***SPOILERS*** 2013 FORMULA 1 PETRONAS MALAYSIA GRAND PRIX Practice 1/2/3

According to the new F1 mobile App Fernando and Kimi set their times on Prime (hard tires) while Felipe and Seb set their times on the Option (medium tire).

Also, Seb has said post practice that he is "concerned about tires" whilst Webber said F1 is "ruled by tires" - sounds like they are still having problems in that dept.

 

I want all Kimi all the time. This looks like a good race for Team Lotus. No question. Felipe again faster than the chose one. Mercedes have not really improved that much lucky to see a podium unless the race is a total mess.
Red Bull on tire conserve and praying for rain. Pirelli now ups the lottery again yet in Brazil and soon after the word from the teams was tires are now not a mystery. Sure, have another drink!

 

Kimi is really bringing his A game this year. Fantastic to see. I always thought he was a lazy worthless free loader who was gifted a WDC, but I am finally warming up to the fact that he might actually be a legend after all. Life is full of surprises...

 

I could have gone faster - Raikkonen

I could have gone faster - Kimi Raikkonen | Malaysian Grand Prix | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1

No one else is saying that...

 

hope this "easy" and "could go faster" doesnt backfire kimi

kimi wdc this year would put a long face on alonso and vettel

 

That Lotus looks mighty out there. Hot, cold, doesn't matter, it's fast.

 

He's still lazy (or hung over) but the rules re testing prohibitions are perfect for him. He shows up and drives his ass off on GP weekends and doesn't do anything stupid with the car in terms of crashing or shady moves. At Spa, a real driver's circuit, given decent
equipment he's unbeatable. If McL had given him a reliable car in '05 he would have probably beaten Fred. His pace was never an issue. How can you not love this guy?

 

Lotus has a massive shot that's for sure! Kimi is certainly my favorite for this weekend after seeing their speed in the heat.

In sector 2 however, Kimi and Romaine were both half a second off top pace. Sector 2 is a very aero dependent sector, this tells me their aero is possibly not quite the best but their balance is probably very much on point. And no, I do not believe Merc will outpace Lotus here now lol. Unless of course rain. Then again, Australia was won by P7 on the grid....... so that may be what other teams are going for, the long game. Milk the tires right.

 

I sort of understand Red Bull's overt commentary regarding these tires and that F1 as a category of racing is primarily dominated by tire management now, which I believe misses the point of F1 as a technical exersize (which it is IMO). Also, we have a large crowd whom are disgusted by aero as being such a large factor in F1 now.

Tires have undoubtedly shifted the some of the focus and may somewhat level the aero playing field in essence declaring aero as certainly being important but tire management as almost equally important. 2012's tires were managed by aero to keep them from falling apart, 2013's tires so far seem to not be as concerned by the rear end sliding around so much as they like being at a certain temperature and kept there regardless of how the car is pushed.

Will we see qualifying times from some top teams drop in the name of tire management ? Yet those teams go on to win races? It's an interesting scenario as Kimi pointed out last weekend winning from P7 in a two-stopper. If we see a car Sunday win from below P5 again all due to their ability to manage tires then I believe this will be the new normal. Qualifying will be practically a thing of the past if your car isn't easy on tires. Red Bull is certainly my dark horse here as they will probably make their tires a priority above qualifying.

 

Yeah sector 2 is 3 tenths off for Kimi and half a second for Grosj for Lotus pretty consistently. Doesn't mean that car isn't stupidly fast though. Lotus also have at least Kimi's car geared for top speed as well as he clocked 306.4kph whilst other top contenders saw below 304 (Massa), 302.9 (Nando), 299 (Webber), 298 (Seb), 296.6 (Nico), 295.5 (Lewis). Their top speed gearing I believe could have an effect on the balance in sector 2 as the car wants to go faster but the aero isn't quite there to allow it. This is the possible trade-off Lotus went for specifically playing to the strengths of their car, can't blame them.


This could all of course be completely wrong to-date as well as practice 2 typically sees a good number of teams running with fuel meaning we really don't see their top ends. P3 should show it a bit more clearly....

 

Actually, that's exactly what Fernando said !

 

..and yet he was slower than Massa. Strange if true. He should have gone faster, of course the team will make sure he does

 

he had two wheels on the grass as he accelerated toward the line following the final corner...it took a pretty big correction and it's where he lost the time.

i don't know whether he'll out qualify Massa but Fernando is coming across as positive as i've ever seen during his time at Ferrari...and both of them will do well this weekend.

barring an incident, i expect to see both of them on the podium, with a win possible for Fernando if the race falls as graciously for him as it did for Kimi in Oz.

 

+1000

 

Good Lord, it's practice...

It's Lauda...


FLIP. FLOP. FLIP. FLOP.

 

Anyone else find it odd that Grosjean was obviously quicker and more comfortable in E20 than Kimi, yet E21 is the complete opposite? Grosjean was clearly a quicker qualifier yet he crashed out of too many races to tell how good he really was on pace. Kimi kept complaining about E20s steering last season, they made some 5-6 different steering racks for him.