Who will win Pole in Malaysia?
 

The new qualifying formats may make this more interesting (slightly). So who do you think will win Pole position for this Sundays, GP in Malaysia, and what will be the pole time?

LAst year's fastest lap was JPM, at 1:38.049. Or was that the race best lap and not pole? (I sent an e-mail to f1.com asking them to post both pole times and race best laps in their stats).

Kind of a mute point as it will pretty much depend on race strategy ie fuel loads. Whats the weather predicition like Saturday before qualifying etc.

Do teams expect rain during the race if so run a light fuel load on slicks and then pit for a full fuel load + wets. Pole is not that meaninful while the teams are sorting out what strategy they want run. Look at last race Kimi qualified 18th and came in 3rd vs Michael who was front row and came in 4th.

A lot will really depend on what their weather people say the weather will be before and after the race. Though Malaysia is expected to be dry? If so look for a 1 stop strategy with everyone running full fuel loads.

All true, FInality... Just offering up a topic with which we had some fun most of last season...

Sorry I killed the thread :p

I'm really excited about F1 this year. I think McLaren/Mercedes have a really strong chance this year especially with Limor and the new wind tunnel facility. Glad to see they pump out so much power even with smaller engine budgets than both Williams and Ferrari. That should put them par on the FW-25 and maybe even F2003 though no word from Ferrari as yet as to what kind of power they are putting out.

New engine for chasis 18 is supposed to be running 930 hp @ ~19,500 rpm with an even lower Center of Gravity + improved weight savings. If they dont win the title this year I'm sure they would clinch it next year. Mercedes need to start sweeping titles like they did back in the 1950s since they are the true fathers of F1 :D

Don't forget the 1930s.

Mercedes won the European Grand Prix Championship (what essentially became the F1 championship) in 1934, 1935, 1937, 1938 and 1939.

:D - BT

My guess for pole:

Rubens B. - 1m36.75s

Cheers, BT.

You guys are too good at this. I see KR ran 1m36.552 in practice. The weather forecast is for possible thundershowers, so my 1m36.32 pole prediction for KR could be way out.

An all-Renault front row. Who would have guessed?

Anyone could get front row except for Minardi of course. Just depends on how much fuel they want to run. I'll hold my judgement until the 30th lap till then I'll be on the edge of my seat :D

I'm sure the Renaults will run a thimble-full of gas for qualifying at the French GP, too. What else do the French have to cheer about?

Didn't you watch the race?

Renault ran a BRILLIANT race strategy. Run a softer compound with a Michelin designed suspension run a medium fuel load and let faster lap times dictate your position. Extremely clever move on their part.

Glad to see the new regulations are working out really well for all the teams adding more competition to the fire.

I think Peter Windsor tried to explain this suspension during the broadcast but I didn't understand what Renault had done. Is there a handy link (ouch) or explanation?

I think their strategy would have worked better if it had been cooler. The Renaults set quick times at the beginning of each stint, but their times dropped off after the softer tires wore out. Recall how Alonzo was pulling away from KR at the start, then after his tires became worn, he quickly lost time and KR was able to start chipping away at his times. A similar thing occured after his last pit stop when he was able to rapidly close on RB, but then faded after his tires lost their edge.

Cheers, BT

Michelin is developing a lot of R&D into developing a suspension setup for F1 cars. They patented a lot of neat technical features that allows the tires fo have more contact via the suspension ie more grip for maximum surface area.

Basically they develop suspension plus the ideal tire setup and the teams modify them slightly for each car. A major cost for the teams is testing especially for tires.

Ferrari and Bridgestone last year tested more than Bridgestone and all their other customers combined. Teams could basically minimize testing costs while providing an excellent suspension setup. While obviously the teams that test the most can get the best results this should up the ante for all low end teams and put Ferrari on the run.

BTW any catch the power of the Ferrari when pulling away? It was amazing how much more power they are running than everyone else. I wonder if MC are running the MP4-17D with the new engine. I hope not because it would mean that they would have about 100 more ponies than they do right now :)

They where rumored to be running about 830 bhp last season vs 930 for the 18 :cool:

I think that McLaren are running a development motor that is supposed to have more power than last year's motor, but less than the verison to appear in the MP4-18.

- BT

If the idea is to design a genneric suspension setup for the Michelin tire users, this idea is silly as every team that uses the Michelin's have different chasis, Engines, Aerodynamics etc, etc. Each car is unique, unless the idea for Michelin is to translate their suspension setup for CARRT/CHAMP car or IRL where most teams use identical chasis.
Also the ideaa that the tires with the Michelin suspensions have more tire contact and more grip (more than what?...Bridgstones? Has anyone made these comparisons?) can work against them in the physical fact that those tires will wear much quicker and thus lose grip and in the end become ineffectual. I think that the Merc Setup for the Michelin tires is probably the best as they seem to be a lot more gentle on wear than both Renault and BMW.

Race results
 

Not to rain on anybody's parade but let's not forget the fact that MS was involved in an incident at the first corner of the race and did take 4 pit stops (1 was a stop and go penalty for causing the fiasco) he still finished the race in a remarkable 6 place. Had the freak accident at the beginning of the race not taken place, I'm certain it would have ended up MS 1, RB 2 and KR 3. Ferrari miscalculated again by not guarranteeing MS and or RB on the front row. The race was atwo stopper for all participants. It might have been a better strategy for Ferrari to have enough fuel for the first stint for 20 laps (ala renault) and fill up 50-60 liters for the second stint. The second stop would have been a fast stop low 8 sec range.

It's not exactly a "generic" suspension: using the patented technology to maximize contact patches, Michelin is helping their teams build suspensions suited to a particular chassis. They are developing these systems because the Michelin tires have more "squared shoulders" as compared to the more rounded sidewalls of the Bridgestones, this makes the Michelins more sensitive to camber changes. The Bridgestone runners don't need this technology because their tires are different. Considering the low-profile cross-section of modern street tires I can see why they want to focus tire development to optimize the contact patch.

My guess this technology will help tire wear, notice how usually only one-side of a tire shows wear. Regarding Malasia - it's had to directly compare tire wear between the teams as Renault was on the soft compound, while McLaren and Williams were on the harder tires.

I think KR would have still finished ahead of RB.

Cheers, BT

Re: Race results
 

KR would still have finished ahead of RB regardless of where MS placed. MS pointed out that both he and Rubens placed fastest lap times for the race but Kimi was never really pushed so he had no need to run fast lap times. Besides that Kimi can really soak up the pressure unlike other F1 drivers. He held Michael back in Australia so that should give you some idea what he is capable off.

As for skill and ability why not take a look at Australia again, KR and DC both where way behind the pack at the start of the race but managed to claw their way up to 1 & 3 granted there where other contributing factors but I would not dismiss McLaren so easily. While I still have my doubts how well they will do this year only the MP4-18 will really let us know what they can do besides that the F2003 still has to come out. The FW25 is pretty useless from what I can gather. Aero, chasis and engine are all 'OK' but nothing spectacular. The way they are headed it looks like an overall 3rd for them.

Renault ran a three stop strategy hence the lighter fuel loads and soft compound tires. The new regs with regards to qualifying fuel loads and tire choices really freed up a lot of teams.

While the old qualifying sessions where definetly more chaotic and fun it was boring because on qualifying day you would know where almost everyone was going to end up based on their starting positions.