Race two has come and gone and do we know anything more now than we did after race 1? Well maybe a little but the topsy turvey nature of Malaysia’s GP has left us pretty much in that same place as after the first race in that it seems Mclaren have the fastest car but are keeping up with tradition and failing to turn that into wins. I’m being reminded of Raikkonen’s seasons with the team. Mercedes definitely look quick but Rosberg is driving as if towing a caravan. He builds up a nice parade behind him and then waves the lot of them through without any defense at all. Schumacher on the other hand looks the best he has since comeback and with the perfect storm of conditions and retirements I can actually see him winning a race this year. Although it would require another Malaysia-esq sequence of events. The Red Bulls look off the pace and Vettel in particular seems to be struggling. However the year he won his first title he had numerous accidents so some of the criticism he has received writing off his season seems far too quick in rushing to judgment.
Particular thoughts from the race;
It rains every year in Malaysia. Which causes delays, safety cars, red flags. It’s not that great a circuit or race. What is the point of the Malaysian GP? Another wallet fattener for Bernie?
As mentioned above Mclaren failed to turn Lewis’ second pole into a win. Whilst Ferrari have clearly spent the winter practicing pit stops and forgetting to work on the car. Mclaren must have done the opposite. Their car is superb but their pit stops are abysmal. This race Lewis was pitted second after Button, possibly not on the correct lap. His stop was slow as the mechanics fumbled his tyres again. Then they held Lewis to let Massa past delaying Lewis and then causing him to get backed up behind a Williams in the pit lane and loose further places on track. The last element was particularly galling as Massa was so far off that delaying Lewis’ release seemed totally unnecessary.
I believe my prediction of a Button win was a solid sign of my genius. Unfortunately I hadn’t seen that Jenson would be having an off day or had partaken in a few shandys before the race and ends up running into the back of Karthikeyan.
The Mercedes seems to be strong in qualifying but less impressive in the race. I assume this must be down to their, should be, illegal innovation of channeling the air flow from the DRS to their front wing. They can use it as freely as they like in qualifying but only in one place during the race thus it becomes fairly redundant in racing.
Sepang saw good drives from Senna, Kobayashi, Raikkonen, Ricciardo, Pires and Alonso who all impressed in average to good cars. Pires obviously was the most impressive with another great strategy using far fewer tyres than the other teams and timing their stops to perfection. The only thing that went wrong was Pires made an inevitable error under the pressure of pursuing Alonso and possibly winning Sauber’s first GP. It was disappointing that the mistake occurred as it would have been great if Perez had won but it was only slightly less entertaining to see him finish second and Alonso somehow drag his terrible Ferrari to a totally unexpected win. Which of course further highlights the desperate driving of Massa and the need for Ferarri to accept they really need to move the guy on.
It struck me during the race that the problem with David Coulthard is that he has no sense of humor at all. Every joke a fellow commentator or pundit makes he fails to understand and answers seriously. His jokes are painful in the extreme and now Brundle’s gone he feels that he is the F1 master mind and explains the most obvious, simple basic elements of F1 as if we the audience are complete novices. I think by the end of the season I will be screaming for him to leave.
Coulthard and his new buddy Ben Edwards seem to fail to understand the simplest bits of team radio. They may not have the same feed as we the audience or their commentary booth may not be as quiet as my room but I wonder if it is in fact the case that Coulthard is too distracted explaining tyre ware again or thinking up a ‘hilarious’ joke?
Final thoughts; I mentioned Ricciardo above as one of the drivers that impressed me in Sepang. His drives in a Torro Roso in both GPs so far have really impressed me and reversed my feeling that they had made an error in getting rid of Buemi and Alguersuari. I didn’t think either was a particularly great driver but I wasn’t convinced jettisoning both at the same time was a great idea. However I must eat my own hat as Ricciardo who did nothing particularly impressive last year in a HRT has looked like a revelatory rocket in his new Torro Roso this season. I look forward to keeping an eye on him throughout the rest of the season and waiting for the surely inevitable Massa sacking.
So China next. Currently I can’t recall last years race at all but I’ll do a little research before submitting my prediction that need to be in by 14/04/12.
Best of luck.
Below the standings after race 2 and now onto China.
Race 2 Malaysia Sepang
1 Alan D 50
2 Becx 46
3 Alan WA 41
4 Jack 40
5 Alex 38
6 Simon 33
= James 33
8 Martin 29
9 George 26
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