2017 Go KL Asiatech Visit Malaysia Grand Prix

[Ataxia]

The proud nation that begat such motorsporting luminaries as Alex Yoong, Fairuz Fauzy, Jazeman Jaafar (not the baddie from Aladdin) and Nabil Jeffri will disappear from the F1 calendar at the end of this year. As President Trump would perhaps append in this situation: SAD!

Although I'm being a little frivolous, it's actually quite upsetting. The Sepang circuit has been a popular inclusion to the F1 calendar since the first race in 1999, and it's dished up tons of good spectacles in its less-than-twenty years in the sport. I'll be sad to see it go.

But, and I'm sure all of you are asking this, what actually IS Malaysia? Part of it dangles off of the Indochinese Peninsula, with the other half slotting into Brunei and Indonesia like a neat little Tetris tile. And it's a country steeped in history. History I know nothing of, save for Age of Empires 2 campaigns and cursory glances of Wikipedia.

What I DO know is that the capital is Kuala Lumpur, which sounds like a name for a fat marsupial. Former Formula E venue Putrajaya is the administrative capital, because KL (as it's known by people too lazy to type Kuala Lumpur) was a little bit too busy for the government's liking. That's like moving the Houses of Parliament to Manchester, not that the UK government would ever think about The North.


He's a VERY lumpy koala.

KL is home to the Petronas Twin Towers, which was briefly the nickname of both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg during their time together at Mercedes - largely in deference to the size of their egos. With Valtteri Bottas' arrival in the team, they're now "The Petronas Single Tower and a small Finnish cottage". It's less catchy, admittedly.


At least they're getting on...

Back to the more pertinent subject of Sepang, the venue's thrown up some terrific races. There was the GP in 2001, where everyone went off the road, and 2012 where Sergio Perez went off the road and ruined any chances of an unlikely Sauber victory.


Aah, the great taste of 'memberberries...

This year? I mean, a wee splash of rain wouldn't go amiss...anything to stop the all-too-realistic chance of Lewis Hamilton waxing lyrical about Petronas' extensive range of high-performance Primax lubricants, which offers unparalleled engine cleaning properties and high-performa...what am I DOING? Eurgh. I think that's enough from me...

[Londoner]

Gasly poised to replace Kvyat this weekend. Looks like the Kvyat bullies can rejoice, they got what they wanted at long last. Poor Daniil.

This does mean 2018 gets a touch more interesting, as I'm fairly certain Toro Rosso will not keep Kvyat. I guess Matsushita is a shoe-in for the second seat, unless something wild and awesome happens like Sean Gelael bringing KFC Indonesia money into F1.

[Rob Dylan]

I was expecting a Palmer replacement before Malaysia, but nothing like this!

Looks like Kvyat is probably dead-set now for ROTY unless somebody else bathplug up royally...

[dinizintheoven]

There'll soon be a place for him at SMP Racing in the WEC... right?

[IceG]

Shame for Kvyat; I rate him far higher than Palmer. Perhaps Williams could take a look?

[sswishbone]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/41397848

Up on BBC too, looks like ze end is nigh for Kvyat

[golic_2004]

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/toro ... gp-957830/ it seems at least for Malaysia and Japan

[Rob Dylan]

However much I feel sorry for Kvyat, it will at least be refreshing to have another new face on the grid, for at least a race or two. And I'm sure Gasly has had practice of Suzuka before, being in the Super Formula, so he should at least have had a bit of practice.

I'll be interested in seeing how he does. The Red Bull hierarchy are really, really going to want him to do well. They need a competent Red Bull family member in that Toro Rosso alongside whoever Honda places there, or else they face something of an existential crisis.

[AdrianBelmonte_]

RIP Daniil Kvyat's F1 career, 2014-2017, never forgetti

[Rob Dylan]

Thinking about it, a two-race stint for Gasly could have bad consequences for the boy if he ends up "doing a Giovinazzi". Then Toro Rosso will really be stuck as to who they should pick for 2018.

[lance_rambert]

Then Toro Rosso will really be stuck as to who they should pick for 2018.

After looking who's currently on the Red Bull junior team and what each driver is doing, I don't think Gasly (maybe even Kvyat, despite current events) has anything to be worried about. There's nobody in that stable currently qualified for a superlicense or is going to be after this year. That's not even considering their current junior series performance....

I'm also assuming Red Bull will not sign a non-junior team driver, but who knows, maybe Toro Rosso will get desperate and sign some outsider?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

This does mean 2018 gets a touch more interesting, as I'm fairly certain Toro Rosso will not keep Kvyat. I guess Matsushita is a shoe-in for the second seat...

Matsushita doesn't have the super licence points to get into F1, is highly unlikely to have that many points by the end of the year and is not eligible for the loophole that allowed Rio Haryanto to (re-)gain a super licence ahead of 2016.

So he needs an FIA vote.

[Rob Dylan]

Are there other Honda junior drivers waiting in the wings? Is Sato going to make a grand comeback?

[Ataxia]

In preparation, FOM (YES, REALLY) has uploaded an all-time classic to the OFFICIAL FORMULA 1® YouTube channel (SERIOUSLY!)

...so if you've got a spare two-and-a-bit hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr0JEltbQUg

[Rob Dylan]

Incredible! I know it's only for two weeks that it's up, but I can safely say I don't miss Bernie a bit.

[Dj_bereta]

Aleshin fired, Kvyat fired. Talk about a bad year for Russian motorsport.

[FullMetalJack]

Shame for Kvyat; I rate him far higher than Palmer. Perhaps Williams could take a look?

Not old enough. Martini have specified that Stroll's teammate must be at least 25 years old. If it weren't for that, Wehrlein would be my pick.

[mario]

I was expecting a Palmer replacement before Malaysia, but nothing like this!

Looks like Kvyat is probably dead-set now for ROTY unless somebody else bathplug up royally...

There is a suggestion that Renault wanted to swap Palmer out, but Red Bull dug in their heels because they want to maximise their opportunities to score points and they think that a Gasly-Sainz line up is more likely to achieve that than a Kvyat-Gasly line up.

With Williams potentially within reach and Renault's stronger form in the closing part of this season, I can see why Red Bull wanted to prioritise maxing their prize money. It is particularly true if, going by the recent rumour, Renault are cutting their ties with Red Bull at the end of next year - they have every incentive to place their interests ahead of those of Renault.

This does mean 2018 gets a touch more interesting, as I'm fairly certain Toro Rosso will not keep Kvyat. I guess Matsushita is a shoe-in for the second seat...

Matsushita doesn't have the super licence points to get into F1, is highly unlikely to have that many points by the end of the year and is not eligible for the loophole that allowed Rio Haryanto to (re-)gain a super licence ahead of 2016.

So he needs an FIA vote.

It is unlikely that he will be able to secure a licence without the FIA bending the rules somehow, but at the same time I imagine that Honda could lobby the FIA fairly hard. It does seem improbable though - he is currently 37 points behind the 3rd place in the Formula 2 series that would secure that superlicence, and I think that the maximum number of available points is 92 (adding the points for winning to the bonus points for pole positions and fastest laps).

I think that it is possible that we will see a Gasly-Kvyat line up in 2018 simply due to a lack of alternatives, with Matsushita being a test driver for the team. That would allow him to obtain a licence to participate in free practise sessions - probably at Kvyat's expense - but also allow him to continue racing in Formula 2 with the aim of improving on his performance to secure at least 4th place in 2018 (assuming he finished in 6th this year, that would give him the minimum of 40 points required for that superlicence).

[Nessafox]

It must be noted that KFC Indonesia also sponsors a few non-indonesian drivers. (Giovinazzi, De Vries, maybe some others) so i call for Gio to get the seat. On the condition Gelael gets lot of friday practice drivers that is obvious.

[UncreativeUsername37]

Gasly is going to have the best code. The only way it could get better is if we had a Carson or something.

[dinizintheoven]

GAS MAN! GAS MAN!

[The Chicane]

If only Jenson was still racing.

P7: BUT
P8: GAS

[Ataxia]

If only Jenson was still racing.

P7: BUT
P8: GAS

[andrew]

Palmer

[good_Ralf]

Can Kimi ever get it completely right in Q3?

[sswishbone]

What the bathplug happened to Vettel!?!?!?

[Miguel98]

[mario]

I don't think that I've seen anything like that happen before - it was a strange coming together between himself and Stroll, and from the onboard footage it looked more like Vettel drifted into Stroll's path.
[Edit] OK, now having seen a different angle, it looks more like both drivers were perhaps to blame, with Stroll moving out a little (as somebody else was coming up behind him and trying to pass on the inside of him) whilst Vettel also moved in at the same time.

[girry]

Both drivers? I'd put it almost entirely on Stroll, whilst Seb may have been a bit hasty to overtake the slowly going Stroll, Vettel certainly kept his line and gave him enough space; the Canadian should have been aware he was gonna be there.

https://twitter.com/Gianludale27/status ... 6550825984

[mario]

Both drivers? I'd put it almost entirely on Stroll, whilst Seb may have been a bit hasty to overtake the slowly going Stroll, Vettel certainly kept his line and gave him enough space; the Canadian should have been aware he was gonna be there.

https://twitter.com/Gianludale27/status ... 6550825984

It seems that the stewards have cleared both drivers, saying that they think neither one is completely to blame.

They state that whilst Stroll did move to the right, possibly implying that he was trying to get out of the way of Grosjean (who was catching Stroll and seemed to want to pass him on the inside of the corner), at the same time Vettel was tightening his line and therefore move slightly to the left towards Stroll, resulting in the two cars clipping each other. http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2017/10/01/v ... -slow-lap/

In retrospect, I do think that it is probably the right decision overall - looking at all the angles, it does look more like a case of both drivers focussing on something else rather than each other, and as a result ending up running into each other. What is surprising is the amount of damage it has done to Vettel's car whilst Stroll's car seemed to be perfectly fine - with the former now facing a possible premature gearbox change and a grid penalty for the next race.

[Peteroli34]

Cant help but feel that their was an awful lot of damage to the Ferrari. Palmer and Magnussen as well as Ocon and a Williams had a collision in the race and hardly any damage.

[IceG]

This offers an alternative view on the post-race incident
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... h-released

[tommykl]

This offers an alternative view on the post-race incident
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... h-released

I'm seeing Lance Stroll turning left, indeed, but still drifting to the outside. He still appears to want to progressively slip to the right-hand side to pick up rubber.

[mario]

This offers an alternative view on the post-race incident
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... h-released

I'm seeing Lance Stroll turning left, indeed, but still drifting to the outside. He still appears to want to progressively slip to the right-hand side to pick up rubber.

In the meantime, Vettel is still adamant that Stroll drove into him, having repeated those claims during the pre-race build up for the Japanese GP.

It is one of those things where, looking at the onboard footage from Stroll's car, whilst he does drift a bit to the right, he is not making a drastic change in direction. At the same time, we do know that Vettel was tightening the line that he took through that corner and already on a line that was going to take him very close to Stroll's path even if he hadn't drifted to the right - Webber did make a sharp comment about Vettel seeming to believe that the back of his car stopped at the back of his helmet, and I can see why he made a remark like that after this incident.

[tommykl]

This offers an alternative view on the post-race incident
http://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/ ... h-released

I'm seeing Lance Stroll turning left, indeed, but still drifting to the outside. He still appears to want to progressively slip to the right-hand side to pick up rubber.

In the meantime, Vettel is still adamant that Stroll drove into him, having repeated those claims during the pre-race build up for the Japanese GP.

It is one of those things where, looking at the onboard footage from Stroll's car, whilst he does drift a bit to the right, he is not making a drastic change in direction. At the same time, we do know that Vettel was tightening the line that he took through that corner and already on a line that was going to take him very close to Stroll's path even if he hadn't drifted to the right - Webber did make a sharp comment about Vettel seeming to believe that the back of his car stopped at the back of his helmet, and I can see why he made a remark like that after this incident.

That's true as well, but it could have equally been avoided had Stroll checked his mirrors prior to picking up rubber. Vettel is far from blameless, obviously, as the chop was entirely unnecessary, but I don't agree with the people claiming it's 100% Vettel's fault.