Malaysian Grand Prix 2010, Sepang - Race 3/19
- Thread starter Glaucus
- Start date
The rules state that only one move is allowed in the braking zone
Since when is the main part of the straight the braking zone?
Alonso has to do 16 races on 6 engines.
He had an engine change before the race at Bahrain, but that was just a concern, so that engine is no longer allowed to be used in qualifying or the race. He also had the failure today.
So he's got 1 that can only be used for FP1 and FP2 and 6 for FP3, Qualifying and the race.
Didi anyone else think that the Ferrari sounded better as a V7?
Sounded so much meatier.
Soldato
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Poor old Eddie still he'll never live that sweaty shirt down!!
Caporegime
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Actually, I'd say this is the first race of the year a 2 stop for 3 sets of tires would have worked VERY well. 22seconds in the pit lane, - about the 6-7 seconds that straight normally takes, its a VERY minor pitlane, and when his tires were on he was very fast, the second everyone else came in for tires the guys who had been ahead and the red bulls were all a second a lap faster on decent tires(well about a half second, but Hamilton was previously a half second faster than them). If he was losing a second a lap, for 10-15 laps, it would probably have paid off to be on the best tires each time. It would also likely have twice in the race pitting at the right times, meant he could drop back out in fresh air like Button did. It could basically have been a wash on tires vs pitting for a fresh set, but being better fresher tires obviously makes a huge difference in overtacking traction and obviously more pitstops gives more chances to pop cars into fresh air for a good bit of speed.
Unlike Button, in fresh air Hamilton could really have gone insanely quickly. Let say Hamilton did what Button did, went in before the rest by 10 laps, frankly running around in that free air he could have gained a LOT of time back on Alonso/Massa/Button and by the time they pitted been miles ahead, still in fresh air, got a pitstop ahead of Sutil and Kubica and stopped again and raced to the end.
Last race a pitstop cost you what, 43 seconds was it in the pitlane, compared to 15 seconds on track, it was huge, 22seconds this race, it was a close call.
Button with fresh tires, in fresh air, ended up behind Hamilton after his stop, even though Hamilton was on worn tires and in traffic most of the time.
Thats all ignoring the fact that I was also including the absolute joke of a decision by McClaren and Ferarri to not go out and put in a simple decent time in early in Q1, had they done so the McClarens could well have started from the front, well Hamilton could have been on the front row, possibly even pole judging from his pace in rain in general and his speed in practices(ie fastest in all but one session where he was 0.017 behind Webber wasn't he). Button would probably have been top 6 but very unlikely to be in the top 2 rows IMHO.
I also think if he had to go 1 stop, it would have worked far better for him to do 15-20laps on softs and the rest on hard tires.
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My personal take is that RedBull's fast laptimes were flattered because their main competitors (Hamilton/Alonso) were held up behind traffic. Had those 2 been allowed to mix it with the RedBulls or run in clean air, then I think you would've seen that the fast laptimes of RedBull, wouldn't have been that much faster than Hamilton/Alonso.
What is helping RedBull a lot this year is their scintilating qualifying pace. This allows them to stay out of trouble. We saw what happened when Webber got stuck behind slower cars (in previous races) - he couldn't do anything to get past them (apart from barge them off the track).
We are fragile i agree but, you conveniently supress the fact that Ferrari have had more issues than we have so far. Fair enough they have managed to secure points but are far from what you would call a reliable package.
Soldato
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Only 9 points between 1st & 7th on the championship. So far the Ferrari and rebull look like once in front they go on to win. We haven't seen this from Mclaren de to their poor qulifying. I wonder how good the RB are when in dirty air. Good start to the season so far. Renualt must be surprise team so far and mercedez along with sumi disapointmet so far.
What will be interesting is if we get towards the end of the season, with Alonso in the hunt for the title and he runs out of engines. What happens then? Will the FIA admit that they messed up when they made these rules?
Go for a 9th engine and take the grid penalties at each event that it's used.
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Associate
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Couple of interesting facts from EnigmaF1's Twitter:
I 100% agree with you, but CS|, from an outsider's point of view, what we have seen is that whenever Vettel's RedBull car is driven to the limit, it breaks. The first time (today) where he only had to worry about his (slower) team-mate, the car finished the race.
Yes the Ferrari is far from reliable (Alonso's used 2 engines in 3 races), but your team are also far from reliable (Vettel - leading both races, when his car failed).
Don't get me wrong, if I was a driver, at this point in the title race, I would much rather be in a RedBull (due to its speed), but Ferrari are leading the constructor's title and drivers title - this simply cannot be ignored. And all this, despite Alonso effecitively starting from the back of the grid in 2 out of 3 races and Massa starting at the back for 1 of the races.
Aaaaah. I never realised that you could take new engines in exchange for grid penalties.
Thats not so bad then.
If you use an engine above your allowed 8, you get a 10 place grid penalty at each event that the additional engine is used.
Used to be that the grid penalty would only apply for the first race, that was changed.
How have you missed that, i'm sure several cars over the last couple of years have had to do it
How have you missed that, i'm sure several cars over the last couple of years have had to do it
I think he means he didnt realise it was still the case now that its not 1 engine per 2 races.
Bit nasty though if you have used all you engines (by bad luck) by say race 14, then you have 5 more races with a grid penalty
What if you take a new engine at each event.
For example, after 10 races, you use up your engine allowance. Would I be permitted to use a new engine, at each of the remaining races?
I'm just thinking that it might be advantageous to simply use a brand new engine at each race, starting in around 13th place (assuming the driver is able to qualify in the top 3).
Get real did you not see his laptimes compared to Massa at Bahrain as soon as he got clear air, massa was destroyed.
Then again in Oz he was well over a second faster than Massa until he caught him. Bridgestone have then remarked how outstanding Alonso was on his tyres despite how hard he had to race. He raced from the back, caught his team mate and was still faster than him by a considerable margin.
Then today with a broken car he demonstrated he was much faster than Massa. He was sadly hampered by not being able to get a gear if he made an attempt to pass.
Alonsos race pace is considerably better than his team mates and we aren't talking 10ths we are talking seconds. In both the last two races ferrari should have let him by.
Still get a 10 place penalty at each race. Other than that - have thought about it too much.
I can't understand why Mclaren ever put the opened for the 'F-Duct' in full view. Surely hiding it somewhere under the car would have made it more difficult for other teams to con onto their idea? 
Todays race was interesting, plenty of overtaking. Solid results for Red Bull.. as said above if they keep that up then they're going to do very well this season.
Todays race was interesting, plenty of overtaking. Solid results for Red Bull.. as said above if they keep that up then they're going to do very well this season.