Malaysian GP 2008

[zimbo]

There is a good chance we might have a wet race this weekend, without traction control it could be anyone's race to win.

[Spencifer_Murphy]

@ Carbon:
I've had a butchers at the few pics of the MP4-23 I can find from practice @ Sepang:


I think its just the pic you were looking at mate. Can't see anything different around the brageboards in this pic. (It's the only clear pic of that area of the car I can find).

[Conceptual]

RBR now has to kiss butt as to why DC's crash shredded the front suspension.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... &plindex=0

From what I see, it isnt really any design flaw, it was simply the angle that the front tyre hit while he was on the brakes. It looked to put horizontal loading onto the suspension instead or the normal (and expected) vertical loading.

I don't think that this will be found to be enough to disqualify the team, or at least it shouldn't. Once again, if the track didn't have bumps like that so close to the track, there wouldn't be a cause for such extreme pitch change to to attitude of the car, thus maintaining the correct loading on the car.

Or I'm just rambling on and on and on....

Chris

[axle]

I think the suspension is weak...certainly weaker than other teams'.

I'd personally be concerned if I was their driver.

[vyselegend]

Newey has the reputation to design fast but fragile cars.

At Melbourne I was shoked to see Coultard's RB4 almost destructed after the contact with Massa, while the Ferrari was nearly unscated. Now I begin to wonder what sort of paper is the car made of...

[mx_tifoso]

FP2 picture of the RA108. I'm not sure if this has been a regular feature or not, but isn't it unusual for the the exhaust to be so uncovered? What I mean is that the individual "pipes" from each cylinder [right before joining the last exhaust section] are clearly visible.

Might this be due to the cooling needs in these stages of the season? And Honda want's to place the exhaust system as "outside" as possible Since Australia and Malaysia are considered the most demanding, cooling wise.

[Conceptual]

FP2 picture of the RA108. I'm not sure if this has been a regular feature or not, but isn't it unusual for the the exhaust to be so uncovered? What I mean is that the individual "pipes" from each cylinder [right before joining the last exhaust section] are clearly visible.

Might this be due to the cooling needs in these stages of the season? And Honda want's to place the exhaust system as "outside" as possible Since Australia and Malaysia are considered the most demanding, cooling wise.

That would line up exactly as Steve Matchett on SpeedTV reported during Qualifying of the Aussie GP, and he said to look for it again in Malaysia.

Chris

[mx_tifoso]

Thank you for the reply Chris, I didn't have any knowledge about that specific exhaust area design since I watched the Australian GP back "home" in Mexico on FOX Sports. And I never heard any mentioning about it.

It's interesting how only four tenths seperated the top three drivers in the FP2 timesheet, and then there was a gap of 5 tenths between Raikkonen(3rd) and Button(4th).

ITV Practice 2: Lewis pips the Ferraris
Armed with the soft Bridgestones, however, Hamilton pulled out all the stops and stormed round in 1m35.055s to take the first-day honours

What I come to understand from that quote is that Hamilton posted the fastest lap time in the second practice while running on the softer of the compounds available, whilst the other top contenders (or at least Massa) were posting their fastest times on the harder compound available. Which just might be true since IIRC I read that Massa(2nd) was doing most of his running on Friday with the harder compound. Taking that into account, Massa's and Raikkonen's times were more than impressive, since Hamilton's best lap was a mere .05seconds quicker.

Damn it, I just analyzed all of the FP2 times and then all of a sudden the new Saturday FP3 times are out, of which Heidfeld lies on top. Still a good showing from the Ferrari's as Raikkonen improved to second and Massa now lies in third. The surprise comes from Hamilton, who went from fastest on FP2 down to eleventh on Saturday morning.

ITV Sat practice: Heidfeld shows BMW's hand

[modbaraban]

Is it just me or both McLaren drivers are due to recieve some sort of penalty for blocking Heidfeld during his last flying lap

Such penalties were given countless times (controversially at times) but were never as OBVIOUS as this time! Other drivers may be included too, but I'm not sure as most 'rolling' cars were away from the perfect driving line, unlike both McLarens.

[vyselegend]

Wow I hope there will be some strong sanctions against some drivers here after Q3! I know with the new rule they have to save as much fuel as possible during the in lap, but for God's sake, keep out of the trajectory when you drive at 10 km/h! Massa almost stopped his car the second he had cross the line, while there was still 43 sec remaining on counter and some drivers on their flying laps. Hamilton and Kubica were cruising calmly blocking both side of the road. Hopefully Heidfeld is a good driver with quick reflexes, because those slow cars forming some chicanes were very very close to cause some dramma.

I don't see very much difference between this attitude from Hamilton and co and the attitude of Schumacher at Monaco 2006... [-X

[Jersey Tom]

Nice work by Ferrari over the last week to storm up to taking the 1st Row.

[manchild]

I have a question, I might be wrong, I'm not sure. Kimi scored points in previous race so how come he doesn't get the engine change penalty?

[hyunterks]

I have a question, I might be wrong, I'm not sure. Kimi scored points in previous race so how come he doesn't get the engine change penalty?

2008 Rule - First engine change is Not Penalty

[manchild]

Thank you. So all teams will replace engines for Sepang?

[FLC]

Heidfeld and Alonso have complained to the stewards of blocking by both McLaren drivers. You be the judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3_GjtJ9SIY

I think NH surely had to compromise his braking to turn 4. I haven't seen Alonso being blocked in that video.