can we built one identical somewhere else please??

[dans79]

I am going to miss this track. Can we built one identical somewhere else please??

How about Vegas, you can get the heat minus the extreme humidity?

[Moose]

I am going to miss this track. Can we built one identical somewhere else please??

How about Vegas, you can get the heat minus the extreme humidity?

My issue with most of the new tracks that are appearing now is that most of them are street circuits with tight 90° bends. Such circuits are terrible for actual racing, and not really very interesting to look at either.

I want to see more Spa Francorchamps, Malaysia and CotAs, not more Singapore, Russia and Azerbijzans.

[iotar__]

My expectation of who'll be faster where:

https://i.imgur.com/hFgbrLs.png

To me, this is a pretty clearly Mercedes track.

Just like Singapore and Hungary ? Or better and recent although far from perfect comparison at Spa? 0,24 with magic Q mode and bigger full throttle straights? No problems at HS corners based GB for Merc either.

- 51-49 Merc - Ferrari. Two straights but balanced layout and tyres work hard. Not a weakness for any team but a variable, something, like 2 stops, can happen.

- Earlier in the season I thought this track was gone.
- I hope this awful season is over soon enough or in alternative reality of media headlines:
"Will Bottas join the classic Vettel - Hamilton battle (at least they stopped doing this) to create three way edge of the seat fight for WDC"?

[Hammerfist]

My expectation of who'll be faster where:

https://i.imgur.com/hFgbrLs.png

To me, this is a pretty clearly Mercedes track.

Nice graphic, but we have to remember that more time is lost in the slow corners than the fast ones. There are quite a lot of slow corners here. Also Ferrari was better in the fast corners of S2 in Spa. I don't think the track favors Mercedes at all. It should be really close, and it wouldn't really shock me if Ferrari takes pole or wins.

Quite a lot of slow corners? Like where? At Hungary we got a pretty Clear picture of the cut off for where the Ferrari's low speed advantage kicked in - it's somewhere around 120-150k/h. The only turns that are that slow on the track are 1, 2, 4, 9 and 14, and 4 and 14 are pretty borderline.

Like the ones you colored in red?
I counted 7 corners that should favor ferrari
On a track with 15 corners thats amost half. Like i said more time is lost in the slow corners. Can mercedes counter this by sacrificing some straight line speed for downforce? We shall see.

[drunkf1fan]

Since when all of a sudden do people see the Mercedes as only good on straights and Ferrari superior in all corners, that flies in the face of almost everything we've seen this season and the last three years.

A few corners where mechanical grip comes into play, very slow corners, Ferrari seems to be stronger along with Red Bull, but there is a handful of tracks that really matters. Mercedes is strong if not stronger than Ferrari in most other types of corners. Also in general the Merc is lighter on tires and can go longer than the Ferrari's all while actually going faster. I haven't seen Ferrari be genuinely faster in quite some time and I don't expect they will be here either.

On that map of the track I'd say only 4, 9 and 15 are actually stronger in a Ferrari.

[PlatinumZealot]

the tyres will be melting... that is for sure.

The temperatures should be relatively cool this time of year in Malaysia. Actually it is the rainy season... I wish for rain!

???
rainy season...
before they changed the calendar slot maybe.

it will be scorching hot:
http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/ ... ecast.aspx

That's because you confused Bahrain with Malaysia.

http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Mal ... ecast.aspx

[foxmulder_ms]

My expectation of who'll be faster where:

https://i.imgur.com/hFgbrLs.png

To me, this is a pretty clearly Mercedes track.

Just like Singapore and Hungary ? Or better and recent although far from perfect comparison at Spa? 0,24 with magic Q mode and bigger full throttle straights? No problems at HS corners based GB for Merc either.

- 51-49 Merc - Ferrari. Two straights but balanced layout and tyres work hard. Not a weakness for any team but a variable, something, like 2 stops, can happen.

- Earlier in the season I thought this track was gone.
- I hope this awful season is over soon enough or in alternative reality of media headlines:
"Will Bottas join the classic Vettel - Hamilton battle (at least they stopped doing this) to create three way edge of the seat fight for WDC"?

?? What is the point of you post? You were DIE HARD Nico/Merc fan last year now you are anti Merc? Or simply antiHAM If you find it awful please STOP watching it.

Anyhow, this is a very similar track to Silverstone where Merc was car to beat. I am pretty confident Merc will be on top of the time sheets on Saturday.

[FrukostScones]

The temperatures should be relatively cool this time of year in Malaysia. Actually it is the rainy season... I wish for rain!

???
rainy season...
before they changed the calendar slot maybe.

it will be scorching hot:
http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/ ... ecast.aspx

That's because you confused Bahrain with Malaysia.

http://www.myweather2.com/City-Town/Mal ... ecast.aspx

holy cow you are right, did I drink too much?

Sepang, not Sakhir

http://www.myweather2.com/Motor-Racing/ ... ecast.aspx

still quite hot, but rain yeah...

[godlameroso]

My expectation of who'll be faster where:

https://i.imgur.com/hFgbrLs.png

To me, this is a pretty clearly Mercedes track.

Just like Singapore and Hungary ? Or better and recent although far from perfect comparison at Spa? 0,24 with magic Q mode and bigger full throttle straights? No problems at HS corners based GB for Merc either.

- 51-49 Merc - Ferrari. Two straights but balanced layout and tyres work hard. Not a weakness for any team but a variable, something, like 2 stops, can happen.

- Earlier in the season I thought this track was gone.
- I hope this awful season is over soon enough or in alternative reality of media headlines:
"Will Bottas join the classic Vettel - Hamilton battle (at least they stopped doing this) to create three way edge of the seat fight for WDC"?

?? What is the point of you post? You were DIE HARD Nico/Merc fan last year now you are anti Merc? Or simply antiHAM If you find it awful please STOP watching it.

Anyhow, this is a very similar track to Silverstone where Merc was car to beat. I am pretty confident Merc will be on top of the time sheets on Saturday.

Why do people say that? Sepang is nothing like Silverstone, at all, there's a handful of games that let you drive them virtually. One can easily compare the two, Sepang is much more varied in its corners and has a much more stop/start nature. Silverstone has more full throttle per lap than Sepang, and even though Malaysia is a shorter lap(~.3 km), the lap time is generally 3 seconds faster in Silverstone.

[NathanOlder]

So its more like China ? Only 92 meters different in length. Only 1 more corner difference. Under 2 seconds differnece in lap record. Both very much stop start and not much flowing about either. Hamilton took Pole, Fastest Lap , Led every Lap & Win in China.

On the similarities if i described the begining of the lap as

Start finish straight with a big grand stand on the left and pits on the right. Then into T1 a right hander immediately followed by a hard left hander, accelerate up through a right hand kink into a hard braking right hander, accelerate hard into a fast left hander followed immediately by a fast right hander, this leads into a double apex turn thats taken almost as 1 turn and leads on to a hard braking zone and a very tight left hander, then accelerate through a long right hander.....

Which track am i describing. Could be China or Sepang so they are quite similar.

[godlameroso]

The double apex in Sepang is a double right, and is a double left in China. Sepang's only kink is around the start of sector 3. If you want to judge a track go by the % full throttle, as a general rule of thumb, the lower the full throttle percentage the more it plays to Ferrari's strength, the more full throttle percentage, the more it plays to Mercedes strengths. Of course there are exceptions to the rule but as a general statement, based on results, it's more or less accurate.

More accurate than saying Tilkdromes favor Mercedes vs Ferrari or vice versa.

[NathanOlder]

The double apex are indeed different thats why i never mentioned a direction. And T3 is a flat out kink. It depends what you call a kink.

You say Sepang and Silverstone are nothing alike, then you say Shanghai and Sepang are different due to the full throttle percentages being different but Sepang and Silverstone are pretty much identical on full throttle percentage.
If you go by full throttle percentages.

Going on percentages says Monza and Spa are identical and thats a million miles from the truth, Spa is mainly high speed flowing corners and Monza mainly slow tight chicanes

[godlameroso]

Sepang has less full throttle than Silverstone does as far as I know, especially this year.

[PlatinumZealot]

I am crunching the numbers for the tracks for ferrari vs mercedes.... Maybe someone can present it before i do...
Comparing track length.. Temperature.. Average speed. Percent throttle. Average speed in the turns. End of straight speed to see if anything sticks.

So far the ferrari has been strong on a
average speed tracks such as Spa (245kph).. But it was also slow at silverstone (246kph).. Maybe something else needed to see why.
Temperatures and tyre selection (track abrasion and energy) could be factors.

This website is a good data source

http://www.f1mix.com/circuits/sepang-in ... ircuit.asp