Hero's and zero's at Malaysia

[aazz]

Hero's -

Heidfeld and Webber - a good solid drive to good positions.
Vettel - not a foot wrong all race.
Martin Brundle - for calling Petrov the "rudderless russian", I had a good laugh at that one.

Zero's -

Williams - a team like that should just be better.
Massa - where has he gone???

[stealthhaggis]

Hero's;

Vettel - Faultless, impressive and bloody terryfying for the rest of the field. A man in true sync with his machine.
Button - Class drive, showed good experience and didn't try to save the tyres, wanted to win!
Heifeld - Great drive from Quick Nic, great start, that Reno has some traction.
Kobiyashi - Great to see this lad up there mixing it with the big guys. Great little driver.
PDR - Another point and outperforming Sutil! Great work, keep it up!
Red Bull - Once again the class of the field, who need KERS!

Zero's:

Hamilton - Whats with all the weaving and the sudden Jekyll and Hyde car performance? You only changed your tyres. Tell it like it is, you didn't work the tyres well enough. See Jenson for after extra lessons after class. Must up his game for China.
Alonso - Ruined a podium by getting to close to Hamilton. Then said it was a Hamiltons fault as well? Dude, YOU hit HIM you numpty! Quality driving up to that point though.
Petrov - Russia's newest cosmonaut! Also marks must be given for comedy clown steering joke!
Trulli - Worst. Pit. Exit. Ever.
FIA - Penalty for Hamilton & Alonso? Both were punished indirectly, Alonso lost most of his wing and had to pit and Hamilton lost 4 places because he had to pit. How many times have we seen weaving and crashes like that in the past? Seems overly harsh really. Especially for Alonso.

[Scott]

Russia's newest cosmonaut!

I like that MUCH better than Brundle's weak 'Rudderless Russian'   

[stealthhaggis]

Russia's newest cosmonaut!

I like that MUCH better than Brundle's weak 'Rudderless Russian'   

And yet he keeps the money! 

[John S]

FIA - Penalty for Hamilton & Alonso? Both were punished indirectly, Alonso lost most of his wing and had to pit and Hamilton lost 4 places because he had to pit. How many times have we seen weaving and crashes like that in the past? Seems overly harsh really. Especially for Alonso.

Alonso lost nothing from the penalty, he remained in 6th even after adding his penalty time. It's Lewis that lost out most as he dropped a place from 7th to 8th with the added time. Funny though how things work out on the 'swings and roundabouts' theory, Kobi moved up a place into 7th for Sauber - courtesy a stewards decision that helped rather than punished them this time.

[lkjohnson1950]

Heroes: Button for maxing his potential and taking second.
            Webber for driving the wheels off to make up for no KERS.
            Kobi for being aggressive and still managing to make only 2 stops.
            Massa for beating Ferd.

Zeroes: Hamilton for whining about the team. Shut up and drive.
            McLaren for not seeming to be on top of tire strategy.
            Red Bull better get on top of Webber's problems or they will start
                  getting a lot of heat from the press....Again!    

I don't know what to say about Williams, they were so proud of their design and seemed confident they had made a step forward, and they can't get to the end of a race. Can't qualify well either. I just don't know!

Lonny

[Williamsfan]

Williams as a team seem to be more open about their problems than usual Lonny, they have made noises about looking at changes throughout the team looking towards 2012 after the disastrous start to this season.  I wonder if that is a hint that maybe Sam Michael could be nudged to the side as sadly his time at the team has coincided with such a dismal period for Williams?  Here is an article about this from Autosport:

Struggling Williams hints at changes   

By Matt Beer   Monday, April 11th 2011, 15:08 GMT

Williams chairman Adam Parr says the team will investigate every aspect of its operation to see how it could be strengthened in the wake of its disappointing start to 2011.

The Grove squad had looked like a dark horse for top results in pre-season testing, but neither Rubens Barrichello nor Pastor Maldonado managed to reach Q3 or finish the races in Australia or Malaysia.

Barrichello showed promising form as he came through the field in Melbourne after an early error, only to then collide with Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, while at Sepang neither car was close to the frontrunning pace.

Parr said Williams's poor form had come as a shock.

"Like everyone at Williams, I am both surprised and frustrated with our start," he admitted. "In spite of having an ambitious concept for the FW33, the benefit of continuity with our engine, and moving into our second season with Rubens, we have come up short.

"It is particularly bad in view of our relative strength in pre-season testing and the exceptional amount of work that everyone across Williams has put into this car."

He said that while Williams would refrain from making knee-jerk changes, it had to take action to both turn things around in the short term and ensure this poor start was not repeated in 2012.

"First, we have to understand where we are strong and where we are weak," said Parr. "We have had some notable areas of success with the FW33 and we can build on these.

"We also have some promising improvements coming through for Shanghai and Istanbul and we need to see how these perform.

"We also need to get on top of the reliability issues because these not only affect immediate performance, they also absorb resources that should be focused on improvement.

"We will move forward, but that does not alter the fact that we have started too far behind.

"Therefore, we will be looking not only at how to address the short-term issues - we will be working together to strengthen the team for 2012 and beyond. Every aspect will be reviewed, nothing is sacred, but we will do this methodically and not in a reactive way."

The team's technical director Sam Michael added that his department would do everything it could to try and get Williams in better shape in time for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

"Our performance was well below expectations in many areas in Sepang," he acknowledged. "This is not acceptable for us and we'll be thoroughly reviewing all aspects of our lack of performance before Shanghai.

"Ultimately the performance and reliability of the car is down to the engineering group and we'll respond accordingly."

[lkjohnson1950]

All very Politically Correct, but this is the second year in a row Williams has looked good in preseason testing and failed at the track.There must be a flaw in their system somewhere, that they cannot translate testing results into on track performance.

Lonny

[stealthhaggis]

When is Pat Symonds suspension finished? Would be a good move if Williams brought him on board.

[Williamsfan]

He is currently consulting for Virgin racing sadly as he could definitely do a decent job at Williams. 

[Scott]

Consulting contracts are made of tissue paper...Williams could have him if they wanted him badly enough.  Frank would have to put up with smoking in the garage though. 

Not much he could do about this year's car, but it would be a good time to get him on board to start on next year's.

[Williamsfan]

I would love it Scott if we were able to get Pat on board in place of Sam Michael (or alongside, but I cannot see a change in form for the team as things are with Sam), I guess it depends on how serious the team is about looking at it's whole structure and trying to improve upon it.  Can't believe that we tried a new part on the car today that actually made it slower at the end of each run!