Grand Prix 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

The first race of the season has just finished and what a race it was. Exciting from start to finish. Nice battles. Three World Champions on the podium. And the good thing is, there is another Grand Prix in just seven days time in Malaysia!

Having won in Melbourne, Kimi Räikkönen will go into the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix leading the World Driver's Championship. His Lotus car looked as though it was treating the new Pirelli tyres better than any other car/driver-combination, managing to win the race with only two stops. Can they keep this good initial form up?

Red Bulls pace didn't look too frightening in Melbourne. Mark Webbers race was ruined by his (usual) bad start, which apparently was caused by a software issue. Sebastian Vettel finished third. Let's see if they'll be able to fight for the win in Malaysia, where temperatures should be significantly higher than in Australia.

McLaren had a poor race (as expected). Jenson Button just finishing within the points. Sergio Perez' terrible qualifying led to him finishing just outside the points. Jenson sounded pretty pessimistic after the race about short term improvements. So we shouldn't expect a strong performance from them in Malaysia. But one never knows.

Mercedes had a pretty good start to the 2013 F1 season. Even though Nico Rosberg retired in the middle of the race, Lewis Hamilton was able to qualify third and finish fifth, which in his own words was more than expected. He seemed very upbeat about the car's performance, so there is probably more to b e expected from them. Considering McLaren's early form, his switch to Mercedes seems to have worked out.

Ferrari had a very strong race, leading the constructor's championship after Fernando Alonso finished second and Felipe Massa finished fourth. Alonso was strong as usual, but it was Felipe Massa who looked really impressive. After outqualifying his teammate, he was able to keep Alonso behind him for the first part of the race only losing the battle against Alonso due to a poor pit stop strategy. They're in for a pretty strong season.

In the midfield battle it was Force India who looked mightily impressive with Adrain Sutil leading the race twice and finishing seventh after his last stint was compromised by the quickly deterioating super soft tyres. Let's see if they can keep up their good form in Malaysia.
Sauber only started the race with one car as Nico Hülkenberg was unable to start due to a fuel pump problem. Esteban Gutierrez looked rather anonymous during the race. They'll be hoping for a more competetive outing in the next race.
Williams didn't look too strong with Pastor Maldonado calling the car "undriveable" and retiring after beaching his car in turn one. Rookie Valtteri Bottas finished 14th not living up to the high expectations people put on him. Let's see, if they will be able to make short term improvements for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso looked strong during Free Practice and parts of qualifying but only managed to finish 9th with Jean Eric Vergne. Daniel Riccardo, who told media before the race that he will have to "blow Vergne away" in order to get a shot at the Red Bull seat for 2014, retired from the race.

In the battle of the "new teams" it was Marussia who looked to have the upper hand over Caterham, with Jules Bianchi appearing to be strongest of the four backmarkers.

Can Kimi Räikkönen make it two out of two? Are McLaren going to be as poor as in Malaysia? Will Nico Rosberg come back strongly after his retirement? And most imprortantly: What about the weather?

Discuss!

 

[Vortex]

Bad smell of BS coming from a couple of drivers today (IMO of course).

Vettel.. “I didn’t know!” blah blah blah. Course you knew. Well you’ve had and benefited from the same system numerous times in the past plus your team was telling you on the radio.
Hamilton.. “Rosberg should be here instead of me!” *Sad face* . Well why didn’t you let him pass then? The team didn’t want you two racing but they couldn’t have stopped you letting him by if you really wanted to surely.

Both guys new the scores, and the win and podium that came with the decision and are just trying to protect themselves and their image.

 

[Fenderman]

FFS

 

[F1ang-o]

lap 28
RB Team radio....Seb to Pits..." He's too slow, get him out of the way"

Mercs...What do you expect LH to do.....It was Nico talking to Ross that stopped him overtaking......not Lewis blocking.
Toto & Ross said both cars needed to conserve fuel....
They would have looked pretty silly if Nico & Lewis started fighting for position...& neither made it to the line.

Jenson said after the race...that he could maybe have got past the Mercs, fighting amongst themselves

I would have prefered to see Nico on the podium..then at least there would have been one happy face....

 

[Galahad]

A fascinating race, but not a thrilling one, I didn't think. The Red Bulls and Mercedes were close but clearly driving within their limits throughout, except for that little spell when the race was won. Tyres with high degradation may add entertainment when they allow variation in strategy, but today that didn't happen and the net effect on the race was negative.

Red Bull did a good team job to preserve the tyres, push only when required, and their pitstops were absolutely superb throughout. Both drivers were obviously driving to a set laptime and so the question of who was faster is probably unanswerable - though we know who it usually is. Vettel's laps around the final pitstop, to put him in contention for victory, were outstanding. After that, hmm, not so much. Ultimately he relies on the team for support, and in a competitive season, a divided garage would do him no favours either.

Mercedes appeared in these conditions to be almost a match for the Red Bulls on pace, which I hadn't expected. Operationally there is obviously some way to go, both on the fuelling question and (unlike last year) their pitstops were consistently losing them 0.5-1.0 sec to Red Bull each time. Blame for the fuel load question seems to sit more with the team's miscalculation than with Hamilton pushing too hard too early; in either case Rosberg has made his point and indicated that he isn't (always) going to be far off Lewis.

Ferrari and Lotus really struggled for pace, unexpectedly so. Alonso may be saying post-race that he could have won, but for most of the event Massa was battling with Hulkenberg and Button. With that degree of front wing damage, clearly the team should have brought him in. It will be interesting to hear from Lotus regarding their race; no front-running pace apparent and the car looking very poorly set-up, with a lack of end-of-straight speed hampering Kimi's drive forward.

McLaren seem to have taken a step forward on pace; once onto the slick tyres Button was able to maintain a gap of 8-9 seconds to the Mercedes ahead. Until they can organise tyre strategy and pitstops better, though, it won't matter how fast the car is.

I feel for Paul di Resta, who was making great progress and seemed to have the speed to challenge the Lotus for what would have been 5th/6th positions. Now we've got a proper reading on Sauber's pace, it looks reasonable but not outstanding, though Gutierrez drove sensibly and well. Daniel Ricciardo was unfortunate to miss out on the chance for a point or two after a decent race. Maldonado is almost making me wonder whether Williams sacked the wrong driver - on reflection not, but it has been a terribly poor start to the season for him and them. Finally, it may be that Max Chilton is making Jules Bianchi look like more of a superstar than, perhaps, he is. Very hard to tell.

 

[Fenderman]

F1 fans will be pleased to know that there is more water and mayhem for the WTC at Monza

 

[Hamberg]

Before McLaren did a McLaren Button was looking particularly strong in fifth place. I though it was a very good start and race from him up until the pit stop and expected him to finish in a strong position.

 

[F1 Shift.net]

Ferrari and Lotus really struggled for pace, unexpectedly so. Alonso may be saying post-race that he could have won, but for most of the event Massa was battling with Hulkenberg and Button. With that degree of front wing damage, clearly the team should have brought him in. It will be interesting to hear from Lotus regarding their race; no front-running pace apparent and the car looking very poorly set-up, with a lack of end-of-straight speed hampering Kimi's drive forward.

Didn't Massa set one of if not the fastest lap? I could be wrong and I haven't looked it up. Massa's start is what really messed his race up to challenge Vettel, that was a very "Webber-like" start and I think if Fernando wouldn't have lost his mind (or damaged his car) he could have challenged for the win. As for Lotus, I think their problem was that the car was set up for a wet race and they did not expect the track to get as dry as it did. Their win in Australia was not a fluke.

 

[Brogan]

Massa set the second fastest lap after Pérez.

 

[Quintessentially]

Ominous for the rest of the field is that Redbull have the fastest car again and once they sort out the tyre issues, that would be another championship wrapped up. The rest are closer to each other than they are to Redbull and it's difficult to see where a consistent challenge will come from.

 

[Fenderman]

Personally, I'm more optimistic about this season than I was last year. With all the fuel and tyre conservation going on it's not at all clear who really has the edge. Lewis and Nico were threatening the Red Bulls until the fuel saving stuff happened. We don't know how that will play in future races if the drivers can truly let their hair down. Mark Webber may be correct about how much RBR have to hold back but I doubt he was referring to those early stints of the race.

 

[Galahad]

In Massa's second stint on dry tyres, he was in clear air and lost time to the Mercedes and Button ahead. Subsequently the Ferrari appeared to pick up pace relative to those in front; but they were mostly cruising round as we know, and Felipe got some fresh rubber late on to put on a charge. It may be that the track conditions came to suit them better later.

 

[Fenderman]

Let's hope that this bodes well for a close, competitive and combative season ... notwithstanding conservation of pumps, gloves and racing underwear.

 

[Westy]

The Red Bulls do appear to be the class of the field. I feel that they will only get better and will eventually walk away with the title. I hope I am wrong, but I fear that I am not.

 

[teabagyokel]

Westy - I'm not sure. I suspect Lotus' race was ruined on the twin problems of qualifying rain putting them midfield and race-day rain negating a tyre wear advantage, and Ferrari didn't show in the race either. I'm not sure we can claim this race is indicative just yet.

Also, it was in Asia. Like Vettel's last 9 wins!

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Well Hammy failed to wake up at 8AM and she missed the first 17 laps of the grand prix. But having previewed them again apart from Alonso's crashing out of the race and Sutil's slow stop nothing really happened much before then.

From Lap 17 on wards the race was thrilling and controversial. Well first things first I think Mercedes were right to play the team game with regards to Hamilton and Rosberg. Cause as a team they need to bring the points home and instead of letting them crash into each other and lose tyre grip trying to chase down the Red Bulls wasn't gonna end well. So holding station was the best option for them. However, do feel gutted for Nico cause I'd probably feel the same in his situation but at the end of the day this season is long and Mercedes can owe him one next time round .

Force India need to sort these tyres thingy out before China or else this we'll see another repeat of today. However, saying that the car was brilliant all weekend and deserved the chance to claim points. But whilst Force India's problems occurred, Hulkenberg and Sauber capitalized on it and bagged themselves four much needed points after Australia's no show. Those four points gained by Hulkenberg will surely give the team confidence going into China and are now only 6 points of Force India. Gutierrez could have done a little better in the race I thought and really should have been higher than Bottas.

Also can't believe a team like Mclaren can still make mistakes at pit-stops. Jenson was having a brilliant GP and was looking to score some good points in a car that really isn't all that great. Instead of going for all sorts of records in making pit-stops maybe they should concentrate on making sure the tyre's are all fitted onto the car before sending their car trailing down the pit lane with a tyre hanging off. Perez on the other hand had a decent race and once he learns how to race the car properly we'll see his grit and determination come to the table and that he'll climb the points table again.

From race winner to picking up a handful of points really isn't good enough for Lotus and Kimi Raikkonen and had Kimi obeyed instructions from his team he would have had a chance of a better points score from 7th. Hat's off to Grosjean though he may not be setting the world alight at this moment but he's keeping out of trouble and scoring points. I'm sure once he's let off his leash we'll get a quicker and better Grosjean going forward.

Massa, considering the Ferrari looked awful in the wet conditions I think he did a decent job. But could maybe have done better if his start was compromised and stuck behind cars he was clearly faster than. But 10 points is better than he managed from last years race. WTF Ferrari and Alonso were playing at is another story, surely pitting Alonso at the end of lap one was the only option for them to do when his nose was half hanging off, Everyone knew that the nose would end up coming off and Alonso heading into the barriers.

Toro Rosso another weekend where both didn't look like threating and only got the final point thanks to Alonso's and Buttons luck. Think they need to focus a lot more on set-up still and get a car working good for China.

Williams were nowhere to be seen yet again. Maldonado had a weekend again and Bottas was left trying to fight his way to the points and for a rookie I think he'll end up been the first to score Williams's first points.

Bianchi (the dark horse as I call him now) had an awesome drive today and looked well impressive again, the other three from the back marker teams need to wake up and follow Bianchi's way quick or else I can see heads rolling at the back of the grid sooner rather than later!

Now on to RED BULL:

Well the team quite clearly asked Vettel to stay stationary and hold back for second but the kid took matters into his own hands. For me the drivers in this team have no respect for each other any more on the race track and will now do what they want. Mark is quite clearly allowed to feel betrayed by his team and will now feel that if Seb can get away with not following team orders then he won't for the rest of the season. For me this is a team needs a change in driver line-up and I can see Mark saying to Christian thanks for all your help and trying to get me the world championship but with people in the background trying to go against you I want out at the end of the season. Infact I can't see Mark wanting to stay until the end of the season now. I think now he's that off that he'd quite happily stick two fingers up at the team and join another team for next year - my tip been Lotus . I could go on and on about this but I feel so sorry for Mark and I don't even support the fella .

 

[Blog Zbod]

Horner is walking a treacherous tightrope. Webber was a solid contributor to RBR's (>£50 millions) 2012 WCC victory, coming ahead of all other teams' #2 drivers save one (JB). And he was the highest finishing driver without a WDC among his palmares. But he also did more to advance Alonso's WDC efforts last season than his own teammate's (and was a better teammate to Alonso than Massa).

The uncaused first cause of the Red Bull internal strife isn't Vettel's competitive streak, it's Horner's refusal to force Webber to take a reality check.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

But they is nothing in Webber's contract saying he's to be a number 2 driver. So IMHO he has every right to make sure the team gives him a chance of winning the WDC. Had Webber signed up to be a number two then he wouldn't have reacted the way he did today.

 

[Fenderman]

Indeed. Maybe I'm going senile but I seem to recall that Mark sought and got assurances that he would get equal treatment when his contract with RBR was renewed.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

I believe he did but I can't remember where I read it like.

However, on to the grand prix again. When Hamilton was in the pit lane and went into the Mclaren box waiting for a service I and . Think your meant to be two garages down mate .

 

[Wombcat]

HammydiRestarules, they should have used him for practice