2013 Malaysian GP tyre strategies and pit stops

12 comments on “2013 Malaysian GP tyre strategies and pit stops”

1. 

   John H (@john-h)
   24th March 2013, 19:17

   Wow, those Webber pit stops are amazing.
   1. 

      Craig Woollard (@craig-o)
      25th March 2013, 15:38

      Not as good as those Force India stops!
2. 

   Alex (@smallvizier)
   24th March 2013, 19:23

   Looks like Vettel’s slow getaway on lap 32 cost him 0.7s at the most. It looked sloppy but didn’t make that much of a difference.
3. 

   Palle (@palle)
   24th March 2013, 21:12

   “There were a few blunders in the pits as well. Lewis Hamilton pulled up in the pit box of his former team McLaren, before realising his mistake and moving on to the Mercedes garage.

   Later in the race McLaren provided a reminder of why Hamilton wants to get his car serviced elsewhere this year. A botched pit stop for Jenson Button cost him a top five finish.”
   I think it was the McLaren crews refusal to service Lewis, which made him realize his error – we laughed a lot about it. Good for Lewis that the Mercedes pit box was further down the pit lane. But after the blunder McLaren did with Buttons pitstop Lewis was the last to laugh:-)
4. 

   Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
   24th March 2013, 21:41

   Lewis’ visit to McLaren cost around 3.5-4 seconds.
5. 

   q85
   25th March 2013, 0:01

   surprising one of the top 4 didnt try a 3 stopper. Only massa was anywhere near them if it went totally wrong.

   Despite the many pit stops we never really saw the tyres go off the cliff or really get near it. They all jumped long before that boat sank
6. 

   claudioff (@claudioff)
   25th March 2013, 1:03

   It seems to me that the tyres´s choice was more a style matter (Some drivers may prefer red than silver) than performance. I saw no clear advantage or difference between the componds.
7. 

   AdrianMorse (@adrianmorse)
   25th March 2013, 8:34

   I was suprised that the medium was the tyre of choice for most people. I had expected everyone to run the hard on this high-degradation track.

   Mercedes’s attempt at the undercut was interesting, although initially I was shocked to see Hamilton come in so early again. Perhaps they were hoping to run Red Bull out of tyres, having complained all weekend of possibly not having enough tyres, but it didn’t work out for Mercedes in the end. Even though Hamilton got ahead of Vettel, Sebastian breezed past him easily, and in the right DRS zone. I still find it amazing that Rosberg got re-overtaken twice by Hamilton on the start finish straight. I would have expected him to hang back the second time around and have a go at start-finish.
   1. 

      Mr draw
      25th March 2013, 13:01

      It was funny indeed that Mercedes tried to get past the Red Bulls even though they knew they could never beat them because of their fuel issues. However, Webber was pretty slow on mediums, so Mercedes’ main objective was probably to get their cars out of the dirty air.

      Having said that, the tyres behave strangely this year. Webber was faster on hard tyres, but he replaced them very early – indicating high wear. So probably the differences in speed and wear between the tyre compounds have more to do with car setup and driving style than the tyres themselves. Some drivers are better on medium tyres and some are better on hard tyres. At least the tyres create an element of surprise. I like it, but I have to get used to it.
8. 

   Gigantor (@kbdavies)
   25th March 2013, 13:43

   The team order issue had obscured the main problems highlighted in Malaysia – that the tyres are now controlling the race to a very large degree; and that cannot be right. It is no longer about drivers skill, but tyre manangement based on the balance/setup of the car. Even without the fuel saving/engine saving scenarios we saw in the race, neither the Mercs nor the Bulls were able to push their cars to the maximum at any one time during the race. Surely, that cannot be right? The consensus between the drivers and team principals is now clear and getting louder – The tyres are indeed ruining the racing. This is the same for every one – because winning has largely become quite unpredictable or at worse a lottery.
9. 

   Lari
   25th March 2013, 20:51

   Dear god Lotus sucks with their pitstop! For example Raikkonen lost around 7 seconds total with just pitstops vs RB/Mercedes/McLaren/Ferrari and many other mid teams. How can they be constantly so slow? Kinda hard for driver to fight for positions when team does awful job with pitstops, on top of other possible problems….
10. 

    Mike Dee (@mike-dee)
    25th March 2013, 23:02

    Weren’t Red Bull and Mercedes the ones screaming the most about the tyres during the course of the last week? Ironic that they finished 1-2-3-4!

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