Malaysian Grand Prix Review

The way some of Ferrari's rivals and some of the pundits talked about the race gave the term 'clutching at straws' a new meaning. The fact is that throughout the weekend Schumi was able to turn up the wick at will. Only the teams' varied fuel loads on Friday, and the disadvantage of Michael having to play track-sweeping in first qualifying, prevented him from topping every single timesheet. At this track tailored to Schumi's driving style, this weekend he was, once again, simply peerless.

Pole by over 0.6s underlined his superiority, and even if there were stages on Sunday during which Juan-Pablo Montoya seemed to able to close in on the red car, at no stage did Michael ever look like he was a lamb for the slaughter. On the contrary, he always looked to have something in hand. And all this in conditions which the Michelin runners hoped would give them an edge. It seems the bad news is that not only are Bridgestone basically on par with Michelin, but at bottom the F2004 is basically streets ahead.

Of course some of the unknown quantities such as the races in Bahrain and China may cause some surprises, but right now there seems no reason why Ferrari can't (gasp!) win every single race this year, although the way a season goes that probably (hopefully!) won't happen. Some Michelin teams dared to suggest afterwards that perhaps race day at Sepang was a tiny bit cooler than expected, but if that's the case then they'll need an oven for the Michelins to have an edge. Wishful thinking is no substitute for the facts.

Rubinho's timidity (on the wrong tyres) in those few laps when there were a few spits of rain on the track dropped him down from 2nd, and essentially he never recovered. His late-race charge to try to catch Jenson Button for 3rd showed that, just like his team-mate, he had speed to burn if he wished to call upon it. But for most of the race he seemed content to merely amble along, and seemingly his most significant contribution was to hold up Montoya's Williams before his third and final stop.

Ferrari's tactics there which only made doubly sure of a near-certain win anyway had JPM screaming blue murder afterwards, but the Colombian had nothing to complain about. Ferrari had outsmarted him by leaving Rubens out there for a few extra laps, and of course teamwork dictated that the Brazilian would be doing his utmost to disadvantage the Williams driver. Maybe what Juan-Pablo should really complain about is how he doesn't have a team that works in harmony quite like Ferrari does.

Sure, this weekend Williams was undoubtedly closer to Ferrari than they were in Melbourne, and yes Montoya did set the fastest lap of the race, but at no stage did the walruses look like they would seriously threaten the prancing horses. Worryingly, Ralf Schumacher once again failed to show any spark. More worryingly, the German once again was at a loss to explain why he lacked pace in second qualifying. Most worryingly, his BMW engine eventually blew. Perhaps Williams' reliability isn't such a given after all.

Schumi aside, and until the lights went out to start the race, Webber was without doubt the star of the weekend. Fourth fastest on aggregate times on Friday showed that his sterling efforts in 2003 and in Melbourne were no fluke. Throughout the weekend he invariably had at least a second over team-mate Christian Klien, although one wasn't sure whether the R5 really is an ace machine and the rookie was just under-performing, or if Mark was extracting much more out of the R5 than anyone else could.

After Saturday, you would have to lean towards the latter. Over one lap, you really now have to start admitting that Webber is Special. To beat Barrichello, Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen over one lap and score a front row start in a Jaguar is no mean feat. Keeping in mind that all the front-runners stopped within a dozen laps of the start, it wasn't as though the R5 was running on the smell of an oily rag either. Martin Brundle called it "a defining moment" in Webber's career, and so it may prove to be.

But with a big points haul in the offering, Mark undid all the good work in the race, showing that perhaps he still needs to work on his Sunday performances. Webber has never been a strong starter without launch control, and in Melbourne he lost places as well, but here his near-stall was galling to behold. Mind you, Klien also lost a bucketful of places, so we can put this down to a Jaguar anti-stall fault. Thereafter, Webber's opportunistic move past Ralf was aggressive and impressive, but the good news was to end there.

And just to show that here at F1 Rejects we are not parochially biased, for going from hero to zero in the space of 24 hours we give Mark the 'Reject of the Race' award. As an aside, perhaps he had been jinxed from the start of the weekend anyway, when his Jaguar turned up with 'YTL' sponsorship on the nosecone. Apart from an initial letter, 'YTL' coincides with our site author's initials, so perhaps Webber's weekend outcome had been headed for rejectdom from the start!

In the other leaping cat, however much we might have expected Klien to flop like Antonio Pizzonia or to a lesser extent Justin Wilson last year, the Austrian is showing relatively well, even if he can't come remotely near Webber's practice and qualifying times at the moment. There has been little to fault in his race consistency over his first two Grands Prix, and he has brought the car home twice in a row, this time in a creditable 10th, which is more than can be said for Webber at this stage.

Although less of a surprise, the other feel-good story from Sepang was Button's 3rd place, the Englishman's first podium in his fifth season, and the first for BAR since mid-2001. After what had been a relatively troubled weekend, BAR showed that their pre-season form and their Melbourne performance was no flash in the pan, and that they had reliability when it mattered. It took excellent pit work and some forceful driving for Button to pass Raikkonen in the pits, but thereafter his 3rd place looked fairly safe.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Mark Webber
From Saturday's Hero to Sunday's Absolute Zero

Sato wasn't the only one to commit that cardinal sin, and his drive from the back of the field was commendable if not spectacular, and he would have scored a point for 8th had his Honda not expired mere laps from the end. The other man to spin into the gravel on his hot lap was, of course, Fernando Alonso, but such is the esteem in which the young Spaniard is held these days that his recovery to finish 7th on a less-effective two stop strategy actually appeared rather mediocre.

It was generally a disappointing weekend for Renault, especially since they were the team that seemed most likely to challenge Ferrari after Melbourne. Their 1-2 in first qualifying flattered to deceive, and with Alonso having made rapid progress early but then stuck in the lower regions of the points for the rest of the afternoon, the Regie's hopes were pinned on Jarno Trulli. The Italian at first battled ferociously with Button, but then chronic understeer saw him drop to an eventual lonely 5th.

The worry here is that it wasn't another race where Trulli fell asleep during the middle segments; rather, it was the car that let him down, as his tyres started to grain. Throughout the weekend, the R24 aero package simply didn't produce the expected results, and the bad news for fans is that if it's a different Michelin-shod team taking up the fight to Ferrari each week, instead of the one team making a consistent concerted effort, then they may as well kiss the championships goodbye.

On the current points system, with a 20-point deficit to Schumi, it may not be too early to say that Kimi's title chances are shot. Though one can perhaps understand his frustration, the way he assaulted the marshal as he left the track was totally unacceptable. Which people, after all, would be first on the scene to rescue him if his car is an upturned burning wreck? As one commentator put it: go and shove Ron Dennis, not someone who's doing their job trying to help you. In the other McLaren, it was a faceless drive from David Coulthard to 6th, the second race in succession in which he has been virtually a nonentity.

The only man in the points who wasn't in Melbourne was Sauber's Felipe Massa, who, as much as we don't like to say it because we're anything but his fans, was really quite impressive. He out-qualified Giancarlo Fisichella and was generally faster in the rest of practice, and left the Italian for dead in the race, Fisi not managing to recover from an early off-track excursion. Massa then kept his head, managed to keep his car on the road for a change, and brought home a very well-deserved point.

One has to ask what on earth is going through Fisi's head at the moment. Maybe he's been slightly caught off guard by Massa's inherent speed. But in a year which is supposedly his golden opportunity to impress the powers that be at Ferrari, Giancarlo has got off to a most mediocre start, as if he hasn't settled into his new team or he's just still in second gear. He needs to get his act together quickly. More results like Sepang will ensure that that Ferrari opportunity he's yearning for will never come.

Last year it was often a case of ridiculously naïve low-fuel tactics, this year it's been things like being caught unprepared when Panis had to go out for his second qualifying lap in Australia slightly earlier than expected, or Olivier coming into the pits at Sepang and finding no-one waiting for him, and then speeding in the pit lane to boot. Getting to the top in F1 will require not only money, not only a great engine, not only even a well-developed chassis, but also the last little details that could make or break a race result.

Even if they are trying to sound positive, one imagines that Jordan will be leaving Malaysia rather downbeat. Last year Fisichella in one of the yellow cars at least was able to mix it with the midfield more often than not, but this year thus far Nick Heidfeld is finding the gap to the Toyotas, Saubers and Jaguars difficult to bridge. In fact, however hard the German is trying at the moment, the time the EJ14 is giving away over a single lap at the moment is quite staggering.

Both inexperienced drivers seem to be sliding and applying lots of opposite lock each time they appear on camera, which invariably is slowing them down even more, and in addition they are either being carelessly unhelpful or overly generous when being lapped. Neither as yet have learnt the art of allowing the leaders through whilst losing the minimum amount of time, although without a shadow of a doubt, Bruni is doing a much better job than his Hungarian team-mate.

And so it's off into the brave new world of the Bahrain Grand Prix for the next round, one of the most eagerly anticipated races for a long time on what looks like being a wonderfully constructed circuit in a most spectacular desert setting. The expected heat and the challenge of something completely new (i.e. sand!) will provide another chance to see if anyone can really get close to Schumacher and Ferrari, although the signs after the first two rounds are that they have a very difficult job on their hands.