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Nick_L

By Nick_L
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kiroquai

kiroquai

Posted
Posted

I would have liked for all four compounds to have been made available each weekend too; remembered the days of Piquet in the Benetton trying to go non-stop on a set of Pirelli super hard A tyres whilst everyone else ran C and D types, and a couple ran B's.

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Dom B

Dom B

Posted
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Well yes, that would be interesting, but on the other hand the current method forces teams to use two very different tyres during the race, which in theory creates more interesting strategy and difference in pace between cars on different types.

Too early to say how its working with the Pirellis, but it was refreshing to at least see some drivers making 3 stops, some 2 and some only 1 pit-stop in Australia.

IMO people have been really harsh on this year's rule changes and suchlike, judging after just one race. KERS, DRS and the Pirelli tyres will create plenty of fun as we go through the season.

DRS especially will come into its own.

drs_malaysia_2011.gif

The DRS detection line for Malaysia is before the braking zone for the final corner (15). This is a popular overtaking spot and should ensure plenty of instances of cars slipstreaming each other to get into that 1-second-behind window and arming their DRS. What I also expect to happen is that some of the time, especially for those with Mercedes engines, is that they will get in a slipstream running up to the detection line to arm their DRS, overtake in that final corner and then use their DRS to get away when they come out of the final corner and make sure there is no chance of being re-taken (or maybe to overtake a second car) into turn 1. Sometimes, but not always. It's going to be mental. People will be desperate to avoid being overtaken into 15.

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kiroquai

kiroquai

Posted
Posted

...and then use their DRS to get away when they come out of the final corner and make sure there is no chance of being re-taken (or maybe to overtake a second car) into turn 1. Sometimes, but not always. It's going to be mental. People will be desperate to avoid being overtaken into 15.

An excellent point that, and one that I hadn't considered. It's going to turn the final corner into even more of a crucial spot, and I'd wager we'll see a few people clanging into each other this weekend.

Plus, you're totally right about people being too quick to damn the new rules. Melbourne's straight was never going to be long enough to see the proper benefits of the DRS, and at proper circuits like Sepang with higher temps the tyre situation could become really interesting.

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dayte

dayte

Posted
Posted

I dunno, in that pic it looks like Trulli is the one taking it up the rear whilst the girl next to them is doing her best not to look at such depravity :sherlock:

They missed an opportunity with DRS there though, two straights surely mean two activation points?

And you need a button to drink??? Imagine if the next game needed that, together with driver dehyration meter :facepalm:

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kimble

kimble

Posted
Posted

Dudley, I really don't think you understand Senna, at all. With Senna still alive, he would have been the impetus to do so. The guy was a walking telemetry computer; he could drive a lap, pull in the pits and say, "The right rear needs an extra lb of pressure." The engineers would check, and find he was bang on. Senna would have pushed and pushed and pushed for the development of the car.

I was quite surprised at how vague his feedback was on the Williams, he really didn't know what was up with it.

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dan_tm

dan_tm

Posted
Posted

Just went to look what time practice was going to start in the morning so I knew when to get up, then noticed that the first session starts at 3am it seems. Guess I'm staying up for a few more hours then...

That is providing it'll be viewable live. I notice it's not on BBC, but will it be on the red button, or iPlayer? At the first race I watched it on iPlayer after the race had finished, so no idea if it was actually broadcast live anywhere.

Apologies if this has already been asked, I'll go hunting back through the thread now and see...

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kiroquai

kiroquai

Posted
Posted

Red Bull and McLaren looked pretty close early on in their long runs, but the worrying thing was that the Maccas' times steadily got worse through their stints until they were running 1.45 or so, whereas the Red Bulls' times actually got better and left them in the 1.43 bracket. Hopefully they were running different levels of fuel, but if not then they're going to wipe the floor on Sunday.

Ferrari seem to be nowhere as well, unless they are playing their cards very close to their chests :huh:

EDIT: This tends to indicate they are genuinely off the pace:

(Autosport)

Fernando Alonso is expecting a difficult Malaysian Grand Prix weekend for Ferrari after a slow start to the weekend in Friday practice.

The Spaniard, who was fourth in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, finished the afternoon session in ninth position, over 1.7 seconds off the pace set by Mark Webber's Red Bull.

Alonso's team-mate Felipe Massa was 1.2 seconds off Webber's best.

The two-time champion conceded that, even if it's only Friday, things are not looking great for the Italian squad.

"We'll see tomorrow where we are, but we weren't too fast today and we are not expecting miracles for tomorrow," Alonso told Spanish reporters.

"We know it will be a difficult qualifying, a difficult weekend and we will try our best to be as close as possible to the leaders so in the race, with the start, the tyre wear, the strategy, the possibility of rain, we can take any opportunity to be on the podium, which is still the target every weekend."

He added: "I'm aware that we are lacking speed. Even if it's only Friday the feeling is that they are pretty quick, especially Red Bull, so fighting for pole is difficult.

"But we'll try to do our best and also look at the weather. We'll see what the track conditions are and we'll try to take every opportunity that arises."

The Ferrari driver, however, believes qualifying strongly will be less important this time out, as the weather and the tyre wear are going to be play important roles in the race.

"I think it will be a race where qualifying is going to have a much lesser importance that in other circuits," he said.

"First because of the tyre wear and the amount of pitstops we'll have to do, and second because of the possibility of rain on Sunday."

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PaulM

PaulM

Posted
Posted

From the bits of practice I saw I think that the McLarens are close enough to make for an interesting quali, but judging by those lap times at the end of Q2 the RBRs still have a significant edge on fully-loaded race pace. Still, I imagine there'll be rain at some point during the race, so who knows what will happen. Can't wait personally :)

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kiroquai

kiroquai

Posted
Posted

They were today - they've said they'll make the call on whether they'll use it for the rest of the weekend at some point in the next few hours :).

Will be surprised if they don't - they'll get eaten alive down the straights without it here.

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