2006 Malaysian GP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blake
  • 145 comments
  • 4,919 views
Blake

Blake

Premium
Messages
10,976
Australia
NSW, Australia
Messages
haswell00
The 2nd race of the 2006 season is being held at the Sepang Circuit, Malaysia. The circuit is 5.536 km long, and the race distance is 56 laps. It is a fast flowing circuit, with only a few slow corners—about 72% of the lap is spent at full throttle.



At least two drivers will have 10 place grid penalties going into Sepang—David Coulthard, and Felipe Massa. It is interesting that both drivers are powered by Ferrari V8s. Do they have a reliability problem?

Coulthard was somewhat unfortunate, as his engine blew up after he had crossed the finish line, thus he gets the grid penalty. If it had blown up half a lap earlier he would have been able to replace it with no penalty.

Renault are in good shape. The engines should be reliable, and they have very good pace. They are definatly favourites to take the race.

It is good to see Ferrari at the top again, but we will see a better indication of where they are at after this weekend.

McLaren looks good—the engines will be the big question mark, but I have faith.

Honda will have to improve if they want to fight for the win. However a podium is not out of the question (assuming Button doesn’t shag the start, again).

Williams will be interesting—the fight between Nico and Mark will be intense, and I can’t wait to see the result.

Everyone else is … well, everyone else. ;) Reliability will be paramount this weekend, and that could give STR a significant advantage.

Good circuit, good competition, should be a great race weekend! 👍
 
blake
Malaysian Grand Prix this weekend.

Please post thoughs/predictions/times here. I have a longer post to make, but I’ll edit it in shortly.
Click to expand...
You just wanted to start the thread before anyone else! :lol:

I predict MS to win.

Kimi to finish on the podium and even the new guy nico rosberg? to have a great chance of podium or top 4
 
Small_Fryz
You just wanted to start the thread before anyone else! :lol:
Click to expand...
I didn’t want to write the post to find out another thread was already here—then I would have had to bother the mods. ;)

I agree with you about Rosberg—I really want to see what he can do if he has a clean race!
 
Why is Massa getting the 10 place grid penalty? Did he decide to change the engine for this race?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this race, but 4AM will be very hard to catch on this sunday. :indiff:
 
FatAssBR
Why is Massa getting the 10 place grid penalty? Did he decide to change the engine for this race?
Click to expand...
F1Racing.net
Ferrari has examined both Schumacher and Massa's engine and found it wise to bring in a brand new engine for Massa, as it might not last until the end of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Click to expand...
:)
 
Ferrari has examined both Schumacher and Massa's engine and found it wise to bring in a brand new engine for Massa, as it might not last until the end of the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Click to expand...
Here we go again. Exactly the same story as with Rubens. If Shumacher's teammate becomes a tread for Shumacher's (next) title, they resort to stunts like that. I like Shumacher. I like to watch him drive. I even like him to win but like I said in the past; he doesn't deserve some of his titles.
 
I'm excited about this race, last week got me very excited about the whole season.

I'm hoping for a McLaren/Williams podium but I'd say the Renaults, at least Alonso will be up there, probably MS and maybe Button too. Should be a good race but I think qualifying will play a big part.
 
I'm looking at the most reliable teams in testing for this one, notibly Renault, Honda and maybe Ferrari. Williams look pretty good aswell, McLaren is a iffy.

I think Alonso will take the race win with Button 2nd and MS 3rd. Pole will go to Button.
 
Hmmm and as time goes on, it seems Ferrari will still have a controlling part, or at least a very important part, in decision making in F1. Linky

One more thing, shouldn't Villeneuve take a 10-place penalty as well? He also blew the engine.
 
Villeneuve will get a new engine with no penalty as he didn't finish the race.

Massa & DC both finished the race.
 
I expect at least one Williams to be on the Top 4. Though, I don't see Raikkonnen winning this race. I'd go for Schumacher or Alonso.
 
Interesting note, Mark Webber has not finished the Malaysian GP in 4 attempts. He qualified quite highly there in his Jag once and failed to finish. Last year in his Williams he tried passing Giancarlo Fisichella for a podium postion only for the italian to crash into him and let Nick Heidfeld through.

Another worry is Kimi's engine. He pushed so hard during the previous race in a heavy car, and since there is no 3rd driver for McLaren he will have to do set up himself.

Set to be a cracker race.

Blake you should join GridBids.
 
This is the first time in far too long that I've really been excited about an F1 season. :) It'll be interesting to see how the V8's fare on such a throttle happy course compared to the V10's. 👍
 
The Michilen (typo, i can't spell AT ALL) teams will be at an advantage here, the hot temperatures have always favoured these tyres. but, as in the past, a monsoon will put MS right in the driving seat. I would have to plump for a Fernando-Kimi blitz, but which way round i don't know yet.
 
liam2maps
Last year in his Williams he tried passing Giancarlo Fisichella for a podium postion only for the italian to crash into him and let Nick Heidfeld through.
Click to expand...

Actually it was Fisichella attempting to pass Webber, who gave him racing room and still Fisi barrelled into him. Its a good point though, theres definately a Malaysia hoodoo. Interersting to see what happens this weekend if he qualifies well. I think Nico will do better if he doesnt make any mistakes. Last week all his passes came off but I dont think you can get away with driving too aggresively week in week out in F1.
 
IIRC it was Webber trying to pass Fisi. Fisi has shagged tyres and Webber tried to go around the outside, but Fisi slid into him.
 
kikie
Here we go again. Exactly the same story as with Rubens. If Shumacher's teammate becomes a tread for Shumacher's (next) title, they resort to stunts like that. I like Shumacher. I like to watch him drive. I even like him to win but like I said in the past; he doesn't deserve some of his titles.
Click to expand...

Why do people think the cars are 100% the same? MS sets his car up differently, drives it differently and probably treats it differently. This would result in different times, circumstances and results? He apparently spends a lot of time with the mechanics setting his car up and providing feedback.
 
And he is undeniably brilliant. MS does not need hes team impeding his teammate in any way shape or form to beat them over an entire season
 
I don’t understand why people are angry that Massa has an engine that Ferrari feel they must change, as a precaution.

Coulthard had an engine failure, and even though Red Bulll did have cooling problems in the off-season, it doesn’t bode well for Ferrari reliability.

I have no doubts that Massa is having an engine change because he needs it.
 
MS changed his brake bias for practically every corner. Massa didn't.
 
Friday Practice 1
Code: 
[b]Pos.  	Driver  	Team  	 	Time	 	Laps[/b]
1 	A. Wurz 	Williams 	1:34.946	19
2 	R. Kubica 	BMW 	 	1:35.733	22
3 	A. Davidson 	Honda  		1:35.997	25
4 	JP. Montoya 	McLaren 	1:36.709	4
5 	D. Coulthard 	Red Bull 	1:37.042	7
6 	M. Schumacher 	Ferrari 	1:37.043	4
7 	F. Massa 	Ferrari 	1:37.557	18
8 	R. Doornbos 	Red Bull 	1:37.604	18
9 	R. Schumacher 	Toyota 	 	1:37.826	9
10 	C. Klien 	Red Bull 	1:38.448	5
11 	N. Jani 	STR 	 	1:38.668	21
12 	J. Trulli 	Toyota  	1:38.837	8
13 	S. Speed 	STR 	 	1:39.599	14
14 	T. Monteiro 	Midland F1 	1:39.899	8
15 	G. Mondini 	Midland F1 	1:40.092	22
16 	V. Liuzzi 	STR 	 	1:40.123	8
17 	C. Albers 	Midland F1 	1:40.608	12
18 	T. Sato 	Super Aguri 	1:41.072	18
19 	Y. Ide 	 	Super Aguri 	1:43.449	19
20 	K. Räikkönen 	McLaren 	no time 	1
21 	F. Alonso 	Renault 	no time 	2
22 	G. Fisichella 	Renault 	no time 	2
23 	J. Villeneuve 	BMW  		no time 	1
24 	N. Heidfeld 	BMW  		no time 	1
25 	M. Webber 	Williams 	no time	 
26 	N. Rosberg 	Williams 	no time	 
27 	R. Barrichello 	Honda 	 	no time	 
28 	J. Button 	Honda 	 	no time
Friday Practice 2
Code: 
[b]Pos.  	Driver  	Team  		Time		Laps[/b]
1 	A. Davidson 	Honda 		1:35.041	14
2 	A. Wurz 	Williams 	1:35.388	30
3 	F. Alonso 	Renault 	1:35.806	14
4 	F. Massa 	Ferrari 	1:35.924	22
5 	K. Räikkönen 	McLaren 	1:36.132	15
6 	G. Fisichella 	Renault 	1:36.182	14
7 	M. Schumacher 	Ferrari 	1:36.617	17
8 	J. Button 	Honda 		1:36.661	12
9 	J. Villeneuve 	BMW 		1:37.045	9
10 	R. Barrichello 	Honda 		1:37.270	13
11 	J. Trulli 	Toyota 		1:37.317	23
12 	N. Heidfeld 	BMW 		1:37.418	7
13 	R. Kubica 	BMW 		1:37.457	28
14 	JP. Montoya 	McLaren 	1:37.463	12
15 	V. Liuzzi 	STR	 	1:37.590	22
16 	D. Coulthard 	Red Bull 	1:37.603	8
17 	R. Schumacher 	Toyota	 	1:37.695	20
18 	N. Jani 	STR	 	1:37.831	23
19 	S. Speed 	STR	 	1:37.926	21
20 	M. Webber 	Williams 	1:38.081	5
21 	N. Rosberg 	Williams 	1:38.205	6
22 	G. Mondini 	Midland F1 	1:38.256	20
23 	C. Klien 	Red Bull 	1:38.644	10
24 	C. Albers 	Midland F1 	1:38.918	20
25 	R. Doornbos 	Red Bull 	1:39.105	28
26 	T. Monteiro 	Midland F1 	1:39.416	20
27 	T. Sato 	Super Aguri 	1:41.549	22
28 	Y. Ide 		Super Aguri 	1:43.164	16
 
You guys are probably right. I'm probably wrong, most likely :) . I was just thinking about the things Ferrari did to Rubens to assure Michael's chance to become World Champion (in the past).

What I don't understand is, why are the friday drivers so fast?? Do they use other set up(s), just to test the car(s)?? Like that Davidson guy. He was very fast on friday's last season and he still is.
 
The friday drivers are faster because they don’t have to preserve their engines for the race. They can runs lots of laps at high revs because their engines will only go through about 200-300km. They also have more sets of tyres to play with, so they can afford to use a few new sets just to set a good lap in the practice sessions—other drivers want to keep there good tyres for qualifying and the race.
 
Small_Fryz
Why do people think the cars are 100% the same? MS sets his car up differently, drives it differently and probably treats it differently. This would result in different times, circumstances and results? He apparently spends a lot of time with the mechanics setting his car up and providing feedback.
Click to expand...
Though he used to copy Rubens' set ups for the car in some races.

But I also think Ferrari decided to change Felipe's car engine because it was necessary. MS doesn't need any help.
 
GO WILLIAMS!!!

I'd like to see alex and nico do some kind of shootout. Haha.
 
It's going to be one hell of weekend for car racing. The Grand Prix of Maylasia, 12 Hours of Sebring, Speed Touring Car Championship Series and Speed GT Championship Series.

Alonso won the Granp Prix of Maylasia last year, so that's good enough for me this year. Plus, I doubt McLaren will have a properly running car for Kimi, and MS was behind Alonso in practice.
 

Latest Posts

Back