2010 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

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Only a week after a very exiting race at Australia, we arrive at Malaysia. Rain is very possible, so expect some mixed up running orders.​

2010 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix​
@ Kuala Lumpur

circuit_map_mal.jpg

Take a tour with Felipe:

[YOUTUBEHD]IL2AbjTK9Ms[/YOUTUBEHD]

Race Date: 04 Apr 2010
Number of Laps: 56
Circuit Length: 5.543 km
Race Distance: 310.408 km
Lap Record: 1:34.223 - JP Montoya (2004)​

2009 Winners(points were cut in half due to red flag):​
1st: Jenson Button(Brawn Mercedes)
2nd: Nick Heidfield(BMW Sauber)
3rd: Timo Glock(Toyota)​

Well, here we are in Malaysia, the race that got rained out last year, and as the forecasts are for heavy rain this weekend, that just might happen again. On the last episode, we saw Vettel get pole position, only to be robbed of race victory yet again by mechanical failure, giving victory to Button who chose to go on dries first and took the lead, Alonso was spun by Button in turn 1, and drove an excellent race back up to 4th place, behind Massa in 3rd, and Hamilton, who qualified 11th, was placed behind Alonso because of a bad strategy, tried hard to get by him, but was hit by Webber with 2 laps to go, and luckily only lost 1 position. So what will happen next? Will Vettel finally win? Or will he be robbed of victory by mechanical failure once more? Will there be another Ferrari 1-2? Will Button gain another victory, while Hamilton suffers? Will Schumacher finally win for the first time since China 2006? Will HRT finish a race again? Will Virgin finally finish a race? Find out on another exiting(or boring) episode of, Formula One Racing!!!!!
 
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PJ-FFL
Take a tour with Felipe:​

[YOUTUBEHD]IL2AbjTK9Ms[/YOUTUBEHD]​
Click to expand...
Busy fella, wasn't he?:D

It'll be interesting to see what this race will be a repeat of. It'll be either..
A.) Melbourne, 2010
B.) Bahrain, 2010 or
C.) Sepang, 2009 (with the rainout)​
​
 
Vettel and Webber must still be favourites for me, largely because they appear to have some clever way of handling the qualifying ride height. Reliability is an issue for them of course.

I think McLaren and Ferrari will be pretty close. I hope Hamilton gets back on track in Malaysia, as it's never good to see such a good driver having a mess of a weekend.

I have to say though, and partly the motivation for this post, it's just ridiculous the kind of nonsense coming out of the media now about Schumacher. In 2006, the majority of the media hated him and said terrible things. After announcing his comebacks, the majority of the media were praising him like a saviour of boring F1. And now after the Australian GP, they're tarnishing him again.

Despite being outpaced at times by Rosberg in Bahrain, to me it's still pretty impressive to come straight back into racing after 3 years and have a solid finish. His low-fuel pace picked up a lot in Australia. In the race made a good start, had a collision, and that's effectively race ruined.

Search Google news for 'Schumacher' and have a look at some of the crap coming out. It's not just what is said, but the quantity of it. The problem I have is the people writing this crap are not proper F1 fans; they give a completely unbalanced and biased analysis of the events of the Australian GP.

Scratch the surface and you have the British Mirror:

"Schumacher was outclasses by Rosberg for the 2nd race in succession." - Completely ignores the fact that Schumacher was forced into a lap 1 pit stop which compromised his race, and was also matching Rosberg's pace for the whole race.

"Schumacher came panting home more than a minute behind Button" - What about Bahrain? He finished ahead of Button, but no mention of that.

"More significantly, he was overtaken by Lucas di Grassi in his uncompetitive Virgin after five laps" - Funny how it ignores the fact that this was Di Grassi being overtaken, Schumacher lost grip on the inside, and Di Grassi got the slingshot.

I think the Mirror should stick to analysis of Eastenders Omnibus.

Anyway, it's pretty distasteful what's coming out of the media because it's people who really don't know what they're talking about just trying to have a pop, and unfortunately people at or below semi-interested in F1 take it all in.

I think Malaysia will be Schumacher's strongest race so far, at least in terms of pace, and I'm looking forward to him mixing it with my other favourite drivers, such as Hamilton and Alonso.
 
^The general media has always been and will always be that way unfortunately. Fortunately, we don't have to read such rubbish. :)

To be fair though, there was huge media hype about Schumacher, so its not surprising that they'll take cheap shots while he's not performing as they expect. My advice, don't read the Mirror :lol:. Or F1 Racing. The internet is the only place now for decent articles.
 
I think Schumacher just needs a bit of time obviously... I have a feeling he will continue getting faster with his pace and mid-season he'll be fighting for top spots.... Sorry for being a bit of a noob, but has his car been holding up? In the last race I heard the commentator saying Schumi was not happy with his car... he prefers sharp handling cars and his was just not doing it for him... Really enjoyed watching the Melbourne race, hopefully this one will be the same :)

I also find it a bit disturbing the media are bashing Schumi so hard.... He's been gone for 3 years and is over 40. He came back out of no where and I have a lot of respect for that. The media just seems to overlook these type of "background" facts which is annoying... The older I get the more I realise that media news should be taken with a grain of salt and is biased most of the time anyway. I'll pull my own conclusions about his performances and where he's headed. I might be looking through my rosy colored glasses, but I feel he will grow and excel as the season progresses.
 
The one thing I will say about this circuit is that this is, perhaps and arguably, one of Tilke's best tracks that he created.

If you add in the tropical climate and you add in predicatble change in weather, this has the potential to be the best race of the season so far. Not that it has had anythin to go by because Bahrain was a yawnfest and Australia was okay.
 
Well, the reason the media is jumping on Schumi's back right now is because he was held by a Toro Rosso for most of last race and his performance over the race directly contrasted to Alonso's. It didn't help his image to have Virgin's dicing with him too considering that team's current reputation :lol:.
You can't expect the average newspaper reporter or even magazine reporter to go into laptime details for direct comparisons, they will just look at the bare results and what they saw in the race (sometimes not even that).

As I said, if you want a more fair analysis of races, use proper motorsport publications or websites. Though the number of decent motorsport magazines isn't particularly large. Otherwise expect some pretty thin analysis from very biased people, particularly as we are talking about a British newspaper here, who would love to rub it in that Button won and that Schumacher has never been liked much because of his famous incidents.

My personal thoughts on Schumacher: he's not performing any less than I thought he would. He's doing an ok job but nothing special, and it will stay this way all year in my opinion. I wasn't sure whether Rosberg would out-perform him, but so far he has. Thats not saying much though because Rosberg has been very much like his previous years with Williams - strong performances in an ok car but nothing amazing. Is Schumacher turning into a Nakajima? Well I don't think that will be the case but he's certainly not pushing Rosberg to the limit is he?
He will improve through the year but I'm not expecting fireworks. Maybe there will be one race this year where he will show his raw speed again, much like Mansell 1994. But otherwise I think he's going to have an anonymous season.
 
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^^^

What sites would you recommend? Im sure you have some sites you always come back too. :p
 
Well, bearing in mind its impossible to come across a journalist without any bias whatsoever, remember to not be surprised if an article or two is talking rubbish.
But even so:
http://www.formula1.com/ - Obvious one, but always slow for news. Occasionally has good technical features and some exclusive interviews. Usually first to publish the press conferences. The downside is that it doesn't publish rumours or gossip, only 'official' stuff.
http://www.autosport.com/ - Pretty much the place for motorsport news. Most of the articles with views are pay-for-view so the rest of it is normally just pure reported news. You get a bit of paddock gossip too. They covered testing with live text commentary too which is a big plus.
The forum isn't worth reading or posting on, very biased posters there, but that happens everywhere. Occasionally there is some random gossip or video that gets posted there though, like those youtubes of testing.

After that, its difficult to find sites which don't have bias because the nature of reporters is to analyse and put their views on the article. This obviously brings in some bias.
However, the BBC site is good, sometimes they have scoops too:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/default.stm
The only problem with that site is most of the content is UK-only, with the only videos that are non-UK-only being the Murray Walker videos. But the articles and blogs are very good, particularly Ted Kravitz' blog.
Another good news source is surprisingly Twitter (http://twitter.com/), though here you have do the work yourself. I have a selection of F1-related twitters bookmarked if you want me to post them.
 
Nice one Ardius... thanks for the recommendations. 👍 I will check the news sites first and if I need more info I'll ask you about Twitter later on ;) I think I'll manage with what youve mentioned here for now.
 
I actually really like Malaysia's track - turn 1 is kindof like a smallscale version of China's turn 1 (Which is one of my favourite corners in F1) Most of the lap flows well - then you have two big straights with big stops at the end of each... hopefully some overtaking will happen...

One thing I wish they hadn't done this year - was ban KERS...

C.
 
One thing I wish they hadn't done this year - was ban KERS...
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From Wikepedia:

"FOTA has agreed to scrap KERS for 2010 due to poor uptake and pressure from FIA to cut costs, although KERS is not banned in the regulations"

I also think that the no-refuelling and heavier fuel load has something to do with it.

As long as there is overtaking; it will be a good race :)

And this time I won't pick Vettel to win; see if that changes his luck 👍
 
Yeah I know the semantics.

C.
 
This is one of the best circuits of the season, great camera angles and a couple of good passing spots.
Red Bull need to stop putting themselves under pressure, they have the best car and they know it. Time to be, what they have strived for.
The McLaren is a much improved car. Even though Bahrain and Australia are very different circuits, they seemed to be on par with the Ferrari now.
Mercedes seem to have good one lap pace, they need to find some more.
The jury is out on Renault, have they stepped up, was Kubica a Melbourne specialist, is Kubica good enough to just drive the wheels off it, like the previous Renault front man.
 
Will this start at the same GMT hour as Melbourne's?
 
Looking forward to seeing how Mercedes go, I think their package is improving nicely. I get the feeling schumacher is becoming more and more suited to his car as time goes on. Also hope vettel gets some good luck for a change!!
 
Blitz187
In the last race I heard the commentator saying Schumi was not happy with his car... he prefers sharp handling cars and his was just not doing it for him
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Yes. It's not just about the fact that he's been away from F1 racing for 3 years, but also how the car is developed to handle. In his first race for Ferrari, the Australian GP 1996, Schumacher was outqualified by Irvine. So it wasn't possible to just straight into any car and be no.1 immediately. As was then, and is now, more work is needed on getting the car setup right and making it fit with his style.

There's no question that he's not at 100% of his previous driving level, and I don't think he will be again. He's older and slightly more conservative now. But below his best is still good enough to beat anyone.

I've been paying a lot of attention to on-board laps; he's not attacking as one would expect him to, almost like he's being a bit cautious. There's not as much steering input as he always used to do. But I think as he gets more comfortable with the car and setups, he will be difficult for Rosberg to beat.

Also, yes I like the Malaysia track. I like the 4th, 3rd and 2nd last corners; very nice section.
 
livemusic
Will this start at the same GMT hour as Melbourne's?
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No. Merlbourne started here at 7am. Malaysia starts at 9am according to F1.com.
 
I missed the first race, so Melbourne was my first race as an F1 fan. I really enjoyed the race. So I can't wait to see if Malaysia is just as exciting. Though, I hope Red Bull, the team I'm going with this season does better.
 
As I said in the other thread, Alguasari and Schumacher was the battle of the race, just there was so much going on, it wasn't shown as much, unfortunately. Those two guys were fighting it out over, what? 30-40 laps.
After the race MSC was seemingly happy about the race and rightly so, I'm certain he'll perform better over the season, also his car is understeery, if they can change that, he'll be top spot contender again.

I hope Kobayashi is doing better in this race, but he seems to have a terrible car... with the car he had last year (what was it? lol) he'd be a serious threat for the top dogs, too. ;)
 
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Ardius
After that, its difficult to find sites which don't have bias because the nature of reporters is to analyse and put their views on the article. This obviously brings in some bias.
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Ardius, what about GPUpdate?
 
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I don't use it, but its another decent one though 👍. Obviously it gets to a point where you're just re-reading the same stories, so I've found I only really need 2 or 3 sites to look at. The rest I usually hear about through forums.
Autosport is really the only one everyone should bookmark, after that is personal preference and language.
 
Fair shouts.


My first port of call is GPU and then Autosport. They are really the only 2 I need. To discuss it I post on here, Gamers-Crib, Twitter and Facebook.
 
Hopefully if Massa is in a good position this year he won't just fall asleep and bin it into te gravel like he did in 2008.

And I hope Kubica can take advantage of any mishaps at the front, and drive through to get another decent slug of points.
 
UpdateF1 has heard that a meeting of FOTA representatives this morning in Malaysia ahead of this weekend’s race has resulted in agreement between the teams regarding a number of impending rule changes.

Following the Bahrain Grand Prix – the much derided season opener – and the rain affected, and therefore enhanced, Australian Grand Prix concern has been growing in many quarters as to the state of Formula One and the prospects for the coming season, and as a result the teams’ association has pressed the FIA to act immediately to resolve the problem.

Alongside sensible safety related proposals that will see the use of ‘outboard’ mirrors – those mounted on side pod air deflectors as used by the likes of Ferrari – banned from the Chinese Grand Prix onwards, we have learned that this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang circuit will also feature some radical changes.

We have learned that, under the new rules, the chief steward reserves the right to call any car into the pits, at any time, and insist they take a ten second stop go penalty at his discretion; this is intended to restore the much missed ‘passing in the pits’ that the supporters of refuelling, now banned for 2010, are clamouring for the return of.

In an effort to help the newer teams, and to add to the action, drivers from HRT, Lotus and Virgin – plus any who qualify more than five seconds away from the pole position time – will have to complete two laps less than the rest; clearly, this will shake up the finishing order a great deal and give those who are missing the endless overtaking for which F1 is famed something to look forward to.

In another somewhat controversial move, although we have no confirmation of this, it is said that any team mate of Michael Schumacher will be required to make a pit stop at least three seconds slower than his team can actually manage in order to give the veteran driver a chance, and should he remain stuck behind a car on track for more than three laps that car will be required to discreetly move over and let him past. It is thought that this will increase viewing figures considerably.

We expect these new rules to be confirmed imminently, although rumours that qualifying will be decided on the results of a drivers Sudoku contest are thought to be wide of the mark.
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:p
 
That has got to be the biggest April Fool I have ever seen in my life! And you're a fool for carrying on!
 
@Bram

HAhAhAhAhA You had me going there for a second until I read that thing about qualifying fast and not having to do as many laps... Then I thought, "Wait a minute!...." :D
 
the race will be a rain out because the stupid people are holding it about 5pm local time again the 5pm rain was one of the things that hindered the building of the petronus towers
 
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