Paul Hembery has said that it will be three or four stops (two for Perez) at Malaysia this weekend. I can't wait, the top 10 are likely to have their races severely hampered by early pitstops. I can't see an easy victory again this weekend, whoever wants it will have to work for it, and with the added likelihood of rain thrown into the mix it should be a cracking race.
I hope it gives Vettel a chance to get mixed up in the pack and do some overtaking, try and silence some of his crtitics. May not be a good time for RBR to install the wearing increasing KERS on their car, the McLarens looked in better shape tyre wise and may be able to drop a stop compared to the Bulls with KERS. Ferrari will also be there and I doubt Merc will make the same setup mistakes they did in Oz. Bring it on!
I'm interested to see how longs the wets last, especially if its inters-wet. With talk of 3-4 stoppers that would suggest the cars that don't make the top 10 would do a 3 stop whilst the 10 ten would do a 4 stop. We saw from the last race that the Red Bull and McLaren seemed to outlast the Ferrari, whether Ferrari where afraid to risk a 2 stop so played it safe or whether it was a necessity I do not know. Looking forward to it, and I can cheekily watch FP2 in work and then go home an hour early
Unless something startling shows up in Free Practice (bad weather for instance), I see no significant challenge to Red Bull. Once again, this means Vettel to me, in spite of my wish to see Webbo beat him. So, the 'other' factor: Weather. It could help level the playing field a little and I think McLaren have the two best drivers in the wet. Schumacher may have an opportunity to rewind the clock a bit too but Rosberg's probably his equal even in the rain. If it does rain, Massa will probably embarrass himself further, particularly as Alonso's deliberate understeer on turn-in is well-suited to wet conditions.
It will be great to see how the Pirelli Wet tyres last. I agree with the posts above about half field on one strategy and half on another. Perhaps if some retirements happen a chance to see a new team sneak a point if the strategy is right? maybe to early however. What are the chances of rain in Malaysia this weekend?
High to certain at the moment. Holding a GP in the afternoon in that sort of climate is asking for rain.
If it rains like it has the last few days it should just be a moderately wet race with 1-2cm falling over the race distance. Nothing an F1 car can't handle.
If it rains then Lewis, Rosberg and Maldorando will have a slight edge as they were the only drivers that did lots of laps in the final day of testing where it was very wet similar to Korea 2010. But ultimately it comes down to whos always been good in the rain and Lewis and Seb have had many great races in the rain, so rain or dry they will be strong.
The last day of testing was definitely properly wet, but not Korea wet, for that you need to have no drainage
Chaos? sounds like a lot of fun to me. If 3-stopping thats tyres at 14 lap intervals (dryish). If 4-stopping thats tyres at 11 lap intervals (dryish). A pit lane penalty is 19 seconds lost, and tyre changes 23 secs. Now if weather wet but changeable (periods of drier), alternating using inters or even wets will throw tactics out of the window. Average laptime for the whole 56 laps likely to be around 1 minute 38-40 secs. Perhaps RB downforce will be reduced, and Kers might play a part on the straights. Safety car almost certain to be out unless whole race is dry. Quali might throw up the unexpected.
I think weather is likely to be the only reason the safety car would come out. The run-off areas at Sepang are huge, so its unlikely anyone would leave a car in a dangerous position (unlikely, I'm not saying its impossible though!). If its a dry race (doubtful) then I'd expect whoever leads at the end of the first lap to be able to break away a bit.
One thing I am certain of is that McLaren and Ferrari wont be radar watching during qualifying like they did last year. Still makes me laugh when teams say, rain in 5 mins, then rain in 10 minutes, then rain in 3 minutes and nothing happens
