The Official 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix Thread ***Spoilers**
Discussion
Scuffers said:
still think Merc's problems were related to lack of running in FP1/2
Ferrari spent the time working on long run pace, and this paid off for them.
combination of high track temps and odd tyre behaviour scuppered Merc's starting strategy and this was compounded with the SC pit stops.
Yeah Merc were far too complacent coming into this race. After Oz they thought they had 1sec+ on the field and then they stuffed up on Friday. It turns out that in very hot conditions their car munches tyres and the Ferrari doesn't. The option tyre was quite a bit quicker than prime and they were banking on prime tyres to be good enough based on lack of Friday running and their usual advantage.Ferrari spent the time working on long run pace, and this paid off for them.
combination of high track temps and odd tyre behaviour scuppered Merc's starting strategy and this was compounded with the SC pit stops.
Was impressed with Vettel. He almost sat it on pole on Saturday, and then drove a flawless race on Sunday. He lucked out with the SC that put him at the front of the race early on, which was actually a shame in some respects. He's always been a very good front runner.
If there is no early SC then we don't get nearly so much midfield dicing as we had, but the Ferrari's race pace was good and we'd have had a 3 way fight at the front between the two Mercedes cars and Vettel for much of the race otherwise.
Rosberg was really poor at the start, made a better getaway than Vettel did and gave up in the first corner and just followed Vettel into 3rd. Spent too much thinking about Lewis and didn't expect Ferrari to be that quick perhaps.
I think this was one of those early season 'topsy turvy' results and expect once we've had a few more races at cooler tracks the Mercs will be on top again. Was a great result and a pretty entertaining race though.
VictorCharlie said:
Yeah Merc were far too complacent coming into this race. After Oz they thought they had 1sec+ on the field and then they stuffed up on Friday. It turns out that in very hot conditions their car munches tyres and the Ferrari doesn't. The option tyre was quite a bit quicker than prime and they were banking on prime tyres to be good enough based on lack of Friday running and their usual advantage.
I think they thought that the harder tyre in the heat would be the safer long term option, and for whatever reason, this did not happen, the harder tyre also seem to fall off faster than the medium's, so not only was the harder tyre slower, but it also lasted less laps.on outright pace, the Merc's are still 1+ sec's up the road, the problem is they were hamstrung by poor pre-race strategy that left them with few medium tyres, then they panicked themselves into the first stop under SC in the belief the harder tyre would serve them better.
Rosberg's performance was pretty poor all race, from the uncommitted start to his reaction to Vettel exiting the pits, both those events could have prevented Vettel's win.
Scuffers said:
I think they thought that the harder tyre in the heat would be the safer long term option, and for whatever reason, this did not happen, the harder tyre also seem to fall off faster than the medium's, so not only was the harder tyre slower, but it also lasted less laps.
on outright pace, the Merc's are still 1+ sec's up the road, the problem is they were hamstrung by poor pre-race strategy that left them with few medium tyres, then they panicked themselves into the first stop under SC in the belief the harder tyre would serve them better.
Rosberg's performance was pretty poor all race, from the uncommitted start to his reaction to Vettel exiting the pits, both those events could have prevented Vettel's win.
One wonders if the miscalculation on tyre suitability was because of the limited running by LH. It explains the use of mediums (options) in Q1 - that confused me on the day. However, it might be that they were between a rock and a hard (prime) place with tyre life. on outright pace, the Merc's are still 1+ sec's up the road, the problem is they were hamstrung by poor pre-race strategy that left them with few medium tyres, then they panicked themselves into the first stop under SC in the belief the harder tyre would serve them better.
Rosberg's performance was pretty poor all race, from the uncommitted start to his reaction to Vettel exiting the pits, both those events could have prevented Vettel's win.
Whatever, it made for an exciting race.
I can't see the norm being anything other than Merc domination. Ferrari may be on par at the occasional circuit.
Scuffers said:
I think they thought that the harder tyre in the heat would be the safer long term option, and for whatever reason, this did not happen, the harder tyre also seem to fall off faster than the medium's, so not only was the harder tyre slower, but it also lasted less laps.
Weren't temps higher on race day too? ~60C in practice ~67C for the race. If the 40% chance of rain for the race that was quoted had translated to a little more cloud cover and slightly cooler temps the tyres would probably have lasted a little better. As it turned out the track temp stayed hot.Scuffers said:
I think they thought that the harder tyre in the heat would be the safer long term option, and for whatever reason, this did not happen, the harder tyre also seem to fall off faster than the medium's, so not only was the harder tyre slower, but it also lasted less laps.
on outright pace, the Merc's are still 1+ sec's up the road, the problem is they were hamstrung by poor pre-race strategy that left them with few medium tyres, then they panicked themselves into the first stop under SC in the belief the harder tyre would serve them better.
Rosberg's performance was pretty poor all race, from the uncommitted start to his reaction to Vettel exiting the pits, both those events could have prevented Vettel's win.
I agree with this. I don't think Mercedes were complacent, just trying to play a little safe. Unfortunately, playing safe and Ferrari having strong performance conspired against them.on outright pace, the Merc's are still 1+ sec's up the road, the problem is they were hamstrung by poor pre-race strategy that left them with few medium tyres, then they panicked themselves into the first stop under SC in the belief the harder tyre would serve them better.
Rosberg's performance was pretty poor all race, from the uncommitted start to his reaction to Vettel exiting the pits, both those events could have prevented Vettel's win.
VictorCharlie said:
Derek Smith said:
I can't see the norm being anything other than Merc domination. Ferrari may be on par at the occasional circuit.
I can see Vettel or Kimi beating Rosberg at a few races, even if the Mercedes is the dominant car, if Rosberg doesn't pull his finger out.Soul Reaver said:
A competitive Ferrari and a win. Oh how I smiled. Great to see the Mercs are not totally dominant then! Lewis seemed to be his normal moaning self Man LOL.
Didn't take long for certain people to jump on LH. If you actually look into what happened he said at one point he was getting chatter in his ears by mistake, which was confusing and coming through at the wrong moment in time. I'm sure subjected to the same heat, pressure and physical strain we would be simply be sunshine and light over the comms? 
But I have to agree nice to see Ferrari win, and interesting to see SV driving well. Either he was driving to get out of RB or he really didn't get on with it.
I almost forgive the use of the Seb finger as he genuinely seemed emotional over the drive.
Did anyone else notice the differential between Lewis' and Nico's recovery from their lower positions?
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
Nigel_O said:
Did anyone else notice the differential between Lewis' and Nico's recovery from their lower positions?
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
I said the same to my wife when we were watching it. Nico got stuck behind a redbull (I think) for nearly two laps where Lewis was going around the outside, or putting up the middle. Plus his positioning on track was much more aggressive, he was looking up the inside on nearly all corners letting the driver in front know he was coming through and it will be a matter of when and not if. IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
I still think Merc have it covered, it was pretty much hot weather and the mercs having to drive to the tyres and not being able to just go flat out in order to build a gap. Look at when Lewis was on new tyres, he gained on Seb over 1 second a lap, until he burnt through the rubber. Plus he was asked to do 41.2's (I thin) and MB said that was a tall order as no one had managed that on the hard's. Next lap LH puts in 41.1's, which pretty much confirmed the pace of the merc, but at the cost of the tyres.
I honestly think service will resume as normal by the next race, I just hope McL can make some more progress as it sounds like the chassis is quick if they get the engine working!
Nigel_O said:
Did anyone else notice the differential between Lewis' and Nico's recovery from their lower positions?
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
Most of the places Rosberg's gained at that stage were from the car in front messing up. He didn't help himself in q3 when he slowed down to hold up Hamilton's second lap instead of going for his own fast lap. If they had both improved their times (LH's first sector was faster before he came up to Rosberg) then Vettel would have started p3 and it could have been a different result. IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
ajprice said:
Nigel_O said:
Did anyone else notice the differential between Lewis' and Nico's recovery from their lower positions?
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
Most of the places Rosberg's gained at that stage were from the car in front messing up. He didn't help himself in q3 when he slowed down to hold up Hamilton's second lap instead of going for his own fast lap. If they had both improved their times (LH's first sector was faster before he came up to Rosberg) then Vettel would have started p3 and it could have been a different result. IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
I agree - even if LH and NR had started from the front row and SV in P3, both Mercs would almost certainly have pitted at the safety car and SV would have stayed out - same result (except that the Merc drivers would probably have ended up slightly higher in the order after the safety car)
Nigel_O said:
Did anyone else notice the differential between Lewis' and Nico's recovery from their lower positions?
IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
I don't think anyone will argue Hamilton is worse in regards to passing other cars, however Rosberg's strength is more making sure he finishes the race, part of which is not forcing overtakes that may not be there occasionally.IIRC, Lewis was 7th and Nico 9th (was it just after the safety car pitstops?). A handful of laps later, Lewis was in second and plotting his reel-in of Vettel, but Nico had only made up two places and was still in traffic
Adds fuel to the fire that Lewis is the better racer
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