2014 Malaysian Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps

15 comments on “2014 Malaysian Grand Prix lap times and fastest laps”

1. 

   Sam (@)
   30th March 2014, 15:08

   1m39.199 by Perez on lap 56 was the fastest last year. We’re getting there.

   Chilton, jesus. 1m48…..
   1. 

      xjr15jaaag (@xjr15jaaag)
      30th March 2014, 15:25

      It gets worse; Bianchi, on lap 4, did a 51.4…
   2. 

      MNM101 (@mnm101)
      30th March 2014, 16:05

      @ardenflo But he always finishes races ! he must be a great driver! /s
   3. 

      OOliver
      30th March 2014, 18:26

      The tyres are slower this year, then the fuel target thing.
2. 

   Joe (@joetoml1n)
   30th March 2014, 18:33

   Interesting to cmpare these times to last years (http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/03/24/2013-malaysian-grand-prix-lap-times-fastest-laps/)
   ~4/5 seconds slower, and the cars definitely looked it on track. For me the lack of noise/fuel limits aren’t degrading to the image of F1, instead it’s the lower speeds and Pirelli to some extent.
   1. 

      dadman
      30th March 2014, 20:12

      spot on! two races don’t make a trend, but Mercedes’ lap times would have put them near the back of the field in ’12 & ’13. Rooting for Mercedes but bored to death – 3+ seconds is an eternity for a sport measured in thousandths. If interested in a science experiment with electric motors, would read about it in Popular Science. Will give it a couple more races, but at this pace won’t be there at the end of the year.
   2. 

      DaveD (@daved)
      30th March 2014, 20:23

      @joetoml1n I was thinking about that too. Considering they had told Lewis to turn down to a lower engine setting to save wear on his engine and he was not pushing to catch anyone or taking curbs, and he was on hard tires rather than options, etc…I think it was probably closer to 2 seconds a lap difference. At least on that fastest lap time.
      I don’t think we’ll see Mercedes pushing for real pace until a couple of other teams catch up later in the season and all of them have had time to claw back downforce and get experience with their Power Units.
      I’d bet we’ll see Qualifying times within 1 second of 2013 at Bahrain next week, and race laps within 1-2 seconds by the later half of the year. They have a steep improvement curve with the new formula.
      1. 

         Joe (@joetoml1n)
         31st March 2014, 11:13

         I also agree, that I think they weren’t pushing to their maximum.. But Lewis wasn’t marginal on fuel, and clearly was trying to set a few fast laps at the end.. This is still an early observation, I’ll reserve full judgement until after a few dry qualys, and more races
3. 

   DaveD (@daved)
   30th March 2014, 20:26

   @keithcollantine Great coverage and write-ups per your usual…Thanks. :)
   Could we also see the fastest times through the speed trap? If you’ve already posted that somewhere else, my apologies…just thought it would be interesting to see that info as well.
4. 

   Bradley Downton (@bradley13)
   30th March 2014, 20:42

   @keithcollantine – I was amazed to see Kobayashi catching the Sauber’s during the race. Obviously seeing this graph now shows it was mainly because Kamui had new tyres while the Sauber’s were on old ones (and also the Sauber’s could have been suffering issues as it wasn’t long before they retired), but still I found this hugely encouraging from Caterham. I know Sauber seem well off of the midfield themselves, but it’s still a fair achievement I think, finally.
   1. 

      AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
      30th March 2014, 21:11

      @bradley13, equally, I fear for Sauber. They have a dog of a car, two uninspiring drivers, and I can’t imagine they have any money, either. At this point it looks like they will struggle to score points, and indeed survive.
      1. 

         muna
         31st March 2014, 11:28

         Thats when you need the HULK!!
5. 

   JerseyF1 (@jerseyf1)
   30th March 2014, 21:49

   I’m not convinced Alonso’s Ferrari’s performance was too flattered by the order of tyre use – at least compared to Vettel. Vettel set his fastest lap four laps later, so although he was only on brand new hards surely the advantage of having 4 laps less fuel would negate some part of the compound disadvantage
6. 

   RL
   31st March 2014, 4:59

   Not quite if Vettel is being optimistic that RBR can catch up to Mercedes by Barcelona. He was consistently outpaced in Sectors 1 and 3. Sure, he would beat HAM and ROS in Sector 2 by 3 to 4 tenths, but that wasn’t consistent either, I’d say about 60% of the time.

   And that fuel usage. I think when push comes to shove, Mercedes could use more at the first half of races to build more of a gap. Not much use of having a bit in reserve if you’re told to cruise the last laps to preserve the machine.

   Source: I was following the lap times on the live F1 app.
7. 

   erix
   31st March 2014, 12:15

   Keith, this is what I don’t like about no-refuel regulation. You cannot compare fastest lap on lap 36 with lap 47, tires aside it would be 11 laps fuel different.

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