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

The car is clearly @#$%& and Massa doesn't have the technical ability nor the support of the team to work around it. He'll be out of that team half-way through this year if things don't pick up. He could end up back at Sauber as a direct swap if Perez goes to take his place.

so from everything i ve read so far i come to the follwoing conclusions:

1) macca are fast, both in qualy and race trim

2) reb bull super fast in race trim, then maccca

3) mercedes fly in qualy trim, but eat their tyres too much (according to the media), however schumacher said "We had a good day on track today, and I am very happy about the work that has been done since Australia. This has enabled us to achieve reasonably consistent long runs, which is obviously important in these conditions". So... interesting to see what would happen there

4) alonso is in for a 5 th position at best in the race, under normal circumstances

5) button is a lot slower than ham in qualy trim, thus he might be overtaken by merc. or lotus in qualy.

6) no conclusions about lotus

Number's don't lie and on long run race, Mclaren behind RedBull AND Lotus!

Question is obviously fuel. The difference between RedBull looks to be on 0.5/lap upwards, and maybe 0.3/lap for Lotus.

I assume some difference must be fuel, because that's a huge difference from Australia. There was obvious drop off for Button too. Difficult to compare directly because he was on Soft's and Vettel/Webber on the harder. Vettel's times on the softs are not representative, or at least abit all over. Either way, I would say the advantage I, and many of us thought Mclaren had at Australia has certainly vanished here.

With RedBull struggling for 1 lap pace but looking better on race pace, looking like we could have some interesting races, and I guess yet further chance for Vettel to show he is every bit as awesome as Lewis at overtaking :D!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

even if the merc. is struggling in the race, well, c mon. just get the schuey on that front row and he ll handle it from there. Why i think so ? just watched the imola gp 2006, and was stunned, how schuey resisted alonso's pressure for over 30 laps !!

Imola was a track were overtaking was difficult. They got DRS, a wide track where overtaking will happen regardless of DRS. Schumi, no matter how good he is will not hold anyone back here for 30 laps .

Looking at the times again, I 100% believe Williams has a car to match Ferrari again. Not upto the pace of Mclaren, RedBull and Lotus, but IMO not far from Mercedes, and easily a match for Ferrari :D! Looking like they're ahead of Sauber, Force India, STR and the rest :D!

If they qualify within the top 12 I reckon a top 8 for both cars is a real possibility. We'll find out I guess, but then if true, my worry becomes how long can they keep it up?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

I think if the car is indeed now a goodun then they'll consistently challenge for points. The development rate has never been a problem. They started off quite slow in 2010 but developed fairly well there afterwards.

Last year was horrible because the FW33 was such a dog what ever you do to it didn't help that and the lack of exhaust blown diffuser.

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

Instead of immaturely arguing with obvious facts because you don't like reading about them, why don't you pay said facts a bit more attention? It's obvious to all but Massa fanboys that a driver of Trulli's calibre is more talented. What each driver achieved on paper in terms of on-track results is no reflection on that. Take a closer look at the performance of each driver, at what each driver was able to do with the car they were driving throughout their career so far. It's night and day.
Like I say, I can't believe you're wanting to have this discussion at all, because there's nothing to discuss. On natural talent, Trulli > Massa. Immature ridiculing? Try common sense!
And sorry if I come across pretty abrasive here, but I have a low tolerance for being asked silly questions.


gav Wrote:
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> 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.

Fair enough, my bad there. I guess I'm still a bit quick to think of the most dominating performances as being the ones that involve winning from the front... He did drive a lot of stunning races like that throughout 95.


bob197724 Wrote:
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> OH Dear
>
> Ferrari have given Massa a vote of confidence. So
> 2/3 races before he gets replaced by Perez then.

Hmmm, we'll see, but yeah, that seems a bit ominous. As said already though, it'll probably just be a straight swap between him and Perez if they choose Perez to replace him; actually that would work out pretty nicely for everyone involved.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/23/2012 07:52PM by EC83.

i know it's not much but two things i found interesting in this video.

1. Does cars sound that low nowadays?
2. Alonso pushing like hell behind Rosberg

they sound like gokarts in that video.

_______________________________________________________________________

Well.. They are v8 engines can't expect them to sound like

This




Nor this




They still sound good though.

FP3 underway now - the weather looks pretty juicy at Sepang right now!

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Wow... Could be a really interesting weekend.

Mercedes really used the straight line speed to good effect with Rosberg to take the quickest time in FP3.. They can't be ruled out of a glory shot to pole. I still sense they'll be on the back foot in the race though.

It's looking finely poised between Red Bull and McLaren in my opinion, I don't know if McLaren are keeping thier powder dry but Red Bull seem to be coming back at them. But the pair of them need to watch out for Lotus and Williams both who look like they can give the front something to think about for the race. Mercedes will be the joker card with strong one lap pace and decent starts but their degregation issues could spoil the race up the front if it causes Lotus and Williams to lose a chance to mix it with Red Bull and McLaren

Pole position is going to be really important here.. As a good start from pole and a first lap sprint to get out of the DRS zone could be key to this race unless it rains ofcourse which it could well do.

LMFAO at the live Otters Pocket comment!


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Eeeeeeeeeeexcellent. Will look forward to watching this tomorrow.

Well done HRT.

Michael to take lead on first lap?.. Lewis is in a bad spot to keep pole for the first lap tomorrow, with Jenson and Michael behind, lol
now he needs to look both mirrors.

Rosberg still looks under pressure, it seems he knows qualy was his strongest point compared to Michael for thepast seasons and now he doesn't have that anymore.

Alonso well done Massa too wasn't as bad as the beggining of the session.

too bad for Maldonado he couldn't make it in Q3 but apparently he still put it better then where they expected to be.
was hoping to see Kimi in the top 3, he looks like he's quickly getting on top of it.

if it rains Michael has a chance to win it imho. would e a tight close fight with Jenson, but if it's dry it' Mclaren's 1--2 with Jenson winning it again.

Confident stuff by Hamilton again, he's pumped up if the way he strutted into the scrutineering garage is anything to go by, Button poised to spoil it if any chunks in the armour show again.

Excellent lap by Schumacher... He could mix things up properly if he gets a good start, good stuff from Kimi shame about the gearbox, interfering tyre call by Red Bull one to watch out for.

Rosberg choked yet again, Alonso dragged that Ferrar into Q3 almost against it's will watch out for him in the race. Well dome to Perez, Sauber are showing a great deal of maturity whilst others makes mistakes.

Maldonaldo choked, should have been in Q3, overdrove went off, but still beat Bruno who just doesn't seem to have single lap pace.

Things are pretty tight all he way through the field.

2 important conclusions for me:

1) massa is not that bad at all, to be honest. he was .250 behind alonso. now this is as close as a team mate has ever gone close to fernando (trulli's best career part and hamilton excluded).

2) schumacher is beginning to psychologically destroy rosberg. Just like alonso does to massa. Just like Button does to Hamilton. just like vettel almost did to webber (but yet could not quite make it count, as we see webber is no more on the backfoot ).

The way I see it...

Lewis keeps his position for first lap, then he's won.

If Button get's in front on first lap then he's won.

If Michael passes Button, Lewis has won.

If Michael passes both, Lewis has won.

What will be interesting is how quick the RBR's are. I swear they looked so much better on long runs, as did Lotus. Race for 3rd will be between Kimi, Webber, and Vettel despite Kimi being that far back.

Great thing about this track and first lap is that it's relatively easy to make up position (and lose!!!) through the first corners, and along the straights during the first laps.

Kudos to Kimi and Schumacher, both epic. Lewis OK. BUT he flat spotted his tyres right? The ones he set his quickest time with?

edit - awesome to see Webber back again. Was Vettel's advantage really just the EBD? It was a HUGE performance loss for Webber in 2011 compared to 2010 yet so far I would argue he has shown to have more raw pace. I still believe Vettel is perhaps the quickest out there, maybe even the best (you can't argue with 2011!) but it is more than satisfying to see him being beaten by Webber in qualifying, something where Seb was nothing short of PERFECT last year.

Everything about F1 is quick! Especially how things can change :D! It's why I love the sport!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2012 11:17AM by chet.

I don't think Schukacher is psychologically destroying Rosberg, I think Rosberg is doing that to himself. On evidence of the past 2 seasons he has no problems out qualifying him. I think the issue here is that Rosberg sees perhapps his first genuine opportunity to get a pole position yet the Mclaren is ultimately just out of reach. And he's overdriving to make the difference which is where the mistakes come from. Even with the mistakes his pace is impressive. Schumacher seems to be in fine form but he's not the issue for Rosberg, it's the prospect of winning.

Several things to look out for tomorrow... Don't celebrate Hamilton's victory just yet because the word is that he's under investigation for through a yellow flag zone at full pelt during Q2.

If Schumacher takes the lead on lap one and there is a high chance that he can then the enduring degregation the Mercedes is likely to have compared to it's rivals could see him back the Mclarens into the Red Bulls, Lotus and Kimi in particular seem genuinely quick I think grid penalty not withstanding he's a real podium prospect.

If Perez can make his tyres last better than the others then he could be in for another haul of healthy points, otherwise look for Maldonaldo & Senna coming through to the tail end of the points, they dropped the ball in qualifying yet they seem to have handy long run pace.

Nico is suffering from having a bad car for too long! A guy who knows what to expect when the car is working will not over drive, he will just let the car flow.

Seem's to me that Nico has choked these last two events because he has a good car and quite simply, he can't use it. If he just relaxes im sure lap time will come to him. Nico's proven to be quick, mega quick, certainly top driver material.

Though it is quite nice to see the 42 year old clearly on the limit! What we saw on TV of his lap looked pretty sublime to me! I was waiting for blue lock up smoke but nothing, just looked perfectly on limit with nothing else to give.

Nico will get there, all it will take is one good Q3 lap to give back confidence . Maybe even the old guy should give him some advice

edit - biggest disappointment of season so far - Senna! Quick in FP, consistent but again choking when it matters! At least Pastor is quick when he f*cks up!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL