The Official F1 Malaysian Grand Prix Banter and Discussion Thread [SPOILERS]
Mar 30, 2009 | 05:09 PM
#41
Teamspeed Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 603
From: Orange County
That is a good point you bring up about the cyclical nature of tires that Bridgestone is imposing on F1. Bridgestone did indeed say they would bring two vastly different tire compounds to each race, but this was at the urging of Bernie Ecclestone and the FIA. The agreement this season was that Bridgestone would develop a total of 6 different tires for the whole season: supersoft, soft, medium, hard, intermediate, and wet. Of those tires, Bridgestone is required to bring the intermediate and wet tires to every race, and then must select 2 other tires that are nonsequential in terms of grip to bring to the race. For Melbourne, the teams had to decide between supersoft and medium. For Malaysia, they'll have to choose from soft or hard tires. As your mentioned Erich, the supersoft tires will offer excellent grip right out of the box but start graining badly within a few laps and degrade further from there, whereas the medium slicks required 3 or 4 laps to get up to temp but then lasted much longer. The only downside to the medium tires was that they lost heat quickly, as was made quite clear when Piquet went spinning into the gravel after the first long safety car stint. As you already mentioned, the battle between Vettel and Kubica began only after Vettel's tires had already started degrading whereas Kubica's were just getting up to temp. I think the new rules as pertaining to tires will actually be the key to what makes the races interesting to watch this season, more so that even KERS and the adjustable front aero.
Mar 30, 2009 | 05:09 PM
#42
Thread Starter
| Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 23,875
From: Orange County
Last edited by Barrister; Mar 30, 2009 at 05:14 PM.
Mar 30, 2009 | 06:53 PM
#43
TS Detailing Partner l Atlanta
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 1,219
From: ATL
Very good, very good. I completely agree. Lots of drama to come because of the tire strategies. Malaysia is ruthlessly HOT. The asfault will claim the softs very quickly I suspect, unless they get rain. It's going to be great to see how teams deal and adjust; those decisions are where a team's pit principal and driver together can really show their talent. This is gonna be good!!!
Mar 30, 2009 | 07:35 PM
#44
Thread Starter
| Teamspeed Pro
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 23,875
From: Orange County
That's probably the forecast for every day in that part of the world.
When HASN'T it rained during the Malaysian GP.
When HASN'T it rained during the Malaysian GP.
