Malaysia 2014 – the rating and the fight between teammates

Why? Because you need to see the value of pilots also where the single seater is not competitive. And because the first you have to defeat in Formula 1 is your teammate!

Tires change – we will award tires according to the pilots’ performance in every Grand Prix. The best performance will be awarded with supersoft tires and the worst with rain tires, meaning that a rating of 6 is the maximum and 1 is the minimum. We will not take into account the performance of the car or other things that are not under the direct control of the pilots.

(+) The pilot of the race: Lewis Hamilton.  Impeccable in qualifications, impeccable over the race, rare indeed the moments where Rosberg could not keep the pace with the British.

(-) The taxi driver: Jean Eric Vergne.

Race show rating: 6 out of 10. Although local time (11 a.m.) was all right for us not to feel under stress and fatigue, watching the race did not come easy: sheer boredom; while the sound, below its own standard, prompted the sense of attending a GP3 race.

Red Bull: Vettel rating 6 (2, 3) – Ricciardo rating 6 (5, 16)

Vettel was very good over the race and exceptional in qualifications. His car was (yet) definitely inferior, still he managed to dog Hamilton split seconds close and wind up 2nd on the grid. Ricciardo ran quite a race and only let himself passed by the world champion who is also his teammate. The Australian had a forte start, unhesitant and quite arty. Still our point for Malaysia goes to the German.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 1 – 1

Mercedes: Rosberg rating 5 (3, 2) – Hamilton  rating 6 (1,  1)

This is one of the very few races where Nico gives himself up to his teammate, later admitting he could not keep up with him. While Lewis drove like a great champion, true, in a car as fast as it was proven reliable. Our F1 Race Manager point for Malaysia goes to the British.

Sepang 0 – 1

General 1 – 1

Ferrari: Alonso rating 6 (4, 4) – Raikkonen rating 4 (6,12)

Well, we do not think that only Magnussen spoiled Kimi’s race, as the latter declared. The Finn was over one full second slower than Alonso in the qualifications, while his race pace was inferior to the Spaniard’s. Alonso had a hesitant start, but there on he exerted himself to the maximum and did a very good job while at it.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 2 – 0

McLaren: Button rating 5 (10, 6)  – Magnussen rating 4 (8,  9 )

We derate Button for having picked the wrong tires in the qualifications, which placed him high on the race start grid. While we rate Kevin just 4 because of the slip he committed, sending Raikkonen out of the points.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 1 – 1

Lotus: Grosjean rating 6 (15, 11) – Maldonado rating 4 (16, 21)

Grosjen’s team is our winner, he being 2 seconds faster than his teammate in the qualifications. We rate him 6 because we trust him to have cleared the table. We so wish we could see the Lotus single-seaters ready to fight for the forefront positions over the next races, but chances are scant for the thing to happen in the near future. Nothing to say about Pastor, except that he may go see his shrink when he sees Williams’s results where he himself looked back in anger last year.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 2 – 0

Force India: Hulkenberg rating 6 (7, 7) – Perez rating 4 (16, 11)

Nico Hulkenberg may be entitled to second Hamilton as the man of the race. The German did, again, quite a race, ran tops in the qualifications and had no slip up in any of the sessions. Perez had a difficult start this season… yet there is the Bahrain race ahead, where he may make up for it. Sergio gets our 4 out of 6 for coming 1.7 seconds behind Nico in qualifications.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 2 – 0

Sauber: Sutil rating 4 (17, 18) – Gutierrez rating 5 (12, 17 )

Adrian Sutil himself came about one second behind his teammate, in qualifications… so our intra-team winner for the Malaysia race is Gutierrez.

Sepang 0 – 1

General 1 – 1

Williams: Massa rating 6 (13, 7) – Bottas rating 5 (18, 8)

Felipe Massa gets our 6 rating point for his intra-team fight, be it only for not having taken orders in the Sepang race. We also believe that Williams will come 3rd in Bahrain and that they will look lots better in a dry circuit, differently shaped than in Malaysia.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 2 – 0

Toro Rosso: Kvyat rating 6 (11, 10) – Vergne rating 4 (9, 19)

We do not derate Kvyat for his slight lag behind his teammate. But we drastically derate the French for the pile up crash collision he caused… not lower than 4, though, for having made it in the qualifications. For which he also gets our intra-team winner point.

Sepang 0 – 1

General 0 – 2

Marussia: Bianchi rating 5 (19, 20) – Chilton rating 5 (21, 15)

Even though he never quit race for 21st races running, Chilton comes one point short of the maximum 6 because he was way behind his teammate in qualifications. Binachi says he had nothing to do with the Maldonado, Vergne causing the break down that propelled him into Pastor Maldonado’s car. And right he is.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 1 – 1

Caterham: Kobayashi rating 6 (20, 13) – Ericcson rating 5 (22, 14)

We pep-rate the Caterham pilots, who anyway ran the race well and, more important, saw it through, both cars.

Sepang 1 – 0

General 2 – 0