Malaysian GP 2009 - Sepang

[vasia]

Thanks!!

looking at the times for the 2nd session (the times are there, though the link is not ok), it looks like (I know everything is tentative and there's a lot of noise around this):

* ferrari is running great: both massa and raikkonen got their great times on relatively long stints
* mcl is still in trouble: mediocre times in short stints
* bmw is having slow times in long stints
* renault is not doing great: alonso was ill, piquet's time is in a very short stint
* toyota: mediocre times in short stints!!
* red bull is doing great!! 3rd and 5th times, on very long stints!
* williams is average to good: 4th and 8th on medium stints
* brawn seems to be doing worse than ferrari and red bull: slower times, on shorter stints (medium instead of long)
* toro rosso and force india are... toro rosso and force india, still

Ferrari has reliability issues to worry about. Kimi had another KERS problem *again* in the second session. Ferrari told him to turn it off late in the session. In fact, Ferrari said if this problem had happened during the race, it would have been a retirement for Kimi. Ferrari is fast, but to score points or to win you first have to finish, and the reliability does not look so good at the moment for them. They also are highly dependant on KERS for car pace, so it makes it doubtful that they will take KERS off the car.

Practice times mean little because we don't know who was running what sort of fuel loads, or what kind of programs.

Toyota and BMW for example were both focusing on race set-up almost exclusively. Both Toyota and BMW in press releases said they were unconcerned about their practice times. I would not be surprised if McLaren and Ferrari as well as a few others were focusing a bit more on qualifying set-up rather than race set-up.

Also interesting is that Lewis had a KERS problem on his McLaren, so in the second session Lewis apparently ran the car without KERS.

Let us see what BMW, Toyota, and Brawn pull out of their hats for qualifying and the race.

[Principessa]

http://www.f1technical.net/gallery/v/20 ... aysian+GP/

Pictures online in our gallery, more to follow through the weekend

[NormanBates]

Practice times mean little because we don't know who was running what sort of fuel loads, or what kind of programs.

Yes, I know... just like winter practice... but as my desire to have the race start NOW cannot be fulfilled, I dig into all this information in a (quite possibly futile) effort to get an idea of what are each one's chances

by the way, no wonder alonso's ears are hurting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUtqv4aW-EU
in fact, I would be seriously worried about long-term effects...

[freedom_honda]

Rubens is to get a 5 place grid penalty due to a gearbox change following practice sessions on Friday.

http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2009/4/9128.html

I'm not that concerned because if its raining, starting position wouldn't make a huge difference.

edit: by the way, does anybody know where to get this kind of information for today's practice?

http://fialive.fiacommunications.com/en ... iming.aspx

Thanks!!

looking at the times for the 2nd session (the times are there, though the link is not ok), it looks like (I know everything is tentative and there's a lot of noise around this):

* ferrari is running great: both massa and raikkonen got their great times on relatively long stints
* mcl is still in trouble: mediocre times in short stints
* bmw is having slow times in long stints
* renault is not doing great: alonso was ill, piquet's time is in a very short stint
* toyota: mediocre times in short stints!!
* red bull is doing great!! 3rd and 5th times, on very long stints!
* williams is average to good: 4th and 8th on medium stints
* brawn seems to be doing worse than ferrari and red bull: slower times, on shorter stints (medium instead of long)
* toro rosso and force india are... toro rosso and force india, still

Does anyone know is Ferrari setting up for a dry race?
because i know Brawn is setting the car up for wet.

[Bob Brown]

Schumi sure has packed on the pounds.

[nudger]

i dont think mclaren do any light runs on friday. they dont have the luxury of using friday as a practice for the race.
i feel they have improved, but obviously that is relative to where they were..a long way behind.

[ESPImperium]

Listening to the 5live comentry on BBCi on the red button today Antony Davidson and Ted Kravits were saying that Brawn has only one spare wing for each driver as they only took out 5 for Oz and Malaysia, and one, well ask Rubens what happened to one of the 5 wings. The ones they were using today were the ones that were used to finish the race in Oz, and are looking pretty second hand seemingly.

Ted Kravits said there is at least 2 more teams in the same boat, but there was a couple of teams that got stuff flown out for this GP as they needed the supplies after Oz. I think that was RBR and BMW Sauber having 2 destroyed wings in Oz.

It may be intresting, as if the drivers know theres a limited ammount of wings avalable, that must modify how they go into overtaking manouvers and especially into the T1 on Lap 1.

[Giblet]

Schumi sure has packed on the pounds.

montoya has got him beat. Look he can't even fit in his car... he's stuck!

[donskar]

Bernie has choses the time of day perfectly. The euro audience will be bigger, so more money for him. The potential danger of the rain will increase viewers as well and the potential for one of our our beloved drivers getting killed goes way up.

The man is a genius. At making his wallet deeper. I don't know if raw greed is good for the sport anymore. When he made paupers into millionaires nobody complained, but this is getting silly. I don't have a race in my country, Canada, because of his greed. one of the better actual RACES off the calendar.

BTW Bernie, you ass, you can hold a North American race and not foul up TV times anywhere in NA or Eu. When we banned Tobacco advertising we ponied up 30 million to FOM so the race could be justified. Then we get our race dropped from the calendar with no warning or talks.

/s

Tactically, Bernie is a genius, strategically, he'll be dead (or retired with Viagra being pumped into him intravenously) before the impact of his greedy near-sighted decisions is felt. What am I talking about? THINK.

THINK about this (and get out your world map) -- Sunday's race begins 5:00 am (0500) in New York City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Miami, Toronto, Boston, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, etc; 0400 in Chicago, Dallas, Houston AND large parts of Mexico and South America.

Forget about USA bashing for a moment. Why is nearly all of NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA being told "F1 does not need you."???

Not me. F1 is no longer worth losing sleep over. I'll watch it Sunday afternoon. Maybe. There's a real world out here, guys.

[modbaraban]

It looks like BrawnGP are practicing overtaking defence strategies. Who needs the KERS button if you have smoke.

[leomax]

S button instead of K.

[ESPImperium]

Here we go for Q1, no rain according to RBRs radar in Q1.

[jason.parker.86]

do you think Eddie Jordan and David have kissed and made up since Australia! Eddie seems a bit better this time around

[roost89]

Massa doesn't make it into Q2 and Kimi barely staying in the pack!
Ferrari are on the way down it seems. However it's extremely close! 1.4 second from Top to bottom

[ESPImperium]

Brawn P1 again, but Toyota and RBR and Williams looking menacing.

So:

1 Button
2 Trulli
3 Glock
4 Rosberg
5 Webber
6 Kubica
7 Kimi
8 Rubens
9 Alonso
10 Heidfeld
11 Nakajima
12 Hamilton
13 Vettel
14 Hekki
15 Boiurdais
16 Massa
17 Piquet
18 Fisi
19 Sutil
20 Buemi