Malaysian GP Thread Containing Practice/Qualifying/Race Spoilers

[Fernando]

First topic message reminder :



Following Kimi Raikkonen’s victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the 2013 Formula One championship fires up again this weekend as the series prepares for round two, the Malaysian Grand Prix.

And fiery is perhaps the appropriate adjective for this race. High temperatures are the order of the day at Sepang Circuit and this race is a true test of man and machine.

For the drivers there’s the struggle to cope with soaring in-car temperatures and the battle to stay hydrated throughout the 56-lap long race. For the machinery this weekend is about dealing with tough conditions for engines and tyres. The heat and Sepang’s abrasive track surface makes tyre wear a major consideration, while a number of high-speed corners places the tyres under severe lateral loads. Keeping rubber ‘alive’ here is a difficult task.

In terms of engines, the heat and the fact that a significant part of the lap here is run at full throttle means powerplants are heavily stressed. Maximising cooling is imperative and teams often open supplementary cooling vents in bodywork to facilitate this.

And then there’s the rain. Heavy downpours are a frequent occurrence and the possibility of torrential rain adds an extra air of unpredictability to the season’s second race.

The 2012 race was a case in point. The race started wet and as the rain intensified running was suspended on lap nine. When the action resumed it was Fernando Alonso who took the lead. In a dramatic final third, the Ferrari driver was chased to the chequered flag by Sergio Perez. The Mexican was unable to pass, but claimed his first podium finish with second place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Punishing conditions, an exciting circuit layout and unpredictable weather conditions mean a grand prix at Sepang is rarely dull and this weekend should be no exception.
Malaysian Grand Prix Data


Circuit: Sepang
Length of lap: 5.543 km
Lap record: 1:34.223 (Juan-Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 2004)
Total number of race laps: 56
Total race distance: 310.408km
Pitlane speed limits: 60km/h during practice and qualifying; 100km/h during race
DRS Zones: The DRS sectors will be between turns 15 and 1 (pit straight, as last year) and then between turns 14 and 15 (back straight). There will be a detection point for each DRS sector.

Malaysian Grand Prix Facts


This will be the 15th running of the Malaysian Grand Prix. The race made its Formula One calendar debut on October 17th, 1999.
In the first two years of its existence the race was staged at the end of the season. However, in 2001 it moved to March and had held an early-season slot ever since.
In the 14 events to date, the driver in pole position has gone on to win the race on seven occasions. The first winner from pole was Michael Schumacher in 2000 and the most recent Sebastian Vettel in 2011.
Last year’s winner Fernando Alonso started the race from eighth on the grid, the furthest back a winner has started in the history of the race. Kimi Raikkonen won the 2003 event from seventh position.
Ferrari is the most successful constructor at the Malaysian GP with six wins. Eddie Irvine won the inaugural event for the Scuderia, Michael Schumacher won the next three grands prix at Sepang, Raikkonen was victorious in 2008 and Alonso won last year.
Alonso has won the Malaysian Grand Prix with three different teams – Renault in 2005, McLaren in 2007 and Ferrari last year.
Of the drivers racing this weekend McLaren’s Jenson Button has the most Sepang starts. The Briton has raced 13 Malaysian Grands Prix and only missed out on the 1999 event as he was busy racing in F3 that year.
Sergio Perez’s second place last year for Sauber was the first time a Mexican driver had appeared on the podium since Pedro Rodriguez finished second in the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix for BRM – 19 years before Perez was born.
While this will be the first Malaysian Grand Prix for new boys Valtteri Bottas, Jules Bianchi, Max Chilton Giedo van der Garde and Esteban Gutierrez, only Bianchi has never appeared on the Sepang track before. Bottas made his Formula One weekend debut here last year in a Friday practice session for Williams. Sauber’s Gutierrez raced here for ART Lotus in GP2 last season, finishing seventh in the feature race and second in the sprint race. Caterham’s Van der Garde first raced here in GP2 Asia in 2009 with iSport and last year returned with Caterham Racing to finish fourth in the sprint race and Marussia’s Chilton finished third in last year’s GP2 feature race.
The 2012 GP was a good race for one of last year’s rookies. Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne took his first Formula One championship points with an eighth-place finish.
This will be Fernando Alonso’s 200th grand prix. He made his debut at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix for Minardi and since then has scored 30 wins, 22 pole positions, 57 other podium finishes and, of course, two Formula One Drivers’ Championship titles, in 2005 and 2006, both for Renault.
Pirelli is bringing its Hard and Medium compounds to this race.

Source: RaceDepartment.com
Weather Forecast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/1735161?day=2
All 3 days are Thundery Showers mixed in with heavy rain

[bogbrush]

Webber has plenty of opportunity to beat Vettel but doesn't. Do they slow his car down too?

As for pressure, is this the new 'Vettel can't pass' myth? His reaction to spinning in Brazil was incredible. Every driver makes mistakes, to home in on a couple is a bit wrong. I mean do we dismiss Alonso for driving into the back of Vettel in Malaysia?

I think the pole strategy is more to do with it being a really good idea to start from the front, plus the RB enjoys clean air aerodynamica much more.

[liverbnz]

Webber has plenty of opportunity to beat Vettel but doesn't. Do they slow his car down too?
.

Doubtful although the constant failing KERS on Webber's car is a bit if a doubly mystery. 1 in that it keeps happening to him and 2 why it isn't commented on more and he doesn't complain more (publicly) about it.

[monty junior]

Forgot to bring up Turkey 2010 when Mclaren were in a winning 1-2 position Hamilton and Button were told to conserve their engines and tyres, Button seemingly ignoring this then passed Hamilton only for Hamilton to get him back on the pit straight. Same as last weekend, where was the hulabaloo then?..

[monty junior]

[quote="dyrewolfe"
As liverbnz said (and as we have seen for ourselves) when Vettel is under pressure he tends to make mistakes (Abu Dhabi 2012, Canada 2011, Turkey 2010 etc.) Hence why Red Bull's strategy is usually geared towards taking the pressure off him and letting him control races from the front.
[/quote]

Picking out a couple of mistakes in 3 years is scrapping the barrel, how many have the likes of Hamilton,Button,Massa,Webber and the likes made in that time? i'd guess double at least, if you win 50% odd of races then you can afford the odd mistake, if you drive about in no mans lands like a couple of the above everyone weekend and still make mistakes then that's more of a problem.

[McLaren]

Well either way Dryewolfe.

Due to team orders we didnt get the race we could have had

But did team preference give us the artificial situation of Seb getting so close to mark after the last stops? It was clear that tyre degradation was high and so after the change from inters the optimal strategy relative to the person you were fighting was to come in first. So why did Red Bull give seb the optimal pit stop time (coming in a lap earlier than mark) for the final stop when it is usually the case within teams that the lead driver gets the optimal pit?

This allowed vettel to gain around 3.5 o 4 seconds on mark and eat up most of marks 4.5 second lead. Had Mark been given the optimal stop he would have been about 7 seconds ahead of Vettel and there would have been no chance of vettel catching mark.

I have to think webber was aware of the team giving seb an advantage at the final stops and no doubt this added to his anger. If we consider Vettel got preference in the pit window and attacked a teammate whose engine was turned down it was clearly a rather low act.

If I were webber I would be more annoyed about the final pit stop strategy as it would rise the question of why RB were trying to undercut mark with seb?

[mystiroakey]

Well unless all the radio talk was pantomine . It was clearly stated to both drivers to hold position.

[McLaren]

Well unless all the radio talk was pantomine . It was clearly stated to both drivers to hold position.

Please re-read my post. The radio messages are not pantomime, but if the team strategy is to hold position why did they give Vettel the optimal pit stop and gurantee that mark would come out very close to vettel. RB and vettel made exactly the sort of pit you would make to undercut the car ahead.

I guess once it didn't work and the drivers were too close the team had to act quickly to stop the drivers taking each other off.

[mystiroakey]

Yes vettel had preferential treatment beforehan

That is a grey area., Because teams say they either give race leaders pit stop advantage or championship leaders. But tbh its more about the situation at the time..

RB will normally allways give this to vettel unless webber was miles ahead. We know that allready. He is No.1 driver. At that time the race was still 'ON'.

However at the time from a teams perspective its all about having a 1 and 2.. So pitting Vettel first could have been more beneficial for that

[Guest]

I just can't wait for China now or Horner/Webber or Red Bull as a team to officially make a statement on the situation and bring a conclusion to the matter or as best they see fit under the obvious strained or non-existent relationships.

All this discussion back and forth, arguing about how Webber has been treated unfairly over the years at Red Bull & how Vettel is the clear and undoubted No.1 at the team is nothing new, it's accepted. What happened in Malaysia is clear and why it happened.

[Fernando]

I do feel this could very much be a deciding moment for Red Bull.

If they do nothing Horner has no control over the team.
If they punish Sebastien heavily that could push him towards the exit door as most have speculated over the last few season

[Guest]

It's a huge deciding moment for the team. I can hardly seem them going down the route of punishing their Three-Time World Champion, who currently leads the WDC and has had millions of pounds invested in him through their young driver programme, led by Helmut Marko one of Sebastian's biggest supporters.

They are not going to punish Vettel because that will just threaten the long term stability of the team and put Vettel's future in doubt. Horner is weak and will look to stabilise the situation and maintain Red Bull as a force and continue the recent tradition of winning Championships. If they did punish Vettel then it would be a mistake and he could easily just walk away from Red Bull and move to Ferrari or elsewhere, if this release clause does indeed exist and he's unhappy. If they did punish Vettel and it impacted upon the direction of where the title ends up, then by the end of the season Webber could retire, as rumoured, and then Vettel could also leave, which would leave Red Bull in a predicament. I would then expect them to sign Raikkonen who's contract is up and has a previous link working for Red Bull sponsored Citroen rally cars and has the ability and speed to replace Vettel.

Fully expect a statement being released in an attempt to clarify the situation. Webber will remain at the team for the remainder of the season, although tensions will still be high. Red Bull are not going to risk bringing in an under-cooked Buemi or Da Costa who lacks experience when they are trying to win another Constructors title.

[nathan]

hehe

[dyrewolfe]

[quote="dyrewolfe"
As liverbnz said (and as we have seen for ourselves) when Vettel is under pressure he tends to make mistakes (Abu Dhabi 2012, Canada 2011, Turkey 2010 etc.) Hence why Red Bull's strategy is usually geared towards taking the pressure off him and letting him control races from the front.


Picking out a couple of mistakes in 3 years is scrapping the barrel, how many have the likes of Hamilton,Button,Massa,Webber and the likes made in that time? i'd guess double at least, if you win 50% odd of races then you can afford the odd mistake, if you drive about in no mans lands like a couple of the above everyone weekend and still make mistakes then that's more of a problem.

You're missing the point.

Obviously all drivers make mistakes now and again, but for starters the discussion is about Red Bull - hence the focus on Webber and Vettel and secondly, just how many examples do you want to make it a valid argument? If you want to list some examples where the other drivers you mentioned have messed up their own race results through mistakes, be my guest and we can compare notes.


My original point is that Red Bull gear their race strategy, where possible, to have Vettel leading from pole...and not without good reason. While any driver would obviously prefer to start from pole, Seb is prone to losing his temper when he gets stuck behind slower cars and will attempt rash moves (hence his early nickname as the Crash Kid).

Is it better to try too hard to win and end up with a DNF, than recognising your/your car's limitations and settling for a points finish?

Also, as we found out in Canada, Seb doesn't like being hunted down by faster opposition (or Barcelona either, though he did manage to keep Hamilton behind him, on that occasion...just).

[dyrewolfe]

It's a huge deciding moment for the team. I can hardly seem them going down the route of punishing their Three-Time World Champion, who currently leads the WDC and has had millions of pounds invested in him through their young driver programme, led by Helmut Marko one of Sebastian's biggest supporters.

They are not going to punish Vettel because that will just threaten the long term stability of the team and put Vettel's future in doubt. Horner is weak and will look to stabilise the situation and maintain Red Bull as a force and continue the recent tradition of winning Championships. If they did punish Vettel then it would be a mistake and he could easily just walk away from Red Bull and move to Ferrari or elsewhere, if this release clause does indeed exist and he's unhappy. If they did punish Vettel and it impacted upon the direction of where the title ends up, then by the end of the season Webber could retire, as rumoured, and then Vettel could also leave, which would leave Red Bull in a predicament. I would then expect them to sign Raikkonen who's contract is up and has a previous link working for Red Bull sponsored Citroen rally cars and has the ability and speed to replace Vettel.

Fully expect a statement being released in an attempt to clarify the situation. Webber will remain at the team for the remainder of the season, although tensions will still be high. Red Bull are not going to risk bringing in an under-cooked Buemi or Da Costa who lacks experience when they are trying to win another Constructors title.

I dunno. From the post-race interviews in Malaysia, I'd be surprised if Red Bull said anything further about the incident. All indicators were that they would deal with the issue in-house then just look to focus on the rest of the season.

Agree though that I can't see them taking any action against Vettel. He will continue to be the team's golden boy for as long as he wants to stay there. Webber will probably stick it out for the rest of the season then leave.

I could actually see RB trying to sign Massa...they certainly would have the financial clout to buy out his contract (also agree neither TR driver is ready to step up yet). Or maybe someone like Sutil...or possibly even Rosberg - the German connection again.

[SteveG]

One point that has escaped attention because of all the Vettel stuff is that any presumptions that this years tyres would hamper Red Bull after their dramatic speed loss in Oz proved to be unfounded after Malaysia. Picking the bones out of all the hoo ha showed that RB were a dominant one-two. Only the Mercs got close enough to keep them honest but even they could'nt quite match Red Bulls speed - despite carrying less fuel. Ferrari (or at least Massa) and Lotus were basically nowhere. Good if u're a Bull fan otherwise not so good.

[Critical_mass]

V true Steve, but on the note of the "despite less fuel" comment. Sure they were lighter, but spent most of the race driving slower. When the Mercs were pushing they were catching RB.

Still its early days, roll on China and it'll give us an even better picture.

LOOOOONG two weeks though

[dyrewolfe]

One point that has escaped attention because of all the Vettel stuff is that any presumptions that this years tyres would hamper Red Bull after their dramatic speed loss in Oz proved to be unfounded after Malaysia. Picking the bones out of all the hoo ha showed that RB were a dominant one-two. Only the Mercs got close enough to keep them honest but even they could'nt quite match Red Bulls speed - despite carrying less fuel. Ferrari (or at least Massa) and Lotus were basically nowhere. Good if u're a Bull fan otherwise not so good.

But the tyres were giving them problems, to an extent, though...hence the team orders.

Unless Horner was lying through his teeth all weekend and feeding the rest of the paddock disinformation.

Still, even with that minor handicap, they were still better than everyone else. Think Alonso could have caused them problems, had he not basically taken himself off.

[Fernando]

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