2015 Malaysian Grand Prix - Race Thread

[stefa]

Stefa, i wouldn't go as far as saying CLOSED the gap to merc; we've REDUCED it is teh more sensible word i think

by saying we've CLOSED the gap, that means we'd have to BE ON PAR with teh mercs on either qualy pace or race pace...and as of NOW i don't think we are, UNLESS you or someone else can prove me wrong with data to back it up

i'm sure later in the season, FERRARI will more certainly CLOSE the gap to them, adn at that time every FERRARI FAN will jump up and down knowing that WE are the team to beat

Completely agree with you. Wrong choice of words

[fratelliferrari]

OT: Anyone saw the Motogp race? My god that was incredible! VR46

Great day for Italian motorsport.

That was great indeed! I was actually hoping for a win for Dovizioso but Valentino is OK for me! What a great battle between Ducati-Yamaha!

[WS6TransAm01]

Now if only Kimi could win in Spa I would be extatic!!

[PURE PASSION]

Ferrari technical director James Allison is not convinced his team will be able to repeat its Malaysian Grand Prix performance at the next round in China in two weeks' time.
On Sunday, Ferrari won its first F1 race since the Spanish Grand Prix in 2013 and the first with Sebastian Vettel behind the wheel. Allison believes the Ferrari was genuinely quicker than rivals Mercedes in the hot conditions in Malaysia, but with a return to lower temperatures in China a repeat victory will be a big challenge.
"I only know one half of the equation, which is our car," Allison said when asked to compare Ferrari with Mercedes. "I know we have a pretty decent cooling package for which a lot of credit needs to go to the cooling team in the wind tunnel and also in the drawing office, who have put together a fairly innovative package on our car. That allows us to operate even in these fierce temperatures without having to open our car up badly.
"The track is quite rough and hot, which is hard for tyres, and we are fortunate that the car goes quite well on its tyres. Quite what problems are being carried on the other side of the equation in Merc-land, I don't know, but I'm fairly sure that we will have our work cut out in China to do anything like as impressive a job as we have done here."
Mercedes struggled with a higher rate of tyre degradation than Ferrari, but while Allison believes Ferrari had the edge on race pace, he is not so sure Vettel would have beaten Hamilton without the opportunity to get ahead of the Mercedes under the safety car.
"I think we probably were a wee bit quicker than them in the race, but you saw when Mercedes was behind the traffic that they got stuck behind, which were 1.5s slower than them, they found it hard to get past.
"So if you are a 0.1s or 0.2s quicker, which is maybe what we were, then that's super hard to turn into an overtake and super hard to turn into an overtake on two cars; they [Mercedes] would have had the opportunity to split their strategy and at least beat us with one. The safety car presented us the opportunity to get past them in a relatively painless way."
Allison said the result in Melbourne two weeks ago was slightly skewed in Mercedes favour, but did warn his rivals that his team has more in the pipeline.
"In Melbourne Mercedes were very, very dominant, but even in free air we couldn't have held a candle to them in Melbourne. There's a lot of work for us to do before we can come to a race weekend confident that we can hunt for victory from the first session of the weekend. But we do have an exciting development programme and we've got a lot of performance to bring.

Τhe way i see it,this is the absolute truth and it wil be tough(another win) at least the next 2-3 races ,or we are just low our expectations again as we did the last 3-4 months till this weekend and be trully competitive again in China and the rest of the year!!!!!

[darkchild]

First of all, congrats to the entire technical and engineering team, to our drivers Seb and Kimi who were both pretty much top of the class today and James Allison and MA as well. Today was simply brilliant. No words to describe it.

I thought we WERE helped by our good strategy call, but having said that, it was not the only reason for the win. Reason for the win is the fact that we actually had race pace on par with Mercedes, and our tire management simply put us in position to win the whole thing.

Another thing, I don't believe this was a fluke and I have that feeling JA and MA are downplaying our chances to keep team focused and in the mood for more. Whats more is that next two races are China and Bahrain, both of them where our car should be very very competitive, especially Bahrain. If we keep up on these two races its Barcelona next and then comes big updates that I'm positive will work.

All in all, we are in position no one even dared to dream of. I'm just completely stunned by the progress team has made. Looking forward to China to solidify our intent of taking the fight to Merc.

[SilverSpeed]

Hot temps oké bring back Hungaroring please lol.

[Alonsomaniac]

Holy **** ! he did it!!
Must say I had not expected this at all so soon, but Sebastian drove a superb race, a superb weekend actually. This is great for Ferrari and for all of us. We needed this one.

[DIEK]

McLaren @McLarenF1
Bravo to our old friends & rivals at @ScuderiaFerrari. We’ll be racing you again before too long, guys! #MalaysiaGP

I have to say, as a Alonso fan, today was a hard day, if I'm honest I haven't finished watching the race...but I'm happy for you guys, really!

It's only...I don't like Vettel, couldn't have won Kimi?

[Nero Horse]

So what will be the next track with abrasive asphalt and hot conditions? The Barcelona track?

[darkchild]

So what will be the next track with abrasive asphalt and hot conditions? The Barcelona track?

Bahrain man. That place will be boiling. Scarbs said we are only team that didn't need to "open" up car for extra cooling because of innovative radiator/intercoolers (JA said the same). And then he continued and said that that means Ferrari can tighten up the car even more no prob

[mirafiori]

What a day absolutely fantastic, off to bed now with a huge smile on my face and no unfortunately not because of my wife but my love of Ferrari. Thank you Ferrari.

[mark p]

Bahrain man. That place will be boiling. Scarbs said we are only team that didn't need to "open" up car for extra cooling because of innovative radiator/intercoolers (JA said the same). And then he continued and said that that means Ferrari can tighten up the car even more no prob

Tighter for normal races todays configuration for hot races. Wonder if as car was late in design there was no time to design and manufacture a tighter package. Due to time they had to design a package to cover all the opening races? May explain defecit in cold Australian race?

[ferrari1.8t]

Great Win! Great Feeling to be back on top! Anyone know where we could watch/download the race to watch it again? Thanks and Forza Ferrari

[vcs316]

Lewis Hamilton given a headache by Mercedes radio rants as Sebastian Vettel wins Malaysian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton was involved in a series of curt radio exchanges with his team as Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the surprise winner of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team had threatened to dominate this season but to the great relief of Formula One fans throughout the world — including some patriotic Hamilton supporters — they have been caught up.

Hamilton, who finished second to head the championship standings by three points, exchanged words with his obviously jittery engineers on the pit wall.

WHAT EXACTLY WAS SAID BETWEEN HAMILTON AND HIS TEAM?

INCIDENT 1

Lap 39 — Hamilton complains about choice of tyres:

Hamilton: This is the wrong tyre, man.

His engineer replies they had no choice.

Engineer: The other was well used.


INCIDENT 2

Lap 40 — with Vettel picking up the pace, Hamilton vents his anger again:

Hamilton: I can hear you (in response to one engineer trying to grab a quick word.) I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing. Paddy (Lowe, team technical chief) says I might be doing another stop.

Engineer: That was just miscommunication. That was just chatter.


INCIDENT 3

Lap 42 — Hamilton snaps after being distracted:

Engineer: Lewis you are scheduled to catch Vettel with five laps remaining.

Hamilton: Don’t try and talk to me through the corners, man, I nearly went off.

[GamD]

I have to say, as a Alonso fan, today was a hard day, if I'm honest I haven't finished watching the race...but I'm happy for you guys, really!

It's only...I don't like Vettel, couldn't have won Kimi?

Don't worry I know the feeling, I felt like that about Alonso...

[Hornet]

Τhe way i see it,this is the absolute truth and it wil be tough(another win) at least the next 2-3 races ,or we are just low our expectations again as we did the last 3-4 months till this weekend and be trully competitive again in China and the rest of the year!!!!!

I agree with JA, the safety car was probably a help to us. But nevertheless it's good to be close enough to take advantage of it. Even if we can't beat the Merc in the near future, I think we should be close enough to give them something to think about.

[DJTaurus]

Is there any video with Hamiltons team radio ?

[PURE PASSION]

What a day absolutely fantastic, off to bed now with a huge smile on my face and no unfortunately not because of my wife but my love of Ferrari. Thank you Ferrari.

i hope (for your sake)she doesnt watch TSN !!!!

[Nand0Nand0]

I agree with JA, the safety car was probably a help to us. But nevertheless it's good to be close enough to take advantage of it. Even if we can't beat the Merc in the near future, I think we should be close enough to give them something to think about.

Good summary. I think we are one round of successful upgrades away from being at the pointy end every race. But even where we are now will put "scoreboard" pressure on Merc. It's not the same as last year when they could cruise to victory with 1.5 seconds a lap advantage over the field. And with all those chiefs and not too many Indians they may start to unravel themselves - lets see.

[Sriharsha]

The last time we won a race back to back is 2010 Italian and Singapore grand prix by Fernando Alonso. I feel we are not too far to these days. Im not saying we can win in china as it is a test for us with low temps and our car but in this year we might see a back to back ferrari wins. Now i just want to have a Pole position to end our 5 year drought

[Nand0Nand0]

What a day absolutely fantastic, off to bed now with a huge smile on my face and no unfortunately not because of my wife but my love of Ferrari. Thank you Ferrari.

i hope (for your sake)she doesnt watch TSN !!!!

I hope for his sake she does!!!

[PURE PASSION]

So Rossi wins, Montoya wins, a German wins with Ferrari...
Attachment 6291

[PURE PASSION]

I hope for his sake she does!!!

it depends!!!!

[Black Adder]

Great race, from both our drivers. Seb did it, and only after two races. Impressive. I thought that Mercedes (Wolf & Lauda) were great in their defeat. But, if by any miracle we would win in China (and I don't believe it, but miracles exists) then I believe it would be a crisis at Mercedes. Last observation about our competitors: Rosberg looks weak this year. We can take him..

[NyX]

I watched the race in my language (Greek), then downloaded the race both from BBC and SkySports just to see what they have to say about Ferrari destroying their favorite driver, Hamilton.
Am I evil or what?

[long2ma]

Read this comments:

The Mercedes F1 outfit, including drivers (Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg), pit crew etc. have had this ‘we are unbeatable' arrogance about them for sometime, which has been added to by the media, talking about how they are going to dominate the 2015 season. But on Sunday they were all made to shut up by a very good Ferrari team.

Source: http://www.foxsportsasia.com/motorsp...ail/item40001/

[SashAlex]

The last time we won a race back to back is 2008 European and Belgian grand prix by Felipe massa. I feel we are not too far to these days. Im not saying we can win in china as it is a test for us with low temps and our car but in this year we might see a back to back ferrari wins.

Hmm, le'me think. I suppose in 2010 Fernando won at Monza and the next one in Singapore. ;)

[Sriharsha]

Hmm, le'me think. I suppose in 2010 Fernando won at Monza and the next one in Singapore. ;)

Stupid me How the heck i missed it
thanks for the heads up mate
Edited :)

[mirafiori]

i hope (for your sake)she doesnt watch TSN !!!!

To be honest with you PURE PASSION my wife thinks i'am sad because she says iam always on the Ferrari forum. She really does not understand but to be fair with my good lady she did come to Monza with me last year and really enjoyed it.

[Ste]

For anyone interested, I've translated Seb's radio message.

"Wooooohoooooo! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss!! Si ragazzi! aaaaaaaaah! Mi senti? Mi senti? Grazie mille ragazzi! Grazie! Grazie! GRAZIE! Dai! FORZA FERRARI!""Wooooohoooooo! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssss!! Yes guys! Aaaaaaaaah! Do you hear me? Do you hear me? Thank you very much guys! Thank you! Thank you! THANK YOU!! Come on! FORZA FERRARI!"