Mar 24 2012

Formula One 2012: Sepang Qualifying

I hope I’ll be a little more coherent tomorrow but these far east starts on top of March Madness Hoops and the time change thing leave me a little wonky and disoriented.

The major competition story is that Scuderia Marlboro UPC has a slow car, severely lacking in downforce.  Maranello is distinctly disappointed and while Alonso is making the usual nothing to see here noises; Massa, who’s career at Big Red hangs by a thread, has asked for and gotten an entirely new chassis, tuned just for him, which is no better.

Mercedes seems poised to take over the third team spot and has some kind of fiddly aero bit reminiscent of the F-Duct that doubly reduces drag when activated in conjunction with the Drag Reduction System everyone uses and it has been ruled legal.  So far.

Red Bull really is handicapped by the changes to the blown diffuser rules and are not nearly as dominant though they are easily the second best team and are much better at race management than McLaren who still suck.

Sepang is hot and wet.  Even odds that they have to break out the Inters or Wets at some point, though with track temperatures in excess of 91 Farenheit the prescribed Pirellis are the Hards and Mediums with about 1.7 seconds a lap between them.  The Mediums have shown a tendency to lock up under heavy fuel in race start trim.  Sepang is rated a Medium to High speed track, flat with 15 turns, as opposed to Albert Park which is a bumpy road course rated Medium to Slow.

Bernie Ecclestone (aka CVC) is looking to cash out of Formula One via IPO, orchestrated by none other than those paragons of Wall Street virtue, Goldman Sachs.  The Formula One Team Association (everyone except Red Bull and Ferrari) is not altogether happy about this concept.

Tomorrow’s race starts at 2 am for GP2, 3:30 am for the start.

rustymancuso581

20 comments

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  3. No rubber on the track.

  4. Incentive to lay down a lap.

  5. forgot about Lotus Renault.

  6. Vergne

    Kovalainen

    Petrov

    Glock

    Pic

    de la Rosa

    Karthikeyan

  7. Everyone sits in the pits.

  11. Maldonado

    Massa

    Senna

    di Resta

    Ricciardo

    Hulkenberg

    Kobayashi

  14. They might have 2 sets of Mediums, everyone else will have just the one.

  17. Had a faster lap on the Mediums.

  18. Hamilton

    Button

    Schumacher

    Webber

    Raikkonen

    Vettel

    Grosjean

    Rosberg

    Alonso

    Perez

  20. Wonder if they’ll show it again tomorrow.

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