A fortnight after the teams arrived for the first time in Australia the field rolls onto Malaysia, and they face a completely different challenge. Instead of lapping the temporary park circuit in Melbourne, this time a modern permanent circuits awaits, one of the first of the Tilke tracks which have become more prominent on the racing calender.
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Sepang exhibits a variety of corners from the high speed, to tight hairpins with the outright irritating thrown in for good measure. But what is often most interesting about this round on the calender is the climate, the circuit is situated in an extreme tropical environment where the choices are either extreme heat, or extreme heat plus monsoon. As demonstrated by the 2009 weekend where the race was shorted due to the extreme rains. Which saw Raikkonen chilling in the garage in his shorts under the red flag conditions.
The track
This time I have something extra to add to the blog, a new feature... moving pictures dun dun duuuun, and so I present the first Alternative track guide - which may end up on Youtube later for world viewing. But you people of the internet who view these rantings get preview screenings whether that's a good thing or not here goes.
So what to expect
Things should me more straight forward than Australia as the added variable of a temporary track with overhanging trees depositing leaves on the circuit. Sepang is a high downforce track and will favour the better prepared teams so it is likely that red bull will be towards if not at the front and will be hard to beat. McLaren will be closest but just too far behind to make an impression in overall race pace. Ferrari will be looking to improve after what was a poorer showing then they hoped in Albert Park.
The mid pack was a bigger group than I estimated pre-season with Mercedes being further from the front than anticipated and Torro Rosso easily joining the mid-pack and scoring points in the first race - even before Sauber were excluded. This now offically classifies the mid-pack as anyone from 7th - 18th. Renailt will be expecting to be heading this group after the performance in Australia, with Petrov's podium - and Heidfeld finishing with what was discovered to be a significantly damaged car, hence his lack of pace.
The bottom teams from last year remained in roughly the same position, Lotus ahead of Virgin with HRT stumbling at the first hurdle. This second race should show some progress for the Spanish team as Australia allowed them to put some laps on the car - about three in total. But this weekend there is another time for them to contend with, Sepang was used for the GP2 asia series which set times that HRT should be aiming to beat. It would prove embarrassing if an F1 car was defeated by a division two vehicle. The time to look for is 1:44.182 as this was the pole time set by Grosjean.
Another thing to keep an eye on is the weather - it does have a tendency to rain and when it does rain is happens rather a lot. It rained today as per information from the Lotus team and rained hard - at approximately the same time the race will be starting on Sunday and Saturday's qualifying session which could add an extra dimension to what can all to easily become a processional event.
DRS and KERS
This weekend will be the first opportunity to see the systems running on a wide modern permanent circuit which does offer two main straights which will suit the KERS and one of which will be used for the DRS. I am assuming that the DRS zone will be placed on the fronts straight as it was in Australia but given the length of the front stretch and the radius of the first corner an overtaking possibility is more plausible. But should the monsoons arrive then DRS system becomes deactivated as well as the tyre regulations switching to their alternative state.
As for the KERS, because almost all of the cars will have the system installed and will be using it it will be cancelled out by both cars in a battle using it in on the two obvious straights. Fortunately there are two addtional locations which could be attempted should the power be available - into turn 4 and turn 9.
So however things play out it should be an interesting weekend, though we don't have as interesting support races as we did in Australia but just hope the main event makes up for it.
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