2009 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix

[Jaguar]

So , OZ was a good race yet delaying it was not a good idea , Malaysia rain and more raind and some more rain :P next gp is at China lets make some predictions , there will be an Earthquake after it Bahrain Sandstorms will hit the track

In General Many reporters said that McLaren and Ferrari's low performance is because of last season fighting till last race of the season meanwhile other teams such as Honda began working since 1rst gp on the new car .. its true and i agree with it ...

Its not that hard to copy some designs from other teams as some members here mentioned Red Bull/STR's engine cover (Shark fin/anvil) was copied last season , we've seen also the front wing upper the nose copied 2 , the double wings on BMW's nose also copied and many other stuff ... but u think that copying the Diffuser from Brawn , Williams and Toyota would be an easy thing ? i guess not , it might help BMW and Red Bull to be dominating even more than Brawn but as for Ferrari it might boost them a bit and McLaren ... i don't think before 2-3 European races they will have a come back yet they have to find a radical update for the car

[Zack]

^^^ it won't be that easy this year reason...

*Allowed Wind Tunnel usage is only 40 Hours per week.
*No Testing in between season.

[iceman1]

Felipe baby, Stay Cool



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSmGPLMVno

[newtrex]

lol

[shailf1]

[blizzard]

I´ve always said it: Felipe is too soft to be a champion.

[ScuderiaF60]

well the problem this season is with the ferrari and not with kimi or fellipe

last year the prob was with kimi and also with ferrari....felippe could easily won without ferrari silly mistakes last season.

[Rachael The Great]

Felipe baby, Stay Cool



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSmGPLMVno

aww!
amused

[robert_kubica_fan]

[TheViewer]

The reason about the clock stopping in Malaysia and not stopping in 2007 for the European GP is explained in Martin Brundle's blog http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsp ... 984586.stm

[Majkel]

Spain will be revolutionary... Ferrari McLier and BMW are planning to create completely new car till Europe ;) But I hope I won't see Ferrari and McLier domination again, though. ;<

[f1anatic]

I read a rumor that some folks have blamed Michael Schumacher for advising to put the rain tires earlier than needed on Kimmi's car. I could see that he suggested but one cannot put the blame on him but on the race director/team manager or whoever (Domenicalli) that guy is !

[phil1993]

I read a rumour that some folks have blamed Michael Schumacher for advising to put the rain tires earlier than needed on Kimmi's car. I could see that he suggested but one cannot put the blame on him but on the race director/team manager or whoever (Domenicalli) that guy is !

It's true - Schumacher made the call, i read it in 2 different newspapers

McLaren 'likely' to face WMSC

Spoiler:

he McLaren team are expected to face disciplinary charges after being found guilty of misleading race stewards following the Australian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton and the team have already been stripped of their points from the race and the Englishman has issued an emotional public apology.

But BBC Sport has learned governing body the FIA is poised to order them to officially account for their actions.

A spokesman said the FIA was awaiting a report from its race observer.

It is understood that is expected imminently, and any further developments should become clear by Wednesday.

It is expected McLaren will be called before a meeting of the FIA World Council - but that this is unlikely to be scheduled before the Bahrain Grand Prix, the fourth race of the season, later this month.

The World Council is the body which disqualified McLaren from the constructors' championship and fined them $100m (£67m) for their role in a spy scandal involving Ferrari in 2007.

There is no limit to the action it could take in this instance if it deemed it serious enough.

Hamilton himself is expected to escape further censure.

We've got to learn from it and we've got to be better in future

The world champion has said he was ordered to give misleading evidence by sporting director Dave Ryan, who was with him at the hearings.

Ryan, who has worked for McLaren for 35 years, has been suspended by team principal Martin Whitmarsh.

The two were found guilty of "providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards".

Hamilton finished fourth on the road behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota, who McLaren accused of breaking F1 rules by overtaking while the field was under the control of the safety car.

Officials initially gave Trulli a 25-second penalty, promoting Hamilton to third after Hamilton and Ryan gave evidence he had not deliberately let the Italian through, and he had not been asked by the team to do so.


But McLaren's radio communication contradicted this - and after reconvening in Malaysia at the end of last week, Hamilton was disqualified from the Australian race and Trulli reinstated to third place.

Whitmarsh, whose own job is under scrutiny, has admitted the team made serious errors in their handling of the situation.

He took over from Ron Dennis as team principal only on 1 March and has admitted he did consider resigning at the end of last week.

"It wouldn't be true to say that it (resignation) wasn't (on my mind) because at a time like this, you think about what you got involved with the sport for, and it wasn't for this sort of thing," he said in Malaysia.

"It hasn't been a great experience for me and it wasn't what I started out 20 years ago to experience.

"In the longer term, I can contemplate my future. It's not self-determining.

"It's for the shareholders of this team to take a view and it's ultimately up to them to decide what's best for this team.

"I'm not resigning this weekend. We've made commitments to look at how we arrived at this situation.

"We've got to learn from it and we've got to be better in future."

Nico Rosberg:

Spoiler:

Q. Was it right to start this race at 5pm?

NR: Was it the right thing? Yesterday it rained at 2pm, so it is just difficult. Still we had some exciting racing for the best part of an hour so we cannot complain too much.

[shailf1]

Final thoughts from Malayasian GP

There is nothing but poor thoughts to come out of this race. It was terrible in so many ways.

First and foremost I repeat my displeasure with Bernie/FIA in changing the time of the race to suit Europeans. These car's do not have headlights, lets not race in the dark! World wide sport apparently isn't what Bernie see's. There are also a few hints of the FIA pulling strings to help Brawn and Button be world champion. A lot of the same things that we saw in 2007 with Lewis. Even though it was told through media, it did appear that Charlie Whiting was trying to get the cars started so they could float around the track behind the safety car just to get maximum points. It did not happen so not big deal, but if it had that would be manipulation of the championship. FIA have rules and they should follow them as well. If the race gets stopped for safety reasons before 75%, then half points it is. No risking crashes just to give Button 10 pts.

I think this race painted a bigger picture for the 09 rules. As expected, the downforce and slick tire package doesn't not dramatically improve passing. No matter what there is still only 1 racing line and it is difficult to race around that. But it is still an improvement, but I think seeing Kimi who should have been at least 2 seconds faster than Alonso not be able to get by, that's still a pretty poor situation.

KERS, needs to be longer. 6.6 seconds not even enough time to make a pass on another car. Even on the start, 82 hp on a 1450 lb car should make for a bigger difference. When/if everyone gets KERS on their cars, it will be no help because the driver will use it to defend in the same way the other driver will use it to overtake.

Diffuser needs to be banned asap. Way too much of an advantage. They've banned less obvious things in short times before, so FIA step up and get rid of it.

Ferrari.... I am sure many will not share the same opinion as me here. The drivers I can't really comment on. The coverage didn't show much of them, and they were put in sitations no fault of their own that didn't showcase their abilities. The Ferrari pit-wall and management was nothing short of embarrassing this weekend. In my opinion it is time for a change. For several years Ferrari have been working around the same people and trying to get them ready for when the dynasty team left. Well now they are gone and it seems Ferrari is without a hand to hold. For years the discussions of botched strategies and bad calls keep coming up again and again. To me it seems that Ferrari either get the right strategy that most other teams do as well, or they completely get it wrong and look like a bunch of idiots. Even the team boss is saying it is completely unacceptable. I am not saying that each individual is not capable of making good calls and doing a good job, but as a collective team it isn't working. It is no different than other sports. Head coaches get fired all the team, even if they are historically great coaches, if the chemistry isn't there, or a dramatic change is required, the head coach gets replaced. Or when you see teams stacked with the best players in the world, fail to success because they cant play well together.

The rain did make it more exciting, but that is always the case. Especially when it is difficult to predict how the weather comes. It was great to see Glock get on the right tire and blow away everyone. When you see cars in and out of the pits with different tires, it makes it unpredictable, and that to me is fun to watch. Its a shame it had to get shut down, but what can you do.

Vettel is a rainmaster. Even though he eventually got caught out, all the bests have it happen. (Senna, and Schumacher). I think the car was good though too, Webber was doing a great job as well. I think Vettel was on his way to driver of the race till he spun off, and Webber gets a very honorable mention. But for me today, Button was the star again. yes his car is great, but we gave those credits to Michael in an F2002 or F2004, so he's worthy of the same awards. When everyone pitted and he put those blistering laps in, or when he came back from a slow start and easily made his way up to the lead. Great job Jenson.

[phil1993]

This is what an ice cream and coke can do to Kimi:




One McLaren mechanic was obviously having a bad weekend: The Australia scandal, poor qualifying, Kovalainen spinning out and one point for all his hard work, but it all came to a head when they realised that their trousers had been stolen