Notes taken during the SPEED broadcast of the 2009 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 5, 2009.
pressdog beer of the race is Point Cascade Pale Ale, Stevens Point Brewery, Stevens Point, WI.
McLaren Mercedes update. Lewis Hamilton not so happy. He was "excluded" from the results in Australia for "lying" (according to Bob Varsha) to the stewards post-race. A McLaren team executive was suspended for same (allegedly telling Lewis to lie). Lewis and his ever-present father are "considering perhaps ending their contract if their is no improvement on the track" says the Varsh.
Well la-tee-da ... I guess when your car is P1 constantly, all is light and lovely with Mr. Hamilton. When there are challenges, we're "considering possibly ending our contract." I'm sure the team appreciates the through-thick-and-thin commitment.
Bob Varsha, Steve Matchette and David Hobbs are in the studio in Charlotte calling the race as usual.
Last week Ferrari had two DNFs. Pretty sure the Italian press was fine with it. Friday Kimi Räikkönen experienced a raging KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System, see Australia notes for explaination) fire that featured smoke rolling out of the cockpit. Felipe Massa failed to advance out of the first qualification round for the first time since 2006.
Brawn GP is the big story still. Jenson Button slapped it on the pole again for Malaysia. Teammate Rubens Barrichello was P2, but had to change a gearbox and will drop back to 8th. Sebastian Vettel qualified P3 but falls back 10 grid positions due to a penalty from Australia. (See Australia notes for blow-by-blow. Booth guys are a little incredulous about penalty).
Peter Windsor and the unseen cameraman Jean Michel are on the ground in Malaysia. Pete apologizes for sweating like a pig (Iowa ironic note: real pigs can't sweat). Pete says it's 4:30 p.m. local time and sweltering. Feels bad for the crews in their gear. On the grid, one of the infamous diffuser cars gets scrutiny from His Lordship Michael Schumacher and a guy from Red Bull. More diffuser protests lodged again this week.
Now Pete is talking to Fernando Alonso but we can't see either of them. Abruptly cut to commercials in mid-interview. WTF?
Back with Pete who is on camera now. Felipe Massa. Pete -- Good luck, mate. Sorry about Q1. Massa -- Don't be sorry. Sometimes these things happen. It was everyone's (on the team) fault.
Nelson Piquet Sr. is on the grid. Three-time world champion. Eyeballing his son, Nelson Jr. So far not very good, Nelson Sr. says, still have the race to go. He thinks Nelson Jr. will make it, but taking longer than he expected.
Varsha explains that Ferrari had major brain lock in the first qualification session. Went out, tossed up a P5 time, came in to hang out until Q2, track got much quicker, next thing they knew they were P16 and couldn't get out in time to try and advance into the top 15. Varsha -- "Incredibly embarrassing moment for Ferrari." (Insert screamed Italian obscenities and hurled objects here.)
Bernie gets air. We're starting this thing late so it's more convenient for the European audience to watch. Of course we're also starting it right when it often rains in Malaysia. Fabulous.
Hamilton on camera saying he was misled by the team manager to withhold information from the stewards so that's what he did. Very sorry. Martin Whitmarsh, team principal for McLaren Mercedes talking about suspending sporting director Dave Ryan for "not producing a full and honest account" for the stewards.
Varsha -- whole deal is very symptomatic of whether the series is being over officiated or is too complex for competitors to deal with.
("Don't lie to the stewards" doesn't seem overly complex to me, Bob. Just sayin.')
Windsor talks about the zebra factor. Last three races 17 different protests. Is F1 in danger of over-regulating? We've got a montage of drivers etc. answering the questions, but I can't hear what they are saying.
Note to SPEED sound guy -- I cannot hear what anyone is saying over the relatively BLARING rock and roll/under music in this segment. Dude. They are all low-talkers to begin with, and someone like FLAVIO you can barely understand at all, so ramming some music under it makes it impossible to hear what they are saying. Your levels suck. Sorry.
Peter with Rubens on the grid (no music under so we can hear what he is saying). Rubens -- we have all the experience on our team (of the two Brawn GP cars). Working very hard. (Button) does a good job. Good opponent for us. We want to win as much as anyone.
Intro montage with Fast and Furious clips cut in. Vin Diesel gets major air.
Varsha -- Jenson celebrated last week's win by getting a tattoo. First win in more than 150 races. Hobbs takes us on a lap onboard with Button. It's a "real neck stretcher" of a circuit -- 3 to 5 gs in many places.
Toyota story lines -- Steve - Wet, hot, light, dark -- changing conditions in Malaysia. Rain expected 15 to 20 minutes after start. (Thanks to Bernie for pushing the start time back!) David -- Button's race to lose. Bob -- Who will catch the bouquet? I think he means if Button doesn't win, there are a lot of people in line for a first-ever win, etc.
Starting lineup Jenson Button, Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock, Nico Rosberg, Mark Webber, Robert Kubica, Kimi Räikkönen, Rubens Barrichello, Brawn, Fernando Alonso, Renault, Nick Heidfeld, Kazuki Nakajima, Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel (qualified third, but starts 13th after a 10-grid-position penalty from Australia), Heikki Kovalainen, Sebastien Bourdais, Felipe Massa, Nelson Piquet, Giancarlo Fisichella, Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi.
Cars rolling for their formation lap. Varsha reminds that KERS doesn't help on start. Have to get car up to 100 (I think) kph before it can kick in. Gridded. Let's light this candle. Red, red, red, red, red .... dark means green-green-green.
Kubica stalls! Cars swerving all over behind him to avoid him. Rosberg swerves around Kubica and inhales his way to P2. Button gets a crappy start too. Has to go wide to try and take Rosberg on the outside. NO. NEIN! Rosberg leads. Kovalainen is into the sand trap. DONE. Hasn't completed one lap in two races so far.
56 to go -- Button inhales Alonso. On the move back toward the front. Matchette -- Rosberg is light on fuel. Alonso carrying more fuel. KERS on the Rosberg car may have kicked in after the start when the car reached speed. (Actually, it was KERS on the Alonso cars that may have kept him ahead of the lighter Rosberg, who doesn't have KERS. Thanks to Filip Cleeren for alerting me via comment below.)
Hobbs - McLaren year is turning out to be "an absolute disaster." Replay of start -- Kubica almost stalls (later gets underway) setting off a festival of swerving behind him. Button tries to go wide. Rosberg drifts out and forces him wider. Button wise not to force the issue there.
In car with Massa on the start. Kovalainen gets fishy and goes off. Buemi in the pits immediately for a new nose.
Kubica's car is on fire! We got fire around the rear wheels. Not a raging inferno, but he's out quickly.
Barrichello working on Alonso. In car with Barrichello. Goes under Alonso, Alonso wide -- CLEAR -- Alonso drives back under -- CLEAR. Retakes the position. Barrichello right back at him.
Again, the sound guy is way too in love with the natural sound of the engines. WAY too high. Can't hear the announcers under it. Dude, back that sound level down a bit. I'm more interested in hearing the announcers than the scream of the car. When I was trying to watch a replay of practice, I had to crank it so loud to hear what Hobbs et al were saying it drove my wife from the room. ("That car sound is extremely annoying.") True, she's no fan, but it had to be up REALLY LOUD in order to hear the guys under it.
Matchett gives credit to KERS here for boosting. Even though he doesn't like KERS and would like to see it tossed.
52 to go -- Replay of Vettel under Hamilton. Glock does a banzai dive under a Red Bull. NO. NEIN! Contact? Maybe a bit. Everyone continues.
51 to go -- Vettel goes outside Heidfeld. NEIN!
Nose cam on Räikkönen's car is very cool. Working on Alonso (I think). Both are KERS cars. Button closing in on Trulli. Rosberg leads with 2 seconds on the field. Replay -- Heidfeld wide and gets inhaled by a couple of cars.
47 to go -- Rosberg, Trulli, Button, Barrichello, Alonso, Räikkönen, Webber, Glock.
46 to go -- Alonso squirrelly. Räikkönen pounces. CLEAR. Red Bull Webber working on Alonso now. Webber has a Toyota (Glock) all over him as well.
This race is another F1 Festival of Overtaking.
45 -- Replay. Alonso goes wide and Räikkönen dives under to overtake. Alonso is sucking on braking.
Steve pops into Random Speculation Mode and theorizes out of thin air that maybe Alonso's KERS system isn't working and he has switched it off causing him to be overtaken. Maybe. Another random theory I had is that he's recalling the day his pet cat died and is crying so hard he can't race.
Windsor chimes in -- He thinks Alonso's heavy car is chewing up his soft option tires causing Alonso to be inhaled. Matchett -- that may very well be.
44 to go -- Alonso brakes, goes wide, gets inhaled. Matchett theorizes that Alonso has live snakes in they cockpit causing him to lose concentration (Sorry. I made that last sentence up.)
Rosberg, Trulli, Button, Barrichello, Räikkönen.
Vettel pits. 10.7 seconds. Loaded him full of fuel.
41 to go -- Rosberg pits from the lead. Back out in 4th. Glock is in. A festival of pitting is coming up.
Trulli, Button, Barrichello, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Webber, Alonso.
39 to go -- Trulli pits. Comes out 4th behind Rosberg but in front of Räikkönen.
Steve says Fernando can stay out on fuel until about 21 to go.
Button goes purple in about every sector. He's on his in lap and needs to stretch it out. He's a second faster than everyone on the track right now.
Räikkönen in. Ferrari goes FULL WET TIRES and send him back out. Dude. It is not raining right now, but about to, so they are hoping it starts to pour the second Kimi hits turn two. Steve -- without rain, in three or four laps the rain tires will tear themselves to pieces (need the rain to keep them cool enough stay in one piece).
Button pits. DRY TIRES. Gambling the opposite way from Ferrari.
Barrichello, Button, Rosberg, Trulli, Alonso, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Massa, Piquet, Nakajima.
36 to go. Rubens pits. Dry option tires are on. Wrong gear. Costs him a second or two.
Heavy rain arrives on part of the track. Replay. Alonso hits heavy rain and spins. Everyone is pitting for rain tires now. Räikkönen stays out but the rain came too late. His tires are already shot.
Hamilton is in first. Full wets. (Note: there are intermediate wet tires and full wet tires. Full wets have more tread.)
33 to go. Hamilton under Webber. Webber back under Hamilton. Got him. Webber hits a wet part and slides.
Webber back outside Hamilton. On the KERS button. More overtaking in two races this year than about the last five years combined in F1.
Button, Rosberg, Trulli, Barrichello, Heidfeld, Webber, Hamilton, Massa.
31 to go -- Webber rampaging. Around Heidfeld for 5th. Vettel inhales someone. Glock is on intermediates. Dice roll. Much faster for now than cars on full wets, but if it rains hard he could be screwed.
Radio -- Lewis says he's hitting the limiter early in 6th. Considering ending his contract. (Sorry, I made the last sentence up.)
Glock inhales Heidfeld. We got lightening, according to Bob.
29 to go -- Webber passed Trulli. Now people are pitting for inters as the rain slacks off. Hamilton in. Glock and Webber fight for second. Glock on inters, Webber on full wets. More pitting for intermediate tires.
28 to go -- Button pits. Has 24.6 seconds on the field. Gets tires only.
27 to go --Almost all on intermediate tires now. Major downpour on some parts of the track. Jenson goes under GLOCK. CLEAR. Glock peels off into the pits to go to full wets.
Massa in. It's pouring now. Everyone in for full wets. Festival of Full Wet Tire Pitting.
Up 4 to 5 pit stops already for some due to all the tire changing. Replay of Fisichella going around. Vettel is off. Done. You can see it's raining "like a cow pissing on a flat rock" as my former colleague used to say.
Button pits for full wets. Back out in the lead. Heidfeld on inters can't keep up. Major pouring in some places. Now puddling.
Steve and the booth posse speculate on the appearance of a safety car due to puddling, no vision, etc.
SAFETY CAR!! -- Steve does his Safety Car Dance in the booth.
25 to go -- Button, Glock, Heidfeld, Webber, Hamilton, Trulli, Barrichello, Rosberg, Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Räikkönen, Vettel, Buemi.
RED FLAG. Too much rain and puddling and lack of visibilty to continue. Cars form up at start finish. Crews scurry out to cover them up.
Some drivers are out. Webber is working the grid like a politician. Theorize he's doing his driver union steward thing.
Much rain delay video here. Gripping shots of Räikkönen in the garage in cargo shorts and his red Ferrari team polo having an ice cream. I'd say he's done for the day.
Again, a big shout out for the inventor of the DVR that lets me skip forward through the delay. Looks like it may be stopping with the rain, but since we started late to accommodate BERNIE, not enough sun remains.
Race control calls the race. Button wins. Everyone gets half points since the race did not go 75% of the way. Button wins his second GP in as many starts.
Glock moved back to third since scoring reverts to the last completed lap before the red.
Button, Heidfeld, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton, Rosberg, Massa, Bourdais, Alonso, Nakajima, Piquet, Räikkönen, Vettel, Buemi, Sutil, Fisichella, Kubica, Kovalainen. (Of course this is all pending the million penalties that seem to come out after each race.)
Pete does his post-race interview thing. Focuses on tires.
Points leaders -- Button, Barrichello, Trulli, Glock, Heidfeld.
Constructors -- Brawn Mercedes, Toyota, BMW Sauber, Renault, Williams Toyota.
That's it from a rain-shortened Malaysian GP. Tune in for the Grand Prix of China. April 18. 2:30 a.m. Eastern on SPEED.
"KERS on the Rosberg car"
Doesn't have KERS my friend.
Posted by: Filip Cleeren | April 05, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Thanks. I choked on the reading of the notes. You are correct and I have corrected. Thanks for commenting.
Posted by: pressdog | April 05, 2009 at 12:28 PM
P-Dog: Good notes... here are my quick .02
I feel for Lewis... when someone from the team that pays you huge $$$ tells ya "ABC"... you repeat "ABC". (bosses know best?) Tough deal to be in the middle of... Lewis driving brilliantly with obvious sub-par McLaren package.
The Posey narrated video montage blending F1 with Fast & Furious was TOTAL $**T !!! Yeah, when I think F1, always follows with movies that showcase ILLEGAL street racing & corny dialogue
Cheese-ball movie tie in... mixed in with the F1 images just a slight step up from the regular FOX pandering for "new" viewing demographic? Get the 5 & 6 year olds with Digger the Gopher & target the underage & un-licensed teens with the Vin Diesel movie??? What the DewTour said no, so pitch to SPEED? UGH!
Kubica Karma: IMO, he escaped his 10 place grid penalty, after his EQUAL role in the Aussie GP dust up with Vettel. However the racing Gods (that do not like Bernie...) SMILED & made things right. Kubica STALLS on grid & then his KERS blows up. I can go back to being neutral on my opinion of the BMW driver! :) :)
TOYOTA finally getting their money's worth!!! Nico jumps out to a nice lead. Both Panasonic Toyotas do well... Glock on podium. I would just LOVE to see Nico give Toyota its 1st GP win!!! Then Trulli make the factory team happy.
Hoping the Brawn GP success will turn the BGP001's White/ RED/ & Black. Virgin branding increases & the team can up their R&D budget to keep winning (when the competition gets their updates in place for the Euro rounds of the WDC.
Posted by: AZZO45 | April 05, 2009 at 10:26 PM