2015 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix

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I find extremely hard to believe how good Ferrari were in this race. In Oz Vettel finished more than half a minute behind. Its like they found half a second out of nowhere?
 
@mustafur Oh yeah that I don't doubt and I'm sure they're doing eveything they can but they're still in pretty bad shape that I think the talk of positivity just makes the douche bag in me giggle.
 
Don't mean too sound harsh but If I was a Mclaren fan I would get tired of their positive attitude.

Why? Honda is "new" to the game and still have to learn a lot and that takes time. I have confidence that they'll be able to pick up a decent pace throughout the season, maybe even are able to pick up a fight with the Sauber, Lotus and Force India.
 
They had 1 set, the one they used in Q1.
And when you need to maximise the grip and range of a tyre, what good is a used set?

Why? Honda is "new" to the game and still have to learn a lot and that takes time. I have confidence that they'll be able to pick up a decent pace throughout the season, maybe even are able to pick up a fight with the Sauber, Lotus and Force India.
They were able to do that today. They were fighting with Perez, and were lapping at the same speed as Toro Rosso & Red Bull was a long time.
 
They were able to do that today. They were fighting with Perez, and were lapping at the same speed as Toro Rosso & Red Bull was a long time.

Yeah, didn't really follow the race too close, but I do remember Button being as high as P11 or P12? Anyways, it just shows that it's too early to write off McLaren just yet. Again, I have high hopes that if they keep improving at the pace they do (which they already did compared to the testing phase in Barcelona and Australia), they'll be able to finish both in Bahrain or even in China.
 
Yeah, didn't really follow the race too close, but I do remember Button being as high as P11 or P12? Anyways, it just shows that it's too early to write off McLaren just yet. Again, I have high hopes that if they keep improving at the pace they do (which they already did compared to the testing phase in Barcelona and Australia), they'll be able to finish both in Bahrain or even in China.

Well Alonso was running 8th when he got the call to pack it up, and Button was running as high as 9th at one point so.
 
Plus by the time we get to Spain we should see some massive upgrades.

Regardless it is very much a work of progress season for Mclaren.

I think right now Mclaren and Redbull will have the most improvements to come as they seem to be the teams most at odds with their package.
 
It was good to see someone beat Mercedes on pace* though, wasn't it @mustafur? ;)

* I know their strategy wasnt great, but if the car was significantly better than the Ferrari, they wouldn't have lost by 10 seconds.

Wait, you only wanted someone to match them. That was done comfortably.
 
It was good to see someone beat Mercedes on pace* though, wasn't it @mustafur? ;)

* I know their strategy wasnt great, but if the car was significantly better than the Ferrari, they wouldn't have lost by 10 seconds.

Wait, you only wanted someone to match them. That was done comfortably.

I think ill need to find a hat lol.
 
I think right now Mclaren and Redbull will have the most improvements to come as they seem to be the teams most at odds with their package.


I predict McLaren will make the most time up while Red Bull will hardly make any progress. With Honda and McLaren, its a old band getting together and getting the rust off while trying to get a feel for things but most importantly, they are both aware that this won't be easy and they are working together. Red Bull and Renault are a nasty divorce that's finally reaching its breaking point, so much public bickering and dirty laundry being aired that they both have completely lost sight of the goal and in the progress, forgot what it was like to be in this position before they became the powerhouse they were for four years.
 
By pitting both Mercs during the safety car period after only 4 racing laps, Hamilton become trapped behind traffic while Rosberg lost even more time having to wait for Hamilton's service to be completed. Once Hamilton cleared everyone, he was ten seconds behind Vettel. For Rosberg, he ended up where he would've finished anyways. As for Hamilton, he ended up about ten seconds behind Vettel at the end.

The joys of retrospection.
Based on what? Rosberg seemed to get on with the harder tire better than Hamilton did and after Rosberg cleared the traffic on lap 14, he was faster than anybody else the rest of the way. Rosberg lost out as much as anybody with the pit stop stacking and strategy decisions.

Yeah, to be fair they did have a better car than Mclaren.
They don't. Manor have a far more mature package and are thus more reliable, but they're irrelevantly slow. McLaren proved in Australia that they can finish races with drastically turned down engines and still maintain a pace closer to the leaders than Manor can. At Sepang, McLaren turned up the engines a bit and ran 2-4 seconds faster than Manor. Eventually both cars retired, but Button had already lapped Merhi before he did. It's all about development for the Woking bunch, and they'll learn plenty more running at FI pace than poodling around with barely stressed engines.
 
Based on what? Rosberg seemed to get on with the harder tire better than Hamilton did and after Rosberg cleared the traffic on lap 14, he was faster than anybody else the rest of the way. Rosberg lost out as much as anybody with the pit stop stacking and strategy decisions.

They don't. Manor have a far more mature package and are thus more reliable, but they're irrelevantly slow. McLaren proved in Australia that they can finish races with drastically turned down engines and still maintain a pace closer to the leaders than Manor can. At Sepang, McLaren turned up the engines a bit and ran 2-4 seconds faster than Manor. Eventually both cars retired, but Button had already lapped Merhi before he did. It's all about development for the Woking bunch, and they'll learn plenty more running at FI pace than poodling around with barely stressed engines.
I was being funny...they were slower clearly...they did finish though. ;) :lol:
 
Based on what? Rosberg seemed to get on with the harder tire better than Hamilton did and after Rosberg cleared the traffic on lap 14, he was faster than anybody else the rest of the way. Rosberg lost out as much as anybody with the pit stop stacking and strategy decisions.
Vettel was pulling away from Rosberg before the SC. Had both Mercedes stayed out, the question is whether he would've caught up to Hamilton and/or Vettel during the course of the race. Impossible to know but my gut feeling says he would've ended up finishing 3rd anyways, unable to pass whoever was in 2nd.

Now, what would've been interesting was if Mercedes hedged and pitted only Hamilton. In that scenario, Rosberg could've gotten 2nd.
 
I was being funny...they were slower clearly...they did finish though. ;) :lol:
Use an emote then or at least don't start with "to be fair". Hard to discern if you are joking or not when a lot of your posts are inaccurate (CN prototypes are about as fast as GT3, considerably quicker than GT4 and touring cars).
 
Use an emote then or at least don't start with "to be fair". Hard to discern if you are joking or not when a lot of your posts are inaccurate (CN prototypes are about as fast as GT3, considerably quicker than GT4 and touring cars).
In that case he was more talking about LMP4 and possibly track cars (KTM X-Bow, BAC Mono, Caterham etc) ...which there is a series in Europe that has track cars mixed in with older GT's and TC's. I never talked about CN being LMP4 as that's another thing entirely.
 
Vettel was pulling away from Rosberg before the SC. Had both Mercedes stayed out, the question is whether he would've caught up to Hamilton and/or Vettel during the course of the race. Impossible to know but my gut feeling says he would've ended up finishing 3rd anyways, unable to pass whoever was in 2nd.

Now, what would've been interesting was if Mercedes hedged and pitted only Hamilton. In that scenario, Rosberg could've gotten 2nd.
Rosberg was 2.3 seconds behind Hamilton and lapping at a similar pace, and it's hard to infer much from only 3 laps of green lap running at the very start of the race.
 
In that case he was more talking about LMP4 and possibly track cars (KTM X-Bow, BAC Mono, Caterham etc) ...which there is a series in Europe that has track cars mixed in with older GT's and TC's. I never talked about CN being LMP4 as that's another thing entirely.
The post you were replying to by @Juim1j was clearly talking about CN prototypes. "Track cars" like the X-bow aren't prototypes and not pertinent to a discussion of a potential LMP4 category, so I misinterpreted what you were saying.

This isn't the place for this discussion anyway.
 
Rosberg was 2.3 seconds behind Hamilton and lapping at a similar pace, and it's hard to infer much from only 3 laps of green lap running at the very start of the race.
True. Hard to infer much when a car (Vettel) can go from finishing thirty seconds behind in Australia to almost earning the pole and splitting the Mercs in Malaysia.
 
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