2012 Malaysian Grand Prix Thread ***SPOILERS***

SchueyFan Wrote:
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> EC83 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > And Trulli is
> > unquestionably more talented than Massa too.
>
> How do you get to that conclusion?

How do you get to any other conclusion?
I can't believe you've asked that.


danm Wrote:
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> Rubens! :P

:D

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Tbh I put Massa and Trulli in the same boat - both bloody quick on a good day, but on a bad day they are shocking! And both of them seem pretty sensitive, too - they can easily have their confidence knocked and have a bad year (or years hehe) because of it. Now that I think about it, I think they'd be pretty equal.

But I still think that Massa's reputation for being a poor driver is unfair. Most drivers that Alonso has partnered (apart from one or two) have looked terrible - but to me that shows how good Alonso is, not how poor his teammate is. It's happened with far to many people for it to just be a slow teammate.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]

J i m Wrote:
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> We'll see.
>
> Even Mercdes themselves seemed surprised by their
> degregation issues at Melbourne... yet all through
> Barcelona testing the Merc was the car that was
> pointed out for it's high drop off in lap-time
> over a stint.
>
> Schumacher downplayed that both then and now...
> Rosberg though is admitting that they need to
> compromise their setup more towards the race and
> sacrifice out right one lap speed for qualifying.

actually Schumacher was the first to point it out, and then Rosberg said it wasn't that bad, and then Schumacher followed thru

it can be solved but it's going to cost them some speed

speed in qualifying mainly. they'll have to compromise their car setup more towards race day, in order to keep the tyre degradation low. on rainy days (like the onein sepang) and cold track (such as germany, england and gew others) they should be fine. also, when pirellibring harder compounds it should suit them better. Thus, the weekend ahead seems pretty good to mercedes. definately in for a podium.

P.S: i have always wondered, whether schumacher has been bad at sepang or just the ferrari bridgstone combination didnt work out there. schuey has only won in malaysia 1 time in 8 races there (from 2002 onwards) and in 2004 he argubly had the best car

I don't think Schumacher is bad around Sepang at all. Remember 1999 when he spent the whole race trying to go slowly but still ended up leading by about 7 seconds after the final stops and had to back off and give Irvine the lead. Also his epic recovery drive in 2001 and to a lesser extent in 2002. I think he's no worse here than anywhere else TBH.

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yeah, and he was looking good in 2010 on his return...

meanwhile in Ferrari... it seems they really are a shadow of that team Schumacher once won many titles for.. there are rumours about a possible new car for Bahrain or Barcelona. (seriously?)
even if they're just rumors they still add fuel to a team already under pressure.

where are the 0.6 tenths Alonso brings with him to a new team?, we're still waiting for them!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/2012 07:50PM by Slash.

They don't really have any big-name designers.
They have kept Massa for too long.
Luca is arrogant and believes they should win just because they're Ferrari. I'm not 100% convinced the guy is that intelligent. Dominecalli doesn't seem to grasp how to improve a team.



It's all wrong. They're on their way down and Alonso won't hang around for them.

They definitely don't have the "dream team" of personnel now that they had in the late 90s. There's a conspicuous lack of the sense of direction that they had back then.

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Ferrari sadly is going back to be the crappy nervous team they were in the late 80s and first 90s

Slash schrieb:
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> where are the 0.6 tenths Alonso brings with him to
> a new team?, we're still waiting for them!


Actually i think Beging 5th while Massa faught with Caterham at one point should explain what he brings. Anyway hope Massa can somehow recover this weekend. Anyone wanna see Kimi with some Ice Cream lol.
Hope its gonna be the same close fight in the Whole pack like it was in OZ.

Schumi for pole? i think if he can carry on momentum from last quali he can actually do it.

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"And thats the bottom line cause Alonso0506 said so"

Slash Wrote:
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>
> where are the 0.6 tenths Alonso brings with him to
> a new team?, we're still waiting for them!

Maybe the car's so @#$%& that the extra time Alonso brings hauls it up slightly from the midfield...

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GPGSL: S6 - TafuroGP Tester (14th) /// S7 - ART Tester (6th) /// S8 - Demon Driver (13th) /// S9 - Demon/Snake Driver (13th) /// S10 - Snake Driver (???) ///]
"My ambition is handicapped by laziness" - Charles Bukowski

Whilst I have now doubt that Schumacher has within himself to get a pole position... I still think the car is ultimately to far away from the pace setter.. Be that a Mclaren or a Red Bull for it to be a realistic prospect in normal conditions.

People seem to think that because the Merc is fast in a straight line (and has a trick duct stalling the wing under DRS) and that Sepang has two generously long straights that they're going to pwn. People thought similar things for Monza last season.. Yet the Red Bull apparently one of the slower cars in a straight line was quicker around the lap.

It's what the car does in the corners, acceleration and braking zones which is important and I gather that tyres are rather vital to the performance in these areas. And how ever you dress it for over a year now Mercedes have not managed thier tyres as well their immediate opposition. Thus was the case all last year... The case through winter testing (despite doing high mileage on the new tyres with the old car for back to back comparisons) and also the case at Melbourne last weekend.

I think this is unlikely to change in the short term future as recent form suggests that it's something fundamental in the car.

Schumacher's comeback in 1999 was one of the most surreal things I think I've seen in F1. He decimated the field in qualifying and then spent all race trundling around on a 1-stop strategy and still much faster than the rest of the field on 2-stop strategies. Granted, such effortless domination has happened before (Schumacher himself at Monaco in 1995 springs to mind), but to do it on his comeback, in what was then easily the most physically demanding race, when he still couldn't walk properly... epic.

yes, Schuey was simply epic there. I think he can bring a good result here, not sure if he will score a pole but he will be there, also Lotus has chances here as they save tyres a lot.

Expecting something good from Williams, in pre-season it was reported that they looked awesome on fast corners...

just entered the formula 1 website and the forecast shows thunderstorms for the 3 days. Shumi for pole in those conditions doesn't sound too unrealistic, and maye even a podium for rainy sunday?. fingers crossed.

gav Wrote:
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> Granted, such effortless
> domination has happened before (Schumacher himself
> at Monaco in 1995 springs to mind)

Don't you mean Monaco 94? Just that in 95 he was behind Hill for the first stint and also had a challenge from Alesi before Alesi binned it. In 94 he was just mindblowing, with the stunningly dominant pole and then his sequence of opening laps(over 3 seconds ahead going into lap 2, over 9 seconds ahead going into lap 4 IIRC) which I find emotional to watch even now, given the circumstances the 1994 Monaco GP was run in. (There's one point, maybe 10 laps in, where Schumacher is on screen and Jonathan Palmer talks about him being the one driver who had what it took to step up and fill the void left by Senna; even now I find that footage hard to watch.)
But I digress - I guess I'm saying he was particularly dominant that weekend, LOL!

Similarly his mastery on the wet Monaco track in 1997 was something superhuman IMO.


Slash Wrote:
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> just entered the formula 1 website and the
> forecast shows thunderstorms for the 3 days. Shumi
> for pole in those conditions doesn't sound too
> unrealistic, and maye even a podium for rainy
> sunday?. fingers crossed.

Hope so - that would be perfect for the race. A late afternoon thunderstorm would be ideal, since that would probably kick off during the early laps.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2012 02:25AM by EC83.

Frantic Wrote:
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> Expecting something good from Williams, in
> pre-season it was reported that they looked
> awesome on fast corners...

That was Peter Windsor though admittedly backed up by Craig Scarlbourgh.

I hope for good things by Williams... But temper this hope with expectations of failure. I'll be delighted for them to prove me wrong.

EC83 Wrote:
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> How do you get to any other conclusion?
> I can't believe you've asked that.

Instead of immature ridiculing, how about trying to back up your opinion with some facts or evidence and trying to have a proper discussion?

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X (@ed24f1)

Quote
EC83
Don't you mean Monaco 94? Just that in 95 he was behind Hill for the first stint and also had a challenge from Alesi before Alesi binned it.

Nah, I mean 95. Again, he had the leading pace despite carrying twice the fuel, doing a 1-stop race to Hill's 2-stop.

OH Dear

Ferrari have given Massa a vote of confidence. So 2/3 races before he gets replaced by Perez then.