Malaysian GP 2008

[Kriss]

Robert Kubica is the greatest, absolutly no mistake in this race, realy exceptional time for polish fans. After a lot of bed luck, now Robert is in your normal, normal equals very good places, nearly or in podium.
If his car is good, Robert is very good. This is most talented driver ever!. Realy.

Congratulation ROBERT!! We wait for you another sucsess.

[Dragonfly]

I am a Kimi fan but very happy for Kubica indeed as he's the only driver of Slavonic origin.
In fact today the 3 drivers on the podium were those deprived by the circumstances (mainly SC) in Australia.

BTW when Vettel (another favorite of mine) retired it was his gearbox burning IMO, not the engine.

[Ciro Pabón]

Ferrari shows us they can win, easily, on a "modern" track. McLaren lost the opportunity for battle after the penalty, which also shows how easily is F1 influenced by them.

Again, as ProjectFour mentions, it seems desirable a more "penalty oriented" regulations, as the fans are regularly confused by contradicting rulings by stewards and marshalls. I've always considered that Football regulations are a model in this sense: they're grouped under the penalty the infractions cause.

For example, FIA could group infractions under "5 grid positions penalties", "10 grid positions penalties", etcetera. I think this would seem fairer. Well, to dream costs nothing.

Kubitza continues to shine, that's true, Kriss and Dragonfly. Hamilton has stated several times he's going to be one of his main rivals, if this means something.

I agree with Saribro and bhallg2k on Massa's apparent incompetence. I hope he gets better results from now on, I'm also sure he will: he has got really good times in qualy this year and I believe he's as good as any brazilian in F1 history. To be fair, he's also had more opportunities than most brazilian drivers, maybe time is running out for him.

About Alonso moving to Toyota, the thought crossed my mind as it crossed bhallg2k's. I don't think so, Renault has a lot of potential and having scored (barely) twice, the team should work harder, that's all.

On the other hand, Piquet seems to have found how hard is F1. He stated that "I recognise that the group we are fighting with is very competitive", which perhaps could be the understatement of the year...

On a side note, that clearly looks like a flattery but isn't, I usually start by reading the "Tale of the race" at other sites and then I read it here, at F1Technical (for "dessert").

This time, I read the F1Tech account first and I found it very polished. I don't know what Tomba and Principessa are doing, but it has some nice touches and it is short and straight to the point, just the opposite of my convoluted comments.

Finally (whew!) about Vettel failure, Bourdais had commented during practice that "abbiamo avuto un problema al cambio subito dopo l’uscita dai box, dopo che avevamo cambiato la spaziatura dei rapporti, e quest’errore ha provocato la rottura del motore". I try to translate it (I don't speak italian ) like "we had had a problem with the sudden gear change at the exit from pits, after we have changed the spacing of gear ratios, and this error caused the engine to break".

[Principessa]

BTW when Vettel (another favorite of mine) retired it was his gearbox burning IMO, not the engine.

In the press release of the team (which can be found in our newssection), they say that they still need to investigate the problem on Vettel's car...so there not certain yet

[timbo]

Seems like last years Ferrari/Mclaren dominance trade continues.
Mclaren started q3 with more fuel than ferrari, I guess they figured out that they can't fight reds by pure speed and tried different strategy.
Maybe Massa's spin was caused by gearbox glitch? Of course it looked like over-throttling but I looked at how other drivers played with throttle in that corner and it seemed like it wasn't problematic - almost flat-out after the short "straight" between two bends.

[Tom H]

Seems like last years Ferrari/Mclaren dominance trade continues.
Mclaren started q3 with more fuel than ferrari, I guess they figured out that they can't fight reds by pure speed and tried different strategy.
Maybe Massa's spin was caused by gearbox glitch? Of course it looked like over-throttling but I looked at how other drivers played with throttle in that corner and it seemed like it wasn't problematic - almost flat-out after the short "straight" between two bends.

Quite an interesting point, on the face of it, I also thought he hit the throttle too early, you've raised a good point

[Ray]

Maybe Massa's spin was caused by gearbox glitch? Of course it looked like over-throttling but I looked at how other drivers played with throttle in that corner and it seemed like it wasn't problematic - almost flat-out after the short "straight" between two bends.

I thought that too. His car just snapped loose and spun. Didn't hear the engine revs go up, there was no indication of a loss of rear traction till it spun. I think something went haywire and it spun on him.

My point about Massa not winning a race from anywhere other than pole was proven once again. Kimi managed to outrace him to the second spot and win. Although Massa did spin, so you can't really give Kimi too much credit.

[Dragonfly]

I've read in another BB that Massa was too aggressive over the curb of turn 6, the car bottomed and lost underbody generated downforce which resulted in loss of traction at the back.

[mx_tifoso]

Bittersweet Easter day for Ferrari:

Felipe Massa: "On lap 31, I clipped the kerb at the exit to Turn 6 and hit it quite hard and then I lost the rear end going into the next corner. We have to check to see if the impact with the kerb damaged the car. ...."

It would seem to me that this quote explains it all, just a simple but costly mistake.

[P_O_L]

It was a fantastic race. Good for Kimi to win. Well done to BMW now that they have a better car than Mclaren. Funny to see the drawings of the Ferrari rim shields did not get through the copy machine in total as mclaren struggled with their version . Toyota also has impressive pace. Red bull is almost ready to also beat mclaren. Alonso had a difficult race but it will only aid his character building and im sure Renault will end up fighting with Ferrari and BMW for podiums and wins.
A real shame about Williams though. Id seriously thought they was the next best after Ferrari. Lets hope this was just a fluke weekend for them.

[axle]

It was a fantastic race. Good for Kimi to win. Well done to BMW now that they have a better car than Mclaren. Funny to see the drawings of the Ferrari rim shields did not get through the copy machine in total as mclaren struggled with their version . Toyota also has impressive pace. Red bull is almost ready to also beat mclaren. Alonso had a difficult race but it will only aid his character building and im sure Renault will end up fighting with Ferrari and BMW for podiums and wins.
A real shame about Williams though. Id seriously thought they was the next best after Ferrari. Lets hope this was just a fluke weekend for them.

BMW don't have a better car than McLaren, they had a better race and less stupid drivers in qualifying but the car is not suddenly better.
Redbull only managed to hold up the McLarens it wasn't like Lewis and Heikki didn't steam off given the chance.
Renault will compete for 6th all season, but that's it.

[DaveKillens]

It's still Ferrari and McLaren at the top. But it's amazing to see how the rest have closed up. BMW is arguably as good as McLaren in certain circumstances. And Toyota.. wow. Now I didn't see that burst of pace coming. Trulli sure earned his money in Malaysia. Poor Massa, two races, two DNF's. He's got problems, but most likely will solve them soon. Massa's a good driver, it's much too early to write him off.
In the end we saw three fresh faces on the podium, which is pretty cool. I now wonder about those little points, and how they will probably come back to haunt some drivers. Kimi picked up a precious point in Australia, thanks to "Colorblind" Reubens. And Hamilton's problems with the right front on the first pit stop most likely moved him down two places, and a loss of two points. At the end of this season those three points may be very important.
Well done Robert, a very goood second place. Earned every bit of it, and well deserved. BMW is now poised to win a race anytime now.

[jaslfc]

Greetings from Malaysia..
Was a great 10 yr anniversary race. Almost full house in the grandstands..
During the race i was almost certain it would have rained.Should have.. as it was a straight forward win for kimi.
I was in the grandstand facing the back straight. saw massa spin!!

[DaveKillens]

One notable technical change was the difference in mirrors for Red Bull. Lately, they have been trying out mirrors that are mounted on the sidepods, and on long stalks. But after David Coulthard's "incident" with Massa in Australia, they have now moved the mirrors, to where they are much closer to the driver, and mounted to the tub. Amazingly, the STR did not follow suit.

[RedMaple]

Well done Robert, a very goood second place. Earned every bit of it, and well deserved. BMW is now poised to win a race anytime now.

He is an amazing Q3 qualifier but the car seems to lose a bit of speed in the race. If Robert is able to grab pole in Monaco or Hungary with a decent amount of fuel, BMW will surely get their first win. BMW is definitely knocking on the door.