F1 - 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: weasley
Originally Posted By: Patman
Ferrari won this race purely based on having 2 pit stops vs the Mercedes 3.


Partly this, yes. But let's not take away from Vettel his flawless driving, and the team's strategic and tactical execution. This was a straight fight, and Ferrari won it. Raikonnen also came 4th despite having had a puncture and racing from the back, as well as being out of position on the grid thanks to the upset qualifying.

I agree that one race does not a championship make, and I believe Mercedes will reassert dominance at other circuits. But this is the first time they have been bested during a race in a long time.



Raikonnen lost about 50 seconds due to his slow lap on the shredded tire, and made a 3rd pit stop, which put him another 24 seconds back from Vettel. He may well have won the race, or been in contention for the win, if not for those problems. Ferrari has done an awesome job to improve their car and powerplant over the winter break, and now seems capable of making a straight fight for the championship with Mercedes. The new Ferrari chassis seems to be easy on the tires, and that can be a definite advantage if they can do one less pit stop in a race than Mercedes.

Imagine how Alonso must be feeling now. He left Ferrari to go to McLaren, and now McLaren is struggling to even get into the points.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman


Imagine how Alonso must be feeling now. He left Ferrari to go to McLaren, and now McLaren is struggling to even get into the points.


It's all cyclical though, and things could easily turn around a year or two from now for McLaren. Just look at Lewis Hamilton's team change for example, many thought he was crazy for going to Mercedes and in his first year with them he only had one win and struggled badly at most of the races just to keep up with the pace. Then in 2014, it was a whole different story.

 

[Garak]

I'm sure McLaren will turn around, and aside from the reliability problems still, they did show a marked improvement over the previous race. As a Vettel fan, I was pretty tickled about the result.

And wemay, yes, Mercedes did crack under the pressure - most noticeably, Lewis cracked. If Lewis is having a tough race and he expected a tough race, he seems to be okay. If he overachieves, he's quite humble about it. However, when he underachieves, he cracks. And this weekend was a shining example - outbursts over the radio, and his team having to feed him obviously misleading, inaccurate information just to keep his spirits up, or whatever it was they were trying to accomplish. Rosberg did only marginally better in that regard, with his mind outside of the car, as Coulthard put it, rather than concentrating on the inside of the car.

There was always concern that Mercedes was sandbagging and had significant performance in the bag. I think much of that concern has diminished.

 

[bdcardinal]

It seems weird how Rosberg keeps having to be reminded that they cannot coach him on the radio. I think the rule is stupid, but you would think they could be like Ferrari and at least coach in another language.

 

[Garak]

That, too, was strange. Maybe it's his way of protesting the rule.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I'm sure McLaren will turn around, and aside from the reliability problems still, they did show a marked improvement over the previous race. As a Vettel fan, I was pretty tickled about the result.

And wemay, yes, Mercedes did crack under the pressure - most noticeably, Lewis cracked. If Lewis is having a tough race and he expected a tough race, he seems to be okay. If he overachieves, he's quite humble about it. However, when he underachieves, he cracks. And this weekend was a shining example - outbursts over the radio, and his team having to feed him obviously misleading, inaccurate information just to keep his spirits up, or whatever it was they were trying to accomplish. Rosberg did only marginally better in that regard, with his mind outside of the car, as Coulthard put it, rather than concentrating on the inside of the car.

There was always concern that Mercedes was sandbagging and had significant performance in the bag. I think much of that concern has diminished.


I'm more of a Vettel fan now than I was at the end of last year.

I don't think Lewis cracked under the pressure in Malaysia. I think the team put the wrong tires on the car for the last stint. Hamilton complained about that over the radio on the first lap after the stop.

 

[Garak]

I did hear his complaint, and I was wondering what the heck was going on, too. With respect to the team's response, that's kind of what I was getting at, too, with some of the strange feedback they gave Lewis. No, Lewis, these were the right tires because the other ones were worn. What other ones? He should have had at least one, if not two sets of the options completely unused. No, Lewis, you'll catch Vettel with about five laps left, and then you can pass him. Of course, that was mathematically impossible unless Vettel ran out of fuel or hit the rhubarb. And, they gave him such information twice.

I'm not ragging on Lewis, really. He has matured a lot over the past few years. I think it was the 2011 season where his attitude got him to the point that he was given a stop and go for sneezing at the wrong time in the race.

He's moved far, far beyond that.

But I do disagree with Bernie on his value to the sport, at least to me. Bernie thinks he'll be great at cross promotion, since he's on the red carpet and has a famous girlfriend. I don't give a hoot about that. To me, Vettel is the smiling face of F1, just like Gretzky was (and is) for hockey.

 

[Finn]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
I think the team put the wrong tires on the car for the last stint. Hamilton complained about that over the radio on the first lap after the stop.

It is my understanding that those harder ones were the only fresh set they had left after the whole weekend.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: Garak
No, Lewis, you'll catch Vettel with about five laps left, and then you can pass him.


Yes, I raised an eyebrow at that one. They put on the harder tire and blithely assumed he would close the distance to Vettel, even though he hadn't demonstrated that kind of speed on those tires up to that point in the race. If it is as Finn says, and they were out of softs, it's still a tactical error on Mercedes part.

But anyway, my appetite for F1 is now wetted, and I can't wait until the next race to see how the Ferrari vs Mercedes battle develops.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted By: Garak


Bernie thinks he'll be great at cross promotion, since he's on the red carpet and has a famous girlfriend. I don't give a hoot about that.


Actually Lewis and Nicole are not together anymore, although they've broken up and gotten back together a number of times, so even as I write this the status could have changed

 

[Garak]

See, I don't even pay attention to their bizarre relationship. I have seen them go on and off a couple times before, without even knowing it until commentators pointed at another girl as his girlfriend, only to have Nicole there a few weeks later.

I don't recall who said it a couple years ago, but the comment was one of those seriously backhanded things one hears from the old farts in F1. Whoever it was said that Vettel doesn't have the popular appeal of Lewis or Kimi, because Lewis is good with the ladies and "Kimi is a drunk."

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
If it is as Finn says, and they were out of softs, it's still a tactical error on Mercedes part.

I thought they should have had an extra set by my count, but I certainly could have been mistaken. So, I'm not sure if the radio message was completely truthful or not. I don't think it would have mattered a lot in the end.

I'm sure Lewis had some questions for his team afterwards for blowing smoke up his behind in radio messages. Nico was asking a pile of questions he wasn't supposed to, while Lewis would have been better off shutting the thing off altogether.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Imagine how Alonso must be feeling now. He left Ferrari to go to McLaren, and now McLaren is struggling to even get into the points.


I can't imagine why he did that? He didn't get along very well with Ron Dennis when he was there the last time. He and Hamilton HATED each other. I don't know how much more McLaren is paying him over Ferrari. I hope it was worth it.

On the other hand Vettel timed his move from Red Bull perfectly. They have become a train wreck this year. Renault and Red Bull are fighting like cats and dogs. That team doesn't have a chance this year.

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Imagine how Alonso must be feeling now. He left Ferrari to go to McLaren, and now McLaren is struggling to even get into the points.


I can't imagine why he did that?

He claimed to be in complete control of where he went, but I don't think he had a choice. Ferrari didn't want him. Williams and Merc didn't have a seat. Red Bull has no reason to pay him with STR developing drivers. That leaves McLaren. The bigger question is how did a driver with his supposed level of talent run out of teams that wanted him? Even the Ferrari mechanics are laughing at him.

 

[weasley]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
Ferrari has done an awesome job to improve their car and powerplant over the winter break, and now seems capable of making a straight fight for the championship with Mercedes. The new Ferrari chassis seems to be easy on the tires, and that can be a definite advantage if they can do one less pit stop in a race than Mercedes.


Whoa there! This was one race where the performance limit was on the tyres. There aren't many circuits like that so a tyre-use advantage won't always help them. Plus, Michelin have said they will be adjusting the tyres throughout the season. Pre-season testing, the Australian GP and the practice and qualifying sessions for Malaysia have shown Mercedes to still have a decent advantage. This time out Mercedes fumbled the strategy, but they won't always.

 

[billt460]

I can't help but think what might have happened if Schumacher hadn't retired and not gotten hurt. If he would have stayed with Mercedes AMG he could have been looking at perhaps 2 more championships? Especially with that car and engine combination.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: whip
He claimed to be in complete control of where he went, but I don't think he had a choice. Ferrari didn't want him.


Why not? He did a fantastic job last year with that dog with fleas of a car he had. Kimi finished no where close to him with the same equipment. If one had to go Kimi would have been the better choice to take a hike. Alonso, love him or hate him, can do more with lousy equipment than most any other driver out there. For sure more than Hamilton, who basically cries, whines, and blames others whenever things don't go his way.

 

[billt460]

Originally Posted By: weasley
Plus, Michelin have said they will be adjusting the tyres throughout the season.


I'm assuming you meant Pirelli?

 

[whip]

Originally Posted By: billt460
Originally Posted By: whip
He claimed to be in complete control of where he went, but I don't think he had a choice. Ferrari didn't want him.


Why not?

Partly because of new management, but more so they had a younger better Vettel to replace him.

Originally Posted By: billt460
He did a fantastic job last year with that dog with fleas of a car he had. Kimi finished no where close to him with the same equipment.

The car was built for Alonso and Kimi wasn't comfortable with it. Does that make Alonso a better driver? Kimi proved that he's still pretty good at Malaysia.

Originally Posted By: billt460
If one had to go Kimi would have been the better choice to take a hike.

Kimi is cheaper and easier to get along with.

Originally Posted By: billt460
Alonso, love him or hate him, can do more with lousy equipment than most any other driver out there. For sure more than Hamilton, who basically cries, whines, and blames others whenever things don't go his way.

But when those two drivers were at McLaren, a rookie Hamilton tied the superior Alonso in points......

 

[billt460]

Kimi is good, no question about it. But so is Alonso. Let's face it, he didn't win 2 world driving championships because he's bad. With that said if I had to choose between the 2, Vettel runs away with it. No matter what they're paying him.