Malaysian Grand Prix

[bigC]

the second race of the season, the Malaysian Grand Prix! :beer:

after Friday practice, Honda, Ferrari, Renault and McLaren are at the top of the grid, along with ... a Williams driven by Wurz. this is shaping up to be a good race, and a competitive season, as it seems that there is more then one or two teams capable of winning. hopefully, to make things interesting, someone else besides Alonso wins.

Toyota: they have to redeem themselves after the fiasco that was Bahrain, else there will be a lot of people jumping out of buildings or falling on swords at Toyota's HQ. Ferrari: Massa will be penalized 10 spots for having to change his engine, so he has to prove himself in qualy as well as in the race. is he good enough for Ferrari, or will he be replaced by Kimi as is rumoured (also with Schumie returning for two more years). Kimi has shown that he can slice through the field from the back to gain a podium, but i doubt if Massa has the same driving skills. can Schumie continue to improve on his first race effort? Honda: will this be the race where the best driver in F1 (never to win a race) finally get that Kong sized ape off his back and win? and Rubens. his first race was disappointing--do you think he already regrets leaving Ferrari? McLaren: hopefully, Kimi's engine doesn't fail him yet again. BMW: please, JV, finish a race--i don't want to see his engine blow up again, he's suffered enough.

story:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/4115/752.html
results:http://www.formula1.com/race/result/752/10.html

[mikechai]

I bet the Malaysian GP winner will not be Jenson or Fisichella, who's with me?

[BrianG]

Rosberg is quickly becoming my favorite driver. He seems to working well with his team and his car. Stunning for a "rookie".

Scott Speed, a little disappointing, but he was faster than his team-mate.

McLaren seems fond of their high fuel loads. What I don't understand is why not start super light from pole, jump out to a quick lead, go for a LONG middle stint and set up a splash and go at the end?

Button is quietly putting in good races. If the car gets fully sorted, he may no longer be the best driver to not win a race.

Alonso? Strategy error? Heavy on fuel with McLaren?

Ferrari is the bomb. Really. The pin has been pulled. DC and MS go boom tomorrow. The two-race rule has got to go. One race weekend is enough for 20K rpm engines and race strategy will involve fewer starts from pit row.

RB would be in the same position had he stayed at Ferrari. He would get the second tier engine, less set up scrutiny and do more work for Spoon's retrun to glory.

Have I mentioned I like the Rosberg Kid? Brass attachments as Hobbs says...

[Mr_LoL]

That nico rosberg is really really good. This f1 season is going to be a cracker. The only thing spoiling it is that stupid 10 place penalty for an engine change.

[bigC]

Williams is definitely the surprise so far in 2006: no one thought that after losing their BMW engines that they's be able to compete with Cosworth. methinks they have already proven the skeptics wrong. i'll be cheering for Rosberg, and cheering against Button (perhaps the most over-rated driver in F1).

how many drivers will be penalized for changing an engine? so far, i think that those effected are DC, Massa, Rubens, both Schumachers ... it is a stupid rule that needs to be dropped. building an engine to last two races on the supposed basis of cutting expenses is a farce: how much R&D goes into creating an engine that has to last that long. plus, there is also the added strain of the new qualy system, so the engines have to last even longer. so, now we have all these fast cars at the middle or back of the grid where they have to pass the perenial backmakers like Midland or the new (not so) Super Aguri team (hmm, i wonder if kamikazee Sato will take anyone out?). the rule is really about trying to level the field so it's not always the same teams/drivers winning; it artificially gives a chance to teams that otherwise would have no possibility of success. even so, the cream always rises to the top, as witnessed by Kimi's slicing through the field at ease, so what's really the point?

story:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/4124/752.html
results:http://www.formula1.com/race/result/752/24.html

[NAZCA M12]

Ok, first of all attention: Very long post follows, heroes only. These are the results of qualifying in full detail (so that some dumb mother****ers like myself won't be confused again :lol2: ), showing the times of each knock out session and who got bumped out of it:

http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=General&PO_ID=35303

Now i think it would be a good opportunity to explain a few things regarding the new qualifying format and some of its tricks. I'll start with the tyres. Each driver can use 7 sets of tyres during the weekend. How he uses them is up to him. During qualifying, he is free to change to a new set if he wants to. For example, a driver could use 2 sets for the Friday sessions, 3 during qualifying and leave the last 2 for the race if he is on a 2 stopper. Btw, i heard from a sportscaster that if for some reason a car stops on the track during qualifying (due to a mechanical problem or a crash or whatever), the driver is not allowed to continue with the spare car. Take that with a pinch of salt but if its true, our questions from last week as to why Raikkonen didn't jump to the spare car during qualifying are answered.

Lets move to fuel: In the previous qualifying format, teams had to qualify with as much fuel as they wanted but couldn't alter it after qualifying, the car had to start the race with the fuel left in the tank. With the new system, the drivers that have been kicked out of the first two qualifying sessions (and will line up from 11th to last on the grid), can do whatever they want with their fuel loads. That means a team can fill the car up and prepare it for say, 1 pit stop if they please, while in the first session that it got bumped out, it was running on empty tanks. That means that strategy on these cars can be quite flexible.

However, the 10 fastest drivers that participate in the final shoot-out (yeah right) face a different situation. That session lasts 20 minutes. During that time, those 10 drivers can do as many laps as they please. If they want, they can sit on the track all the time, do plenty of laps, then put a new set of tyres and go for it in the dying minutes of the session. Lets assume that a driver does 10 laps during that session burning some fuel in the process and consequently making his car lighter. In other words, he burns fuel worth 10 laps. The federation has made a formula that roughly calculates how much fuel is being spend for every lap made. Then, they check how many laps each driver did during that session, and they "give" him back equivalent amount of fuel. The list which shows who got back what and gives us an insight as to who was relatively light or will have to come to the pits early in the race, is published a few hours before the start. To continue our example, the driver who did 10 laps in total, will get back the amount of fuel he spent during those laps, add it to whatever amount was left in the tank and start the race with that amount of fuel.

The combinations as you understand can be infinite. Imagine for example a driver who makes it to the final shoot out, gets out on the session very early with fuel good enough to last him 22 laps, then he makes 12 relatively fast (i will shortly explain that) laps. He then re-enters the pits and puts a brand new set of tyres, and goes out again to do 2 final laps which naturally should be his fastest, with a not so heavy car on fuel but not completely empty either. After his effort (which guarantees him a top 10 position anyway), he gets back that fuel worth 14 laps and starts the race with a car that will last him a good 22 laps before his first stop. On the other hand, if being on pole is of more importance, one driver could come out in the final session with fuel which will only last him 15 laps, do 12 laps at first, burn some fuel, then change tyres in the dying minutes of the session and try 2 more very fast laps which will now be set with a very light (and fast) car, then "claim" afterwards his fuel worth 14 laps and start the race from pole with a relatively light car and hence a short window for his first stop.

Now, there is one more little detail that the FIA threw in this whole brothel of a qualifying: the 110% time rule. For a driver to claim back the fuel he wasted during those laps, he needs to have them within 110% of his best time. Going back to our example of a driver doing 10 laps, he has to make 10 relatively good laps, if 8 of those laps were decent, but the other 2 were quite slow (say, 30 seconds off the pace) he would only "take back" fuel for the 8 fast laps. That rule was invented in order to force drivers to record rather fast lap times during the whole session, otherwise they could start ****ing around on the track, going quite slowly, trying to burn as much fuel as possible, in order to get back as much as they can and try and stretch their first pit stop come the race. Of course, one should not forget the two race per engine rule, which should be thrown in it as well. Every team tries to save their engines as much as they can. While the idea of making as many laps possible during qualifying is good, they might on the other hand want not to put a lot of stress on the engine and save it for the race.

Of course, unlike the previous ****ty format, now we see all the cars together in the track, or at least 10 of them at the session that decides pole position. That still doesn't make it a great qualifying format imo. It only means a so-so format is better than a crappy one, that's obvious however, and expected. What the new, improved qualifying did was further expose the old one, the idiots who came up with it and of course the idiots from within the formula 1 circus who were quick to give it the thumbs up (team bosses who agree to a rule first, then complain and puppets/sheeps/drivers afraid to raise their voice). I bet almost everyone has forgotten it already :rolleyes: Regarding the new format which was hailed a success by Mosley :p , a few tweaks have already been proposed by guys like Briatore and from the drivers, only DC has expressed his dissaproval insisting that we still don't see 100% on the limit, banzai laps. And he is right.

While you could say that the first two small sessions are done equally for everyone (light fuel load, and every driver tries to go as fast as possible under similar track conditions), in the session that decides pole position, the one that supposedly matters, the strategic elements that were in the old format are still present or even more complicated but different rules are applied for only the 10 drivers that make it. The fact that teams can still play with fuel levels and have to think about their race strategy too, means that we see anything but out and out, REALLY fast laps as in the old times. And for those that say its better that we do away with the slow guys for the final shoot out, what if it starts raining in the middle of the session and right after the elite 10 are decided? If there is a fine rain driver sitting in an uncompetitive car who could do the difference in difficult conditions, why should he be denied even a remote chance to shine in the rain? Because he got knocked out? Anyone remembers not so long ago when under proper qualifying formats it would start to rain halfway in the session and we would end up with a grid full of surprises (talented drivers driving a ****box, up front)? Why did that happen? Because it could. Because there was more abillity than "yeah i might be behind you but i'm lighter and i reckon my mechanics will get me out in front of you" bull**** strategic elements. And because qualifying was an individual session, a different ball game than the race. Now it's part of the race, it directly affects the race but it now gets screwed because of the race.

I don't understand why people are over the moon about a system that appears to be completely new on the outside when in reality it continues to be partly unfair, stupidly complex and a bit of a lottery too while few seem to appreciate the simpler non artificial, "put as little fuel in the car as possible, everyone out on the track, no knock-outs, no fuel credit laps, no strategy, no nothing, forget about the race, just ****ing go for it" approach.

Anyhow, now that the ins and outs of the new system are better understood (are they? :lol: ) one could understand better what happened in the first race. The reason Schumacher got pole position was because he was a bit lighter than other cars that qualified behind him. He wasn't driving a very heavy car at the start of the race, his first stop would come relatively early (which it did on lap 15 or 16) while Alonso for example looked slower but was heavier, his mechanics knew that and of course we saw how that helped him snatch first position in the race. Furthermore, Schumacher in his quest not to get trashed by Massa first time out (something that he has a habit of doing with new team mates, if one tries to remember the first qualifying with Irvine and Barichello), he used more sets than the others before and during qualifying. Come the race, during his pit stops his "new" tyres were actually a bit used up and that too played its role into losing first place. Regarding the winner, and that truly... epic fight with Schumacher, he had this to say (try to imagine him saying it with a smile on his face just like in the picture):

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=35225

What can you say? 1) No **** Sherlcok, or 2) Well said, at least he freely admits it instead of joining the choir with a "wow, that was fun****ingtastic"

Lets move to Toyota. Toyota boss, Tsutomu Tomita had this to say about their terrible performance in Bahrain: "The first grand prix weekend of 2006 has been a shocking way to start the year not only for the team but for the fans all over the world"

Righto, tell it how it is. The consequences of Toyota (we're talking about quite possibly THE most successfull F1 team here that everyone expected to completely dominate the race) going badly were unprecedented. Most TV stations interrupted their programs to announce the shocking news, billions of people were out on the streets, my stocks went down, and my wife won't talk to me anymore (hey thanks for that Toyota. You guys rock :lol2: ) Seriously, he should have worded it better. The only thing that Toyota has been doing better than the other teams is spend more money and buy everyone and everything money can buy. They still aren't a true force and they shouldn't think they are, otherwise they will only be dissapointed with themselves.

Also, after the race Heidfeld was reprimanded about his incident with Coulthard. One of the positive things with this track was that in many corners, outside the road there wasn't sand or grass or anything like that, but dusty tarmac. During their battle, Heidfeld in a high speed corner put DC ouside the track but because there was asphalt (and because Coulthard being a classic Scott was too stingy to crash the car), DC just drop the car on that slice of asphalt without lifting, and rejoined the track. Now if that was done anywhere else, a big accident would have happened for sure. One could say that this move was just a criminally dangerous one. I got the impression that Heidfeld simply slided a bit in the heat of the moment (and it was a fierce battle) and couldn't hold his car to the inside line giving Coulthard some space. As a result David faced two options: touch wheels with Heidfeld or get the car to that extra piece of asphalt. The latter happened. In any case, a mistake is a mistake even if if Heidfeld didn't mean it. The thing is, will there be consistency? I think the answer has been given already and its a sound no. Check the article:

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=35274

Coulthard mentioned the RS Vs Sato accident at the same place two years ago but iirc everyone put the blame on RS back then and Sato was supposedly the new sensation and he was cleared. Wasn't there a fellow named Rosberg who last week hit Heidfeld from behind at the first corner and dropped him last? Rosberg payed for that mistake by joining the pits early to replace the front wing. How exactly did that un**** Heifeld's ****ed up race? Everyone remembered the Heidfeld/Coulthard incident. Why the Rosberg/Heidfeld incident wasn't even passed under scrutiny? Did the fact that he made such a great race made him immune to penalties or something? Or is the name that counts? I for one have no doubts about what happened. Incidentally, his father said he was phenomenal. Nice unpropagandistic view. As much as i love Keke Rosberg, i hope Nico Rosberg doesn't win a championship too with one win the whole season as that will be phenomenal too but in a negative way. I don't think it was phenomenal that he has put himself in a very good position, debuting with a top team that enjoys an engine advantage atm due to circumstances that have nothing to do with his ability, plus it has made a fresh start in the aerodynamics and tyre departements. Also it's not his own brilliance that he has a golden mediocrity driving the second Williams. It's more of a case of being in the right place at the right time. I do rate him higly though and i think a win's in the cards for him soon why not even today, but fair's fair and i hate hyped things or special treatment. Oh well, i guess that'll teach Webber next time he uses his politics within the team to get drivers like his pal Pizzonia instead of very talented drivers like Rosberg. It should be noted that like Bahrain, this track is not known to Rosberg although he should be more comfortable with the rest of the tracks. It makes his 3rd place on the grid just that bit more special.

[NAZCA M12]

Lets' talk about engines now. But before that, lets see some engine related news:

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=35302

I think Ide too will use a new engine in his Super Aguri so that should be two engines for Honda. Now the first two races happen to be the hottest ones plus we have completely new V8 engines so i suppose its rather acceptable for these things to happen that early in the season. In Bahrain, Fisichella got a DNF due to engine problems (hydralics) as did Villeneuve who broke his own spectacularly. That Massa damaged his own was no surprise either.

These things need cooling, Villeneuve sat many laps behind Fisichella's sick Renault, feeding with hot air his engine. "Cooling" an engine with hot air when it's running at full throttle is like murdering it. Massa's problem was different yet it had similar foundations. Due to a problem with his brakes iirc, he spun then when he got the car into the pits, the right rear wheel got stuck and he waited a bit more than 50 seconds until his mechanics replaced it. While his engine was only sitting at idle rpms (unlike Villeneuve's), it still needed to "breath" and for almost a minute it did not. In human (but not so accurate) terms, just imagine when do you need to breath more, when you are sitting in a chair, or when you are running as fast as you can? Imagine now running at top speed, heart rates go up, more oxygen is needed, the heart is pumping like crazy, then think of something that blocks that extra air you need to breath and make it hot air too and you'll get Villeneuve's problem. Then, think of someone blocking your mouth and nose leaving you without oxygen for a minute while you're calmly sitting and you get Massa's problem. Hell my examples were so nice, those mofos can now break as many engines as they want :D

Anyhow, these engines are designed with almost perfect conditions and pit stops in mind. If something goes wrong, it doesn't mean they'll break but if it goes very wrong for a long time, it can create problems. Massa's engine had problems with the pistons (or so they said) and so he got a new one on Friday. What went wrong with the new engine nobody knows, but it is changed again so he will go down 20 places and should start the race from the back of the grid. I say should becasue there's lots of customers down there. Schumacher on the other hand said before Friday that his engine didn't have problems and he was confident of doing well. After practice on Friday though, he felt something was wrong with it. Looks like he was right as his mechanics reckoned it wasn't going to last the race and changed it so he will too get a penalty. David Coulthard's Ferrari engine broke right after the end of the race in Bahrain and so, he too got a new unit and will drop 10 places down the grid from his qualifying effort. Also, during qualifying, Ralf Schumacher's engine blew right after he had put the car in 10th position. He could not participate in the shoot out for pole and he too joins the club. Over at McLaren, the mechanics checked Montoya's engine again and found it to be okay so he'll continue with it. Although of course we are too early in the season, its Mercedes (oh the irony) and Cosworth only that didn't have to change engines so far. They clearly need to do something about it. I bet heads are rolling over at Stuttgart :udawg:

Notice all these names that will fall back 10 places on the grid? Fisichella and Villeneuve are missing although they too have new units. Why? The stupidity of the rules. According to them, if there's a broken engine during the race, it's okay to change it for the next race and there's no penalty for that. If it happens anywhere else but in the race (like during qualifying), you get the penalty. Stupid and unfair. Coulthard's situation was hilarious as he finished the race, then while he was preparing to get the car to the pits his engine went up in smoke. Because the race was already finished it happend outside the window race, hence he got the penalty. Ridiculous rules. Why the hell don't they stop penalising drivers for that and let everyone push their engines freely? If the FIA want so much to punish teams for breaking an engine why don't they hand out a penalty to the teams only, why does a driver have to suffer for a problem that is not his fault? Couldn't they, for example take 1 point from the constructors championship but let the driver unpenalized? Only recently either Mosley or Ecclestone (can't recall who atm) said that the new V8 long life engines (and the... cost cutting that brought) could be avoided but it wasn't because of the manufacturers who wanted the change. That's bull**** in the nth grade. Do they think we're all 5 year olds? Anyhow, i think in a high attrition race with many engine failures, teams like STR could have a chance to get into the points. How come? Theissen said some time ago that the FIA had not restricted V10 engines enough. After him, experts from the other teams agreed with him.

But Theissen also said at a point that they were seriously thinking of just using a V10 engine with restricted revs and airbox instead of a V8. Now that was a heavy statement. why did he say that? These new V8 engines can rev higher than the old ones, more than 19,500 rpm. More revs means more vibrations, more vibrations means a ****load of problems for the teams. But the FIA has restricted a V10 that produces more than 150 hp more against a V8, by reducing the airbox and putting a rev limiter at 16,700 rpm only. What does that mean? Well, that means that the outpout will of course be lower, but it also means that these suckers will be incredibly relaxed. A relaxed V10 means it will never break down. If an STR breaks an engine, they will be idiots. Now 1,000 or 2,000 rpm might not seem a big difference but in reality, even 500 more rpm can be significantly taxing for an engine, so actually dropping the revs more than 2,000 is a very big deal when it comes to internal engine loads. While every other team faces still new, unrealiable designs, the FIA has delivered what should be a robust as a tractor engine for cost cutting reasons. Of course they did that in good faith, for the small teams, the poor ones that have no money. Teams like Midland which belongs to a Russian billionaire or STR which is co-owned by Gerhard Berger (hardly a poor businessman) and the billionaire who owns the Red Bull team. Genious.

[bigC]

well a Renault 1-2, with Fisichella wining the race, with Button, still denied his first ever victory, in third and JPM in 4th. surprisngly, Massa outpaced Schumie. JV scored points for BMW with a 7th place finish and Ralf S. somewhat redeemed Toyota's first race failure by finishing 8th. Trulli, in the other Toyota, finished 9th. also, in 10th, was Barrichello, another disappointing finish for him in his second race for Honda.

there were 8 retirements, notable among them both Williams, failing to continue the success of the first race, as well as Kimi, who was punted out of the race when i believe Klien bumped him, DC in the RBR car, and Heidfeld in the BMW, with a blown engine (similar to JV's fate in the first race).

story:http://www.formula1.com/race/news/4135/752.html
results:http://www.formula1.com/race/result/752/8.html

in two weeks, the Australian Grand Prix! :beer:

[Shamrock]

JPM is the ABSOLUTE biggest BUTTHOLE of them all! He refused to let Kimi by ON THE FIRST LAP, Kimi was WAY faster, and JPM rooted Kimi to the grass, when Kimi got back on track, Klein rearended him. What a crock of monkey poo...Fire JPM and get Alonso in McLaren already BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Mr_LoL]

That was a boring race i think. Reminds me of why I only watch highlights.

[schuey74]

JPM is the ABSOLUTE biggest BUTTHOLE of them all! He refused to let Kimi by ON THE FIRST LAP, Kimi was WAY faster, and JPM rooted Kimi to the grass, when Kimi got back on track, Klein rearended him. What a crock of monkey poo...Fire JPM and get Alonso in McLaren already BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Yea, what a wacko that JPM is! He was actually trying to stay ahead of his competitors in a race. :retard:

[Shamrock]

yeah, a considerably faster, TEAMMATE, which YOU DO NOT RUN INTO THE GRASS!

[schuey74]

yeah, a considerably faster TEAMMATE, which YOU DO NOT RUN INTO THE GRASS!

He didn't run him into the grass. He merely defended his position like all top F1 drivers would have. Everyone knows that the first few corners are critical in F1 and Juan Pablo would have been a fool to let Kimi pass, especially since he knew that Kimi would (probably) be stopping after him . If you've been watching JPM since he's been in F1 you would know that this incident was not, in anyone's wildest dreams, as aggressive as he's been w/ Michael, Rubens, and Ralf in the past. He's extremely hard to get past and in F1 that is a good quality.

We'll never know Kimi's fuel strategy for that race, but I think it's safe to assume that he was probably heavier than JPM. So Kimi's the one who should have been less aggressive and played it cool for the first 1/3 of the race. Maybe it's time for Kimi to start aiming for Poles instead of starting every race so heavy. I know he's had very good reasons to start heavy in the past, but this was one race where being on the front row on a two-stopper would have obviously been better.