Grand Prix 2012 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

Someone other than Vettel is leading the Championship!

It may be strange to see, but for the first time since Abu Dhabi 2010 someone other than Sebastian Vettel is top of the Championship after Jenson Button won the Australian Grand Prix in commanding fashion with Vettel second and a folorn Hamilton falling foul of a safety car which allowed the German through.

Going into Malaysia it seems apparent that Mclaren have the strongest car as they were far and away the strongest team in Australia and it was only after having to fuel save for 90% of the race that let Red Bull get within distance, when Button and Hamilton were at full throttle for the first 8 laps, they pulled away at over a second a lap which provided a comfortable cushion even though it was wiped out by a safety car due to Vitaly Petrov breaking down on the main straight.

But the Australian Grand Prix raised more questions than it did provide answers, the only thing that we learned was that the not quite so new teams are still as bad as they were last season and Mclaren and Red Bull are the two fastest teams. Ferrari had a shocking qualifying but Fernando Alonso managed to drag it kicking and screaming into 5th place which suggests a better race pace compared to qualifying pace while beleaguered Felipe Massa trundled around in midfield like he was on a Sunday drive in the Australian parks.

lotus are the only team where a question mark still remains about the general competitiveness. Roman Grosjean qualified a remarkable third but was taken out early on by Maldando while returning champion Kimi Raikkonnen failed to get out of first qualifying but managed to fight through the field to finish a very strong seventh which suggests that they do have a strong car but need to ally qualifying with race pace if they are to take the fight to the top teams.

In 2011 Malaysia was a race full of pit stops due to the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres, and while the tyres this year are more conservative and stable, high degradation is still to be expecting and several pit stops are going to be the norm with an unpredictable weekend to come. The only thing to expect is the likelihood of a massive shower at some point during the weekend which would no doubt spice things up.

For Galahad's excellent circuit write up, see here http://cliptheapex.com/pages/sepang-international-circuit/

 

[mjo]

Pastor Maldonado thinks that Williams are faster than Ferrari and almost on the pace of Red Bull for this weekend. Would be great if this was the case.

 

[teabagyokel]

The irony of DRS is that the better your system, the less you'll actually use it. Mercedes will never use DRS in a race because they'll always be going backward and thus won't be 1 second behind anyone!

 

[sportsman]

I think if Mercedes get a better balance between Quali and Race pace, they may also be a threat. The length of their 7th gear they must've needed to take advantage of super DRS. They are perhaps better off using it as an excuse for heaping max downforce on their car, as they'll make up for the extra drag with the DRS. Alternatively, the long back and home straights will help them take more advantage of their system.

If Mercedes do as you suggest they will be way way overgeared during the race.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Oooh I just found an interesting fact! I'll use it as another quick quiz question! What was the Malayasian GP scheduled to become after discussions in 2008?

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I seem to remember it was touted as being a possible night race?

 

[Kamui-FastestChefInTheWorld]

Malaysia GP, rather than Malaysian?

 

[Jos the Boss]

Malaysia GP, rather than Malaysian?

I think that happened in 2010/11?

I seem to remember it was touted as being a possible night race?

Yep this is the right answer, it was discussed to become a night race, and a rather impressive one it would have been!

 

[Brogan]

The Malaysian organisers told Ecclestone earlier this week that they have no intentions of changing the race time to suit a western European audience.

 

[Jos the Boss]

I like that time of day, it's nice and early but not too early, and also when it's early everything is nice and quiet so you don't need to try your best to try and see and hear, and the neighbours make too much noise in the night, I'll have the morning!

 

[johnnoble1990]

The thing with DRS is that most likely you're not going to use it for a large part of the race. And then the extra drag from the max downforce will seriously hamper their straightline speed.

Surely that was my point. They sacrificed racepace to fully utilise their super DRS in quali. Getting a better balance between this will mean that they will have a good straightline speed in race due to their engine and be good through corners. This is a luxury other cars can not afford, and something that might explain Mclaren good performance through the corners and poor straightline speed. They are just heaping downforce on, but not suffering as much from the drag due to the Merc engine.

 

[johnnoble1990]

The Malaysian organisers told Ecclestone earlier this week that they have no intentions of changing the race time to suit a western European audience.

Didn't they try this a few years ago when the race was abandoned half way through? To be honest, early is early. There won't be much more people getting up at 8 or 9 for the race than the current time. Either you are committed to watching F1 live or you'll catch the re-run.

 

[johnnoble1990]

If Mercedes do as you suggest they will be way way overgeared during the race.

Is that not what happened in Australia? I'm arguing they should shorten their 7th gear, which will put them on the limiter with DRS, but improve general race pace as gears will be more optimal through the other non-DRS straights.

 

[johnnoble1990]

I like that time of day, it's nice and early but not too early, and also when it's early everything is nice and quiet so you don't need to try your best to try and see and hear, and the neighbours make too much noise in the night, I'll have the morning!

I agree. There is something quite healthy about getting up nice and early. I'd admit FP1 is a bit ridiculous, but then that is not scheduled viewers.

 

[Jos the Boss]

I agree. There is something quite healthy about getting up nice and early. I'd admit FP1 is a bit ridiculous, but then that is not scheduled viewers.

Healthy or insane!? I would like a race at 11:30, wake up at a nice time of half 10 and finish in the afternoon, that would be a nice race

 

[jez101]

From the start in Oz Button was straight up to speed, I presume because the car balance was right for a full load of fuel and he got the tyres straight up to temperature. The first few laps from the FIA race timing were:

Button Hamilton
17:05:07 17:05:08
1:33.414 1:34.297
1:33.350 1:33.566
1:33.101 1:33.347
1:32.984 1:33.446
1:33.117 1:33.380

Afaik the long time for the first lap is due to the timing starting at the 15 minutes to go point.

That'll be from the Race Lap Analysis pdf which shows that it was 5.05pm local time when Button finished his first lap. The actual first lap time is shown in the Race History (Lap Chart) pdf. Unfortunately these have already been taken down for oz.

 

[Jos the Boss]

The safety car has not been officially deployed in the last 10 years, it was deployed at Malaysia 2009 but it wasn't counted due to the red flag and going back to the last complete racing lap so it wasn't classified according to Mercedes, they know what they're talking about!

 

[johnnoble1990]

Healthy or insane!? I would like a race at 11:30, wake up at a nice time of half 10 and finish in the afternoon, that would be a nice race

It wouldn't start till 19:30 though in Malaysia. If it became a night race it'd make sense, but I don't want every inconveniently timed race to made into a night race. It would lose its uniqueness.

 

[johnnoble1990]

That'll be from the Race Lap Analysis pdf which shows that it was 5.05pm local time when Button finished his first lap. The actual first lap time is shown in the Race History (Lap Chart) pdf. Unfortunately these have already been taken down for oz.

Argg...I didn't expect them to do that. I have the lap times one downloaded already, but I'm going to make sure I download the rest for next race. Didn't realise they deleted them. What is the point of that? Archive!!!

P.S Thanks for explaining.

 

[Jos the Boss]

It wouldn't start till 19:30 though in Malaysia. If it became a night race it'd make sense, but I don't want every inconveniently timed race to made into a night race. It would lose its uniqueness.

I would say 3 at most, and if i was going to make one race a night race, it wouldn't be malaysia but the already spectacular Monaco! The BBC feature when they went round the track last year was cool but the track was stunning!

 

[johnnoble1990]

I would say 3 at most, and if i was going to make one race a night race, it wouldn't be malaysia but the already spectacular Monaco! The BBC feature when they went round the track last year was cool but the track was stunning!

Interesting point, but better than that would be keeping Monaco the same, for its history, and bringing in a Vegas street circuit race in the night. Would be amazing, though it would never happen for the ridiculous time it'd have to be on at. They'd probably need to have the race on saturday night at like midnight, so it was 7am here sunday morning. If anywhere though, Vegas could do.