Grand Prix 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix Practice, Qualifying & Race Discussion

So after a fairly average season opener the mighty F1 circus roars on to Sepang in Malaysia to write its second chapter where it will hope the main headlines will be made on the track and not off it like in Melbourne. It will also hope for a full grid of 20 cars and for no one to break down on the way to the grid. There is no question that the mighty Merc will be favourite to take a result. When you've got the best car being driven to perfection its hard not to tip them for a win. Already though you have to be concerned about Nico Rosbergs sporting mental state as he was was not only thoroughly beaten by Hamilton on the track but then also took a thrashing from Vettel in the press conference. Whilst we're pretty sure he'll remember to mention Merc's Malaysian backers on the podium(remember last year?) you have to hope for his sake its from the top spot in order to stop the rot that set in about half way through the 2014 season.

Sepang has actually been a stop on the F1 calendar since 1999 with the first race win being gifted to Eddie Irvine by Michael Schumacher. Young Max Verstappen will probably have to spend the next two weeks hearing stories from his dad Jos about how in 2001 in the rain he went from 18th to 6th off the start line in an Arrows and even lead the race at one point before the track became dry again and despite some brave defending he slipped back down to 7th. Speaking of rain, its a fact that Malaysia is notorious for it and I severely doubt will have a weekend without any arriving at all even if they have moved the start time forward to avoid the monsoons. What that will do to the current pecking order at the moment I have no idea but I doubt it will throw Hamilton off course with his current form. Some of the laps he was doing in Australia were sublime to the point of being ridiculous.

In terms of a challenge to Mercedes then all eyes are on Ferrari. Their race pace was a lot better than expected and whilst still a way off you suspect from Vettel's obvious confidence and swagger at the moment that the car feels good and he expects it to get better. He has certainly show himself to be in predator mode and I expect his plan is to be sitting there on Mercedes shoulder in order to take advantage of any error that might creep in. A few digs in the press conference in order to throw them off kilter is a cheeky tactic but not one unheard of. It reminded me very much of 1993 when Prost was complaining about all the car problems he had with his Williams and Senna asked him if he'd like to swap cars for the next race. Kimi has very fond memories of ice cream at Malaysia and I'm sure we'll have some form of t-shirt to remind us all about it going off this year. It was good to see Raikkonen showing the speed we know he has in the first race but now we need him to find some luck from somewhere in order for him to get into the race. Kimi always comes to life when he has a good car and that seems to be the case here. I also think he genuinely gets on with his teammate for a change and I fully expect him to be at the very least sat on Vettel's bumper in a straight race.

The other team people will look at to challenge is Williams who do look in pretty good shape. I still have my doubts whether they will actually give Mercedes a proper race though as due to the involvement of Toto Wolff in both teams I do wonder if Merc and Williams have a Red Bull/Torro Rosso type relationship at current. I do hope I'm wrong and if anyone is going to show me I'm wrong then its probably Bottas. Unfortunately we were robbed of the chance to see what he would do in round 1 due to his back problem. As anyone sporting or not will tell you back problems don't go away quickly so I suspect we'll either not see him at Malysia or we'll see him slightly off form due to being in pain which is also a shame. The debate has already started on who will be in for him if he isn't there with the media jumping up and down at the prospect of the headlines and debate they can splash all over the place if Suzie Wolff is in the car. Personally I hope they give Alex Lynn a shot because he is lightening quick and will be a great addition to the bunch of new drivers we already have on the grid even if it is for just one race. Alternatively they might take the tactic of going for someone who has raced in Grand Prix before. I'm sure JEV has already started following the team on Twitter as of Sunday.

Speaking of the rookies they were one of the massive positive points of Australia and I'm sure Felipe Nasr has already gained a massive load of new fans from that one drive. I think his GP2 drives meant he had a lot already but those none watchers of GP2 probably expected another pay driver but had dropped that idea as soon as they saw the overtake after the safety car. Whatever the out come of the Sauber debate with Van Der Garde I'm pretty sure it won't be Nasr making way. The Torro Rosso boys lit up the weekend too with little Max Verstappen getting all the plaudits and media attention whilst Carlos Sainz actually got the business done on the track. The media loves the idea of a 17 year old coming in and being awesome in F1 so you'll hear far more about Max than Carlos but both of them are on a parr really with Sainz maybe having the edge currently. They are both hitting F1 like a hammer at the moment and it does make you think about all the other drivers they were competing with and being beaten by in junior formulas and how F1 might be a better place for having them in it.

Oh and will Manor actually turn a wheel in Malaysia? I'm sure we're on the edge of our seats to find out.

Anyways Discuss, Javelin, Long Jump!
 
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Tough call. Rosberg will want to sort his qually performance out. Hamilton was in form in Aus but Rosberg strung some bad laps together in final qual. Rosberg will be desperate to do well and that little edge of worry may push it back in Hamilton's favour. Then there is the ever present threat of rain (please rain, but not to hard so as to stop the race :D) which could spice things up and then a number of other teams come into the mix.
 
It will be interesting to see if McLaren choose to turn the wick up on the engine a bit. If they're not plum last by some margin (and being lapped by the Manors) then this might be proof they did.
 
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I hadn't seen the press conference, so that transcript was interesting. Thanks Incubus :)
Lewis must have been a bit miffed that the journos tried to turn it into the Sebastian Show?
Nico certainly seems to have let his feelings show about the attempted 'take-over'.
It actually reads more interesting than the race looked, though ..... but that's hardly surprising! :yawn:

Back to topic:
Hamilton or Rosberg?
Rosberg or Hamilton?
Punch or Judy?
Bill or Ben?
Dumb or Dumber?
Heads or Tails?

I really can't decide ........ Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo ........ no, no, no, that deosn't help! :whistle:
 
And in case you missed it Nico Rosberg sent a tweet today officially inviting Seb to the engineering debrief session in Sepang on the Friday at 16:00. I really hope Vettel calls his bluff and goes.
The only problem is that Seb won't see it. He does not Twitter or do any other social media thing
 
I'm pretty sure enough people talked about it or retweeted it that he'll get told. Someone did ask Nico why he tagged Ferrari into the tweet to let him know and there was no response.
 
I think Lewis is on a streak that could last a while but the Ferrari/Williams battle is going to be awesome-I am looking forward to that. My fingers are crossed that Lewis tops Vettel in the wins list by mid season. My perfect race would be: Lewis and Nico tangle at start, Lewis is hobbled but carries on, Nico is out with broken car, Alonso has amazing start because Honda cranks up engine to max, Vettel gets swamped at start and falls back to 14th, Kimi has solid race and battles with Bottas lap after lap, Verstappen proves that he deserves to be in F1 and has a great battle with Ricciardo, Nasr and Massa also trade paint and position. Other than that, I have no opinion on the next race ;)
 
You don't want Nico to finish? Bah. I want it the other way around, Lewis out, Nico brings the car to the end of the race, hopefully slowed down enough that it really looks like the prancing horses could catch him, but with some amazing driving he holds them off and we get a Mercedes - Ferrari - Ferrari podium. But I want Kimi to come out ahead of Vettel - though it would be nice to see them battle through the field to get their podium finish. I want all the rookies to finish in the points if they can, especially Max, after Aus, he needs to catch up.
 
I used to not like this track, but I've warmed to it a lot in the last few years. The layout is pretty good, nice combination of corners and no fiddly chicanes. And its one that overtaking is definitely possible.

Another random fact: Max Verstappen was only a few days over 2 years old when the first race was held here.
 
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I'm still not convinced about the Mercedes Williams relationship but Toto is down to a 5% share holding now.

I sometimes thing I'm being a bit paranoid about it as well but having just read this James Allen article (yes I know its James Allen) I'm thinking it might mean something.

The article is here http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/03/will-we-see-alonso-and-bottas-in-malaysia/ and is about whether Alonso and Bottas will be in Malaysia. The bit that interests me is this bit:

"if neither driver makes it, then once again Kevin Magnussen would substitute for Alonso at McLaren, while Mercedes protege Pascal Wehrlein would stand in for Bottas, according to colleagues close to the matter. Wehrlein drove the Force India and the Mercedes cars on the same day in the recent Barcelona test and Mercedes, which supplies engine to Williams, are keen for him to gain experience as quickly as possible.
This would not be without controversy on two fronts; as a Mercedes test driver he would have intimate knowledge of the car, technology and operations of the works team’s strongest current contender. And Williams would be passing over Susie Wolff and Alex Lynn, who have test and development driving roles with the Grove team. It illustrates the closeness of the two operations, with Toto Wolff still a 5% shareholder in the Williams team."

Why would Williams pass over their own development drivers to run the Merc development driver? The Merc development driver who just happens to be in their young driver stable and manager by Toto Wolff......who just happens to manage Bottas as well.

I'll put my tinfoil hat on shall I?
 
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