Malaysian Grand Prix Review

Consider the qualifying results. In both Australia and Malaysia, you had in the top ten two Ferraris, two McLarens, two BMWs, two Toyotas, Mark Webber's Red Bull, and the only change was Nico Rosberg's Williams in for Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault. Consider also the final finishing order. The podium finishers were the same as in Melbourne, only in different order, as were those in 4th, 5th and 6th. A Toyota was in the points once again, and this time Heikki Kovalainen scored instead of Rosberg.

Usually the start of the season throws up an oddity or two, as teams stumble onto set-ups and circumstances that do and do not suit their car, as teething problems with new machinery cause reliability problems. Not this year, it seems. In our season preview, we forecast that the stability in the rules would bring the field closer today and lead to more unpredictability. We weren't the only ones. And we're not entirely wrong; in qualifying segment one, the top 13 were covered by 1 second. In Melbourne, it was the top 16.

What most pundits hadn't accounted for was that the stability in rules also meant that most teams know the regulatory field in which they are playing, and have been able to work their packages to within a few percentage points of optimum performance even at this early stage in the season. Those who have not, like Honda, Spyker and, to a lesser extent, the Red Bull teams, have been left behind. And it won't have helped that the teams have already had major tests at Sepang and Bahrain to perfect set-ups.

In Autosport, Mark Hughes also suggests that the end of the tyre war has had an effect. Previously, when Michelin and Bridgestone competed against each other, not only did they constantly develop new compounds which their teams needed to adjust to, but in a race and qualifying situation, those compounds also kicked into their peak performance at different stages. You had different people hitting their straps at different times. This helped to promote what overtaking there was.

Next, Champ Car mainly races on street courses. The constantly changing grip levels on a street track also brings out the differences between the compounds. And, if you make a mistake, you're in the wall and the pace car comes out to bunch the field. In the constant droning about safety in F1, cars fly off into so much acreage they end up in the next suburb, so safety car interventions are much rarer. Finally, Champ Car has a no-blocking rule, plus that emblem of artificiality, the push-to-pass button.

And even then there's no real guarantee of a close or exciting race in Champ Cars! F1 will always be the pinnacle of motorsport with the fastest and most technologically advanced cars, and it has never necessarily featured the best racing entertainment on earth. That doesn't mean that F1 should not strive to improve the racing excitement, but it does meant that perhaps we need to recast our expectations for this season, and simply enjoy a dog-eat-dog stoush between McLaren and Ferrari, a la the season 2000.

Alonso took the lead at the first corner, and once it was clear that the Ferrari challenge would evaporate, he controlled things from the front and, barring pit stops, it was a comparative cruise, even if he had to cope without a radio. Oh the humanity! But once again, he was somewhat upstaged by that upstart Hamilton, who not only had the cheek to pass not one but two Ferraris at the start, he picked up Massa around the outside of the virtual-hairpin turn 2. Is Lewis already the most opportunistic starter in F1?

Lewis had to contend with running out of water mid-race - at Sepang, a real problem compared to losing your radio. He also managed the last third of the race brilliantly, when with fading brakes he was being caught by Kimi Raikkonen at 0.6s a lap, to ensure that Kimi would end up a lap short. Although everything at McLaren seems cosy, Dennis has been quick to quash talk of an intra-team war. Is Ron seeing another Senna-Prost pairing? After two races, surely it is too premature to rank Lewis quite so highly.

As for Massa, if this was a race he felt he had to win, it didn't say much for his ability to handle the pressure. Being beaten off the line by Alonso was recoverable, but he lacked the awareness to know where Hamilton was. It should have been easy to block the McLaren out at turn 2. Felipe has since defended his decision to dive inside Hamilton, which ended up in the grass on the second attempt, putting him behind Nick Heidfeld, from which point his strategy of pitting before the BMW never allowed him to recover.

It wasn't his decision to make the move on Lewis that was worthy of criticism, it was the way he fell hook, line and sinker for the trap Hamilton had laid. Lewis hung in the middle of the track, enough to deter a more cautious opponent, but also with enough space for someone desperate like Massa to dive down the inside. That forced Felipe onto the worst possible line for the pass, while it still allowed Hamilton enough space to lurch left back onto a good racing line for the corner. It was superb racecraft on the Briton's part.

What Massa should have done, once he had got his nose inside the McLaren, was brake a touch earlier to allow for the dirtier line and to ensure he didn't fly off as he did, then slow his mid-corner speed before powering out in the middle of the track so that Lewis could not make a criss-cross move. Easier said than done, that is for sure. But if Felipe is a genuine championship contender, these are the manoeuvres he will need to pull off, whereas his ill-fated lunge on this occasion has only earned him 'Reject of the Race'.

Another quiet race to 4th confirmed BMW's place as the third-best team in F1, and showed that, for one car at least, the pre-season reliability fears are proving unfounded. The same could not be said for Robert Kubica, who did not really shine in comparison with Heidfeld all weekend and who endured another pointless race. This time he was affected by traction control issues, and the Pole has now gone without scoring since his podium at Monza last year.

REJECT OF THE RACE
Felipe Massa
Who is the rookie? Felipe hoodwinked by Hamilton

Sepang has traditionally been a strong track for Williams. Ralf Schumacher won in 2002, Juan-Pablo Montoya and Heidfeld were on the podium in 2004 and 2005, and Williams filled the second row last year. Once again, they were very competitive in Malaysia, and quite clearly the fourth-placed team on pace alone. Rosberg was quite sensational throughout the weekend, took 6th place on the grid comfortably, and would have held it in the race were it not for an hydraulics/engine failure.

It is difficult to say how Alexander Wurz would have fared on an equal footing, as gearbox gremlins left him starting 19th, after which he showed that his racecraft had not diminished after so many years as a tester, providing the best entertainment of the race as he scythed through the midfield and held off Webber towards the end to finish 9th after a drive that deserved points. The pace is there for Williams, that much is becoming clear, but reliability questions remain. Sounds like a groundhog day (or year).

Fisichella declared that finishing 6th after starting 12th was like scoring a podium for Renault. How the mighty are fallen, after Fisi had won this race from pole last year! But in truth it was a sterling drive from the Italian, as both Renaults took advantage of missing the top ten on the grid to fuel up heavily and run long in their first stint, to propel them into the battle for points. This was the kind of thing Giancarlo did particularly well when he drove for Sauber back in 2004.

By getting in between Hamilton and Raikkonen after they had made their first stops and he was yet to pit, Fisichella also effectively derailed the Finn's race. As for the other Finn, Kovalainen banished the horrors of Melbourne with a more controlled outing, marginally out-qualifying his team-mate and making no errors in the race to score his first championship point. But there was still no sign of any particular fireworks, and in the rookie of the year stakes he's not even in the same country as Hamilton at this stage.

Faceless Toyota qualified both cars in the top 10 again, which shows that perhaps inherently the TF107 isn't quite as shabby as everyone predicted during the pre-season, and Jarno Trulli probably put himself to sleep driving around to claim 7th after Kubica fell back and Rosberg dropped out. Team-mate Schumacher's race was more eventful, dropping back at the start and then even further thanks to a slow puncture, before embroiling himself amongst the Hondas. Not that too many paid much attention.

Webber showed once more that the basic pace of the Red Bull is there over one lap, but, as was the case in testing, the RB3 is not overly competitive in a race stint. He finished where he started (10th), but both Renaults and Wurz had started behind him but were ahead by the end. How he must be spewing at the performance of the Williams! At least the Australian could take comfort from the fact that, for the time being, he seems to be getting a definite edge over team-mate David Coulthard.

In qualifying trim this comes as no surprise, but this in turn impacts on race pace, especially if DC is buried further back in the pack and, as he was at Sepang, running a heavy fuel load in the first stint to compensate. David's eventual bizarre problem of having his brake pedal jam his steering column not only showed that the RB3 remains fragile, but in pushing the design and construction envelope to the brink, Adrian Newey's concept has a narrow optimal performance window that the team is yet to hit.

Whether Honda has a half-decent optimal performance window at all for the RA107 is another question. A new aero package was promised for Sepang. During the weekend, the team changed its forecast twice, first saying that an upturn could be expected for the European season, then pushing that back to Canada. Meanwhile, Jenson Button called for greater efforts, Rubens Barrichello called for calm, and next thing you know, Honda is having talks with Ross Brawn. Headless chook, anyone?

At least this week Honda weren't trounced by Super Aguri. It was back down to earth for Aguri Suzuki's merry men, and although Takuma Sato out-qualified both Hondas he finished behind them. Anthony Davidson missed Q2 and, in time-honoured fashion, blamed traffic, although the anti-stall again affected him in the race. With improvements due from rivals, and a car which may not have much development left in it, it may be that Super Aguri needs to make hay in these early races while the proverbial sun shines.

The most interesting news to emanate from Toro Rosso was the rumoured takeover by HWA, but given Gerhard Berger's connections with Dietrich Mateschitz a sale would be a surprise. Vitantonio Liuzzi did well to make Q2, but after a clash with Sato and an unscheduled stop, he fell behind Scott Speed and never recovered. The American got trapped in the battle with the Hondas, Sato and Schumacher, and that's where he stayed by race's end. It was that kind of afternoon.

Spyker will leave Malaysia licking its wounds, questioning the wisdom of being the only team not to test at Sepang the previous week, and introducing a new aero package that made no difference, or perhaps dropped the cars back! From within 3 seconds of the pace in Melbourne, they were now around 3 to 3.5s away. Adrian Sutil's race ended after a first lap wheel-banger with Button, while Christijan Albers got stuck in gear, and their local test driver Fairuz Fauzy didn't even get a run. Unsatisfactory all round.

Moreover, they wasted their time and energy lodging another protest that was destined to be waved away by the stewards. Even Bernie Ecclestone is sick of the whole customer car saga and demanded that the teams reach a compromise by this weekend in Bahrain. Some kind of creative solution will be needed to break the stalemate. Let's just hope the off-track politics don't become the most interesting aspect of the weekend at Sakhir, although judging by the first two rounds, we're not holding our breath.