Grand Prix thread Not606 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix Chat and Predictions

That would make sense. I don't think it matters on the money front as all mechanics get bonuses if either driver wins, but from a motivational point of view it make get a bit wearing if one side of the garage wins the big prize more than the other.

 

Still think it would make sense to mix the teams round, if by some miracle Rosberg does "win" the WDC this year, how bad might the team who has lost 3 in a row feel...

I wonder how much movement happens in other teams like this, I don't recall it ever being mentioned before - e.g. When Seb had worse reliability than Webber in 09/10

 

I'll put my money on Hamilton

 

And still how much worse is it in a team with a clear number one and number two. If you are the mechanics for the second driver that must be pretty demotivating.

 

nah, the opposite, "we've done our jobs, not our fault he's ****"

 

I guess for the mechanics, who don't have anything to do with performance, other than pit stops (drawn from both crews) their satisfaction comes from the car being reliable.

I'd imagine an error prone driver is what is bad from a mechanics point of view, lots of late night rebuilds (I do know that at least some of the teams share such events between the crews).

 

So... p3. Soft tyres looks to be Hamilton all day.

Quali should be Hamilton 1, rosberg 2, and who knows between red bull and ferrari.

Rosberg needs to do a different strategy to win imo. 1 or 2 Stop?

I think Hamilton should win.

Unless of course rosberg was completely sandbagging.

 

Got to get off the line first

 

We'll all things being equal.... we've seen plenty of good and bad so... who knows.

I'm in a place right now where I wanted an attritional tyre wear but it's not there so fear another procession so I almost want a chaotic start to make a race of it.

But I think it's must win for Hamilton so.... if both Mercedes survive corner 1 I think it will be a 1/2 even if the starts are poor

 

Wow. All on softs. Temperature is just too low for the other tyres.

Rosberg under real pressure for 2nd.

Hope this means 2 stop min tomorrow.

 

Rosberg was all over the place and still gets second. Merc are damaging the sport now. The new regs in 2017 are desperately needed to shake it up.

 

He was within .15 until last corner. Lost 0.3

Start is indeed now critical

 

Can't remember when I've seen such a mistake strewn quali session, everyone seemed to get caught out somewhere. I can see a few people coming off during the race at the last hairpin.
As to Rosberg, 1 or 2 in every Q3

 

The commentators couldnt understand it.

I dunno but i was actually surprised they went to softs and the temperature drop was mentioned as a reason.

I dunno. But they certainly struggled so the race is going to be attritional.

 

Another poor quali, impressed with Redbull, Button and Magnussen. Special mention to Ocon.

 

Dominant performance by Lewis, hopefully the race will be closer.

 

It will be interesting to see how far Alonso can get up the field. Honda have now used up their tokens and have some big leaps over the year. FI are the only non-works team faster, and they look to be able to consolidate 4th here. Be interested in seeng the Williams v Force India qualifying sector times.

 

Lewis Hamilton’s pole position proved once again just how fast 2016 (well Mercedes at least) F1 cars are. They’re so fast in fact that the W06 Hybrid managed to lap the Sepang International Circuit even quicker than Michael Schumacher did in his F2004 12 years ago, a year that saw the cars (mainly the Ferrari) take all the lap records.

http://wtf1.co.uk/hamilton-schumacher-malaysia-pole-comparison/

 

Some info from Pirelli




Free practice 3 - top three times
Hamilton 1m34.434s Soft new
Verstappen 1m34.879s Soft new
Rosberg 1m35.053s Soft new

Qualifying top 10
Hamilton 1m32.850s Soft new
Rosberg 1m33.264s Soft new
Verstappen 1m33.420s Soft new
Ricciardo 1m33.467s Soft new
Vettel 1m33.584s Soft new
Raikkonen 1m33.632s Soft new
Perez 1m34.319s Soft new
Hulkenberg 1m34.489s Soft new
Button 1m34.518s Soft new
Massa 1m34.671s Soft new

Most laps by compound so far
Hard Ocon 24 laps
Medium Grosjean 20
Medium Hamilton 20
Soft Gutierrez 20
Soft Vettel 20
Soft Wehrlein 20

Best time by compound so far
Hard Hamilton 1m35.956s
Medium Ricciardo 1m35.079s
Soft Hamilton 1m32.850s

 

Mornings chaps. Considering I'm staying up for this, we better have some more Merc clutch debacles to make it interesting for the win.