Hi, guys. I have a suggestion... let's move all discussions regarding the upcoming '08 Malaysian Grand Prix to this thread. The reason I suggest this is because the 2008 F1 Competition Thread is just cluttered as hell with normal discussion posts and posts with peoples bets on whose going to win etc. etc.

This way we'll help tune out, too, by reducing the clutter in that thread and making sure he doesn't accidently miss someones betting post.

If you guys prefer I can easily have this thread pinned so it'll remain at the top of the Motorsports forum.

1. Massa Ferrari
2. Raikkonen Ferrari
3. Trulli Toyota
4. Kubica BMW Sauber
5. Heidfeld BMW Sauber
6. Webber Red Bull-Renault
7. Alonso Renault
8. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes *
9. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes *
10. Glock Toyota
11. Button Honda
12. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault
13. Piquet Renault
14. Barrichello Honda
15. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari
16. Rosberg Williams-Toyota
17. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari
18. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari
19. Sato Super Aguri-Honda
20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari
21. Davidson Super Aguri-Honda
22. Nakajima Williams-Toyota **

* Penalised for blocking
** Penalised for his crash in Australia

So, that's the revised grid for the 2008 Malaysian Grand Prix. If you guys are wondering about Nakajima... he was penalised back in Australia for his numerous incidents with other cars where he damaged his own and rival cars so the stewards gave him a 10-place grid penalty. The Australian stewards, not the Malaysian Stewards.

Also, Hamilton and Kovalainen fully deserve their penalties. I was watching the qualifying live and they were both finished their hot laps and crawling back to the pits while STILL ON THE RACING LINE while Alonso and Heidfeld were on hot laps. Heidfeld managed to squeeze past without having to brake but Alonso ended up braking and lost a lot of time.

Damn it, I am completely confused.

I'm having a really hard time noticing any trends this year. Maybe it's the lack of traction control, but everything is up in the air.

I'm damn impressed my Toyota this year and the Sauber team. I never gave much thought to Trulli before this season but with his positive attitude and excitement about the new rules and lack of TC he's quickly becoming one of the drivers I'm rooting for. On the flip side I've never really liked Massa and his taking every chance to bitch about losing TC and the new qualifying format is just annoying me to no end.

I'm sure every driver has likes dislikes, just like us fans, I personally don't like that they have new rules every year. They need to lock em up and be the end of that. And Im sure thats why the driver are complaining, one wants TC the other wants qualifying done different, bla bla and so on.

As for the race, it was good, Hamilton shows his resiliency, i was gonna laugh if he passed Trulli for 4th. Things are very mixed up behind the McLaren and Ferrari, with BMW showing up strong! 2 races down 16 more to go!!!

Man, I hope the Toyota is good on the technical tracks just as they managed to be at Sepang. Glock's second retirement in a row (at no fault of his own) is disappointing. I really want to see what this guy can do in a race.

And poor Bourdais. His engine blows while he's running fourth in his debut GP and then the brakes let him down at Sepang.

Hey Phix, I applaud you for rooting the smaller, lesser guy/team, but be realistic, based on the past few years, we know who the frontrunners are and that there would be only 1 or 2 teams that would be able to get the attention of the McLaren, Ferrari. It was Renault few years ago, now it appears to be BMW. And thats another wish of mine, why cant F1 be more like NASCAR, with the equal possibility of driver 1 to win as well as driver 22. It would be nice to see all the teams up to par with one another.

^I feel that F1 is as much about the technological superiority of the cars as it is about the drivers. If it was a one make series it would loose an element of entertainment for me.

If you want a 1 make open wheel road course series, watch A1, which is pretty good racing, but you would never get something as good as today's race.

No thanks. I like their "freedom" of innovation and that each team designs and builds their own car, engines*, etc. Watch Indy, or A1 for spec racing. It would completely lose the allure that F1 does have.

The beauty of the rule changes is that as seen in qualifying and practices, the rule changes had a big effect on closing the gaps in times. We can really see the true skills brought out by these drivers. As much as it's a big competition against teams and their abilities to develop a competitive car, the rule changes really emphasize the drivers and their abilities, which is great for racing.


For STR, I feel that Bourdais is a really solid driver, all things considered. I'm also happy for Button's result too.

I think we should stay with having the comments on the competition page. It makes for interesting read when you re read the thread later on. When something happens and someone complains or gets excited about it its like "oh man, I remember that," when you read about it.

....uh, what?