Previews

Malaysian Grand Prix Preview

Thursday 2nd April 2009

We're off to Sepang to find out just how fast the Brawn 'boys' are, just how reliable the Ferraris are and if over-dieting has removed Robert Kubica's 'sensible' button.

It'll be hard to match the fun and games we had in Melbourne when the F1 teams reconvene at Sepang for the Malaysian GP. Though the race will be held later in the day, the temperature and the humidity are always a factor in F1's biggest enduramce test for drivers.

Brawn arrive in the paddock as everyone's No.1 favourites and the biggest conversation in the paddock - other than, 'are the FIA trying to re-open their vendetta against Lewis Hamilton and McLaren?' - will be how much do they really lead by?

Some observers have pointed out that Jenson Button finished the opening lap round Albert Park with a 3.9 second advantage and then cruised round, trying not to make his car look too dominant. But he was followed by Sebastian Vettel who is never much good on opening laps and who has the ability to outpace a McLaren with a Toro Rosso. So who knows?

We'll get a better idea after the Malaysian GP, which is beginning to become a contradiction in terms. It's a long, wide track with two huge straights, so great for the aero boys; but the track degradation is such that there are huge bumps in the braking zones now, bad for the aero boys.

Everybody expects the two Brawn GP cars to be on the front row for the race, and have a few more stickers on them as well. Rubens Barrichello will be looking to make amends, both to his fellow drivers (Heidfeld, Webber and Raikkonen in particular) and to the team by not selecting anti-stall on the grid. (That's the trouble with old age - you get so terribly confused).

Jenson Button will be looking to extend his lead at the top of the driver's table, but he is such a worryingly nice bloke that he will probably be hoping that Rubens finishes second again.

Robert Kubica and Sebastian Vettel will both have the opportunity to make amends for last weekend's late race clash, only Vettel will be doing it further back down the grid. The FIA still haven't properly cleared up the refereeing of F1 races and last weekend we saw some more stewarding madness, penalising Vettel for what Martin Brundle called a 50/50 accident and what looked like 65% Kubica's fault for taking the outside line and not doing what the crafty Timo Glock did - twice.

This time, Vettel and Kubica are likely to be assisted by their team-mates. Mark Webber suffered more bad luck at his home GP, but has always run pretty well in Malaysia and with the Red Bull he has a car that could potentially win it (how good would that be). Similarly, Nick Heidfeld will have a greater edge on his team-mate thanks to the simple fact that he is lighter.

Robert Kubica has genius car control (pound for pound as good as Alonso and Hamilton, plus a little madness thrown in) but he cannot weigh any less; and on circuits where the high speed balance of the car is so important, BMW have more elements to play about with in setting up Heidfeld's car.

So I'd expect to see Brawn, Red Bull, BMW, joined by the Williams, Toyotas and Ferraris, contesting the points at Sepang. McLaren are unlikely to get in the points unless we have similar kamikaze driving along the way. In fact their sole mission in Malaysia will probably be to defend the six points they won in Australia and get a glimpse of the underside of the Brawn car.

I don't remember any impetus to find fresh evidence when the FIA ruled against Lewis Hamilton at Spa in 2008 when Kimi Raikkonen did the equivalent of what Vettel did in Australia, except Hamilton was able to get his car out of the way of an accident.

Ferrari will be very keen to make amends for an awful Australian GP where their wobbly strategy (and BMW's to be fair) was only rescued by the timely intervention of the Safety Car. Kimi Raikkonen seems to have started the season where he left off in 2008 and Felipe Massa looked like he was unable to extract himself from the backmarkers after his second pit-stop.

How Stefano Domenicali pulls the Scuderia out of this 'mini crisis' will affect the team for a long time to come. They have the money and the engineers, the only problem is that neither they or McLaren have the testing mileage any more. Maybe one season with McLaren and Ferrari in midfield will be good for the sport.

Lastly spare a thought for Sebastien Buemi who will be attempting his own version of Everest this weekend. This will be the toughest test of his driving career to date and if he can beat team-mate Bourdais again then we'll know that a new star has arrived.

FH

Malaysian GP. Click here to bet.
 

Post to del.icio.us

E-mail Article Print-Friendly Version