Less than a week from the chequered flag falling on a manic final lap last time out in Australia here I am once more sitting in the corner that is blog HQ setting things into motion for another instalment of the unfolding season. Despite seeing those unnatural noses for a whole weekend of competition they are not getting any better, no wonder Maldonado wanted to introduce his to the camouflaged concrete barriers. Which had it not been the final lap of the race, then another safety car would have been called and dialled the mayhem up to eleven.
But now the world turns away from the realm of concrete lined streets and minimal run-off - unless of course it's the Indycar GP of St Petersberg running this weekend as well which is rather exciting with the new cars being used. Cars I was hoping to use for the blogmobile but due to the season starting later than the blog, and the effort it takes to produce a version for the simulator, there is no mod available at the moment. However back here in the world of the blog, we are heading to the climatically unstable and impossibly humid tropical world of Malaysia. Often plagued by monsoon rains, filled with Raikkonen ice cream breaks, and bordered by a tropical landscape containing a vast array of, interesting and potentially dangerous wildlife.
The Track
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| Circuit Graphic provided by the FIA |
It is a track of ranging extremes on so many different levels, there are the varied corner styles and speeds, but on top of that it has one very interesting property. It is a layout that contains different levels of intelligence , possibly illustrating a development stage in Tilke's design career. For example everything from turn three until the exit of turn eight, is very well composed, with corners that give the impression they can be taken a couple of miles an hour faster each time round. While additionally opening chances for drivers to gain the upper hand on each other in the process, and overtaking in turn four. That's not it's only redeeming features, the fast turn 12 and the wide turn 16 are also notable mentions across the 3.4 mile lap. The overall width of the track also increases the amount of possible racing lines and makes defending a position more challenging.
But it is far from being all rosy in Malaysia, there are several points on the lap where you step back from the screen a little and, wonder exactly when on in the design office there. The opening complex is a perfect example, everything about it is all wrong, just like that moment where the two ends of a scalextric track wont meet up so you build in a mad corner to match it up. The two hairpins are an exercise in lunacy baked in a fresh coat of insanity, it would be much better if they were removed completely and replaced with a corkscrew type corner to match the topography of the area. On top of this this a seasoning of crazed decreasing radius corners, which are the work of pure evil, I'm not going to discount the corner style completely but the implementations here are very wrong indeed...
And now enough from me rambling on, it is time to unveil the video of the week, and the first time in the very short history of the blog, it is a track that has been videod before. So as per normal here in the confined space of blog HQ, once more into the breech we go and into the uncharted territory of formerly charted territory of something. With a little change over proceedings in Melbourne as I have found a partial WIP carset of the 2012 shapes, liveries and drivers - development never sleeps here at blog HQ, well not until later anyway.
What to expect
Remember the formbook we threw out the window in Australia, well we may as well leave it outside because all the things that took place down under probably won't bare too much relation to how it's going to unfold this time. Such is the difference between the two tracks, that is will play to the strengths of different teams and as this is the first high speed track of the season we shall find what those strengths are, and who has them. Yet as we did understand in Melbourne, there are some points of commonality and base performance we probably can look to for reference.
In a change from last season the divisions have shifted a little and have become blurred and this weekend will see further shuffling around. Out front McLaren and Red Bull seem to have got the winter development right and cam out strong last week claiming the top four places. Behind that we have Alonso in a class of his own unsurprisingly ahead of the division the rest of his team and his car are running in, accepting the limbo role that was formerly held by Mercedes. Speaking of the German outfit they could be looking to secure their position up with the top teams on a track governed more by aerodynamic performance rather than mechanical grip. The same can be said for Lotus who performed really well in Australia despite it seeming that their car is a little more fragile then the competitors - so they might want to be careful in the compression in the first lap. So the top five teams could bunch up a little closer this weekend
In the midfield we saw all sorts of close racing with most of them crossing the line all at the same time, surprisingly it seemed that Williams and Sauber were the strongest forces in this section of the grid. Becoming intertwined with the front divisions. Especially in the case of Maldonado before he was intertwined with the wall, and Perez's early performances, before the class was finally won by Kobayashi. Force India and Torro Rosso seem a little of the pace of the top two in class but the margin is so small there is no guarantee that they will fall behind.
Back in the lonely world of the bottom division progress seemed to be a little stagnant once more, two teams tied up with changing their names and identity and one trapped in the same yearly cycle. Caterham are expectedly the dominant leaders of the category with Kovalainen ahead of Petrov - but the Russian is running a lot close than Trulli had done. However reliability has let the team down so far with neither car finishing the race, handing a class victory to Marussia. Being the final row holders of the grid, both of the entries crossed the line - from a team that first turned up with a fuel tank too small, it does show improvement even if not in relative speed. Then there is HRT, failing to qualify again in Melbourne, Malaysia presents an opportunity to actually start a race in 2012 where we can see where they will settle.
One overwhelming factor that floats in the air surrounding this weekend if the tropical climate, rains that brought the race to a close in 2009 forcing Kimi into his shorts and into the frozen food cupboard. Opening the potential for the first rain effected event of the year, couple of damp practice sessions last time but things don't happen in moderation in Sepang.
The Blog Predictions
After a rather poor performance from the blog in the first race of the season this feature makes its return this weekend to see if it will get any better. So here is the effort at points scoring for Malaysia 2012
Top 10 finishers:
- Vettel
- Button
- Webber
- Hamiton
- Alonso
- Schumacher
- Raikkonen
- Grosjean
- Senna
- Rosberg
Qualifying Battle
Red Bull - Vettel
McLaren - Hamilton
Ferrari - Alonso
Mercedes - Rosberg
Lotus - Raikkonen
Force India - Hulkenberg
Sauber - Kobayshi
Torro Rosso - Ricciardo
Williams - Maldonado
Caterham - Kovalainen (based on pre-penalty position)
Marussia - Glock
HRT - De La Rosa (based on Q1 time even if outside of the 107% time)
So the stage is now set for another thrilling encounter between the 22 (24 if HRT are any good) drivers under an uncertain sky, the track may have it's significant flaws but the action on it promises to be very entertaining. So until next time - this is farewell from me here at blog HQ.
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