The Malaysian GP Thread *spoilers*

[Dr. Corkski]

Pretty much your standard modern F1 race (in other words boring) with the result pretty never in doubt except for mechanical unknowns.

Alonso and Trulli pretty much ran away from the rest of the field. First podium for Toyota and 5th for Ralf ought to shut da Matta up. :thumbup:

Smart run for Heidfeld to 3rd. :thumbup:

Shame about Fisico/Webber, but that's gonna happen when guys try to race.

As I expected JPM is looking very much like the #2 McLaren driver this season except for luck where it seems like Kimi is getting the Woobens treatment.

Another solid race for Red Bull. You have to wonder WTF those geniuses at Ford were doing all those years.

Those Ferraris aren't looking too good with the BStones.

At least Sato didn't miss out on much. :laugh:

JV: :rofl:

[RTKar]

These early AM races are a killer. I kept dosing off but I did wake up to some pretty good dicing a time or two. Need to watch the tape to study it a bit better but this tire and engine situation is going to make for a strange season.... worn tires, flat spots, grooving, cars potentially parking early when they're out of the hunt. Ferrari better roll out the new car, the ex-Jordan is sad, Red Bull amazes me......green must have been a bad luck color.

[Railbird]

Glad to see Honda taking full advantage of that loophole.

Good on Alfonso, just a bit more consistancy and that boy is WC material

[Methanolandbrats]

Boring? This whole season is going to be an amazing chess match :thumbup:

[Insomniac]

I don't like these new qualifying rules. They really don't lend themselves to a better/competitive season. I'm sure F1 and the rest of the paddock are happy Ferrari stumbled out of the gate. The winners are jhust rewarded more and more. It makes a runaway championship more likely. Imagine if MS and RB got to qualify last after they won a race last year.

Technology, too many controls on technology and wind tunnels are killing OW racing.

[Sean O'Gorman]

r2c, you might want to avoid this particular forum for a little while. :laugh:

[RHR_Fan]

I didn't think it was boring. There were some actual battles going on. Once the cars spreaded out it was your typical F1 race though.

:) for Heidfeld. Kept himself out of trouble, drove smart and got a podium.
:) for Red Bull. Hopefully they'll be able to keep up the good runs.
Sort of :) for Jordan. Back of the pack all race, but they did finish.
:( for Webber and Giancarlo. You'll get a podium and your first win one of these days Mark...

~Nicole

[jonovision_man]

Boring :rolleyes:

Great stuff IMO, especially that Ralf-Webber-Heidfeld sequence, they really went at it.

And the new tire rules... wow, I hated them when they announced them, but I've done a complete 180. It's really mixed things up for one, and during the race when people were losing grip it really made things interesting. For instance Fisi's pace went right off, leading to the Webber pass and then Fisi attempt. Rubens too, his tires let him down allowing for him to be passed a few times before retiring.

Good race :thumbup:

And good signs for the rest of the season. Renault have been awesome, Toyota, Maclaren, and Williams all look like they could win a race. Don't count Ferrari or BAR out either, you have to think we'll see some improvement on those two fronts before this thing is done. Could be the most competitive season in more than a decade.

IMO :)

jono

[DaveL]

Did Menard build Honda's engines this week?

[Rogue Leader]

Boring??

There was more overtaking in that one race than half of last season put together! While the track is no Nurburgring, the race was exciting, the battles were great, yes there were no pases for the lead, but who cares there were back of the pack battles that were very intriguing.

DC, Klien, RBR Cosworth, great great job, Renault, wow unbelieveable. The F2004 is stinking up the track, as is JV... Shaping up to be an awesome season, It will be interesting once the F2005 comes out, because Ferrari said the new car is a second or so faster than the old one, and the old one is WAYYY off the pace.

[Jervis Tetch 1]

Glad to see my favorite Fernando Alonso win again. The youngster definitely has star power.

[oddlycalm]

Looks like Gascoyne has indeed transformed the Toyota. It always had good power but the chassis sucked. With a good chassis Trulli and Ralph are quite competitive. Interesting that Trulli has significantly outpaced Ralph thus far, but not all that surprising. Nice to see Ralph actually looking racy for once.

Too bad about Fizzicola and Weber coming together. The Renault didn't have the tires to keep pace, let alone try to get the position back. As soon as I saw Fischi start to make that move I groaned... Weber looked royally pissed. Heidfeld drove a smart race and earned his paycheck. He is certainly no match for Weber's speed in the car though.

Alonso drove well and did a good job saving his tires, but clearly had the car to beat. The folks that stayed behind at Renault when Gascoyne moved on have clearly made the right decisions, and the engine works has finally delivered. It will be interesting to see the new Ferrari, although if it's only 1 second per lap quicker than the 2004 it may not be enough. If Bridgestone doesn't get it's act together, 2005 may look quite different from 2004. It wouldn't hurt the sport a bit to have Renault and Ferrari on an equal footing this season.

DC and Klien are both good drivers, but neither are genuises, so it's clear that Jag and Cosworth both delivered a great product this spring. Typical Ford decision, blow a $ billion on a project, then abandon it just as it's about to pay off. On the flip side, Kalkovan and Forsythe come out looking very sharp by taking over right when Cosworth have delivered both competitive power and reliability. Money is always a factor, but I don't see many teams being excited to sign up for alternative engine contracts when Cosworth is so competitive, particularly with Honda.

Once again Honda has seemed to be building their engines with grenades inside. Button drove well, but was clearly down on power and the engine let go early on.

oc

Edit - Did I mention that the FIA rules seem to have, once again, made it harder than ever to pass. I applaud the passing we did see, but much of the event looked owed more to endurance racing than sprint racing.

[JohnnyQ]

Looks like MShu's shortcomings are showing? His bread and butter has been takin away with all these new rules.
Looks like there's a new chin in town and his name is Alonso. Anybody catch his acting skills on the podium? Oh the drama of standing up for a couple minutes.

[Methanolandbrats]

Looks like MShu's shortcomings are showing? His bread and butter has been takin away with all these new rules.
Looks like there's a new chin in town and his name is Alonso. Anybody catch his acting skills on the podium? Oh the drama of standing up for a couple minutes. Oh, it's a little early for that. If the 05 car is a second faster and Bridgestone gets their act together, Ferrari will be back in it. Should be an interesting year. I'm hoping for a five way tie for first in June. Then the USGP will be rocking if Monty's Army comes back, some drunken Finns, a bunch of Spaniards, some Italians etc.... :thumbup:

[racer2c]

r2c, you might want to avoid this particular forum for a little while. :laugh:

Why because Massa is burnin' it up?


Talk about WC material, I'll put my money on Trulli with three years. To bad he's in a dreaded Toyota.

There is no such thing as a boring F1 race I have concluded. Those who think so, should find another sport.

I predict the one tire rule is changed before the year is out.

[Hard Driver]

I thought it was a good race. So decent scraping for point and I am REALLY loving watching Ferrari struggle for once. I was soooo sick of watching them run away with it. Although it is already starting to look like Renault might run away with it instead. But even if they do, seeing everyone else battle for 2nd will be good.

DaMatta can still talk. The car he had was a dog.

And it does make you wonder what Ford was doing all those years now that Red Bull seems competitive in what seems to be a bunch of competitive teams.

Very interesting to see the young guns take on the big names.

[JohnnyQ]

Oh, it's a little early for that. If the 05 car is a second faster and Bridgestone gets their act together, Ferrari will be back in it. Should be an interesting year. I'm hoping for a five way tie for first in June. Then the USGP will be rocking if Monty's Army comes back, some drunken Finns, a bunch of Spaniards, some Italians etc.... :thumbup:

What about the master race? Don't forget the Germans. :gomer:

[Methanolandbrats]

What about the master race? Don't forget the Germans. :gomer: They're no fun ;)

[Dr. Corkski]

It's always an exciting race when Ferrari struggles no matter what the action on track actually was. :laugh:

If you replace the Ferraris with Alonso and Trulli from this race, you will pretty much notice it's the same type of race with different drivers and teams involved. Sepang with its two long straights was always going to provide more passing opportunities than Melbourne. Just like the beginning of 03 the new rules maybe mixing things up for now but eventually the teams will figure out the best way to deal with them.

Toyota didn't look anything like a team that was "completely lost" to me.

I don't think Christian Horner is getting enough credit for the job he is doing right now. :thumbup:

[jonovision_man]

Toyota didn't look anything like a team that was "completely lost" to me.



Heh, I was about to bring that up. :)
http://www.tsn.ca/auto_racing/formula_one/news_story.asp?ID=117836

jono

[oddlycalm]

I predict the one tire rule is changed before the year is out. Maybe if Kimi had been injured. I don't see Max admitting he was wrong until somebody has a tire blows and someone gets hurt. The tire life is actually pretty amazing and the reduction of clag on the track is certainly welcome in the later stages.


Toyota didn't look anything like a team that was "completely lost" to me.

I don't think Christian Horner is getting enough credit for the job he is doing right now. :thumbup: Until this years car improved under Gascoyne's direction Toyoda was nowhere, and the organizational performance was retched until recently. My take is that Da Matta was on target with his criticism. Forunately, things can and do change.

Cristian Horner was lucky to arrive on the scene to find a competive car package, so I'm not sure how much of his influence we've seen. Probably wise to shake up what was by most accounts a stodgy and overly political organization under Ford.

oc

[Dr. Corkski]

Maybe if Kimi had been injured. I don't see Max admitting he was wrong until somebody has a tire blows and someone gets hurt. The tire life is actually pretty amazing and the reduction of clag on the track is certainly welcome in the later stages.But at the same time there is much less grip left on the tires themselves. Reduction of clag was obviously not enough as Massa could barely stop offline late in the race, and you know it's bad when it happened to Massa the car control specialist that can drive the Sauber around competitively. Webber could have easily been smacked by one of Fisico's tires. That incident likely would not have even happened under the old tire rules.


Until this years car improved under Gascoyne's direction Toyoda was nowhere, and the organizational performance was retched until recently. My take is that Da Matta was on target with his criticism. Forunately, things can and do change.

Cristian Horner was lucky to arrive on the scene to find a competive car package, so I'm not sure how much of his influence we've seen. Probably wise to shake up what was by most accounts a stodgy and overly political organization under Ford.Fair point about Horner, but Gascoyne was at Toyota last year too. I doubt he suddenly learned how to design a fast car. What else changed over the winter at Toyota other than drivers?

[jonovision_man]

Maybe if Kimi had been injured. I don't see Max admitting he was wrong until somebody has a tire blows and someone gets hurt. The tire life is actually pretty amazing and the reduction of clag on the track is certainly welcome in the later stages.


There has been 1 tire failure in 2 races, that's hardly abnormal.

jono

[Dr. Corkski]

There has been 1 tire failure in 2 races, that's hardly abnormal.

jonoIt was a valve failure that occurred because the teams are now using those valves to adjust tire pressures since they can't change tires during pitstops.

[JohnnyQ]

There has been 1 tire failure in 2 races, that's hardly abnormal.

jono

I think you'll see them change the four groove rule. Some of those tires were toast or as they say on TV "rooted". :)

[jonovision_man]

It was a valve failure that occurred because the teams are now using those valves to adjust tire pressures since they can't change tires during pitstops.

I've had that happen on my bike... the secret is not to jerk the valve around too much when you're inflating. :) I'm sure they'll get their heads around it if it becomes a pervasive problem.

jono

[jonovision_man]

I think you'll see them change the four groove rule. Some of those tires were toast or as they say on TV "rooted". :)

Slicks would be awesome, but we won't see that even considered until they further reduce the aero grip.

jono

[JohnnyQ]

I've had that happen on my bike... the secret is not to jerk the valve around too much when you're inflating. :) I'm sure they'll get their heads around it if it becomes a pervasive problem.

jono

The bigger question is were you close to home or did you have to perservere with the tire flapping and chunking off for a long distance? :)