2011 Malaysian Grand Prix

I agree, there certainly should be more openness regarding the reasoning behind their decisions.

Alonso's onboard gives you everything you need to know regarding what took place.

Regarding Hamilton's penalty - It was a bit borderline IMO, but I can understand why the penalty was given, as he was a bit dodgy/erratic (moving to left and then right again) under the braking zone. Even Hamilton said he knew he was going to be penalized for that move after the race...which is enough for me.
 
Well as Brundle said, Pirro is no fool so the stewards must have a good reason. They do have access to more angles of footage than us. Perhaps they felt they needed to remind Alonso to pay more attention or maybe they wanted to make an example. I agree that Alonso's broken wing and ruined race were enough punishment to remind him not to keep so close to the car in front.
Not much else to say on it really, we don't know why the stewards made this decision.
 
It's not just footage they have, remember, but all telemetry and data etc.
 
It's not just footage they have, remember, but all telemetry and data etc.

Well, we do have laptime data so if anyone can really be bothered, they can analyse that. But yeah, telementary too, they can interview the drivers and the team.
I feel more inclined to trust it was a good decision but from the evidence I've seen I don't understand it or agree with it.
 
Well I think it's pretty clear as to what happened from the simple onboard footage from Alonso. I think it is more a issue of where they are drawing the line in terms of how aggresively/wreckless Alonso was driving. It was a very small/simple misjudgment on Alonso's part...not some throwing caution to the wind type dive up the inside. These cars aren't exactly predictable when following that closely...and of course having a snowplow in front of your front tires (which you can't really see while in the cockpit) means incidents like this are bound to happen every once and while...unless the FIA don't like seeing or promoting hard racing.

But of course at the end of the day, it is what it is. My opinion and view means nothing as it won't change a darn thing :lol:
 
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Well, hopefully if enough people keep asking, we might get better explanations from the FIA. The teams at least do appear to read Twitter and the forums.
 
At the end of the day you could say that Alonso caused an avoidable collision, and that's what warrented the position. I don't think there was any element of understeering due to lost downforce. Just that he was trying to sweep out from behind but getting the most out of slipstream and misjudged the closing speed slightly.
 
Wel just about every accident is avoidable to some extent. Personally I don't feel penalties are needed for such small mistakes (a simple misjudgment by a couple of inches), especially when the drivers car sustains damage and needs to come in for a unscheduled pit stop...which hampers their race enough. But again, that's just my opinion.

Regarding loss of DF while following - I think most would argue that there is certainly a loss of DF (which would induce understeer) when a car is following that closely...that's why F1 has seen so little on track overtaking in the past several years.
 
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I know, I know, but I don't think it was the case here, not to the extent that he could barely turn the car.
 
I know, I know, but I don't think it was the case here, not to the extent that he could barely turn the car.

Yes he could still turn the car enough to avoid the accident, but the loss of DF (which likely got worse as he got closer) made things a lot more unpredictable and unexpected (when it come to the required steering input) than one might think, especially at those speeds.
 
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Pfft, lightweights :P. I remember when the Japanese GP was held at the early hours of the morning. 7am is nothing and I work late shifts during the week!
I pulled an all-nighter for Australia so I could watch all of P3 and qualifying live.

I imagine several here from Australia would also chuckle considering the start times of most of the European races.

Also, back on Alonso, looking back at the footage, I wonder if Alonso was blasting his KERS and the speed difference from this is what caught him out. If it was, the stewards probably felt he was being a little reckless blasting his KERS and trying a little too hard to maximise the draft. I don't buy it all being down to understeer. Still doesn't make the punishment wholly justified though but a probable reason.
 
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I quite liked:
"Ferrari were telling me that this weekend was damage limitation, but Alonso didn't hear that message and instead went for damage creation."
" Petrov, the rudderless russian"
" Back in the day when the tyres were skinny and the drivers were fat"


:lol:

It was very amusing when EJ went suddenly aggressive when he thought Coulthard was implying he believed Lewis was brake testing. "I don't want anymore letters from McLaren!". :lol: Meanwhile Jake is bemused and attempting to move the show on.
And then EJ went on to talk about soup and ice cream, so bizarre but very amusing :lol:.
 
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The photoshops begin...

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:guilty:

His KERS isn't working, apparently. I don't know...something just isn't sitting too well with me; in Melbourne there were differences between his and Vettel's car (so I've heard) and now the tides are going in the same direction. Either he doesn't have what he did last year, or there's some foul play going on in the background.

Don't be rediculous. If the team wanted they could have got rid of Webber. Why on earth would they risk the constructors championship (which is where all the money is) just to make him look bad? Do you think they were sabotaging Sebastian last season with all his unreliability? It's been two races and Webber's had some bad luck, but I think it's pretty easy to understand that Red Bull are having issues with their kers.

Duffers917K
I hope other people catch up or else it's going to be another boring season with Vettel running away with it.

Can't say I feel the same way. Come on Sebastian.

Terronium-12
Question: Would anyone dare refer to Vettel as the "Contemporary Schumacher"?

He's been compared to Schumacher for a few years now. It's obvious he has his eye's on Schumi's records.

Anghammarad
There's no way that Hamilton could have kept him behind and Heidfeld would definitely not have been able to pass Alonso.

Yeah... Alonso will always have the pace over the Renault [/sarcasm]

Duffers917K
Debuts part way through a season and then joins another team after. (Schuey in the same year, Vettel the next year)
Actually, Vettel debuted with BMW Sauber and participated in one Grand Prix for them (covering for the injured Robert Kubica at the 2007 Us Gp). The main difference being that Schumi was with Benetton for the next race, Vettel had to wait until the Hungarian grand prix (when Toro Rosso got rid of Speed).

Grayfox
If RBR know that the KERS is not working or they don't want to use it , why install it?

Just adds 50kg more to the car.
The car has to meet the minimum weight anyway, and with the weight distribution fixed this season, they might as well run it. Either that or fit 30kg ballast.

InvincibleM5
Is he the first marshall to get run over by an F1 car? Lucky... Too many weird things happened this weekend.

No. Tom Pryce and a marshall were killed during the 1977 South African grand prix. Renzo Zorzi had broken down and his engine caught fire. 19 year old marshal Frederik Jansen Van Vuuren ran across the track with a fire extinguisher as the cars of Hans Joachim Stuck and Tom Pryce crested the hill. Pryce had been following Stuck closely, Stuck saw Van Vuuren and moved out the way but Pryce was unsighted and struck the marshall. Pryce was killed due to the fire extinguisher impacting his helmet. The marshall was killed on impact.

There may be more cases, but this one sprang to mind immediately after reading your post.

Anghammarad
The Renault is obviously a much better car this year than last. Just makes Kubica's absence more disappointing. With him they would probably race for victories instead of just podiums. Here's to a speedy recovery Robert.

I'm not so sure. There is a large deficit in laptime to the Red Bull. Say what you want about Petrov (Personally, I count myself as a fan) but Nick Heidfeld is known to be quite consistent. The fact is that the race pace just isn't there, but they can improve the car. It's still a good car, but can't yet compete with the might of the Red Bull.

Ardius
Pfft, lightweights . I remember when the Japanese GP was held at the early hours of the morning. 7am is nothing and I work late shifts during the week!
I pulled an all-nighter for Australia so I could watch all of P3 and qualifying live.
Word. I have watched every practice, quali and race session live for the past few years now.
 
Great race from vettel. Renault and Ferrari also had good race pace. Not sure what happened to hamilton but after poor last pit stop his pace was not good. Alonso made a mess of the overtaking. He had a chance of podium and Mercedes GP performance was really disappointing. They are fighting for points for 9th, 10 place :confused:
 
Webber 4 stops! And KERS not working left him out to dry at the race start; salvaged some points though; well done Jenson; and Seb!
 
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Damned we "ze Germans" must be pretty spoiled then. Most races start here between 9am and 3pm, oh well. :sly::D:P

I hate the suit the race for the european viewer thing.

If the european viewers are true F1 fans they will stay up late or wake up early, why should the rest of us suffer.
 
Is that not one of the best races ever? Honestly apart from Vettel being just too good the rest of the field was epic. How many overtakes did we see?

Man I hope we get some good onboard footage out of all that.
 
I don't know what to think about DRS. It worked a bit too well this race.


It won't matter anyway since we're in for a season of Vettel domination.
 
Is that not one of the best races ever? Honestly apart from Vettel being just too good the rest of the field was epic. How many overtakes did we see?

Man I hope we get some good onboard footage out of all that.

👍

It was a very exciting race, lots of battles and overtakes, lots of strategy involved. You don't need a wet race to make F1 exciting. As there seems to be a trend of Brundle quotes above, i'll repeat one from last year, when Hamilton overtook Rosberg on the outside of the fast chicane at Melbourne.

"It's so boring this Formula One, it's what I hate about it most"

If you found this race boring, maybe Motorsport isn't your thing.
 
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I hate the suit the race for the european viewer thing.

If the european viewers are true F1 fans they will stay up late or wake up early, why should the rest of us suffer.

I dont see the problem - the European rounds start at 10pm Australian Eastern time. You dont lose much, if any, sleep (depending on your schedule) and it doesnt cut into your day, like a mid afternoon race. The only races that really screw with us here are the ones in the Americas (Montreal, Interlagos) with ~5am starts.

As for the other rounds (Asian ones), it is in our daylight hours regardless of when they put it on, except for Singapore, which has the same start time as most EU races
 
I don't know what to think about DRS. It worked a bit too well this race.
Sepang does have one of the longest straights out of all the circuits. The only ones longer I can think of are Catalunya and Shanghai. I hope on the circuits where the longest straight isn't the pit straight that DRS will be on those instead. Having DRS on the main straights of tracks like Istanbul could prove useless. Also, going into 15 on Sepang has been a good place to overtake for quite some time.
 
I just wish Alonso didnt hurt his front wing, that battle was just epic too! And Schumi and Koybi.

Seriously, so many great battles throughout the field. Should be some great youtube videos to come out if people can get their hands on the onboard footage.
 
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