27/03/2013
FEATURE BY MATT SOMERFIELD
In the lead up to the Malaysian Grand Prix all the stories centred on Red Bull and Mercedes' anger towards the 2013 Pirelli tyres however, in an ironic twist the two teams found themselves at the front of the race managing their drivers more so than the tyres.
In the lead up to the race the Red Bull and Mercedes camps argued that Lotus had not only gleaned an advantage by virtue of its old car (Renault R30) being used as Pirelli's development car, but the new construction/compounds of the Pirelli tyres hindered those teams with more downforce.
Pirelli had sought a solution to its ageing test car for some time (having previously used a Toyota TF109) with seemingly little assistance from the teams themselves until Lotus offered up a chassis from their archives. Although still dated in comparison to the cars we see fielded today, a year newer than the TF109 the R30 provided a better construct with which to work.
The problem with the Toyota variant is that it would firstly have required a significant level of investment by Pirelli in order to upgrade the car aerodynamically, whilst I'm quite sure the availability of Toyota engines/components was becoming more scarce. Meanwhile, efforts made by F1's current constructors (Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault & Cosworth) to improve their offerings for their customers via different mapping etc would also be unavailable to Pirelli via Toyota.
Therefore, in order to stay relevant, Pirelli needed another car with a current engine that would help to model its 2013 tyres. In terms of Lotus benefiting from the use of one of its older cars I did have my own reservations at the time. We must however concede that Lotus was the team on top of the tyres in terms of degradation throughout 2012 and so its new chassis (E21) can merely be seen as a continuation of that trend. It may well have had the data from R30 and be able to cross reference it with the tyre tests that took place in Brazil but to say this is the reason the team is good on the Pirelli's is, in my opinion, reaching a little.
Moving back to the critical comments made by Red Bull & Mercedes regarding downforce levels we can once again look at the test equipment made available to Pirelli. Pirelli, after all, can only make good from the data from the test car and enhance the figures to suit the performance difference a newer car may have. Red Bull clearly has the car with the most downforce but feels that the tyres don't enhance this. With tyres that clearly degrade more rapidly through thermal degradation it does suggest that whilst others may be dissipating this heat over a wider portion of the tyre's contact patch, Red Bull is once again playing with the margins.
It may also be fair to say that some teams have managed the aerodynamic changes for the new tyres better than their rivals with a new construction to the tyre altering the way in which the air moves around the car.
With yet another qualifying session being affected by wet weather conditions, albeit not as bad as Melbourne, we still find ourselves questioning the true structure of the grid. Sebastian Vettel once again taking pole position but with the fast starting Ferraris poised to challenge into the first corner from second and third positions.
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Alonso once again made a superb start to his race but uncharacteristically made a mistake whilst battling with Sebastian for the lead into Turn 3, as the German struggled for traction Fernando bumped him from behind. The Spaniard found himself driving a stricken F138 for the rest of the lap whilst dicing for position with Mark Webber who too had, had a great start to the race. With Fernando's Front Wing Pylon broken at the top end his Front Wing was left touching the ground making for a difficult car when cornering. While we all believed he would pit at the end of the lap he made his way around the last corner back onto the pit straight. It's unknown if this was his own choice or that of the team but it was to be a gamble that wouldn't pay off. The Front Wing detached when placed under the highest aerodynamic load on the circuit at the end of the pit straight. Unable to brake or steer with the Front Wing lodged under the car, Fernando was simply a passenger as his race came to a premature conclusion. It's believed the team/Fernando was trying to stay out long enough to make the crossover to the dry tyres which was a massive stretch with drivers not making those stops until laps 6/7/8.
During the first round of pit stops it became clear that Sahara Force India had an issue with its new wheel nut system (new for 2013, not this race) when Adrian Sutil sat in his slot as the mechanics struggled to extract the wheel off the rear right of the car. In the mechanics decided to use the front wheel gun at the rear to extract the troublesome nut. The problem was compounded as the team had decided to stack their drivers in the pit lane so Paul di Resta was left an onlooker behind the German.
A lap later Lewis Hamilton made his way down the pitlane for his first stop and decided to pay his old team a visit as they stood waiting for Jenson Button to make a stop. We will never know how much this affected his race, he lost somewhere around 5 secs due to this which would have seen him exit the pits right on the tail of Vettel.
The whole chain of events that lead to the start of the pit stop phase was Vettel who initially seemed to struggle on the option (Medium) tyre, but as the track favoured both damp and dry sections as soon as he switched to the latter it began to pay off. Mark Webber however waited it out and moved onto the Prime (Hard) compound two laps later which turned out to be a great move with the Australian leapfrogging his team mate through strategy.
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After the events of its first pit stops when Force India once again struggled during the second round the team decided to retire both cars on safety grounds, a bitter disappointment I'm sure with the team looking handy for some good points again early on in the race. From the looks of some of the stops it would appear the captive nut arrangement on the VJM06 was separating as the team tried to use its wheel guns meaning that although the Wheel & Nut detached the sleeve may have stayed behind, I'm quite sure the team will resolve the issue for China.
Lotus, and moreover Kimi Raikkonen, struggled to replicate the kind of form we witnessed just seven days earlier in Melbourne.
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The team had brought a package of upgrades that it tested during the Free Practice sessions and opted to run for qualifying and the race. Only enough of these parts were available for Kimi with Romain Grosjean likely to receive the upgrades for China. The package included a new exhaust channel featuring humps on the sides, this further aids the directing of the exhaust plume into the gap between the floor's edge and the tyre. The Sidepods rearward ramp was also shortened with the Cross-Under tunnel being affected too, although the height of this inlet was increased at the forward edge. Keyed to these changes the team also revised its Diffuser Gurney which ran in pretty much the same configuration all of last season.
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The new Gurney sees the perforation that used to just run centrally now take up the full width of the Diffuser. Kimi had several offs during the early stages of the race as he seemingly struggled with snap oversteer which from some of the onboard footage from the race showed the E21 certainly wasn't the dream drive it had been.
McLaren meanwhile seemed much more competitive in Malaysia with Jenson's pace in an around that of Raikkonen and Massa.
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Having held fifth place for some time the team was struck with a pit stop issue that saw Jenson drive off with his front right wheel not fully attached. He quickly realised and stopped in the pits and waited for a push back to the box by his mechanics to resolve the issue. This obviously resulted in a large chunk of time passing by undoing a lot of his on track work. As I pointed out in a recent article, the team's Australian woes cannot be solely attributed to its switch to the pull rod suspension at the front of the car. It has, of course, made the car very peaky in terms of setup but the problems are perhaps more aerodynamic in nature.
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The team ran plenty of aero tests throughout Free Practice and seems to have settled on reducing the Front Wing's angle of attack in a bid to resolve some of its centre of pressure (Front to rear) aero balance issues. This is more of a sticking plaster in terms of resolving the underlying issues but helped the team in the interim. Something that I didn't mention in the article above is McLaren's approach to the new Pirelli tyre structure and the impact on aerodynamics. (Something Ferrari themselves were caught out with a few years ago).
Jenson was forced to retire later on in the race due to the earlier pit stop / wheel nut issue but was adamant that without the problem he'd have finished fifth.
There is reason for McLaren to be optimistic, with Perez collecting ninth place and the fastest lap of the race and now with a three-week break I'm sure we can expect the team to be working hard on bringing parts to China.
I'm guessing that with such a great result for Mercedes, Niki Lauda will be calling off the dogs he sent Pirelli's way. Having said that he may send them down to whoever organised Lewis' strategy / fuel with him having to manage his pace by lifting and coasting for a long period during the race.
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Nico once again showed that he is not only quick, trading places with Lewis via DRS passes a few times during the race, but that he (perhaps begrudgingly) can be a great team player when he was asked not to push Lewis too hard.
I totally understand the need for team orders and of course the debacle that ensued between Vettel and Webber, but what I cannot understand is why the team didn't chase the Red Bulls. Although Ross Brawn alluded to the fact Lewis had been told to hold position it didn't seem as though he had the pace Nico had in the final stint. Why then didn't we see Mercedes release Nico to go after the Red Bulls? Perhaps the number one status that apparently didn't exist in Lewis' contract has already borne fruit.. In contrast to Vettel, Nico however showed that he doesn't have the killer instinct as had he used DRS much later than the first activation point to bring him into range, Lewis would have been easy pickings in the second DRS zone allowing him to push on. Instead we kept seeing the drivers trading places in each DRS zone almost as a signal from Nico that he was indeed quicker.
Of course the controversy that caused a cloud to hang over the podium was the brutal application of Sebastian's pass on Mark which was not only against the wishes of the team but also a dangerous manoeuvre that could have ended both drivers races.
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It was clear to see that Sebastian was quicker than Mark but what was also obvious was that Mark had turned down his engine and as far as he was concerned was no longer racing. As we know from the frosty exchange between Sebastian and Mark prior to the podium the team use a code (Multi 21) with which to tell the drivers that they should hold station and turn down their engines etc. Multi 21 most likely refers to a setting used on the steering wheel which alters several engine settings at once.
Above: In the image above of the great model of Red Bull's RB8 steering wheel from Amalgam, the multifunction rotaries can be seen. The right hand rotary marked MULT whilst the left hand one remains unmarked.
Following on from a three-week break the teams will arrive in China once again a little unsure as to where everyone stands in the pecking order. The Australian and Malaysian Grands Prix couldn't be much further apart in terms of circuit design and surfaces, whilst the weather conditions have done little to help the teams understand their packages any further. Can the Chinese Grand Prix therefore give us the first taster of the real season ahead? Can McLaren rectify some of its performance issues? Will Mercedes continue its great start to the season? One thing you can be sure of, we are in for a titanic title battle if the first two races are anything to go by.
Note: All pictures can be found in higher resolution here.