Malaysian Grand Prix 2013, Kuala Lumpur - Race 2/19

[Skeeter]

I'm not awake enough to read the whole thread, I assume its 20 pages of team orders and tyre chat?

On a different note, does anyone else think they should separate the constructors and drivers points to allow then to remove then from one without removing them from the other? An example is the unsafe pit release from Toro Rosso. A fine seems pretty pathetic for what was a very dodgy release, but because it was the teams fault it would be unfair to penalize the driver. How a out a situation where WCC points can be deducted instead? Remove 2 points for an unsafe release? Only problem is that it wouldn't be proportional down the grid. 2 points means far less to Red Bull than it does to Caterham, for example.

 

[cuke2u]

I think mclaren will overtake mercedes very soon and out develop ferrari as well as them.

Hi, I agree, once again JB demonstrated how he can get a bad car up to possibly into a podium finish, if it hadn't been for that disastrous pit stop. Quite the way the whole of the paddock was impressed with his ability to drive around the very poor BAR car he drove in the past..

 

[drunkenmaster]

I'm not his biggest fan, but I think he handled himself very well given the situation. Maybe you've never been in this kind of situation, but you have to choose your words VERY carefully and that's all he did.

Every interview he's ever done is the umm/err style, its just his way, he's ackward on camera(or maybe in general) that isn't why I dislike him at all, he's just bad on camera.

Can't wait to watch this later.

Is this the glass slam from last year, or the year before, or did he do it again today. He is hilarious when he's angry and showing it passive aggressively.

I disagree with you about the PR stuff - I think he comes across well and quite likable at that - typical Aussie

As for his team choice - he's in the twilight of his career, I don't see him changing team and dragging a nail of a car around trying to prove himself at this stage of his life - whilst he has the choice that is. If he gets the boot (which I'm fairly sure will happen next year), he'll have to if he doesn't want to retire.

If I were him, I would stay at RBR. You're pretty much guaranteed a good car and a chance to go with it. Sure he is de facto 2nd, but that doesn't mean he can't moan if he gets mugged.


To be honest, nearly putting him in the wall was bad enough, no doubt red mist coming down to try and teach Vettel a lesson. Unacceptable as well of course.

The PR stuff as above, isn't why I dislike him, he's staying at Red Bull as a clear as day number 2, he gets paid more per race than the average person in a western world makes in a decade(or probably several). He can leave whenever he wants, if he hates the number 2 spot, leave, but he doesn't.

Half of what he said today in general was fair, Vettel was a ****, but then almost putting him into the wall is worse. But half of what he's saying, the comments about protecting Seb, the general anger he has for the team, the general way he speaks about the team favouring Seb after most races, it just irks me. I don't know how to explain it well, to me he comes across as a guy who accepts the cash, accepts the number 2 role, but then gets upset when he's treated like a number 2. I dislike his attitude, if he was genuinely faster than Vettel and they favoured him for some unknown reason he might have a point. But they favour Vettel because he consistently out qualifies, outstarts, outperforms Webber. Webber's own performances made him number 2 in that team, but he generally wants to blame the team for that.

I get that its frustrating, for half the titles won there is a driver in the other seat in a car that would win the title if the other guy wasn't in the team. If it was Webber and, Rubens, Webber would likely have won three titles. But many number 2's live with this, Webber's performance made him the number 2 driver, he has no one else to blame, now he's the number 2 driver he doesn't like it... but won't leave. AS far as number 2 drivers goes, he's about the least gracious and most whingy about it.

 

[smr]

Just what is Vettel playing at?

He said to SSN that he didn't hear any team orders and then to the BBC that he "wished he had an excuse" and didn't mention anything about not hearing team orders?

 

[smr]

What if vettel crashes next race/retires and Alonso wins??

What a strange thing to say after two races.

He adores Vettel. That's why he'd say such a thing, classic case of thinking with one's heart instead of their head I would say...

 

[elmuzzy66.]

Considering alonso nearly cut a 50 point lead a few years ago and the number of races left, its still wide open.

 

[smr]

Just a thought, will this affect Vettel's mentality in the short term, I'm sure he doesn't want to be seen as the villain and as we all know tenths can decide between poles, and consequently race wins, and second place finishes.

Any friction caused within the RBR camp will only help their competitors... Mclaren, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus etc.

Will Seb be be more tentative in future battles with Webber and lose points that he'd have otherwise scored through the course of the season?

 

[Kol]

Whilst the other drivers were in 'the pen' you could see the press conference going on in the background. Will there be anywhere that will have this? Usually we don't see those now we have the interviews on the podium. Any ideas?

 

[peterattheboro]

Is this the glass slam from last year, or the year before, or did he do it again today. He is hilarious when he's angry and showing it passive aggressively.

It's from Silverstone 2010.

The equivalent of this today was blasting the VIP in the face with the champers.

 

[dannyjo22]

Just a thought, will this affect Vettel's mentality in the short term, I'm sure he doesn't want to be seen as the villain and as we all know tenths can decide between poles, and consequently race wins, and second place finishes.

Not a chance, he didn't much care when he turned into webber when he wasn't a champion, let alone now he has three.

Nothing will stop Vettel getting a fourth title now. Alonso needed to get as many points on the board while Red Bull got to grips with the tyres. I'm sure it will be close and the battle of interest but I doubt the result will be different this year.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Jenson Button (17th)
“We drove a good race today. Strategy-wise, we did everything right. We pitted on the correct laps and looked after the tyres exactly as we should have done. We’d have finished fifth but for the problem in the pit stop - maybe we’d even have been in the battle for third and fourth. It’s very disappointing that we weren’t able to demonstrate that, of course. Even at the end we had a chance of scoring a point, but unfortunately I was struggling with my front-left tyre by that stage. It kept locking up, and it was producing such a bad vibration that I think the guys were worried that it might damage the front left suspension if I carried on. However, as I say, apart from the pit stop problem, I think we did a pretty good job. We’ve made improvements over the past week, and the result of those improvements was that we were more competitive here in Malaysia than we were in Australia last weekend, so there are definitely positives that we can take away with us. Hopefully, in China in two weeks’ time, we can continue that steady improvement and score a few more points.”

So we've gone from WOULD have finished third to 5th and maybe fighting for more, to both Perez and Button needing to pit in the final 2 laps because they destroyed the front left... So while Button is saying "we pitted and didn't need to pit again", is bull because both he and Perez DID have to pit, and wouldn't have finished 5th at all.

This is ignoring Alonso, Force India and other guys showing pace. Outside of Lotus having a terrible weekend I haven't seen much improvement from Mclaren, Button burned his tyres, showed a bit of pace, and destroyed his front left so badly they were worried about the suspension breaking, and instead of pitting him and dropping further back, saved face by finishing. He MIGHT have crept into 5th, had he pitted again he wouldn't have, he had zero chance of 3rd and it took several other teams screwing up for them to be there.

THe next 3-4 races will be interesting for Lotus. Merc/Ferrari/Red Bull and Force India have seemed pretty fast in general, Massa had a crap start, Alonso screwed up and his team screwed up. Lotus though one race, awesome, one race, pathetic. Will they be up and down all season or is one of the two races we've seen a one off. The Lotus looked awful through the fast corners today, qualified badly, looked dodgy all weekend, was it the wet, the type of track, a fluke this week, or a fluke last week. Think Lotus are the most unreadable team after two races.

 

[smr]

Not a chance, he didn't much care when he turned into webber when he wasn't a champion, let alone now he has three.

Nothing will stop Vettel getting a fourth title now. Alonso needed to get as many points on the board while Red Bull got to grips with the tyres. I'm sure it will be close and the battle of interest but I doubt the result will be different this year.

I fear you may be right, I really hope someone else wins it this year though.

 

[drunkenmaster]

Not a chance, he didn't much care when he turned into webber when he wasn't a champion, let alone now he has three.

Nothing will stop Vettel getting a fourth title now. Alonso needed to get as many points on the board while Red Bull got to grips with the tyres. I'm sure it will be close and the battle of interest but I doubt the result will be different this year.

Its two races in, look at Lotus, we know very little yet, we don't know what Alonso might have done, they've had better tyre wear than Red Bull for basically a year now and looked stronger last week. Massa had a poor start but Alonso even with a broken wing(though theoretically, it might have helped till it fell off ) he passed Webber.

Lotus were immense one race, no where the next, Vettel might crash next race and miss half the season. They looked the third best car last week, and the best this week, whose to say they won't be third best next week and have 2 lotus's and 2 Ferrari's ahead of them.

 

[smr]

Press Conference in text:

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1...laysian-GP-post-race-press-conference-In-full

 

[smr]

I think I preferred last year's tyres, these ones do degrade too quickly I think.

 

[MooMoo444]

Lewis almost stopping in the Mclaren box was hilarious

 

[Mr Men]

Lewis Hamilton: "The team did a fantastic job, so I'm very happy to be up here representing them. They've been working so hard over the winter and obviously welcomed me into the team so to be up here and to be on the second row for me and Nico is a great feeling.

"But of course, I don't feel spectacular sitting here. Obviously I think Nico deserved to be where I am right now but obviously the team thought that, I guess, with the position in the Championship perhaps it was logical to stay in the positions we were in. But yeah, I have to say a big congratulations to Nico because he drove a much smarter and much more controlled race than I did today."

From that it sounds like Lewis was short on fuel due to himself?

 

[FrankJH]

Maybe but the pace alonso still showed was frankly stunning. I guess that's why they considered it rather than when you see a driver stating to coast round to the pits with wing damage. I think they pushed their luck too far this time but it could have paid off with another couple of laps.

to finish first, first you have to finish

/end of conversation

The pace he was able to go at is what did him in - this did him no favours at all (less pace decreases the liklihood of the front wing detaching)

He should have come in when he had the chance (with or without hindsight)


I think JB could have split the Merc's at the very least today had it not been for a McLaren foul up, maybe even been on the podium. Maybe they arent as far behind as it was made to look in Aus (although the track / conditions also suited them more today),

 

[Mr Men]

If it was dry he would have been in, as it was quickly drying you can see why they thought it was a decent gamble to stay out, even if he pitted for a new wing, then back in 5 laps later for slicks I doubt he would be very high up in the points.

 

[smr]

Going anything above 150mph down the main straight with a front wing stuck half under your car is ludicrous. Ferrari made the wrong call. Simple as that.