Malaysia GP

[Hard Driver]

Really nice drive by Vettel. Great Ferrari 2 stop team strategy. Although Mercedes really threw it away. Extra pit stop, and they still did two stints on the harder tire? Extra stop adds 23 seconds and they came in second by 10 seconds.

But have to say, the pace of the Ferrari was very close or equal to Mercedes.

Brilliant drive by Kimi to drag himself back up to 4th.

And Alonso has to be saying to himself,,, WTF did I do.

[gjc2]

. . . . . And Alonso has to be saying to himself,,, WTF did I do.


I thought the move to McLaren was a bad idea from the beginning. At this point in his career why would he want to be with a team that is going to have such a steep learning curve? He couldn’t have expected Honda to be at the head of the grid right out of the box.

[Insomniac]

I'd say that by the end, Ferrari stopped pushing and Mercedes did as well. Nico should've been able to reel in Hamilton. Hamilton was done when he switched to Hard instead of Medium at the end. The Ferrari had real pace, which I did not expect. Vettel chased them down while they were on the Hard tires. Stopping on lap 4 was a bad idea for them. I don't know that they could've done it in 3 stops regardless though.

How about Torro Roso out finishing Red Bull? The Renault may be the wekaer Engine vs Ferrari and McLaren, but that's not the only problem at Red Bull. They have also taken a step back from what looked liver over-performing last year to under-performing this year (so far).

I think the declaration that Ferrari is back is a bit premature though. 1 race of dominance by Mercedes and 1 race with an extra stop. 17 to go, but at least this wasn't a parade!

[WickerBill]

Time to find a way to watch Sky. Matchett rooting on Ferrari is like watching a homer baseball broadcast.

I would like to think Ferrari is a real title challenger, but as has been said they were made to look better by bad Merc strategy. That being said, Kimi's finish from the back makes it obvious they've leapfrogged Williams, Red Bull, and everyone else to be a clear number two.

[Easy]

Mercedes doubled down on the wrong strategy and never let go of the shovel. That was maybe worse race management than Ferrari-Alonso in Abu Dhabi 2010.

That said, Ferrari has closed the gap to Mercedes. See if that continues in China in cooler temps. And if Mercedes can get out of their own way.

[nissan gtp]

that was an outstanding race

[Opposite Lock]

that was an outstanding race

Enjoyed that one way more than the last, even with finger boy. Kimi looking solid. Williams looking promising. The Torro Roso rookies taking it to their veteran big brothers. My hope for an interesting season has been rekindled. :fingers crossed:

[cameraman]

Mercedes tire strategy was decided in qualifying when they chose to use the soft tire in q1, they had two hard and 1 oft sets for the race. Putting on a used soft set instead of a new hard set wasn't an option.

[NismoZ]

All together now..."What is good for Ferrari is....!":) That guy who posted "Testing 1-2" back in early February must really know his stuff!. Blind squirrel? Hope we enjoy this season more than the last!

[Insomniac]

Mercedes tire strategy was decided in qualifying when they chose to use the soft tire in q1, they had two hard and 1 oft sets for the race. Putting on a used soft set instead of a new hard set wasn't an option.

That's not true. I mean, the Q1 thing is, but Vettel took the first set of soft tires from Q2 17 laps in. He only needed one new set. Mercedes tossed them after 3 or 4 laps. It was decided when they did that. It forced Mercedes to push hard and wear tires even faster so they didn't even take the hard tire real deep to be able to use 2 sets of the softer after that.

[cameraman]

Ferarri posted up a cool race viewer

Malaysian GP
http://formula1.ferrari.com/it/inforacing-malesia/

Australian GP
http://formula1.ferrari.com/infographics/en/info-racing/gpaustralia2015/