Formula 1 General Chat & Discussion

Fantastic "Checo" Perez..... and incredible what Alonso did today!!!

Ferrari nowadays has a car much lower of at least 5 or 6 teams. Entering the Q3 on the Pole has merit, but for winning a race, plus luck you need a great driver, and Alonso is it.

Hopefully this year Ferrari put a car with warranties to compete with the rest.

I congratulate Fernando! Sergio too the big good fellow. It is well done insulting for Sebastian and Jensen. ,,thanks,, Narain and a rain (here not India)

many thanks shaky for all yours efforts for f1 games
also thanks you this thread and this forum is more pleasant

iceman wrote:Let`s keep our feet on the ground. Alonso`s victory was a mini miracle. Perfect race strategy + a few mistakes made by Perez (faster then the spaniard though!). Fernando still can`t rely on his car, on the press-conference after the race he admitted that fact. Ferrari is facing now a 3 weeks break until china gp. Let`s hope that the ingeneers & mecanics can do something to reduce the technical gap between ferrari and th..e other important teams:mclaren and red bull especially. Otherwise, I don`t see how Alonso could stay in front, despite his trumendous talent.

On the other hand, I`m glad to see "iceman" back on top. The fastest lap on race shows that he can fight again for "the crown". Go Kimi !!!!

You are right, iceman, Alonso today to triumphed for the strategy of the team, for being a magnificent pilot, for the circumstances of the climate and for an error of Perez.
The Ferrari is still more than 1 second behind the best teams.
It is necessary to have the feet in the soil and to admit that, presently, Ferrari has a lot of work that to do to be really competitive.
I hope that it should obtain it soon.

Let`s keep our feet on the ground. Alonso`s victory was a mini miracle. Perfect race strategy + a few mistakes made by Perez (faster then the spaniard though!). Fernando still can`t rely on his car, on the press-conference after the race he admitted that fact. Ferrari is facing now a 3 weeks break until china gp. Let`s hope that the ingeneers & mecanics can do something to reduce the technical gap between ferrari and th..e other important teams:mclaren and red bull especially. Otherwise, I don`t see how Alonso could stay in front, despite his trumendous talent.

On the other hand, I`m glad to see "iceman" back on top. The fastest lap on race shows that he can fight again for "the crown". Go Kimi !!!!

Whoehoe...yes .. Alonso has won the race with his Ferrrari !!!!!!!!! Again Schumi made not the podium ..but i'm sure it will happen soon ..about Felipe Massa ..come on ...get back on your feet /get a grip on yourself ...you belong upfront !!!
Nice drive by Perez .Again Malaysia with his weather condition made the race more exciting ...aldo i thought that they would end the race again like 2 years ago ....but thankfully the rain stopt and the circuit was again driveble
Oké enough of this blablabla ...here are the official results of today :

1. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 2:44:51.812
2. Sergio Perez : Sauber : +2.263
3. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : +14.591
4. Mark Webber : Red Bull : +17.688
5. Kimi Räikkönen : Lotus : +29.456
6. Bruno Senna : Williams : +37.667
7. Paul di Resta : Force India : +44.412
8. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : +46.985
9. Nico Hülkenberg : Force India : +47.892
10. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes : +49.996
11. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull : +1:15.527
12. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : +1:16.828
13. Nico Rosberg : Mercedes : +1:18.593
14. Jenson Button : McLaren : +1:19.719
15. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : +1:37.319
16. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : +1 lap
17. Timo Glock : Marussia : +1 lap
18. Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : +1 lap
19. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : +2 laps
20. Charles Pic : Marussia : +2 laps
21. Narain Karthikeyan : HRT : +2 laps
22. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT : +2 laps
Did Not Finish
23. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : +10 laps
24. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : +53 laps

Fastest Lap : Kimi Raikkonen - 1:40.722
Pitstop Mark Webber : 3
Drivers Same Lap : 15

Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

i like the fact that Kimi and Michael are up there... i think we will see a really good match tomorrow.

pity for the Ferrari.

May be they need to change something, somehow, somewhere.. someone..
expecially someone -_-

It is not normal what happens with Ferrari.
Perhaps error in the design of the car?
For me, the new front part of the car, has been a mistake.
Although Alonso is a big pilot, if he does not have a good car, it is impossible to do miracles.
Anyway, I trust in the recovery of Ferrari and in that it will do a big championship.

hanshel wrote:Well, after qualifying four teams seem to go in a class of it´s own and for victory! - Maybe the whole season !???
But what a magnificent Schumi !!! The Legend again on 3 !!! - For me he is the best forever! I am sure he is going for victories this season !
One is again missing - Ferrari to start the 9th place with almost a second slower than 8! That's a lot to say when you know that the driver named Aloso ! About Massa I am not want to talk or !
Shaky, I think not the best times for you right now - why Ferrari has no speed so far ? I have no idea! Maybe somebody has an idea ???
For me very interesting:
Vettel will start as the only one with hard tires and fast with full tank it seems ! Maybe the key to victory ????

Brothers, have a nice Race !!!

Yeah Schumi is my Hero and how great he is he need only one Round for this Supertime! All the Critics about him: he is to old he shoul retired bla bla bla. Im sure this Saison he give this Critics the right Answer! GO SCHUMI GO !

Well, after qualifying four teams seem to go in a class of it´s own and for victory! - Maybe the whole season !???
But what a magnificent Schumi !!! The Legend again on 3 !!! - For me he is the best forever! I am sure he is going for victories this season !
One is again missing - Ferrari to start the 9th place with almost a second slower than 8! That's a lot to say when you know that the driver named Aloso ! About Massa I am not want to talk or !
Shaky, I think not the best times for you right now - why Ferrari has no speed so far ? I have no idea! Maybe somebody has an idea ???
For me very interesting:
Vettel will start as the only one with hard tires and fast with full tank it seems ! Maybe the key to victory ????

Brothers, have a nice Race !!!

Information for those who where watching F1 live on the BBC last year, there will be 10 shown live by them from China 15th of April onwards

[Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig]

The official result of the qualification :

1 Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:36.219
2 Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:36.368 + 0.149
3 Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:36.391 + 0.172
4 Mark Webber : Red Bull Racing : 1:36.461 + 0.242
5 Kimi Raikkonen : Lotus F1 : 1:36.461 + 0.242
6 Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull Racing : 1:36.634 + 0.415
7 Romain Grosjean : Lotus F1 : 1:36.658 + 0.439
8 Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:36.664 + 0.445
9 Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1:37.566 + 1.347
10 Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:37.698 + 1.479
Q2
11 Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:37.589
12 Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:37.731 + 0.142
13 Bruno Senna : Williams : 1:37.841 + 0.252
14 Paul di Resta : Force India : 1:37.877 + 0.288
15 Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:37.883 + 0.294
16 Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:37.890 + 0.301
17 Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:38.069 + 0.480
Q1
18 Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:39.077
19 Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 1:39.306 + 0.229
20 Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:39.567 + 0.490
21 Timo Glock : Marussia : 1:40.903 + 1.826
22 Charles Pic : Marussia : 1:41.250 + 2.173
23 Pedro de la Rosa : HRT F1 : 1:42.914 + 3.837
24 Narain Karthikeyan : HRT F1 : 1:43.655 + 4.578

Qual :1:36.219
Pole : Lewis Hamilton
Rain : no

Kind Regards
Shaky -Schumi

Times of the 3rd practice session :

1. Nico Rosberg :Mercedes : 01:36.877 laps 16
2. Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull : 01:37.320 laps 15
3. Mark Webber : Red Bull : 01:37.338 laps 12
4. Kimi Räikkönen : Lotus : 01:37.356 laps 13
5. Romain Grosjean : Lotus : 01:37.382 laps 13
6. Jenson Button : McLaren : 01:37.404 laps 12
7. Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 01:37.455 laps 13
8. Michael Schumacher : Mercedes : 01:37.663 laps 15
9. Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 01:37.776 laps 8
10. Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 01:37.977 laps 17
11. Bruno Senna : Williams : 01:38.091 laps 20
12. Sergio Perez : Sauber : 01:38.178 laps 15
13. Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 01:38.246 laps 17
14. Nico Hülkenberg : Force India : 01:38.285 laps 16
15. Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 01:38.423 laps 13
16. Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 01:38.640 laps 11
17. Paul di Resta : Force India : 01:38.794 laps 18
18. Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 01:39.209 laps 16
19. Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 01:39.704 laps 15
20. Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 01:40.189 laps 14
21. Charles Pic : Marussia : 01:41.901 laps 14
22. Timo Glock : Marussia : 01:42.007 laps 14
23. Pedro de la Rosa : HRT : 01:42.464 laps 14
24. Narain Karthikeyan : HRT : 01:43.378 laps 17


Kind Regards
Shaky-Schumi

The Times of the 2nd practice session + News of Today :

1 Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:38.172 laps 28
2 Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:38.533 + 0.361 laps 34
3 Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:38.535 + 0.363 laps 29
4 Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:38.696 + 0.524 laps 34
5 Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:38.853 + 0.681 laps 33
6 Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1:38.891 + 0.719 laps 27
7 Mark Webber : Red Bull Racing : 1:39.133 + 0.961 laps 29
8 Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:39.297 + 1.125 laps 33
9 Romain Grosjean : Lotus F1 : 1:39.311 + 1.139 laps 22
10 Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull Racing : 1:39.402 + 1.230 laps 25
11 Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:39.444 + 1.272 laps 35
12 Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:39.464 + 1.292 laps 26
13 Paul di Resta : Force India : 1:39.625 + 1.453 laps 20
14 Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:39.687 + 1.515 laps 16
15 Kimi Raikkonen : Lotus F1 : 1:39.696 + 1.524 laps 29
16 Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:40.271 + 2.099 laps 27
17 Bruno Senna : Williams : 1:40.678 + 2.506 laps 34
18 Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:40.947 + 2.775 laps 33
19 Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:41.464 + 3.292 laps 25
20 Timo Glock : Marussia : 1:41.681 + 3.509 laps 20
21 Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 1:42.594 + 4.422 laps 18
22 Charles Pic : Marussia : 1:42.874 + 4.702 laps 24
23 Pedro de la Rosa : HRT F1 : 1:43.283 + 5.111 laps 22
24 Narain Karthikeyan : HRT F1 : 1:43.658 + 5.486 laps 18


Felipe Massa ignoring speculation Ferrari are to replace him :
Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has shrugged off mounting speculation the team is preparing to replace him, saying he is accustomed to premature reports of the end of his Formula One career. Massa's poor performance in last weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix had heightened expectations that Ferrari will fire him, with Italian media already speculating upon a replacement.
"I really don't care," Massa said today ahead of this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix. "I don't drive thinking about what others are thinking or saying about me."
"I'm doing my job, thinking about doing my best in the car, which is not what happened in Australia."
Massa said there was similar speculation early in the 2008 season, and he went on to come within one turn of winning the world championship. "I arrived here in 2008 and I was out of Ferrari (yet) it was my best season," he said. "I don't care about (speculation). Things change very quickly from one day to another."
Following that strong 2008 season, Massa was involved in a freak, life-threatening accident in 2009 and since then had been very much in the shadow of teammate Fernando Alonso.
Last year, he became the first Ferrari driver in 19 years to go through an entire season without a podium finish, meaning he entered this season under intense pressure to justify his place in the team. He had an unhappy first race in Australia last week, spinning out in practice, qualifying in a lowly 16th place and spending much of the race fighting off regular back markers before a race-ending collision with Williams' Bruno Senna.
Sauber driver Sergio Perez is high on the list of potential replacements. Adrian Sutil, Jarno Trulli and former Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello have also been linked with Massa's seat. They have more experience on their side than Perez and all drove in F1 last season. But Perez is part of Ferrari's Young Driver Program, has tested for the team and at 22 years of age is seen to have the most upside. Asked Thursday about speculation of a move to Ferrari, the Mexican driver said "they are only rumors."
"It's only the first race of the season, so it's very early to say this or speculate," Perez said. "I am very focussed with my team, with Sauber, and we have a great car."
Michael Schumacher, Massa's former teammate and mentor at Ferrari and an icon of the Italian team, urged Ferrari to exercise patience and not make judgments based just on the Melbourne performance. "If you look at all the winter testing, the two (Ferrari) drivers were very close together," Schumacher said Thursday. "To see the big difference we saw in Melbourne, I can only assume there must have been something not right for him.
"I trust he will (improve) and the team will do the utmost to give him the support he needs." Despite having only a one-week break between the first two races of the season, Ferrari have gone to the effort and expense to ship an entirely new chassis out for Massa to use this weekend, with many parts also being replaced.
"We really think its the right thing to do," Massa said. "Every time I drove this car, I never had the problems I had in Australia — I could not drive after the first lap."


Raikkonen to get five-place penalty for qualifying :
Kimi Raikkonen is set to be demoted five places on the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Lotus driver has had to have a gearbox change, which will incur a five-place penalty. Raikkonen’s gearbox overheated during the Australian Grand Prix after he went off the track, though he was able to finish the race. The team initially believed the gearbox was fit enough to be used again over a race distance. However after inspecting the unit in Malaysia they concluded it was too much of a risk to try to finish another race with the gearbox.

High tyre degradation makes three-stop strategies likely :
Malaysia’s high temperatures combined with Pirelli’s softer 2012 tyres will make life difficult for the drivers this weekend.
As track temperatures hit 47C in Friday practice, drivers saw their lap times drop off quickly.
“Managing tyre degradation is going to be critical to performance on Sunday,” said Heikki Kovalainen.On the face of it this may seem a surprise – Pirelli have brought their medium and hard tyre to this year’s race, whereas last year the soft and hard tyres were used. But Pirelli have produced softer compounds for their three hardest tyres this year. According to the tyre manufacturer the 2012 hard tyre is 31% harder than the super-soft – last year the same tyre was 70% harder.
Even so, we are not necessarily going to see a repeat of last year’s race, where some drivers used four-stop strategies.
According to Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery: “Our first impression is that a three-stop strategy seems likely and so far there is a difference of around 0.5 seconds between the two compounds, but the track will still evolve considerably before the race.” How many pit stops we end up seeing will be strongly influenced by the weather. If it stays dry and the surface rubber builds up, this will help protect the tyres. Rainfall will wash away the rubber and make the circuit more abrasive, leading to more pit stops. Added to that, the difference between the two compounds is smaller than last year. Jenson Button said: “It’s going to be tough on both compounds around here with all the humidity and the heat.
“I think the race will be tough for all of us – unless the circuit improves a great deal, there’s going to be quite a few stops on Sunday.” This sounds like bad news for Mercedes, who struggled with tyre degradation even in the cooler temperatures at Melbourne. But Michael Schumacher believes they’ve made progress on that front: “I am very happy about the work that has been done since Australia,” he said. “This has enabled us to achieve reasonably consistent long runs which is obviously important in these conditions.” It was clear from his message to the pits during practice that Sebastian Vettel is not happy with his new car yet.
“The tyres drop off quite quickly here, which is the same for all the drivers,” he said. “But I think we are sliding quite a bit and I would like the car to be a bit more stable.”

Valtteri Bottas makes first race weekend appearance :
Williams reserve driver Valtteri Bottas made his first appearance in an F1 race weekend at Sepang on Friday. Bottas drove Bruno Senna’s car in the first practice session for the Malaysian Grand Prix. He ended the session 11th-quickest, a few hundredths faster than team mate Pastor Maldonado.

Ferrari says it has confidence in Felipe Massa despite troubled start :
Stefano Domenicali is confident that both Felipe Massa and Ferrari can find improvements after troubled starts to 2012.
Amid speculation over Felipe Massa's seat at the team - following poor performances in 2011 and in Australia last weekend - Domenicali said it was important to retain confidence in the Brazilian. He explained that Alonso and Massa had been on different programmes in second practice, the primary reason why they were more than a second and 10 places apart at the session's close. The Ferrari boss also said curing the F2012's traction in low speed corners was one of the chief priorities for the team, and that with such a close field even small gains would make a big difference.
"It is important at the moment to have good confidence around him," Domenicali said of Massa.
"In terms of what we see today, we were working in different programmes for the different drivers. Tomorrow we see what the situation is - the work is to make sure Felipe has the best car in the best conditions.
"In order to make Felipe comfortable in this particular moment we took different parts of what we had, so we changed to the spare chassis for Felipe and changed all the pieces to make sure there was nothing wrong with car he used in Melbourne." We know what are the problems and we need to tackle them, and make sure these problems that are fundamental are solved as quickly as possible." Pressed on what the issues were, Domenicali said: "The problems of the car are what I said in Sunday in Melbourne : mainly traction in low speed corners and speed. These are the two fundamental issues that we need to resolve. "At home we need to push on the development of the car and I am confident our engineers will solve the issues we have as quickly as possible. In such a close field a little step makes a big difference.
"For sure I am disappointed by the performance of the car no doubt, it is an easy answer. But not to be happy does not help, and I ask the engineers to be focused on their job as that is what they have to do.
"In one week, it is important to say we have identified issues on car and we are working at home to resolve it. We need to maximise what we are doing on track and improve it."

HRT confident it will qualify for the Malaysian Grand Prix :
HRT duo Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan are confident that qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix should not be too much of a problem, even though doubts remain about their potential to make it through to the end of the race.
Improvements to the power steering of the car, as well as the arrival of DRS, meant both men were comfortably within the mandatory 107 per cent time of the pace-setters in practice in Sepang on Friday. However, questions about cooling on the F112 in the hot Malaysia conditions make it more of a question mark about whether they will be able to complete Sunday's 56-lap event. "We expected to be within 107 per cent, with everything like DRS and the new parts working," explained de la Rosa on Friday. "But we should not be over-confident because you never know what fuel and stuff other people are running. "I think we are looking okay, but we should not stop here. We have to try to get quicker tomorrow as well, because this is the first running of the car reliably that we have had since this car was born."

Tomorrow saturday at 06.00u CET will be the 3rd free practice session ,followed at 09.00u with he qualification


Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi

Sorry for the delay ..but i'm just home from work and physiotherapist . Here are the times of the 1st practice session :

1 Lewis Hamilton : McLaren : 1:38.021 19
2 Sebastian Vettel : Red Bull Racing : 1:38.535 + 0.514 Laps 21
3 Nico Rosberg : Mercedes GP : 1:38.813 + 0.792 laps 21
4 Michael Schumacher : Mercedes GP : 1:38.826 + 0.805 laps 19
5 Romain Grosjean : Lotus F1 : 1:38.919 + 0.898 laps 17
6 Mark Webber : Red Bull Racing : 1:39.092 + 1.071 laps 20
7 Kimi Raikkonen : Lotus F1 : 1:39.128 + 1.107 laps 22
8 Paul di Resta : Force India : 1:39.298 + 1.277 laps 23
9 Jenson Button : McLaren : 1:39.323 + 1.302 laps 15
10 Nico Hulkenberg : Force India : 1:39.440 + 1.419 laps 19
11 Valtteri Bottas : Williams : 1:39.724 + 1.703 laps 23
12 Pastor Maldonado : Williams : 1:39.783 + 1.762 laps 23
13 Felipe Massa : Ferrari : 1:39.896 + 1.875 laps 16
14 Kamui Kobayashi : Sauber : 1:39.910 + 1.889 laps 21
15 Fernando Alonso : Ferrari : 1:39.980 + 1.959 laps 23
16 Jean-Eric Vergne : Toro Rosso : 1:40.099 + 2.078 laps 23
17 Heikki Kovalainen : Caterham : 1:40.247 + 2.226 laps 19
18 Daniel Ricciardo : Toro Rosso : 1:40.469 + 2.448 laps 23
19 Vitaly Petrov : Caterham : 1:40.857 + 2.836 laps 25
20 Sergio Perez : Sauber : 1:41.085 + 3.064 laps 23
21 Timo Glock : Marussia : 1:43.170 + 5.149 laps 18
22 Charles Pic : Marussia : 1:44.580 + 6.559 laps 14
23 Narain Karthikeyan : HRT F1 : 1:45.360 + 7.339 laps 8
24 Pedro de la Rosa : HRT F1 : 1:45.528 + 7.507 laps 18

Kind Regards
Shaky - Schumi