F1 - Malaysia

[Slowhand]

My notes:

- American Conor Daly finished 7th in the GP2 feature race in Malaysia this weekend, I believe that made him the highest finishing rookie in the race, but not 100% sure on that

- Malaysia doesn't really tell us much about the true running order, still. The rain messed with set-ups, as did the strange tire scenario, so I don't think there's much of a takeaway from this race. Example: Kimi was clearly on a wet-weather set-up and it bit him hard in the race. Car just didn't look happy.

[Slowhand]

[momo]

[Slowhand]

Webber should have punched him in the face in the debrief room.

It's too bad we have to wait 3 weeks to watch this all play out more; I have to imagine most of the tension will have subsided, despite whatever sour feelings remain.

[Slowhand]

Also, best moment of the race weekend?

[Ruffdaddy]

I'm still torn on it. I want to see competitors compete, but given the way the sport is played it was a dick move entirely. I wish it was never an issue, but with team set ups we have to deal with this shit. If this keeps up and teams maintain dominance, it will become boring again as positions are maintained for too long.

[Ruffdaddy]

"By being a racing driver you are under risk all the time. By being a racing driver means you are racing with other people. And if you no longer go for a gap that exists, you are no longer a racing driver because we are competing, we are competing to win. And the main motivation to all of us is to compete for victory, it's not to come 3rd, 4th, 5th or 6th....."

Another driver who didn't work so well with team mates...

[Slowhand]

I'd like to support the notion that Senna's quote aims to get across, but it's not "competing" if you gain a place because you and your teammate have been given the same orders and you circumvent them.

Webber was faster and paid the price for being intelligent enough to prevent a repeat of Istanbul in 2010. Attributing Vettel's victory to his competitive savvy or intensity is a load of shit.

[Ruffdaddy]

You really don't think vettel could have passed him with 15 laps remaining? That is a serious question btw.

If he was faster, why didn't he catch him...or not get passed in the first place.

[Ruffdaddy]

To say vettel passed him was not his competitiveness or intensity is dumb. There's no other reason.

How many wrecks was senna in again? How many times was senna warned or penalized? Monaco 88 didn't even require Prost to be near him to wreck. Portuguese 88 he almost ran him into a pitfall. In terms of caring for the team, cars or teammate, vettel far out classes senna.

[Slowhand]

You really don't think vettel could have passed him with 15 laps remaining? That is a serious question btw.

If he was faster, why didn't he catch him...or not get passed in the first place.

Looking at lap times, absolutely not. Here's a chart of position relative to each other:



See the giant spike in the middle? That's Vettel's last pit stop. And somehow, magically, on the very next lap he makes up over 50% more time than he lost in the total pit stop. *This was his fast lap of the race

The last drop for Webber on the last lap is where he made up 3.5 seconds in one lap (I believe that's the figure), showing he had plenty left in the car.

Their fast laps were only 2 tenths apart, both coming the lap after their respective last pit stops. If you notice the time that Webber made on Vettel on Webber's fast lap compared to what Vettel made up on Webber on Vettel's fast lap, Vettel made up a monumental amount more. That's not just Webber being slower, that's Webber having taken the pace way off.

Webber had a comfortable gap to Vettel for 3/4 of the race (especially on the second, third, and the first half of the fourth set of tires, where the gap was very consistent).

[Slowhand]

To say vettel passed him was not his competitiveness or intensity is dumb. There's no other reason.

How many wrecks was senna in again? How many times was senna warned or penalized? Monaco 88 didn't even require Prost to be near him to wreck. Portuguese 88 he almost ran him into a pitfall. In terms of caring for the team, cars or teammate, vettel far out classes senna.

Being willing to wreck yourself and your teammate when the only reason you're close to him is because of team strategy that you didn't follow isn't competitiveness or intensity. By that token, running out of gas on the final lap because you just had to go balls to the wall when your engineers were telling you you were out of gas and to ease back is downright heroic!

[Slowhand]

Senna being willing to wreck the shit out of everything he touched doesn't make it gospel, either. There was plenty of criticism surrounding him at the time for what he did, but the cult of personality that surrounds Senna doesn't have a lot of room for that tidbit in the story.

[Slowhand]

"It's very, very, very hard for Seb to sit there when we are told to bring the car home safely. I turned the engine down and was reassured twice that we would not use the cars against each other."

Very competitive and intense of Seb indeed.

[Ruffdaddy]

That last lap tells nothing compared to the 8 of 9 prior with vettel pulling on him.

Either way I'm sure we'll find out how this plays out through points. Hell maybe mark will do his job to take seb out of the championship.

The desire to win at all odds is the definition of competitiveness.

So do you think is good for teams to have a man on podium that doesn't always belong there? Ahem...Mercedes...Even HAM wasn't happy about that.