Crown

Consecutive race weekends ... from wet Melbourne to hot, humid Kuala Lumpur ...

I expect the biggest factor to change will be tyre temperature ... much less difficulty getting heat into the tyres BUT tyre degradation will be a massive problem ...

I think it will again be a close fight between Lotus, Ferrari and Red Bull. IMO Red Bull and Mercedes need to fix their tyre degradation problems ...

Enjoy

997.1 C2S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen pickup, BMW Z4 2.5i Roadster Sterling Grey/Red

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/03/insight-different-ways-lotus-and-red-bull-find-speed/

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2013/03/can-lotus-repeat-in-malaysia-insight-into-how-the-racing-will-pan-out/
 

997.1 C2S GT Silver/Cocoa, -20mm/LSD, PSE, short shifter, SportDesign rims, Zuffenhausen pickup, BMW Z4 2.5i Roadster Sterling Grey/Red

Looks like all of a sudden Lotus is the favorite car... They got new updates that work and they are best on their tires which is the critical thing. RBR will have to fight with Ferrari with Mercedes behind.

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Unfortunately Kimi got penalised 3 grid places for getting in the way of Perez's qualifyijng lap ... he will start 10th 

What's up with Alonso again, has Massa got more space again

Mercedes looked strong and a bit surprising that RBR is up there.. Vettel really got everything out of that car and it will be interesting to see how he starts from pole and hold position when other cars might show faster race pace.

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

GREEN LIGHTS!!!! Alonso already out, what a dumb move with the wing Not only dangerous but also very rookie.

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Wow pretty great race with some cool action and surprises. Certainly the pace of the Mercedes was amazing and proved the only competitor to RBR. I have to say the RBR battle after the 4th stop was the best I've seen in a long time.. Mercedes doingso well until they both suddenly dropped some pace due to tire wear.. I love Rosberg wanting to pass Hamilton in the end with those radio comments. Same goes for RBR btw, the management was very stressed haha. Lotus on the other hand was disappointing and they made some mistakes. Ferrari was meh, not there yet in pace.. Alonso's mistake was quite surprising but then not pitting just wreck less. Massa, 5th is good but haven't seen him at all. Mclaren again very poor, they literally gave up. Sad to see the catastrophic failures at force India. All in all, things will be very heated at RBR!! Then again it isn't Ferrari. 

Anyways the final radios were so funny with both vettel and Rosberg being slapped on the fingers. Rosberg just said "remember this one" indicating again that he was faster while he just got lessened on the radio about his drive by the boss 

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

You clearly missed what happened... not funny at all. Webber and Vettel were told by radio by code to maintain position not to fight each other and not make any move at that time, and while Webber stopped worrying about a pass from Vettel given the team orders, Vettel took the opportunity of that to make pass at Webber regardless of the orders and therefore catching Webber by surprise.

That is why the fight broke out between them after, because Webber was mad at Vettel at Vettel's dirty move. And hence the tension in the team afterwards.

 Vettel's true colors come through again, the dirtiest driver in the grid.

--

...but why did red bull freeze the positions with over 10 laps left...!?

was fun to watch tough...will be electric in the paddocks tonight!

--
996C4, Artic silver (current) 997C2S, Seal/black, -20mm LSD, PSE (gone) 986S, Arctic Silver (gone)

Well that's how you see it. RBR has stated many times they can race each other.. It may not be tactical but they are racing. Obviously webber shut to preserve mode, but he could have disengaged this and raced. The team may not like it in terms of risk, but it is racing at the end of the day. Look at Mercedes where Rosberg did back off.. That will cause more tension. Webber is going to hide behind team orders but this is racing my friend... Not sure if its dirty. It was a hard and fair battle which was exciting and what fans want to see. 

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Two guys in the same team are racing. Their radio was I only hinting at being careful and preserving your tires.. Then when vettel got closer and closer they said its just silly. Why would webber continue to idle on cruise control?? Makes no sense I'm sorry.. 

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Obviously dirty racing by Vettel, dissapointing. Rbr was running under code 21 - Mark was talking about it before podium. Under this code positions are frozen - no attack. Also it was not the same situation as with merc. Webber was potentially faster... Ugly f1...

--

sportcars-history.com

I'm more mad about the terrible tires, it's just silly with 4 pit stops. 

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Ok how come then there was no more clear lines from RBR to vettel.. We all knew he would attack. They left room because they want to continue to claim equal rights blabla unlike Ferrari and Mercedes.. Frankly that disappoints me much more. And besides, Mercedes was a lot more clear on the radio.. For webber to publicly mention this internal code thing will get him into more trouble.. Vettel just said the situation will be discussed internally which is pretty standard. 

Anyways at least there are racing drivers on the grid still, otherwise we might as sell just point all cameras on the pitlane and make the tires e en shittier so that they have to stop every 5 laps. Cheers

1991 BMW 535i Granitsilber/White Leather (Canada)
1991 BMW 318i Brilliantrot/Black Leather (Germany)

Ex: '89 525i, '74 280E, '87 325is, '86 325e, '05 FF, '85.5 944

Atzporsche:

Ok how come then there was no more clear lines from RBR to vettel.. We all knew he would attack. They left room because they want to continue to claim equal rights blabla unlike Ferrari and Mercedes.. Frankly that disappoints me much more. And besides, Mercedes was a lot more clear on the radio.. For webber to publicly mention this internal code thing will get him into more trouble.. Vettel just said the situation will be discussed internally which is pretty standard. 

Anyways at least there are racing drivers on the grid still, otherwise we might as sell just point all cameras on the pitlane and make the tires e en shittier so that they have to stop every 5 laps. Cheers

Agree about tires, don't understand how pirelli works for f1. Its a great advetisement for company with minus sign. Racing is created to make road cars or components better, but here we see an opposite situation. 

It seems that vettel will have some problems, he is unmanageble. Even Helmut was darker than a rain cloud...

--

sportcars-history.com

Jeannot:

...but why did red bull freeze the positions with over 10 laps left...!?

was fun to watch tough...will be electric in the paddocks tonight!

--
996C4, Artic silver (current) 997C2S, Seal/black, -20mm LSD, PSE (gone) 986S, Arctic Silver (gone)

 

Probably because the Mercedes were right behind them at that time and having them fight then for position would cost them their tires and also slow them down and play in the hands of the Mercedes.

--

What would have another team done? Ordered driver #2 to let #1 pass? I think that happened few times during Schumi's days...and everybody was upset. I want to see racing...watching 10 last laps with no action is not much fun...

Also Webber had plenty of time to readjust his tempo as he saw the threat coming, it was not exactly a 'surprise'...

996C4, Artic silver (gone) 997C2S, Seal/black, -20mm LSD, PSE (gone) 986S, Arctic Silver (gone)

Atzporsche:

Ok how come then there was no more clear lines from RBR to vettel.. We all knew he would attack. They left room because they want to continue to claim equal rights blabla unlike Ferrari and Mercedes.. Frankly that disappoints me much more. And besides, Mercedes was a lot more clear on the radio.. For webber to publicly mention this internal code thing will get him into more trouble.. Vettel just said the situation will be discussed internally which is pretty standard. 

Anyways at least there are racing drivers on the grid still, otherwise we might as sell just point all cameras on the pitlane and make the tires e en shittier so that they have to stop every 5 laps. Cheers

what kudryavchic said, they were both given a code by the team not to attack and maintain positions, and Vettel took that opportunity to make a surpirse pass manaeuver of Webber, doesn't get any dirtier than that. 

Hence Webber getting so mad and trying to take the position back in the next corners and why he was so mad at Vetter after the race. 

And yet the only fault you see in all this is that Webber mentions what happened in public??   BTW, even before the race was over and Webber said anything, De La Rosa in the spanish TV was already calling out what had happened, doesn't take a genius to figure out the code given the situation and what happened, so it was no big secret.

Jeannot:

What would have another team done? Ordered driver #2 to let #1 pass? I think that happened few times during Schumi's days...and everybody was upset. I want to see racing...watching 10 last laps with no action is not much fun...

Also Webber had plenty of time to readjust his tempo as he saw the threat coming, it was not exactly a 'surprise'...

 

Team order are legal so they could have said either to maintain position or could have ordered one of the drivers to give up thier's, nothing wrong with that. Thats what they did with Rosberg vs Hamilton, they told Rosberg who was much faster not to pass Hamilton, and let him have 3rd place, and Hamilton thanked Rosberg in the podium. There is no problem with that. 

However the RBR situation was tottaly different, the orders from then RBR team were to maintain position (at least until new orders were given later on), not for Webber to let Vettel pass, and so when Webber stopped protecting against Vettel and started managing the lap times and tires, Vettel took the opportunity to get up behind him and make a overtake move, that was the "surprise", even though he had him behind him he was not expect him to actually put his car in front of him. It was Vettel who, not only disobeyed direct team orders, but also in the dirtiest way posibile against his own teammate.

--

Ugly one. Not happy with Vettel behavior. Sad finish.

There is no try. Just do.

Isn't Hamilton the designated #1 driver? Samed as Vettel is? At least they both seem to believe this way...

Also, in the radio communications, it was much more clear in Mercedes vs. Red Bull. I hope we will learn more about this.

996C4, Artic silver (gone) 997C2S, Seal/black, -20mm LSD, PSE (gone) 986S, Arctic Silver (gone)

Carlos from Spain:

Jeannot:

What would have another team done? Ordered driver #2 to let #1 pass? I think that happened few times during Schumi's days...and everybody was upset. I want to see racing...watching 10 last laps with no action is not much fun...

Also Webber had plenty of time to readjust his tempo as he saw the threat coming, it was not exactly a 'surprise'...

 

Team order are legal so they could have said either to maintain position or could have ordered one of the drivers to give up thier's, nothing wrong with that. Thats what they did with Rosberg vs Hamilton, they told Rosberg who was much faster not to pass Hamilton, and let him have 3rd place, and Hamilton thanked Rosberg in the podium. There is no problem with that. 

However the RBR situation was tottaly different, the orders from then RBR team were to maintain position (at least until new orders were given later on), not for Webber to let Vettel pass, and so when Webber stopped protecting against Vettel and started managing the lap times and tires, Vettel took the opportunity to get up behind him and make a overtake move, that was the "surprise", even though he had him behind him he was not expect him to actually put his car in front of him. It was Vettel who, not only disobeyed direct team orders, but also in the dirtiest way posibile against his own teammate.

--

+1

sportcars-history.com

Jeannot:

Isn't Hamilton the designated #1 driver? Samed as Vettel is? At least they both seem to believe this way...

Also, in the radio communications, it was much more clear in Mercedes vs. Red Bull. I hope we will learn more about this.

Depends on team decision, here it was different. Officially they have the same rights. 

sportcars-history.com

Team decision which probably is documented in a fine print in a contract somewhere 

996C4, Artic silver (gone) 997C2S, Seal/black, -20mm LSD, PSE (gone) 986S, Arctic Silver (gone)

RBR always tries to appear to have no team orders, pure hipocracy as we all know and have seen in past seanons that they do just like any other team, so they always try to do it with a lot of subterfuge and use codes, try to make it seemlessly like it was all happenstance, etc. (don't know why since they are perfectly leagal) but they were both clearly told to maintain positions via a code word.

So the problem was not that the order wasn't clear, its that Vettel decided to not obey orders and whats worse, use them to his advantage to overtake his teammate.

During the race, there was a point were the spoiled brat told the team by radio to get Webber out of the way, literally, when Webber was clearly not slower and if fact pulled away from Vettel after that in the following laps.

Poor behaviour from SV: first he wants teamorders to let him pass MW because 'he's to slow', 20 laps later he suddenly ignores teamorders. 

SV lost more than he won in this race.

And now after probably speking to his PR agent he apologises to try to minimise the image damage of what he did today, what a hipocrite, I'm sure he is laughing his way back ton the hotel with the 25 points in his pocket...

 

Sebastian Vettel has admitted that he ‘should have behaved better’ during the closing stages of the Malaysian Grand Prix, with the German ignoring Red Bull’s pre-race strategy by overtaking team-mate Mark Webber in the final stint to claim victory.

The triple World Champion, who apologised to Webber for any ill-feelings, says he was eager to get past while he had the grip available on his final set of Medium tyres.

"I took the lead from Mark, which I can see now he is upset about, but I want to be honest and apologise. I took quite a lot of risk to pass; I should have behaved better. It doesn't help his feelings right now. Apologies to Mark, all I can say is that I didn't do it deliberately.""It was very close wheel-to-wheel racing," Vettel said of the final lead battle. "There wasn’t much room for either of us. On the softer compound at the end, I was a little too keen too soon. I felt that I had a bit more.

The best part wha the "I didn't do it deliberately"  ....Vettle:"ooops, look at that! I think I just passed my teammate who was following team orders! and he is trying to take the postion back!" "sorry, wans't on purpose!"

--

Vettel = Pironi. Not great for 3 time WC winner...

sportcars-history.com

The best part was when Hamilton pitted at Mclaren. 

I nearly fell off my couch laughing!!!  

All in all, very exciting start to the season.   And go Webber!

--

BMW 1 M + C63. 

yap Alonso really missed it this time. Strange coming from him. but nice for others.

Sutil and the pit what a pitty, he really got bad luck and the guy had the pole in Q1, well i think he will come out of the clouds soon.

Hamilton has yet not made the transaction with his old team, so he decided just to come to say a quick Hallo and leave again the pit to go to his team.

Nice fight between Hamilton and Rosberg but Rosberg mentionned really clearly on the radio " don't forget that one" wich ment i could have been third.

then the battle between Vettel and Weber. really unfair cause Webber had the shot to be number one 1. i don't really like those team strategy. if one is faster then the other he goes first and that's it

anyway loved the race and it's nice to see that battle will be here this season. 

 997 GT3,Cayenne S, Cooper S & VW Cross Polo