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!
 
Forget the driver situation for a minute - what effect will this have on the personnel at the team? Whether you think Vettel has disrespected Webber is not the issue - Vettel has basically overruled Horner, Newey and Rocky. Newey has previously had run-ins or at least slightly frosty relationships with his bosses before. If Mateschitz/Marko give Vettel the protection that we pretty much expect, may Newey decide he has had enough of the hierarchy?

He tends to only stay at teams for 6 or 7 years anyway so he is due to leave soon ;)

Does this deserve to be in a different thread?
 
It certainly could have long running ramifications, it's definitely not the last we'll hear of it, heaven forbid if something happens in China
 

Not sure if it was deliberate but Webber veered right across Vettel

Boyle
MCLS

Well Webber actually gets on well with Mateschitz who negotiates the contracts with him directly much to the irate of Marko who we all know has his own agenda

Marko is the one who defends Vettel seeing he is the success of the young driver programme at Red Bull

Its the first time Horner has actually been really angry with Seb and even Newey thought this is not necessary

Now Newey likes his position at Red Bull its the role he always wanted but never got at Mclaren or Williams

However what Vettel did may split the team camp where suddenly Webber has got more people on his side and Vettel is really defended by Marko

the fact was Seb openly flouted team orders and raced down the pitwall to do it which could have triggered a nasty accident with his own teammate

Disregard for your team boss suggests Seb is prepared to move on
 
It's where the money is though, ask the likes of McLaren if they'd prefer a WDC or a WCC and I know which they'd go for. the WDC might get the publicity, but the money comes with the WCC.
I think you'd find there's a very strong argument to suggest the additional exposure and publicity from winning the Drivers Championship would attract a hell of a lot more sponsorship dollars than the amount paid for the Constructors Championship.
 
It certainly could have long running ramifications, it's definitely not the last we'll hear of it, heaven forbid if something happens in China
I wouldn't expect anything in China but payback will come big time before the season ends, guaranteed. All hell will break loose when it happens, but until then internally Red Bull will be like a festering sore.
 
Disregard for your team boss suggests Seb is prepared to move on

Seb wants to go to Ferrari, but I'm not sure he's done himself any favours there. Ferrari like to call the shots and will not take kindly to a driver who thinks he's above the team. I know Alonso gets his own way a lot. But that's as long as it suits Ferrari. Seb has just displayed that he will do what suits Seb.
 
downforce.......I really don't understand how anyone can rate Webber as average. He has consistently been in the top six for five years or so in motorsports premier series. He may not be top draw but he's significantly better then average.
In a Newey designed Red-Bull.
He has hardly been a match for Vettel.

IMO, Vettel is a world class driver, in the top 4 of F1 (Ham, Alo, Rai, Vet) and Webber is an average F1 driver. "average F1 driver" by the way is not an insult. I wish I was an average F1 driver.

I don't think many people would have said Coulthard was much more than average and he ws in the top 6 for 6 years, mostly in Newey designed McLarens
 
The thought of Adrian Newey going to another team (Sauber or FI would be great to see) is a very good one, but I can't see it. Red-Bull will let Vettel do whatever really and keep going on bagging championships.
 
I know Alonso has just had a bad one but I still think he and Ferrari will be strong enough to take both titles this year. I think they'll be significantly stronger than Red Bull and as long as Alonso doesn't have too many more DNF's I think both he and Massa will find the consistency they need.
 
Kewee - I don't know, I think Ferrari have given time now for others to catch up. I can see a 4 or maybe 5 way battle this year. Red Bull will implode quite soon I suspect, Ferrari have looked quick, but haven't managed to capitalise, Mercedes look fast, but not quite fast enough and it will depend on if they can keep developing and actually put enough fuel in the car. McLaren meanwhile have played the catch up game quite well, but their operational mistakes cost the a haul of points on Sunday, but if they have another boost in China, they will be there or there abouts. Lotus seem to have the pace as well, but their car seems to be very reliant on a certain setup, or maybe they just didn't go with the changes to grip come qualy and the race.
 
RickD.......During the course of a season most drivers have at least one DNF. Hopefully for me, being an Alonso fan, his has come early in the season. We should remember if it weren't for his accident at Spa last year he would have broken Schumachers record of points finishes, so he has a very good record in this respect. Time will tell but I do have a feeling they'll have better consistency than their rivals this year. Massa's strength so far tells us a lot about their car. Massa has always needed a good car to perform. He never has been great at driving around problems so here's hoping. :)
 
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