2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

prisonermonkeys

prisonermonkeys

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Hammerhead Garage
One down, eighteen to go. It's easy to chalk another World championship up to sebastian Vettel after his dominant display in Melbourne, but there's still a long way to go in season 2011. We move to Malaysia for the next race, one of the most demanding circuits on the calendar because of the high heat and humidity.

Round II of the 2011 FIA Formula 1 World Championship is the ...

2011 PETRONAS MALAYSIA FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX
from the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang, Selangor

Sepang_2000.png


One lap with Jarno Trulli

Seven-day forecast:
Thunderstorms predicted for the next five days.
Consistently high temperatures (25-32°C) through to Sunday.

Lap Record ~ 1:34.223
(Juan Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 2004)

2010 Results:
1st ~ Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault)
2nd ~ Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)
3rd ~ Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)

2011 standings after one race:
1st ~ Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull-Renault) ~ 25 points
2nd ~ Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes) ~ 18 points
3rd ~ Vitaly Petrov (Renault) ~ 15 points
4th ~ Fernando Alonso (Ferrari) ~ 12 points
5th ~ Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault) ~ 10 points
6th ~ Jenson Button (McLaren-Mercedes) ~ 8 points
7th ~ Felipe Massa (Ferrari) ~ 6 points
8th ~ Sébastien Buemi (Toro Rosso-Ferrari) ~ 4 points
9th ~ Adrian Sutil (Force India-Mercedes) ~ 2 points
10th ~ Paul di Resta (Force India-Mercedes) ~ 1 point

Two weeks can't come soon enough. The circus moves to Sepang (a personal favourite of mine) with everyone racing to catch Red bull. After playing coy with the press in Melbourne, Christian Horner admitted that the RB7s were not fitted with any kind of KERS, and he believes it is imperative that the team make it work in Malaysia. But if they cannot get it up and running, it could prove to be a very visible chink in their armour on the high-speed circuit.

All the attention in Melbourne was focused on the first five drivers on the grid, but after he finished on the podium, expect a lot of attention to be focused on Vitaly Petrov. He's the joker in the deck, the one driver that the front-runners will not be able to predict, and Renault's Eric Boullier believes that another podium is entirely possible for the team. You can also expect that Tony Fernandes' Lotus will be doing everything they can to draw attetnion away from Renault.

Meanwhile, further down the order, Hispania's race to simply make the grid will be an interesting little subplot to the 2011 season. Tonio Liuzzi was just 1.7 secounds outside the 107% cut-off Melbourne qualifying, and he was using a 2010-spec front wing at the time. If the 2011 edition has passed crash tests, it is entirely possible that at least one Hispania will make the grid. As for Narain Karthikeyan ... well, the jury is still out. He was over three seconds behind Vettel in Australia, which is not going to be an easy gap to close, even with a new front wing.​
 
Reading the last paragraph of the OP, I suddenly realized that this 107% rule has (at least, can have) a relevant consequence regarding the way Kolles runs his team and especially his drivers.

Because he can no longer offer a GP run to the highest bidder in the list of available pay drivers. If the highest bidder is slow, there'll be no GP for him. And if HRT gets team-sponsors, not having one or two of their cars in the race will not be something irrelevant to them.
 
I love Sepang. The cars moving around from the Langkawi Curve to the Berjaya Tioman Curve is amazing. I was unaware the turns were named. I've always referred to them by their numbers.

It should be a great test in the Pirelli's strengths and more likely their weaknesses. Unless it's raining Malaysia is hot.

I hope for:
  • Petrov proving Australia was not a fluke
  • The Mercedes cars can actually compete in this race and not be taken out
  • A 24-car race, I feel sorry for HRT.
 
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Hun200kmh
Reading the last paragraph of the OP, I suddenly realized that this 107% rule has (at least, can have) a relevant consequence regarding the way Kolles runs his team and especially his drivers.

Because he can no longer offer a GP run to the highest bidder in the list of available pay drivers. If the highest bidder is slow, there'll be no GP for him. And if HRT gets team-sponsors, not having one or two of their cars in the race will not be something irrelevant to them.
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Thats not how it works, otherwise why did all those small teams in the 90s almost always rely on pay drivers? ;)
As I have said before on this subject, its better to take in the drivers with money and spend on the car and the team than to throw away money on star drivers. They are more likely to make 107% with a terrible pay driver in a faster car than they are with a GP2 champion in a soapbox.

If anything, this only confirms that HRT was wise to pick up Kathikeyan and his bag of money from Tata.

I don't think we can really judge how good Narain is compared to Liuzzi just yet, I don't think he is 3 seconds slower on real pace. Neither driver got much practice at all for Melbourne and we don't even know if all the components on Narain's car were working properly or at full performance as they were effectively shaking down the car in qualifying!

Lets look at it this way - if HRT hadn't signed any pay drivers, they wouldn't have even finished the car! Clearly they don't have a full budget supported by sponsors so they are left with little choice. A catch-22 situation.
 
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I would like to see the grid be a mess again. I don't want any one two finishes and that kind of boring stuff. I also think the teams are not going to know what they are doing with the tires again because the conditions in Malaysia are usually different to the ones we saw in Melbourne.
 
A win by Petrov would be incredible. If the form he showed in Australia is genuine, I see no reason for him not to have a win by the season's end. It's hard to say how good the Renault chassis is though. Heidfeld finished a lap down in Melbourne. I know the car was damaged, don't start. Renault certainly have one of the most unique-looking cars though along with McLaren.

edit: It's only a matter of semantics, but the race this year is called the Malaysia Grand Prix. I remember reading something a while back about how it changed in an effort to promote the country. I don't know how much the change affects anything though.

edit 2: Found the article. http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/9/11196.html
 
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I don't think Petrov will win it. I do think his pace in Melbourne was genuine because he was so consistent across the entire weekend. I would, however, love to see him on the top step of the podium at some point - but given the form of Red Bull, I think it's going to take a race of attrition to do it. It is, however, a fairly ominous sign that 2010 was the first year in his entire career where he failed to win a race ...

In order to combat the oppressive heat of the Malaysian summer, Renault are giving Petrov and Heidfeld gold race suits. Comparisions between Nick heidfeld and Barry Gib are going to be rife:
bee-gees-gold-suits.jpg

Check out page six for some, er, concept art.
 
The cartoon on the last page of that link is hilarious.

49390c6ff8c8c9e0ae730848273e0428.bmp


If only the race suits actually looked like that. :lol:
 
In music you need two notes to establish a tempo. Same goes for Formula One. Now we can see where everyone stacks up compared to Australia, and we can see some consistencies form. I'm interested to see how Red Bull will fare with the KERS in place, and just how much faster they might be.
 
Do we know which straight the DRS will be activated on in the race? They have the speed trap on the Penang straight (not the start/finish straight), so from a outright speed perspective it makes sense to have it there, but it wouldnt surprise me if it was the start/finish straight.
 
I'm expecting a lot of "You forgot the KERS!!!" from red bull next race :lol:. It should be pretty close between Hamilton and Vettel, he seems pretty handy with the KERS.
 
Rossticles
49390c6ff8c8c9e0ae730848273e0428.bmp
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Haha. That was the funniest thing I've seen today. Thanks.

Edit: Back on topic,Can't wait for the race. Hope Vettel will win again. Maybe Webber for a Podium. Want Petrov to do well again.
 
Rossticles
I was unaware the turns were named. I've always referred to them by their numbers.
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I'm pretty sure almost all corners on the various F1 circuits have names. It's just a shame that most people don't bother learning them and instead demote them to just a series of numbers.

F1 fan
Edit: Back on topic,Can't wait for the race. Hope Vettel will win again.
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That's not much in the way of wishful thinking. That's the safest bet.
 
IceMan PJN
It's just a shame that most people don't bother learning them and instead demote them to just a series of numbers.
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Blame the teams, then. They refer to all corners by their numbers, even on circuits like Silverstone where the turns are named. They do it for the sake of ease.

Barra333
Do we know which straight the DRS will be activated on in the race?
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The original rules stated that the DRS zone will be on the main straight of each circuit, but Sepang is unique in that it has two identical straights running almost parallel to one another. I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie Whiting makes both straights DRS zones for the sake of gathering as much data on it as possible.
 
IceMan PJN
That's not much in the way of wishful thinking. That's the safest bet.
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I've been a fan of Vettel since before his f1 debut, so it's not as if I'm playing it safe. I don't always play it safe. I can remember when I was convinced Tonio Liuzzi would be world champion. It was before his F1 debut. Now I just think he's frustatingly inconsistent. Some people come to F1 looking like they have the right stuff, but it doesn't always play out that way. On the flip side, Kobayashi looked ok, but not necessarily anywhere near F1 standard, and we've been proven wrong there.

interludes
The original rules stated that the DRS zone will be on the main straight of each circuit, but Sepang is unique in that it has two identical straights running almost parallel to one another. I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie Whiting makes both straights DRS zones for the sake of gathering as much data on it as possible.
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That would be good. It would give an opportunity to get close on the back straight, but would still prove a challenge as drivers would need to get their braking right and get a good exit out of the hairpin to overtake. I think if the drs zone is active on both straights we'll see a fair bit of overtaking. Obviously the smart idea is to stay behind until the second one. Slightly off topic, but it reminds me of the expression used by the drivers about monza in the 60's and 70's. Don't overtake before the parabolica. If you do, you won't cross the line first.

Looking forward to the Malaysian (or malaysia to give it it's official name) grand prix. The circuit is pretty good.
 
IceMan PJN
I'm pretty sure almost all corners on the various F1 circuits have names. It's just a shame that most people don't bother learning them and instead demote them to just a series of numbers.
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Doubtful. I'm quite certain Istanbul doesn't. Marina Bay is simply named after the streets it runs on. I could go on. Sepang's turn names are quite obscure. The major and historical circuits are the ones with names so I was surprised to see them on Sepang. I've been watching F1 for years and still can't name every turn on Spa, a circuit with arguable the most memorable turns. I know where Eau Rouge, La Source, and Pouhon are, but to name every turn is beyond me.
interludes
I wouldn't be surprised if Charlie Whiting makes both straights DRS zones for the sake of gathering as much data on it as possible.
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I was thinking the same. That would indeed be useful as well as produce some interesting moments into the first and last turns. The last turn has always been conducive to overtaking. The first few corners don't help the passing driver as much. They're like that chicane at Yas Marina at the end of the back straight.
Anghammarad
Alonso will win this comfortably.
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We will see how the preillis act in the heat, as they did say they need to be used in heat of at least 25°C.
 
Grayfox
We will see how the preillis act in the heat, as they did say they need to be used in heat of at least 25°C.
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You can bet that there will be an upper limit to their heat tolerance, a point where it is so hot that they pass out of the optimal performance zone. Brundle mentioned it in passing during the Australian Grand Prix broadcast; he said that the Pirellis had a much narrower operating temperature than the Bridgestones. What that upper limit might be is unknown, but between the high heat of the Malaysian summer, the vastly different track surface compared to Melbourne, and the high lateral forces placed upon the tyres, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the drivers find the limits at Sepang. Pirelli reckon four-stop strategies might come into play this weekend; that seems a little extreme, but I certainly doubt we'll see a repeat of Sergio Perez (and, as it turns out, Jarno Trulli) with his one-stop strategy. I suspect two-stopping might even be a stretch.
 
I'm going for the GP this weekend and my 6th time overall. It's gonna be hot, humid and if it rains, it will be heavy. It's either one of those 3 days will we see it rains, but anything can still happen. It's been raining heavily in Sepang today around 1600-1800 hour...

A lot of expectations for this weekend. Can the Pirrelis hold up with the heat and challenge of Sepang, can Petrov pull off another great performance and many more. My target for those days will be trying to get as many driver's autographs as possible and of course enjoy the race 👍
 
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Good thing the typhoon-of-the-week isn't going to get to Malaysia in time for the race, but given the weather we've been having, I'd wager it'll still be wet-wet-wet.
 
If Red Bull can get the victory, it would make a good birthday present.
 
interludes
Based on what, exactly? His performance in Melbourne? Or his 2010 race at Sepang? 2009? 2008?
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Based on gut feeling by the looks of it. There is no way anyone will win this easily who isn't sat in an RBR, unless the RBR's retire.
 
Wonder if Heidfield will get his head round the Renault this weekend?
 

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