Malaysian GP 2009 - Sepang

[TheMinister]

I'm not too worried about the farcical aspects of it, as at the end of the day it's about providing great entertainment and I really enjoyed it. More exciting than a lot of dry races where nobody overtakes and nothing happens.

One thing I don't understand however is the safety aspects of this wet weather, in particular why is it so unsafe to drive in the rainstorm?
I can see how low visibility could be a problem, but they coped just fine with that at monza last year, not one accident because of it.
When it really got raining, right before the red flag, yes there were cars spinning but nobody was even going at any real speed (from what I saw)- howcome everybody gets so concerned about a major accident at these times?

Surely it is once again a case of driver judgment on how fast to drive- nobody seems to mind them going at stupid speeds and crashing in the dry (for example Piquet).

And don't say the cars are undrivable when it gets that wet- the drivers have perfectly good control of them at 5 mph. If you crash, it must be because you went too fast.

I think the best example to illustrate this is Spa last year, when it started raining very lightly but Kimi and Lewis both carried on at race pace, and as a result Kimi crashed. What's to stop drivers from going too fast for the conditions when it gets a tiny bit damp? Should the safety car also come out then? What about in the dry?


RE the vapour trails; it's very LOW pressure that causes the steam in the air to condense. It just shows how high the humidity was immediately before the rain.

[axle]

It was the light levels as well as the spray + the fact the track in places was under INCHES of water.

The lottery is not a sport and no sport should be a lottery.

[NormanBates]

I'm not too worried about the farcical aspects of it, as at the end of the day it's about providing great entertainment and I really enjoyed it. More exciting than a lot of dry races where nobody overtakes and nothing happens.

well, there are some really boring dry races from time to time, but I can't imagine them being worse than watching a bunch of wealthy people standing in the rain for nearly an hour...

it was quite a good race until it started raining though: alonso's excellent start (do you think it was KERS related?) and then his uphill battle falling to back positions, as he couldn't keep the faster cars behind, was great

but when it started to rain everything became basically random, and, as axle said, just a lottery

I bet audiences were horrible overall

[Pingguest]

If the stacked diffusors eventually are made legal it shows again that writing rules with a downforce target in mind is silly. The easiest way to deal with the problem ist simply a legal downforce limit which is monitored with sensors by the SECU. That was the intention of the rule initially and it would be pushing aero work in the right direction. Improvements would only come from better efficiency.

It indeed looks as though a legal downforce limit can be successfully enforced by sensors. During yesterday's race Ferrari asked Massa to use his movable front wing flap, because the telemetry showed Massa was losing downforce due to turbulence!

But a downforce limit could curtail the teams's technical freedoms in such way that Formula 1 would lose another technical variation. From that point of view, wouldn't it be better to ban diffusers and reduce the wings to one or two elements only?

[timbo]

But a downforce limit could curtail the teams's technical freedoms in such way that Formula 1 would lose another technical variation. From that point of view, wouldn't it be better to ban diffusers and reduce the wings to one or two elements only?

I still think it is tough to monitor DF. In Massa's case it may be that they found that tyre temperatures were wrong, or something was wrong with suspension travel, but monitoring DF which itself may change due to wind, air density and so on is hard.
However, I believe noone would mind standard diffusers - goes along with cost-cutting and effectively trims DF.

[Pingguest]

But a downforce limit could curtail the teams's technical freedoms in such way that Formula 1 would lose another technical variation. From that point of view, wouldn't it be better to ban diffusers and reduce the wings to one or two elements only?

I still think it is tough to monitor DF. In Massa's case it may be that they found that tyre temperatures were wrong, or something was wrong with suspension travel, but monitoring DF which itself may change due to wind, air density and so on is hard.
However, I believe noone would mind standard diffusers - goes along with cost-cutting and effectively trims DF.

I think standard components are against the spirit of the sport. That's why I oppose the standard tyres and electronics too. Instead of having a standard diffuser, I think it would be better to ban it.

[roost89]

I think standard components are against the spirit of the sport. That's why I oppose the standard tyres and electronics too. Instead of having a standard diffuser, I think it would be better to ban it.

And ban the front and rear wings too?
I'd rather they make the teams that are under-developed develop their car to become more competitive.

[Pingguest]

I think standard components are against the spirit of the sport. That's why I oppose the standard tyres and electronics too. Instead of having a standard diffuser, I think it would be better to ban it.

And ban the front and rear wings too?
I'd rather they make the teams that are under-developed develop their car to become more competitive.

I'd like to see development too. But the diffuser could be considered as an unwished device. However, I don't think standardizing it would the right answer.

[kilcoo316]

A good wing has the vortex formation starting closer to the tips.

The trailing vortices will always have their origin at the wing tips. That's the physics of it.

All the teams use standardized wing profiles right? be it NACA or what have you, so i would say the BMW might not be much different than the others, seeing as how saturated the air is when it rains, water would condense at any pressure increase.

Oh god no. The aerofoil profiles are highly customised, and are no doubt being refined all the time - especially when teams look at 3D contouring and cambering.

Regardless of the angle of attack we would be seeing those trails since the airfoils are very cambered too.

Its small differences that allow us to see them on one car, but not another.

[jddh1]

Did anyone figure out how Heidfeld got 3rd and Glock 2nd? I thought when they stopped the race, Timo was ahead of Nick.

[zgred]

Did anyone figure out how Heidfeld got 3rd and Glock 2nd? I thought when they stopped the race, Timo was ahead of Nick.

Results are form the lap before red flag.

[JamesS]

Did anyone figure out how Heidfeld got 3rd and Glock 2nd? I thought when they stopped the race, Timo was ahead of Nick.

They took the result from lap 31, which was the last full lap for everyone before the safety car came out. Which is why Lewis was 7th instead of 6th also.

[donskar]

People whining about the "diffusor" cars running away with the championship should STFU, and pray that your favorite "non-diffusor" team gets off their a$$ and make their own.

Who thinks that McLaren might be in talks with BGP for a KERS system trade for Gearbox/Diffusor?

I think that if Brawn pick up a KERS system, they WILL run away with both titles, but if McLaren want to finish in the top 3 teams, they need a solution to their downforce defficiency SOON!

Although, it is SUPER FRICKING AWESOME to see teams OTHER than Ferrari/McLaren/Renault win.

Just because your team isn't shouldn't make you cry... It should make you find a NEW favorite team that actually has the talent to compete!

conceptual, yelling and swearing and exclamation points don't make you right -- rather the opposite. And they won't stop intelligent conversation. Posts like yours above are offensive and don't belong here. I suggest you take a deep breath and take your own advice from your first sentence above.

[xpensive]

With you all the way on that one, donskar.

[jddh1]

Thanks JamesS and zgred.