Malaysian GP 2014 Friday and Saturday practice thread

[Katu]

maybe the car isn't as horrible as it looked before

[FFFerrari]

Not to be a bringer of bad news, but RBR is showing pretty good speed in the long runs. It still seems that the pecking order is Merc-> McLaren -> RBR -> Ferrari with Williams somewhere in the mix.

Otherwise I'm happy about the better performance during FP1&2.

[ProGratis]

Well aint everyone suddenly feeling our car has pace.
I was quite liking the negative vibes after australia

Well, mercedes looks staggeringly quick in race trim....so im pretty sure they can go much faster over a single lap as well, if they want to...however, we do look quite good relative to the overall field, and we seem to have closed the gap to mclaren atleast, so there is some reason for optimism.

[PadGeT]

I think Mclaren are hardly our concern. Mercs and Red bull are and will be our fiercest rivals till the end of the season.

[bondilad]

According to crofty (apparently only supports merc) says rosberg got severe degration on medium tyres and the Mercs cannot go as far as ferrari & redbull

I know its only practice, but really happy to see kimi upfront though. This confirms progress ferrari has made with him.

[Forzi]

Seems Kimi got on top of his setup problems (at least for now), so would guess a better result. Our tire deg seems very good also.

[ProGratis]

According to crofty (apparently only supports merc) says rosberg got severe degration on medium tyres and the Mercs cannot go as far as ferrari & redbull

I know its only practice, but really happy to see kimi upfront though. This confirms progress ferrari has made with him.

Yes, this is going to be an extremely high-deg race....and glad to see of kimi's improvements as well

[stefa]

Great to see both Ferrari drivers in top 5

[tifosi1993]

Alonso could have taken P1. He made a mistake on his timed lap, so he was slower in S1 on mediums than he was on hards. But overall, I am quite happy with F14T's performance in sector two, which is a aero demanding sector. Tyre degradation looks ok.

FP2 Sector Times

FP2 Lap Chart

[zike]

we look quite good, but it seems that the engine is not at 100% yet

[stefa]

Supporting Ferrari doesn't mean we should have silly discussions about our drivers.

Now Alonso is ahead, does that meant he suddenly became better again after Kimi was better than him, all in the span of 1 day

Exactly!
Speaking in my name, and I have stated that numerous times here in this forum, I am Ferrari supporter, drivers comes and goes but team stays! As long as Ferrari is winning and at the end clinches CWC and one of it's drivers WDC I am happy

[bonzo]

Exactly!
Speaking in my name, and I have stated that numerous times here in this forum, I am Ferrari supporter, drivers comes and goes but team stays! As long as Ferrari is winning and at the end clinches CWC and one of it's drivers WDC I am happy

Very humble - only a WDC and WCC. Not too ambitious, are you?

[Senna4Ever]

Wow, overall very interesting FP1 & 2,

Kimi & his team seem to have got some valuable setup work done ...
Alo has to find a bit more confidence ... I had the impression he struggled a bit in the fast corners ...

considering stable sunny weather:
- seems to be very close for qualifying, which I really haven't expected ... but maybe some haven't put all cards on the table ...
- race might be very very different due to tire degeneration, weather change etc ... long run times fluctuated enormous in the end ...

according to Horner RB has (sounds familiar) a disadvantage of 0,8 - 1sec due to less power (engine) but can compensate parts of it in the corners ...

... Alo 0,2 sec behind Kimi ... I would sack him

[Hornet]

Its raining heavily in Sepang now

On Saturday or Sunday, we would still be running the respective sessions at this time.

[khizerk]

Vettel is packing some real race pace. Posted a string of 1.44s which I can't say is true for other top drivers.

Comparison of the drivers Kimi Räikkönen VS Sebastian Vettel - Practice 2 Malaysia GP 2014 (link)

I know fuel levels etc might be different, but despite that RB seems to have the upper hand in race pace.

[Domo-kun]

Wow, overall very interesting FP1 & 2,

Kimi & his team seem to have got some valuable setup work done ...
Alo has to find a bit more confidence ... I had the impression he struggled a bit in the fast corners ...
... Alo 0,2 sec behind Kimi ... I would sack him

Yes! Him and Dome (as always)!!
Well, in Australia it was Kimi who had difficulties with setup and spun.
This time Alonso is having more problems.

But overall, TWO VERY GOOD drivers. Speed seems to be in line with the others. Looking good so far! :)
And like I said, WCC will be Ferrari's this year! I am ever more confident of that! :)

[AfterLife]

According to crofty (apparently only supports merc) says rosberg got severe degration on medium tyres and the Mercs cannot go as far as ferrari & redbull ... .

Vettel is packing some real race pace. Posted a string of 1.44s which I can't say is true for other top drivers.

Comparison of the drivers Kimi Räikkönen VS Sebastian Vettel - Practice 2 Malaysia GP 2014 (link)

I know fuel levels etc might be different, but despite that RB seems to have the upper hand in race pace.

That is the problem always bothers me. RedBull's rate of progress as always is massive and they are progressing in every race like last year. If Ferrari is not going to win, i prefer (with all of my heart) Mercedes win instead of RedBull win.

[Hornet]

Red Bull build a solid car, but got held back by Renault power unit. Renault is getting there, soon we'll probably see them at the front again.

Ferrari need to quickly solve their problems and start moving ahead, don't want to see us playing catch up with RB again

Vettel is packing some real race pace. Posted a string of 1.44s which I can't say is true for other top drivers.

Comparison of the drivers Kimi Räikkönen VS Sebastian Vettel - Practice 2 Malaysia GP 2014 (link)

I know fuel levels etc might be different, but despite that RB seems to have the upper hand in race pace.

Alonso did manage some 1.44 as well though

[khizerk]

Red Bull build a solid car, but got held back by Renault power unit. Renault is getting there, soon we'll probably see them at the front again.

Ferrari need to quickly solve their problems and start moving ahead, don't want to see us playing catch up with RB again



Alonso did manage some 1.44 as well though

Alonso managed that in a second much shorter stint. Even if he was using scrubbed out tyres, the tyres must have cooled down. In the first stint, Alonso was in the early 1.45s

[PadGeT]

Ferrari need to quickly solve their problems and start moving ahead, don't want to see us playing catch up with RB again

Then u are in for a rough ride.I expect them to be top of the pecking order once we start the european races , if renault can sort out their gremlins by den ( and i strongly believe they will). We have to outpace them at some stage in the season long developmental battle particularly in aero to come out on top.

[Kingdom Hearts]

Good stuff today but often good fridays don't mean good saturadays for us, so we will have to wait.

[Schumyboy83]

Positive start to the weekend, I think we are in a reasonable good state of play...

[zike]

Did we solve engine problems,any news?

[Senna4Ever]

Will be fun to watch the clash of forces tomorrow in the qualifying ...

Lotus should be taken out of the competition - these guys are a security risk ... and a joke so far ... I mean everybody struggled but it seems this car was just the beginning of the end ...

[tifosi1993]

[vcs316]

Fab pics tifosi1993 !!

[Ferrari Man]

Didnt see P1 or P2 so had a glimpse at the times on the f1 website. Looking at the times we seem to be in excellant shape or were Merc holding back or experiencing difficulties..

[Domo-kun]

Didnt see P1 or P2 so had a glimpse at the times on the f1 website. Looking at the times we seem to be in excellant shape or were Merc holding back or experiencing difficulties..

I don't think that they were holding back. Vettel most definately was not (IMO) since he got "beaten by rookie" in Australia. Still F14T was faster. And we all know that RB is still very, very fast car when it works. Same goes to HAM/ROS, I don't think they were holding back. But were they going for pure speed or did they do other stuff. We do not know.

Promising day and I allow myself to float around in a cloud of happiness until tomorrow! :)

[Redmist]

Here is what Sky said about the Mercedes tyre degradation.
"Perhaps equally as significantly, neither Hamilton nor Rosberg's W05 appeared able to run as long as the F14 T or RB10 on the faster but more brittle medium tyre - the softer of the two compounds selected for this weekend"

I have attached the link if you want to read it
http://www1.skysports.com/f1/news/12...at-of-malaysia

[ntukza]

We topped the first session in Australia. What is it about today that causes optimism, to those who watched practice? Do we look any better than in the Aus sessions? If so, in what ways?