The Friday practice times in Malaysia suggested we could have as many as four teams separated by a little over two tenths of a second.
That would be a welcome departure from Melbourne where Mercedes had up to a full second in hand over their rivals. But in all likelihood this is only partly a case of their rivals closing the gap and mainly down to Mercedes not wishing to over-exert their engines on practice day.
Fuel consumption was expected to be less critical at Sepang than Melbourne. But with the mercury soaring well above 30C, tyre conservation has emerged as one of the major challenges of the weekend.
According to Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery the medium tyre offers a lap time gain of 1-1.2 seconds. But over a race stint drivers found they lost pace over a stint much more quickly than they did in Melbourne, as the graph below demonstrates.
Another notable development during qualifying was the number of driving errors. One major consequences of cars with less downforce and much more torque is that corners which were once ‘easy flat’ now require a feather of the throttle – a considerably more challenging act given the power delivery of the new engines.
That’s why we saw Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa heading off backwards at turn eight and Lewis Hamilton slewing wide in turn ten. These were much less challenging corners in the downforce-smothered cars of years past. Here’s hoping the rebalancing of power versus grip in the new F1 cars is here to stay.
The other major talking point of the weekend is likely to be fuel sensors. Already Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has acknowledged his team have had another faulty sensor and indicated Toro Rosso had two more. Almost every driver’s fuel flow rate was checked during second practice.
Red Bull are standing their ground on the issue as they prepare to take their appeal to the FIA. But would they disobey the FIA’s instructions again if they continue to have fuel sensor trouble tomorrow? We should know around six hours after the chequered flag falls on Sunday…
Longest stint comparison
This chart shows all the drivers’ lap times (in seconds) during their longest unbroken stint:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | |
Sebastian Vettel | 104.28 | 104.454 | 104.744 | 104.674 | 104.848 | 106.058 | 107.095 | 105.131 | 107.545 | 105.252 | 105.185 | 105.396 | 106.091 | ||
Daniel Ricciardo | 106.738 | 105.863 | 106.162 | 105.857 | 109.699 | 106.361 | 106.18 | 106.959 | 107.354 | 107.906 | 109.537 | ||||
Lewis Hamilton | 103.756 | 106.479 | 103.529 | 104.624 | 104.529 | 105.094 | 105.539 | 105.124 | 108.81 | 106.142 | |||||
Nico Rosberg | 104.121 | 104.353 | 104.438 | 104.647 | 114.394 | 104.8 | 104.651 | 105.17 | 108.328 | 105.879 | |||||
Fernando Alonso | 105.065 | 104.562 | 105.201 | 105.089 | 105.276 | 107.066 | 106.813 | 107.228 | |||||||
Kimi Raikkonen | 105.845 | 105.554 | 105.046 | 104.964 | 105.47 | 105.492 | 107.938 | 106.585 | 106.719 | 106.673 | 106.5 | ||||
Romain Grosjean | 104.005 | 106.693 | 104.464 | 104.447 | 111.733 | 107.969 | 104.37 | ||||||||
Pastor Maldonado | |||||||||||||||
Jenson Button | 107.634 | 107.557 | 106.506 | 106.341 | 110.121 | 107.053 | 107.118 | 107.292 | 108.606 | 108.913 | |||||
Kevin Magnussen | 106.89 | 106.785 | 109.747 | 106.751 | 107.154 | 107.922 | 110.224 | 109.009 | 110.056 | ||||||
Nico Hulkenberg | 104.106 | 104.495 | 105.052 | 106.128 | 105.373 | 105.87 | 106.448 | 106.777 | 107.468 | ||||||
Sergio Perez | 105.45 | 105.779 | 105.909 | 105.884 | 105.961 | 106.241 | 108.233 | 106.806 | 107.463 | 107.851 | |||||
Adrian Sutil | 108.639 | 105.314 | 105.582 | 107.139 | 107.556 | 107.7 | 106.598 | ||||||||
Esteban Gutierrez | 106.256 | 107.053 | 106.602 | 107.187 | 107.355 | 107.682 | 107.788 | 107.337 | 108.332 | 108.022 | 108.96 | 108.933 | |||
Jean-Eric Vergne | 105.23 | 104.878 | 105.28 | 105.526 | 106.104 | 106.551 | 106.639 | 106.63 | 107.114 | 108.93 | |||||
Daniil Kvyat | 105.443 | 104.079 | 104.632 | 105.821 | 105.589 | 106.358 | 109.255 | 117.274 | |||||||
Felipe Massa | 104.094 | 104.672 | 105.231 | 106.299 | 105.889 | 105.284 | 106.532 | 106.387 | 106.205 | 107.544 | 107.419 | 109.004 | 108.566 | ||
Valtteri Bottas | 110.311 | 104.406 | 104.71 | 105.974 | 105.449 | 105.317 | 106.448 | 108.011 | 106.686 | 111.162 | |||||
Jules Bianchi | 107.505 | 110.15 | 108.61 | 108.794 | 112.402 | 109.173 | 108.861 | 108.919 | 108.476 | 108.736 | 109.441 | ||||
Max Chilton | 109.09 | 108.596 | 108.79 | 109.12 | 109.182 | 109.375 | 110.723 | ||||||||
Marcus Ericsson | 116.21 | 112.285 | 109.29 | 109.11 | 113.1 | 110.232 | 110.426 | 108.876 | 109.418 | 112.06 | 110.887 | 110.457 | 111.669 | 113.072 | 113.306 |
Ferrari look much more competitive following their disappointing Australian Grand Prix weekend. Kimi Raikkonen in particular enjoyed possibly his best day in the F14 T so far this year.
“This was definitely a positive day and I had a better feeling compared to Friday in Melbourne,” he said afterwards.
Raikkonen said he was “more comfortable” in the car and had “no problems whatsoever”.
The handling seemed to be good even if, as we found on the race simulation, we will have to pay very close attention to degradation, which is particularly high here.”
Sector times and ultimate lap times
Pos | No. | Driver | Car | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate | Gap | Deficit to best |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 25.265 (3) | 34.289 (9) | 40.340 (1) | 1’39.894 | 0.157 | |
2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 25.311 (5) | 33.903 (4) | 40.695 (7) | 1’39.909 | 0.015 | 0.000 |
3 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 25.394 (6) | 34.036 (5) | 40.514 (3) | 1’39.944 | 0.050 | 0.000 |
4 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 25.737 (13) | 33.658 (1) | 40.575 (5) | 1’39.970 | 0.076 | 0.000 |
5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 25.574 (10) | 33.801 (2) | 40.596 (6) | 1’39.971 | 0.077 | 0.132 |
6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 25.265 (3) | 34.115 (6) | 40.732 (9) | 1’40.112 | 0.218 | 0.000 |
7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 25.249 (1) | 34.197 (7) | 40.742 (10) | 1’40.188 | 0.294 | 0.450 |
8 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 25.885 (16) | 33.884 (3) | 40.419 (2) | 1’40.188 | 0.294 | 0.088 |
9 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 25.439 (7) | 34.577 (12) | 40.531 (4) | 1’40.547 | 0.653 | 0.081 |
10 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 25.623 (11) | 34.220 (8) | 40.721 (8) | 1’40.564 | 0.670 | 0.213 |
11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 25.258 (2) | 34.590 (13) | 40.843 (12) | 1’40.691 | 0.797 | 0.000 |
12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 25.467 (8) | 34.734 (16) | 40.811 (11) | 1’41.012 | 1.118 | 0.002 |
13 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 25.692 (12) | 34.635 (15) | 40.896 (13) | 1’41.223 | 1.329 | 0.102 |
14 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 25.788 (15) | 34.363 (10) | 41.089 (15) | 1’41.240 | 1.346 | 0.017 |
15 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 25.759 (14) | 34.531 (11) | 41.060 (14) | 1’41.350 | 1.456 | 0.057 |
16 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 25.479 (9) | 34.896 (17) | 41.296 (16) | 1’41.671 | 1.777 | 0.000 |
17 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 26.194 (19) | 34.597 (14) | 41.552 (17) | 1’42.343 | 2.449 | 0.188 |
18 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 25.991 (17) | 35.505 (19) | 41.885 (18) | 1’43.381 | 3.487 | 0.257 |
19 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 25.993 (18) | 35.440 (18) | 42.319 (19) | 1’43.752 | 3.858 | 0.000 |
20 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 26.512 (20) | 36.013 (20) | 43.096 (20) | 1’45.621 | 5.727 | 0.082 |
Comparing the sector times of the two Mercedes drivers gives a clear indication how much pace the W05s have in hand. Lewis Hamilton gave away three-tenths of a second to Nico Rosberg in the middle sector and vice-versa in the last. Even taking into consideration the possibility of differing set-ups, there’s clearly plenty of pace in the W05 we didn’t see today.
Complete practice times
Pos | Driver | Car | FP1 | FP2 | Total laps | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’41.028 | 1’39.909 | 49 | ||
2 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’40.843 | 1’39.944 | 50 | ||
3 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’41.523 | 1’39.970 | 39 | ||
4 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1’40.691 | 1’40.051 | 51 | ||
5 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’41.923 | 1’40.103 | 43 | ||
6 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.686 | 1’40.112 | 57 | ||
7 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’42.117 | 1’40.276 | 49 | ||
8 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’41.111 | 1’40.628 | 48 | ||
9 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’41.830 | 1’40.638 | 57 | ||
10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.642 | 1’40.691 | 53 | ||
11 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’41.402 | 1’40.777 | 48 | ||
12 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’41.274 | 1’41.014 | 38 | ||
13 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’42.365 | 1’41.257 | 49 | ||
14 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’42.869 | 1’41.325 | 53 | ||
15 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’42.904 | 1’41.407 | 57 | ||
16 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’41.671 | 27 | |||
17 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’42.531 | 18 | |||
18 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’46.911 | 1’43.638 | 30 | ||
19 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’43.825 | 1’43.752 | 47 | ||
20 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault | 1’45.775 | 1’45.703 | 55 | ||
21 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1’51.180 | 10 | |||
17 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 2 |
It was another day to forget for Lotus whose drivers completed just 20 laps between them on Friday.
“Both cars were delayed in the morning with mapping issues,” explained technical director Nick Chester.
“Pastor [Maldonado] then suffered from a turbo-related problem with his car. This meant we needed to remove the engine and subsequently he was unable to run in the afternoon.
“Romain [Grosjean] was able to get some more laps in the afternoon, however a wiring issue caused difficulties with his gearbox. More lessons learnt, and we’ll be focusing on getting as much mileage as possible tomorrow.”
Speed trap
# | Driver | Car | Engine | Max speed (kph) | Gap | |
1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | Mercedes | 320.4 | |
2 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren | Mercedes | 320.2 | 0.2 |
3 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | Mercedes | 320 | 0.4 |
4 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams | Mercedes | 320 | 0.4 |
5 | 22 | Jenson Button | McLaren | Mercedes | 319.6 | 0.8 |
6 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | Renault | 319.1 | 1.3 |
7 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Force India | Mercedes | 317.8 | 2.6 |
8 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | Mercedes | 315.1 | 5.3 |
9 | 25 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso | Renault | 312.7 | 7.7 |
10 | 7 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | Ferrari | 312.5 | 7.9 |
11 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | Mercedes | 312.3 | 8.1 |
12 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull | Renault | 310.9 | 9.5 |
13 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | Ferrari | 310.7 | 9.7 |
14 | 17 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia | Ferrari | 309.6 | 10.8 |
15 | 4 | Max Chilton | Marussia | Ferrari | 308.2 | 12.2 |
16 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | Renault | 307.6 | 12.8 |
17 | 21 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber | Ferrari | 306.7 | 13.7 |
18 | 99 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber | Ferrari | 305.4 | 15 |
19 | 9 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham | Renault | 302.5 | 17.9 |
20 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus | Renault | 298.7 | 21.7 |
As in Australia it’s almost all Mercedes-powered cars at the top, with the fastest Ferrari giving away 8kph at the speed trap, a deficit they acknowledged before the race weekend began.
2014 Malaysian Grand Prix
- Hamilton adds Driver of the Weekend to Malaysia grand slam
- F1 lap times in Malaysia slowest since first race
- Malaysian Grand Prix fails to excite
- 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix fans’ video gallery
- 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix team radio transcript
Images © Red Bull/Getty, Ferrari/Ercole Colombo
matt90 (@matt90)
28th March 2014, 16:17
It might be nice to start showing an ultimate lap for each car.
BasCB (@bascb)
28th March 2014, 16:31
Hm, as far as fuel sensors etc go, this is a very informative piece from AMuS (German), a lot from the FIA press conference earlier, some bits from what Horner said erlier, but also some interesting details like:
My quick translation from German of that paragraph:
The first thought, that because Caterham and Lotus are having trouble, there is some issue having to do with the Total fuel was not confirmed. STR uses Cepsa fuel.
But then it came to light that three teams apparently modified their Sensors. These changes are made at the fuel supply and their connections to the sensors. Not with malicious intent, but for assembly/construction needs. One of those teams is Red Bull
mateuss (@mateuss)
28th March 2014, 19:12
That’s something I was wondering all along, but there was no information on this.
I thought that the way the sensor is “connected” makes a difference to the readings. If it was me, I wouldn’t have mandated just the sensor but the mounting and some other things.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
28th March 2014, 19:22
@bascb Interesting! But I imagine they haven’t modified the device itself, doing so could doom their chances to win their appeal.
periwinkle (@shena)
28th March 2014, 22:06
A genuine question, is it confirmed info. that STR use Cepsa fuel? Because I heard before despite the fact that they are often sponsored by various oil companies, in practice teams powered by the same engine manufacturer are supplied with fuel from a single company which would be a factory team have a contract with.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th March 2014, 4:28
I would think they properly researched it @shena, AMuS articles mostly are solid on that kind of things.
JimG (@jimg)
28th March 2014, 17:18
If Red Bull do stand their ground, could they be black flagged? Their points from Melbourne could be reinstated, but if they’re not allowed to finish the race what comeback would they have?
Red Andy (@red-andy)
28th March 2014, 18:54
@jimg Interesting question. I don’t know if you could be black flagged for breaching the technical regulations during a race, or if it is something that can only be punished by post-race exclusion. I suppose you could be black flagged for disobeying the instructions of the race director, though. Or there is always the black flag with orange spot (your car has a technical problem, sort it out) to fall back on.l
Jimbo (@jimbo)
28th March 2014, 17:54
In “Sector times and ultimate lap times” how is the “Deficit to best” calculated? I would have assumed it was the fastest time from each sector added together to create their best possible lap time. This makes no sense when in six out of seven cases of drivers actual fastest laps being equal to their ultimate lap their quickest sector times were all set on different laps. If the deficit to best is 0.000 you would expect the sector times to be from the same lap.
timi (@timi)
28th March 2014, 18:27
That is how they are calculated @jimbo. Since we don’t have sector times from each lap for every driver I’m assuming the drivers with deficit of 0.000, did indeed set their fastest time with 3 sector PBs.
I may be wrong, but unless there is a spreadsheet with every sector time for every lap for each driver, I’m taking it as described above.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
28th March 2014, 17:57
Ferrari seems to be confirmed as 3rd engine on the speed trap. I think it became quite clear after melbourne that the engine with less peak power is Ferrari but they did manage to be the most reliable in Melbourne which is definitely even more critical in Malaysia that combined with the fact that there’s less demand on both fuel and power in malaysia perhaps Ferrari teams will do as the practice suggest. Marussia, and Sauber in particular seemed to be more in place, that said Ferrari tends to run light in practice so in the end Ferrari fans shouldn’t get ahead of themselves.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
28th March 2014, 18:01
I hope the analysis is right and we see close competition, besides shower threats and downpours, malaysia isn’t good in producing good dry races so fingers crossed.
US_Peter (@us_peter)
28th March 2014, 22:18
@peartree if there’s one strength Ferrari has had in recent years it’s been reliability, which has been second to none. Part of that has been down to the reliability of their engines, and so far it looks like they’ve managed to retain that trait in the new engines. That could certainly help them in the early races this year, but so far we haven’t seen anywhere near the kind of failure rates that many were predicting, so maybe it won’t be such a huge advantage after all. Seems it’s easier to work towards reliability with a blindingly quick car than to coax speed out of a slow car built like a tank.
Jarv F150 (@jarvf150)
28th March 2014, 18:27
Thought I would do this….
Ultimate S1 = Williams, S2 = Red Bull, S3 = Mercedes
Cars are best sector from either driver.
Ultimate 25.249 33.658 40.34 1:39:247
Mercedes 25.265 33.903 40.34 1:39:508
Red Bull 25.737 33.658 40.419 1:39:814
Ferrari 25.394 33.801 40.514 1:39:709
Williams 25.249 34.115 40.732 1:40:096
McLaren 25.439 34.577 40.531 1:40:547
–
What surprises me in the speed trap data is the difference between the Toro Rosso.
All the other teams cars are very close in top speed as you might expect with fixed gear ratio’s.
But these two are quite far apart; are different cars allowed different gear ratio’s or is this all areo setup?
Jarv F150 (@jarvf150)
28th March 2014, 18:34
Because I have nothing better to do at the moment here is what I mean in top-speed difference between team mates.
Toro Rosso : 6.4
Red Bull : 3.3
Mercedes : 2.8
Force India : 2.2
Ferrari : 1.8
Marussia : 1.4
Sauber : 1.3
McLaren : 0.6
Williams : 0.4
mateuss (@mateuss)
28th March 2014, 19:20
TorroRosso often runs low drag, high speed setups (relatively to other teams). I wonder if they have much choice on on this.
timi (@timi)
28th March 2014, 18:29
Boy oh boy, the McLaren’s look painfully slow in the long runs! That, coupled with the embarrassingly bare team-clothing and car (in terms of sponsors)… and it looks to me as though McLaren are well and truly on their way to becoming a midfield team now
gdewilde (@gdewilde)
28th March 2014, 18:56
Ever considered they had more fuel in both cars for their long runs?
But at this moment they are leading the constructors championship…
timi (@timi)
28th March 2014, 20:02
@gdewilde I did consider that, and the proof is in the pudding, so we won’t know until Sunday night. However, what’s the point of an analysis article if you neglect to read into it? I’m just going off the data, but yes, they could be 2s a lap faster than everyone on Sunday.
periwinkle (@shena)
28th March 2014, 22:17
You can’t use Button’s data for long-run comparison though. Only him and Ricciardo from the top 5 teams (MSC, McL, FER, RBR, WIL) was on Hard tyres first and then switched to Mediums. The rest were in reverse. They don’t refuel between the switch. Magnussen seemed to be dealing with some set-up or mechanical issues in the afternoon, so I wouldn’t read much into his.
matt90 (@matt90)
28th March 2014, 23:54
They’ve claimed that they will announce their sponsor a few rounds into the season.
timi (@timi)
29th March 2014, 2:58
@matt90 As any good CEO would. Even with a new title sponsor, they’ll have a tonne less sponsors than their rivals, although that seems to be the McLaren way. It’s much nicer having a clean looking car, as opposed to one with 20-odd companies’ logos stuck on haha!
One thing that piqued my interest when Ron Dennis claimed they’d have a title sponsor within a few rounds, was the fact that he said they’d had many offers, but none of them truly valued McLaren for what it’s worth (in his eyes). Ron is a tough nut to crack, and has been out of F1 for years now. The McLaren he left was right at the top and the very name probably struck fear into competitors’ hearts. This most-likely lead to massive valuation for sponsor deals. I just wonder if Ron is stuck back there, thinking McLaren are serious top dogs worth pre-08 cash. It’s unlikely because you don’t get to his level without being very business-savvy, but his stubbornness is playing on my mind..
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th March 2014, 20:18
After the AGP I had dared to hope that we wouldn’t be hearing about tyre degradation again as a major factor in race performance, c’mon Pirelli we have more than enough random unreliability with the PUs, we don’t need manufactured frailty thrown in on top.
HK (@me4me)
28th March 2014, 21:58
I don’t mind a 3-stop personally. As long as the tires are consistent. There are so many variables to this race, i can’t wait for qualifying and the race. Should be good fun to watch.
@HoHum (@hohum)
28th March 2014, 20:20
Looks like RBR, DR in particular are running a lot of wing for this race.
Neel Jani (@neelv27)
28th March 2014, 20:40
After analyzing the lap charts, to me it seems like Sebastian Vettel might be a good bet for the race (provided the car holds on)
Giggsy11 (@giggsy11)
28th March 2014, 20:47
I took the first 10 laps (used only 9 of the laps for each as one of the laps was a slowdown lap due to a breakdown) of Lewis’, Seb’s and Kimi’s and looked at the combined time it took to complete:
Kimi: 952.33 secs
Seb: 946.52 secs
Lewis: 944.81 secs
I also averaged these to a lap time:
Kimi: 105.814 secs
Seb: 105.169 secs
Lewis: 104.979 secs
You cannot draw a definitive conclusion from here (as Mercedes and Red Bull usually run heavier than Ferrari in practice and the idea of Mercedes sandbagging too). All you can suggest is that the Mercedes and Red Bull will be the two fighting for the podium places, whereas Ferrari are the best of the rest hoping their reliability will help them too a good haul of points.