FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[scotty]

I'd say Kubica may be strong yet again!

Yep, and indeed Heidfeld for that matter... it's still tough to say exactly where they are imo, Kubica was helped by the safety cars somewhat today - still drove well though.

Nick did well to finish ninth when you consider he was pushed wide (and into a spin) at the first corner and then suffered a puncture. I think he'll do better next weekend - the BMW Sauber drivers seem to do well at Sepang.

Heidfeld had further damage to the car too - and he added that KERS helped him fend off the faster cars.

[Denthúl]

It is sure to be a great race with many twists and turns!

I think the new regulations have helped increase overtaking, over recent years Melbourne has been a bit of a procession but I think the new regs are working out quite nicely so far.

Last year's Malaysian GP was a borefest, let's see if the new cars can give us a good race next Sunday.

Well, just watching the cars you could see how much easier it looked to follow in their wake. And on some of the outlaps during P3, you could see them running almost three-abreast at one point. So I think Malaysia may be interesting this year. It's certainly wide enough in places for overtaking, and it's got some nice straights

[7UpJordan]

It is sure to be a great race with many twists and turns!

I think the new regulations have helped increase overtaking, over recent years Melbourne has been a bit of a procession but I think the new regs are working out quite nicely so far.

Last year's Malaysian GP was a borefest, let's see if the new cars can give us a good race next Sunday.

Hopefully we get a few sprinkles too!

Hmmm be careful when you mention the weather, as soon as we talk about the rain coming it either doesn't turn up or it turns up but not for long.

[scotty]

It is sure to be a great race with many twists and turns!

I think the new regulations have helped increase overtaking, over recent years Melbourne has been a bit of a procession but I think the new regs are working out quite nicely so far.

Last year's Malaysian GP was a borefest, let's see if the new cars can give us a good race next Sunday.

Hopefully we get a few sprinkles too!

Hmmm be careful when you mention the weather, as soon as we talk about the rain coming it either doesn't turn up or it turns up but not for long.

Or it's so bad most of the race is done behind the safety car!

[EwanM]

It is sure to be a great race with many twists and turns!

I think the new regulations have helped increase overtaking, over recent years Melbourne has been a bit of a procession but I think the new regs are working out quite nicely so far.

Last year's Malaysian GP was a borefest, let's see if the new cars can give us a good race next Sunday.

Hopefully we get a few sprinkles too!

Hmmm be careful when you mention the weather, as soon as we talk about the rain coming it either doesn't turn up or it turns up but not for long.

HAHA! I know i had a habit of predicting it based on the advanced weather reports and it would never come. We'll go for sprinkles... and hope it's worse...

[irons_4_ever]

KUALA LUMPUR - MALAYSIA

Friday 3 April

Practice (Times TBC): 0255-0435, BBC Red Button/BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra/online
0655-0835, BBC Red Button/BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra/online

Saturday 4 April

Practice: 0655-0805, BBC Red Button/BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra/online

Qualifying: 0900-1130, BBC One/BBC Radio 5 Live sports extra/online

Re-run: 1300-1430, BBC One

Sunday 5 April

Race: 0900-1200, BBC One/BBC Red Button/Radio 5 Live/online

Interactive Forum: 1200-1300, BBC Red Button/online

Highlights: 1900-2000, BBC Three/BBC Red Button/online

[Versa-Tech]

Remember guys, the teams are all still trying to find the best setup on these radically different cars. I think Brawn will have a much harder time hanging onto the lead. Their lack of KERS will probably be a disadvantage at this track as well. Still though, My pick for overall constructor's points is Brawn.

[Jamie]

Driver to watch out for - Massa -

Why - he has had endless success at this circuit -

I don't think so... Massa spun off here last year when trying to get the lead back from Kimi, then the year before Hamilton - in his second F1 race - made Massa look like a rookie when he kept trying to pass Hamilton. You might be confusing this track with either Bahrain or Turkey.

This track is going to be the first test of how good the FW31's aerodynamics are, last year on the back of Nico's podium the team failed to get past Q2 and then had an even worse race. Prior to that though Williams cars have run well here and the FW31 has shown great pace at the aero-happy Catalunya-wn circuit and the car just looked totally planted to the road at Melbourne. Nico will run well here as he has said in the past that Malaysia is one of his favourite circuits.

Your 100% right. My bad. Well if you all go on BBC - F1 Malaysian GP Info -
Live coverage from................................. Who will over come blah blah blah - Ferrari is the team to beat - No Lie

[darwin dali]

It'll be interesting to see whether or not RK will run KERS in Malaysia. With the layout of the track, I'm inclined to think BMW-Sauber can't afford not to run it if they're serious about winning.

[Jamie]

It'll be interesting to see whether or not RK will run KERS in Malaysia. With the layout of the track, I'm inclined to think BMW-Sauber can't afford not to run it if they're serious about winning.

That’s true; can Kubica do what we did last season? I have doubt within N.Heidfeld's overall talent at the moment but Kubica is a sure person to maybe be on the podium if KERS are used...but with Kimi I am not sure...It depends if they try to make a new gearbox to be able to fix the new diffuser system because I have a hunch they might be thinking of designing a new car to see how both do with 2 different diffusers? Because either way they will have to either get a new one or stick with the old one, but I think there going to have to go with the new 1 so all the teams best get cracking on....

[EwanM]

Toyota will have a far better weekend, I'd expect.

[Gaz]

Mclaren might suffer here without new parts.

The KERS system they have is great tho and may help

[EwanM]

Mclaren might suffer here without new parts.

The KERS system they have is great tho and may help

You could be very right...

McLaren expects to struggle at Sepang

By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Monday, March 30th 2009, 09:56 GMT


McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has warned that Lewis Hamilton's surprise third place in Melbourne does not mean the team's problems are solved, and expects another very tough weekend in Malaysia.

Hamilton came from the back of the grid to third thanks to a charging drive and good strategy in Australia, although he also benefited from some of the attrition ahead.

The world champion and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen had been in the midfield throughout practice and qualifying, and Whitmarsh said McLaren therefore had low expectations for Sepang.

"Frankly I think Malaysia will be very tough for this season," he said. "I think we will improve the car but I think it is a high-speed, technical circuit, we are lacking in downforce at the moment and therefore it is going to be tough."

The team will introduce further new parts at Sepang in a bid to catch up with the frontrunners.

"We have an aggressive development strategy, we have to pick up the performance of the car," said Whitmarsh. "We will have new parts at all of the next races and we have to keep pushing until we are quick enough to reliably score points."

He put the Melbourne result mainly down to Hamilton's driving.

"Overall for McLaren it was better than we could have expected," said Whitmarsh. "A third place, given the performance of the car, shows that Lewis had tremendous discipline.

"I think the team had a good strategy, we took some risks by starting on the softer option tyres, we stopped early enough and thereafter Lewis got stuck in there and did some fantastic overtaking.

"He is unaccustomed to having to drive from the back of the grid like that, but overall it was a demonstration of what a great world champion he is. He did a great job for us today."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74094

[Jamie]

Mclaren might suffer here without new parts.

The KERS system they have is great tho and may help

You could be very right...

McLaren expects to struggle at Sepang

By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Monday, March 30th 2009, 09:56 GMT


McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has warned that Lewis Hamilton's surprise third place in Melbourne does not mean the team's problems are solved, and expects another very tough weekend in Malaysia.

Hamilton came from the back of the grid to third thanks to a charging drive and good strategy in Australia, although he also benefited from some of the attrition ahead.

The world champion and his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen had been in the midfield throughout practice and qualifying, and Whitmarsh said McLaren therefore had low expectations for Sepang.

"Frankly I think Malaysia will be very tough for this season," he said. "I think we will improve the car but I think it is a high-speed, technical circuit, we are lacking in downforce at the moment and therefore it is going to be tough."

The team will introduce further new parts at Sepang in a bid to catch up with the frontrunners.

"We have an aggressive development strategy, we have to pick up the performance of the car," said Whitmarsh. "We will have new parts at all of the next races and we have to keep pushing until we are quick enough to reliably score points."

He put the Melbourne result mainly down to Hamilton's driving.

"Overall for McLaren it was better than we could have expected," said Whitmarsh. "A third place, given the performance of the car, shows that Lewis had tremendous discipline.

"I think the team had a good strategy, we took some risks by starting on the softer option tyres, we stopped early enough and thereafter Lewis got stuck in there and did some fantastic overtaking.

"He is unaccustomed to having to drive from the back of the grid like that, but overall it was a demonstration of what a great world champion he is. He did a great job for us today."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/74094

I'd expect a finish maybe in the top 10, anything above that you are surely dreaming. Ferrari I’d expect to maybe finish 5th if were lucky but it will depend on the overall Diffuser debate? Because until this controversy is finished we won't be able to move forward. I'm going for Vettel or Alonso to shock
Massa should win in my head

[7UpJordan]

Ferrari is the team to beat - No Lie

No chance, Williams are now back on top of Ferrari, if the Ferraris do happen to be out of front expect them to be gobbled up by the Brawns, Toyotas, possibly the BMW's and Nico's Williams. Maybe Nakajima too as long as he doesn't try using the Ferraris as target practice.