Kimi seemed to be in full control of the race and beat everyone handily Next 4 GP's are very close together not much time in between for teams to develop their cars Could that mean a distinct advantage to Lotus ?
Doubtful. Too many different types of tracks. Besides, I think tires were the determining factor. The other teams will come to grips with them a lot quicker than last year, IMO. Mark
This weekend, if it's dry and therefore hot, will tell us more about everyones performance. If the Lotus will remain as good if not better on the tires, they will have a very good shot at winning all 4 indeed. Kimi has said he took it easy during qualifying and made a mistake which is why he started so far down. If the Malaysian GP is hot, and the tires work better there, he could well start top 3 if not pole... I'm unsure what the true situation is with Red Bulls tires, they seemed to get good heat into their tires during qualifying which was cold, and therefore could go quicker. During the race their tires fell apart (in warmer temperature than qualifying was). This weekend (IF it'll stay dry) will give us much more information. I have high hopes for Raikkonen, certainly hope he can do it!
Compared to a forecast 2 days ago...looking much more like a dry hot weekend. 5 Day Weather Forecast for Sepang - weather.com If true maybe we can really see who is at the top. Question is now the tires will hold up. Medium and Hard are the compounds Pirelli will bring! GO KIMI! Image Unavailable, Please Login
The hard and the medium tire compounds will be on offer at Sepang, so being able to do longer stints on the medium tires could favor Lotus.
The hard and the medium tyre compounds will both give the exact same amount of grip and longevity during the race when they're both stacked up in the pitlane due to the full wet tyres being used!
You know, to be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing Kimi win the WDC one bit this year. Forza Ferrari first and foremost, but after that...go Iceman.
I love Kimi but he will not win WDC. During the remaining season the other teams will out develop what ever advantage Lotus has. Because Lotus simply does not have the money to keep up sad but true
Well they where in the same situation last year and they kept up just fine. I think Lotus has more to give, their passive DRS hasn't even been opened yet I think. I also think that Kimi/Lotus had a lot more to give in his last stint on sunday, Alonso was obviously pushing hard to close the gap which got down to 5 seconds and out of nowhere Kimi extends it to 11 seconds in a few quick laps. Its silly to do a prediction now, but the next 3 races will tell a lot more, I'm quite hopeful they'll keep up their pace of Melbourne. If they do, they stand a VERY good chance of winning it.
I wouldn't count Lotus out. Budget is not always the deciding factor. Look at Toyota. Big failure and they had the largest budget. Look at Brawn. Small team and they won the championship because of ingenuity. It's not always about the money ...
Its never about the money........it's the about the lack of money.........sorry i had to say that......was my sig. for a long time......sorry
Right now, thr trick is not to set up the car to be fastest and get pole, but to be close to pole speeds and have the tires last longer. Both RB and F appeared to have too much camber on the tires and wore out the inside edges too early, while Kimi's tires wore rather evenly across the whole tread.
Variables like temperature, track layout and OTHER teams' pit strategies have something to do with that. It appears that both Ferrari and Mercedes in particular would have had a better chance with a different strategy, as would Force India. If we've learned anything about F1 with Pirelli tires, it's that one race is not a predictor for the next.
Whilst I agree, the Brawn was a car developed by Honda costing over half a billion to develop. After Red Bull/Mclaren caught on they didn't win any more races (but still won the championships, thanks to their early success and still good relative pace compared to the rest).
More food for thought. Alonso is usually cynical in his interview responses, borderline sandbagging to some, so for him to outright say the following tells me him & Scuderia Ferrari are very confident about winning it at Sepang. He is also the best driver in the wet currently on the grid today imo.
If you know Kimi then you won't think so But the reporter had no business asking him to take off his glasses for all she knows he could be sponsored by Oakley ? Is she a cop that needs to look straight into his eyes ?
