Malaysian Grand Prix 2014, Kuala Lumpur - Race 2/19

sunama · 29 Mar 2014 at 18:07

Skeeter said:
I imagine Mercedes were planning on racking up a chunk of points before RBR sorted it out, ...

I suspect they will achieve this (ie. a points lead before the Summer).
The question is: how many points will they rack up before RBR give Vettel a car to dominate the opposition?

Also, lets not forget that Merc dont have great reliability - last week one of their cars was broken in the opening laps.

For the record, my own title favourite for this year is Vettel. He is the most ruthless competitor in F1 and RBR will not rest until they have the best car on the grid.

(un-confident) prediction:
1. Hamilton
2. Vettel
3. Alonso (or 1 of the McLarens)

Westyfield2 · 29 Mar 2014 at 19:43

Did they give a reason for the Red Flag during Q2? Or was it just Ferrari International Assistance giving more time to fix Fred's car?

TaKeN · 29 Mar 2014 at 19:45

Westyfield2 said:
Did they give a reason for the Red Flag during Q2? Or was it just Ferrari International Assistance giving more time to fix Fred's car?

It seemed to happen during a period of heavy rain. Maybe they initially believed Kyvat to have aquaplaned into Alonso?

Skeeter · 29 Mar 2014 at 19:47

I'm with Taken. I think the FIA jumped on the panic button when they saw someone had crashed, but then quickly realised it wasn't due to the weather being too bad.

CaptainRAVE · 29 Mar 2014 at 20:04

Milkybk said:
The RB cars really must be starting to worry Merc now. Great qualifying session. Hopefully Vettels car will be reliable for the race.

They are nowhere near Mercedes with race pace and seem to have a lot of reliability issues in every session.

knip · 29 Mar 2014 at 20:47

Hello everyone.

Just checking (like I always do) the race will start at 9am, which is what was 8am?

So if i want grid walk I need to put the telly on at half 8, which is what was half 7.

MAllen · 29 Mar 2014 at 21:09

englishpremier said:
BBC suck big time. The qualifying programme finished at 10am and it still isn't on iPlayer. Pull the finger out BBC numpties.

So does anyone have a clue as to why the delay on the iPlayer? By the time the Qualy is available the race itself will have been run. Is there some daft copyright deal going on here causing the delay like with he Football?

Or is this a plan by the Beeb to just annoy all the F1 watchers?

Jimbeam3678 · 29 Mar 2014 at 21:51

knip said:
Hello everyone.

Just checking (like I always do) the race will start at 9am, which is what was 8am?

So if i want grid walk I need to put the telly on at half 8, which is what was half 7.

This is what I am working on. See you at 8.30 :cool:

Nismo · 29 Mar 2014 at 22:02

Just read this Helmet interview, is it just me or does he come across as even more of a **** than usual?

http://www.formula1.com/news/interviews/2014/3/15628.html

sunama · 29 Mar 2014 at 22:03

CaptainRAVE said:
They are nowhere near Mercedes with race pace and seem to have a lot of reliability issues in every session.

For sure, RBR are not as fast as Merc in race trim (or in qualifying trim). However, we don't know what the difference is.

Last week, Ricciardo was around 0.5s-0.7s/lap slower than Rosberg. If Vettel was driving the car, we can safely knock that time off completely HOWEVER, we also must assume that Rosberg could've driven faster by around 0.5s/lap.

Whichever way we look at it, nobody has any idea about the true differential. If Vettel can complete this race AND it remains dry, then we will get a true indication.

And on the subject of Vettel...
I've watched F1 for over 2 decades. MSc was the best I ever saw. He was the most complete driver. In every area. That was until I saw Vettel. Vettel is a new and improved version of MSc. I am positive that in Vettel I am seeing the most decorated driver in F1 history, in the making. And at this point in time, he is at the peak of his powers.

If that RBR car is capable of winning the title this year, then Vettel is exactly the right man for the job. This is what leads me to believe that Merc should be looking over their shoulder, at what RBR are doing.

Reaper 392 · 29 Mar 2014 at 22:44

sunama said:
Last week, Ricciardo was around 0.5s-0.7s/lap slower than Rosberg. If Vettel was driving the car, we can safely knock that time off completely

Erm... where are you getting that from? I'm not denying that Vettel is a good driver and is more than likely to be a bit faster than Ricciardo, but the only time that we have seen them together in the same machinery doing race runs has been in practice sessions. Considering that we don't know what fuel loads they were running and what car problems they were managing we just cant say what their comparative race pace is to any degree of accuracy.

smr · 30 Mar 2014 at 00:58

drunkenmaster said:
Great early lap, as said all along, Rosberg can be faster all through practice, in Q1/q2, but Q3 is where Hamilton steps up. For 5 years Hamilton will push one sector but ease off in others, then put together the entire lap 9 out of 10 times in Q3 when he needs to. Alonso does similar. Vettel is fast but he has a habit of going all out in every session.

Rosberg can be very fast but he's no where near as consistent at Hamilton. button/Mclaren, kind of stupidity that caused Hamilton to leave. Fact is if the track did speed up and warrant a inter, they had time to bank a lap on wet tyres and then come in. Why on earth would you do the whole session on inters with the hope that in 8 minutes the track might be faster on inters... insane and stupid tactical decision there.

Because they had nothing to lose. The car is 7th fastest at best so why not gamble that the track was going to come to inters in the last couple of mins of Q3... Mclaren pit wall were told that the rain would ease off to make inters more competitive but the rain didn't ease off.

Can't be blamed for trying something different, the race pace of the Mclaren's should hopefully be better than the Force Indias and Ferraris, maybe RB will hit trouble and we'll be in contention for a podium at least.

lucarocks92 · 30 Mar 2014 at 04:00

sunama said:
For sure, RBR are not as fast as Merc in race trim (or in qualifying trim). However, we don't know what the difference is.

Last week, Ricciardo was around 0.5s-0.7s/lap slower than Rosberg. If Vettel was driving the car, we can safely knock that time off completely HOWEVER, we also must assume that Rosberg could've driven faster by around 0.5s/lap.

Whichever way we look at it, nobody has any idea about the true differential. If Vettel can complete this race AND it remains dry, then we will get a true indication.

And on the subject of Vettel...
I've watched F1 for over 2 decades. MSc was the best I ever saw. He was the most complete driver. In every area. That was until I saw Vettel. Vettel is a new and improved version of MSc. I am positive that in Vettel I am seeing the most decorated driver in F1 history, in the making. And at this point in time, he is at the peak of his powers.

If that RBR car is capable of winning the title this year, then Vettel is exactly the right man for the job. This is what leads me to believe that Merc should be looking over their shoulder, at what RBR are doing.

Vettel has had the best car for 4-5 years in a row. All he has shown is that he can win with the fastest car and keep a healthy lead.

For me that does not show he is a more complete driver than MSC. Do u remember MSC's 1996 win in the pouring rain in Spain? That was a complete driver right there.

I would not put Vettel in the same breathe as Schumi right now until we see him in a less competitive car. I would rate Alonso as the most complete driver in F1 right now, he has shown he can win with a slow car and come within inches of winning championships with a car that should not be there.

With his broken car yesterday he managed to get 4th position that is graet driving right there and someone who is at the top of their game. I'm not sure if he would be quicker than Vettel/Hamilton for pole positions but imo he is the best driver right now.

413x · 30 Mar 2014 at 07:08

Would have done what Button did if I was him. Not much to loose. Lots to gain

deuse · 30 Mar 2014 at 07:45

Morning all

No rain so far

They are saying that Hamilton's problem last week was a sparkplug cap shorting

Flibster · 30 Mar 2014 at 08:12

Morning.

I ache. Moved a transit full of storage boxes out of the flat yesterday. Definitely feeling it today, and have another load to take later.

Housey · 30 Mar 2014 at 08:19

Jalfrezi botty, not good.

knip · 30 Mar 2014 at 08:20

Haha this bit with Damon and Jonny is hilarious

Guerrilla · 30 Mar 2014 at 08:23

Morning all

Glag to be back at home with Sky today after having the BBC yesterday, I hope we get a nice dry start to the race, rain later I don't mind too much though

RoboCod · 30 Mar 2014 at 08:24

So, Virgin Media came yesterday. They dug up my neighbours garden and driveway, leaving a nice big scar across their land, then they spent the whole morning wiring and drilling holes so I could get TV and internet. I fired up the box and searched through the channels, I've paid for everything. But wait, what's this... like an absolute amateur I come to realise that VM does not have the rights to F1HD!!!!

only standard def!

Well, back to BBC ONE this morning for the F1 and HD then

noob