2015 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysia Grand Prix

[ashtaron14]

Forza Ferrari!!! Awesome Race!!!

[3798j]

The driver, the car, the strategy. Wonderful.

[M_Six]

Awesome. Soooo glad to see Ferrari back to form. Poor Fernando must be banging his head against the wall. Kimi drove a great race, too. Who knows how it would have looked if Nasr hadn't tagged Kimi.

[NickyC]

Whodathunkit, finally a great F1 race to watch. I think that's the first time in several years that I watched a full race at normal speed that wasn't either Monaco/Spa/Monza or A1. I'm amazed the speed with which Ferrari has improved, but must say I'll reserve a final judgement until I see them perform in the next race.

My only "bummer" moment was seeing Hamilton skitter into the pits with a fast approaching Seb. I would have loved to see that pass on the track.

Great improvement for F1 fans!

[E9TOU]

Wow! What a great race!! Huge props to Ferrari for winning the race with strategy and outright pace! I was on the edge of my seat for the entire race! Merc definitely messed up with their strategy starting with qualifying.

So glad this race pulled a 180 when compared to Melbourne and turned over some good racing throughout the entire GP. Also, I hope Horner eats his words now that a non-Mercedes has won and RB finished behind their junior team!

[E90SLAM]

WOOT!!!

[E90SLAM]

Allison explains Ferrari win and why a repeat will be tough


http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...ry/196193.html

Ferrari technical director James Allison is not convinced his team will be able to repeat its Malaysian Grand Prix performance at the next round in China in two weeks' time.

On Sunday, Ferrari won its first F1 race since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 and the first with Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel. Allison believes the Ferrari was genuinely quicker than rivals Mercedes in the hot conditions in Malaysia, but with a return to lower temperatures in China a repeat victory will be a big challenge.

"I only know one half of the equation, which is our car," Allison said when asked to compare Ferrari with Mercedes. "I know we have a pretty decent cooling package for which a lot of credit needs to go to the cooling team in the wind tunnel and also in the drawing office, who have put together a fairly innovative package on our car. That allows us to operate even in these fierce temperatures without having to open our car up badly.

"The track is quite rough and hot, which is hard for tyres, and we are fortunate that the car goes quite well on its tyres. Quite what problems are being carried on the other side of the equation in Merc-land, I don't know, but I'm fairly sure that we will have our work cut out in China to do anything like as impressive a job as we have done here."

Mercedes struggled with a higher rate of tyre degradation than Ferrari, but while Allison believes Ferrari had the edge on race pace, he is not so sure Vettel would have beaten Hamilton without the opportunity to get ahead of the Mercedes under the safety car.

"I think we probably were a wee bit quicker than them in the race, but you saw when Mercedes was behind the traffic that they got stuck behind, which were 1.5s slower than them, they found it hard to get past.

"So if you are a 0.1s or 0.2s quicker, which is maybe what we were, then that's super hard to turn into an overtake and super hard to turn into an overtake on two cars; they [Mercedes] would have had the opportunity to split their strategy and at least beat us with one. The safety car presented us the opportunity to get past them in a relatively painless way."

Allison said the result in Melbourne two weeks ago was slightly skewed in Mercedes favour, but did warn his rivals that his team has more in the pipeline.

"In Melbourne Mercedes were very, very dominant, but even in free air we couldn't have held a candle to them in Melbourne. There's a lot of work for us to do before we can come to a race weekend confident that we can hunt for victory from the first session of the weekend. But we do have an exciting development programme and we've got a lot of performance to bring."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...35z55B3oEeJ.99

[E90SLAM]

Vettel: I was 's***ting' myself in final laps

http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/196133.html

Sebastian Vettel admits he had to calm himself down in the final few laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix as he closed in on his first victory at Ferrari.

Vettel turned in a wonderful drive in Sepang, mastering a two-stop strategy for his first win since Brazil 2013 and Ferrari's first since Fernando Alonso's Spanish Grand Prix triumph that same season. Since moving to Ferrari Vettel has made his affinity for the Italian outfit clear and he says the moment got to him in the final laps.

"I shouldn't say it, but I don't know," Vettel said. "I was s***ting myself in the last few laps because here and there the thought was coming into my head, I was looking at the top of the chassis, and thinking 'this is a red car, you're about to win!'. And then I thought 'stop thinking about it otherwise you'll miss the next apex or something'. Real relief to cross the line in the end!"

There was clear emotion on the podium for Vettel, who said his long wait for a victory and his struggles in 2014, coupled with life at his new team, made it all the more special.

"A phenomenal day. How does it feel? It feels incredible, to see the guys when I looked down from the podium. I can only recall the victories Fernando [Alonso] had at Ferrari and especially Michael [Schumacher]. It's incredible to become part of this team, it's something special. It makes me very happy obviously. It's the first win in more than a year now. I missed not only the champagne but the top step in particular. It's great to come back after a tough season last year where I just didn't get on top of the car. This year the balance seems to suit me and has come my way and Kimi's way more than last year.

"I'm very pleased, the strategy today was obviously ace. A big thanks to the guys, they pulled in obviously. We were a bit surprised but we saw on Friday they weren't happy on the medium compound and Lewis was struggling in the first stint so I was able to keep up with him, which I enjoyed a lot. After that I knew I had to deliver, trying to make those tyres last and try and trying to push as hard as I can. Second stint he was chasing me down, which was tough, as he has a stronger second stint but I was able to rebalance the car and have a pretty solid gap the last couple of gaps."

Vettel grew up idolising Michael Schumacher, who won five world championships at Ferrari at the start of the 2000s, and he said this made the win even more special.

"It's a dream. When I grew up Michael was my hero. For all of us, and I talk for all the kids at the go-kart track in Germany, we were looking up to him. When he turned up every year to shake hands and to look after us a little bit it made our lives. That's why I think today I probably don't understand how special it is yet - very emotional."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/s...cMCpzUc6j7i.99

[E90SLAM]

Rosberg challenges Ferrari: 'Bring it on'

http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...ry/196155.html

Nico Rosberg has challenged Ferrari to "bring it on" after Sebastian Vettel's victory in Malaysia.

Ferrari turned in a flawless race with Vettel as Mercedes were matched and beaten on outright pace for the first time in the V6 turbo era. Nico Rosberg joked after Mercedes' dominant one-two in Australia that he wanted to see Ferrari close the gap - which led to a memorable exchange with Vettel - and he says he is relishing the Italian outfit's new-found pace.

When asked if he regretted his Melbourne comments during the podium interview segment, Rosberg, who finished third behind Hamilton, said: "No, but all I can say on behalf on our team is : Game on, Ferrari!"

In the press conference for the top three Rosberg elaborated further, clarifying he had only said he wanted to see Ferrari close the gap.
"There's a big difference between get closer and [wanting Ferrari to] beat us because they're faster! Massive difference there."

Vettel, sat alongside, then asked if Rosberg was happy, to which he replied: "No not at all. Definitely the opposite of happy. But for sure, on behalf of our team, as I said on the podium, bring it on. We're going to fight back big time."
The key for Mercedes was the decision to pit both cars after an early safety car deployment. This was especially costly for Rosberg as he had to wait in the box for a safe moment to be released, landing him in a train of traffic which took a long time to navigate through.

"It was the plan from before the race if there was a safety car on that lap then we box. I think we didn't expect so many people to stay out, probably, and I also didn't expect to lose so much time in the pit stop waiting for people to go by. The pit lane is so wide we thought we could go alongside.

"Those were the problems, and then just getting through the pack afterwards was very difficult and cost a lot of tyre degradation so that really put me on the back foot. I tried to fight back as much as possible but couldn't quite get back to Lewis, although I had lost a lot from that pit stop phase. I'm happy I got very close to Lewis but not enough to attack or anything."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...fvHiAetOTew.99

[E90SLAM]

[E90SLAM]

Strategy did not cost me win - Hamilton

http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...ry/196149.html

Lewis Hamilton doubts Mercedes could have beaten Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel even if it had matched the German driver's two-stop strategy in Malaysia.

The decisive moment of the race came in the early stages when Mercedes called in both Hamilton and team-mate Nico Rosberg for a pit stop after the deployment of the safety car. Vettel stayed out and Mercedes spent the remainder of the grand prix playing catch up.

Ultimately the three-stop strategy failed, with a fraught Hamilton complaining via radio after his final stop that the hard tyres fitted to his car were the wrong choice. Eventually he finished nearly nine seconds down on Vettel but he doubts a different strategy would have made a huge difference given Vettel and Ferrari's pace.

"Firstly, a huge congratulation to Ferrari and to Sebastian, they did an amazing job," Hamilton said. "I mean, jeez, they had some good pace today. I gave it everything I could, we did as a team. I knew coming into this weekend they had made a step, we didn't know how big, but they were too fast for us today.

"I don't really know whether I had stayed out with him whether it would have made much difference. They were probably just as good, if not a little bit better, on tyre deg so I still think it would have been very, very close. But I think naturally after that first stop we had so much time to make up it was pretty much impossible.

The world champion added: "We'll get back together at a team and figure out where we were losing time today. My balance wasn't great, particularly, so there's definitely areas we can improve and I'm sure we'll be fighting for the next race which I'm really excited about."

Late in the race, a radio message was broadcast where Paddy Lowe asked "Shall we stop Lewis again?" for medium tyres, a message Hamilton was not supposed to hear. Though Hamilton questioned the strategy at the time he does not think a fourth stop would have been a good idea.

"I think it's impossible to do a fourth stop. I was already trying to chase down a 14- or maybe a 16-second gap so it would have been closer to a 40-second gap which would have been impossible to close."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/malaysia/motors...DM24jQIhdsy.99

[FormulaMMM]

Awesome, awesome, awesome! So happy for Seb and Ferrari. Well deserved.

As for the championship, this could actually be interesting now. I admittedly gave Ferrari no shot at closing the gap and making it competitive this year. Incredible work.

Naysayers in the preseason thread need to come in here and repent!

This blog stuck with me. It's an interesting read now http://www.darrenheath.com/blog/fools-paradise. Things can change so fast in F1. Wasn't long ago that Hamilton purportedly defected for monetary and celebrity reasons.

Also, on the conspiratorial front, I think '14 Vettel was a sandbaggin son of a. That stipulation that allowed him out of his contract if he was 6th or lower as of x date in the year. Yeah.. I think he had a tough start to '14 and started to see red.

[spencers]

Whats the story on the two McLarens?

[FormulaMMM]

Originally Posted by spencers

Whats the story on the two McLarens?

Honda being very unHonda. Power units simply were not, and are not ready for the show.

[jonasaurus]

Glad to see the championship open up, hopefully RBR can sort out their issues and get more competitive.

[gary88]

What a great day to be a Ferrari fan

[solstice]

And just as that things are looking so much better, thank you Ferrari!
Other than the obvious of having to look forward to two teams battling for wins we also have a high stake duell coming to get the questions answered:

- Who is faster Seb or Kimi?

Then there is this:

- How will Seb treat his team mate if he turns out to be top dog?
Will it be back to the arrogant days of how he treated poor old Webbo or has he matured as a team player?

- Is Hamilton now maybe eyeing the seat that Kimi will vacant in Ferrari? I don't think he has signed yet with Benz, right?

Good for ALO that he got that huge contract to sooth his pain...damn this got to suck for him. Left Ferrari since he didn't believe he could win there and joined a team with Marussia pace...

[EdM5]

Wow, amazing win for Seb en Ferrari! Just what F1 needed.

On a personal note. I've watched F1 for 30+ years now, and dutch drivers were never good enough. Many other small european countries have had several fantastic drivers like Belgium (Ickx, Boutsen), Austria (Lauda, Berger) and Finland (Mika, Kimi). we were just shite.
But not anymore, because young Max seems like the real deal!

[five_timer]

Originally Posted by solstice

- How will Seb treat his team mate if he turns out to be top dog?
Will it be back to the arrogant days of how he treated poor old Webbo or has he matured as a team player?

I guess if you don't like VET, you may have come to this conclusion in your head, but I don't believe this was the case. They were just 2 drivers for the same team, with Seb being the more successful of the 2, and therefore more supported by the team. No F1 driver wants to be given team orders to not pass their teammate - this situation is not unique to VET and WEB.

Hopefully RAI will get an even break of luck, and we'll see who does better, although it's almost always predictable that the younger driver will be superior.

[E90SLAM]

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2015/03/2...in-qualifying/

It is apparent that the Mercedes pitwall panicked and threw away their medium tires too quickly. Made both drivers lose track position, and run more laps with the slower Hard Tires.

[E90SLAM]

Red Bull's Marko wins €400 Vettel bet in Malaysia



http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/196323.html

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko left the Malaysian Grand Prix €400 richer after an astute bet - on former protégé Sebastian Vettel winning the race in his Ferrari.

Marko put his money on Vettel as part of an internal paddock bet, backing the most successful product of the Red Bull junior programme despite the fact he left the team last year. Germany's Sport Bild reports Marko was confident Vettel could win from early in the weekend.
"I knew that Sebastian could do it," he said. "You could see it as early as Friday practice."

While Vettel won the race, Red Bull continued to struggle with an uncompetitive Renault power unit and a brakes issue, perhaps explaining why Marko was reluctant to back current Red Bull pairing Daniel Ricciardo, the winner of three races last season, or Daniil Kvyat. Marko went on to explain why he never lost faith in Vettel's ability despite failing to win a race in his final season at Red Bull last year.

"He did not forget how to drive in one year. He just could not drive our car as he needed to. Maybe people will realise at last that it was not our car alone that gave him those four titles."

Read more at http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/s...zX4BMKmVO1w.99

[954Stealth]

E90SLAM That guy made a good bet! I would've lost money haha

On another note, I think/hope that RBR and Horner can calm the hell down now and stop being sorry losers