A Bad Season Start

Well, that was a really bad season start. It went wrong at Melbourne, it went wrong at Sepang and we’ve left empty-handed. In Malaysia I could have gained some points on the dry track, but we knew that the rain was about to arrive at any moment. Friday’s laptimes seemed quite good but there’s always the unknown of the fuel loads the other teams have on board. And then we knew that the most difficult part was qualifying, where we’re obviously suffering more than in the race. I was quite satisified with my lap in Q3; that is what we can accomplish at the moment. 

We’re missing grip and downforce and we’ve got to give it our all with what we have. There are some new features coming up and I know the whole team is working very hard to anticipate the whole development.

The race was a lottery. We knew the downpour would arrive sooner or later but we never made the right choice as far as the changing weather conditions were concerned.  During the first pitstop we decided immediately to put on the wet tyres because we expected some heavy rain in the next couple of minutes; it didn’t happen and the tyres were destroyed on the track. It really was a pity, obviously we didn’t have the best car but it would’ve been enough for a good result.

There are many things we’ve got to get used to. For example, the KERS could give much more on this track. At the moment we’ve still got some teething problems, I could see that by myself in Malaysia. On Friday the cockpit was filled with smoke at the end of FP1, while on Sunday water infiltrated the KERS which led to the destruction of it’s insulation and I had to stop. At the start, the KERS works really well as we could see last Sunday. 

The next race is in China, but a couple of days before the FIA’s Court of Appeal will decide about the diffuser. This decision will have an enormous impact on the Championship. We need more downforce and we’re working very hard on it. You just need to analyse the performance in the three sectors at Malaysia to see that we’re losing a lot compared to the best cars. You can see that especially in the middle section, where downforce is realy crucial. 

We still don’t have any points after two races and the situation is a very difficult moment. We’ve seen other moments like this but we know how to react and we’ll do it already at Shanghai.

Source - Kimi’s Official Site

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Montezemolo prepares Ferrari to ‘break habit’

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Bridgestone Potenza intermediate and wet tyres made their first race appearance of 2009 as severe rain fell on the Sepang circuit after a dry race start with everyone on the soft compound dry tyre, causing the Malaysian Grand Prix to be stopped after 32 laps, with Jenson Button awarded the win.

Black clouds provided a backdrop to the start of the race, but it was Bridgestone’s black rubber which provided the crucial performance variable. Once the rain started, the water levels on track changed lap by lap making it very difficult for competitors to choose whether the dry slick, intermediate or wet tyre should be used, and the best tyre for the conditions changed frequently.

As the race was stopped before three-quarter distance, only half points will be awarded. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) took second and Timo Glock (Panasonic Toyota Racing) finished third.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

How was the race from Bridgestone’s perspective?
“This was a very interesting race, even before the rain started. Everyone started on the soft tyre. The soft gave good consistent performance in the conditions we saw today and there would have been good strategy options had the weather remained dry Starting on the soft was a sensible move as the soft has a lower working range than the hard, so when the rain started it delivered better performance than the hard would have done, before the wet tyres became necessary.”

How important was tyre strategy?
“Choosing the correct tyre at the correct time is absolutely crucial and we saw many illustrations of how beneficial it is to make the right choice. Once the rain started there was a window where the intermediate tyre was the best one to use, as shown by Timo Glock who was up to ten seconds faster than the other cars. Some drivers used the wet tyre too early, and suffered in the too dry conditions. However, once the rain became harder the wet tyre was the correct tyre for conditions. Unfortunately, the rain then became so hard that it was too wet for Formula One cars.”

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Felipe Massa:
“It was a chaotic race and it’s easy in these conditions to take decisions, which later in hindsight, turn out to be wrong.

When we fitted the rain tyres, we expected heavy rain to come soon and unfortunately it was just a light shower. Therefore, I came back in to fit intermediates and immediately after that, the downpour arrived. It’s a shame, as I could have managed to get into the points. We definitely need to analyse our mistakes and understand how they can be avoided, but I don’t think it needs a revolution which the always emotional onlookers demand: it would be wrong because it’s not a case of us suddenly becoming stupid. It’s the playing field that has changed. We must be aware of that and tackle the situation with a different approach.”

Kimi Raikkonen:
“We were in a good position at the time of the first pit stop and then we made a mistake, fitting the rain tyres when the rain had yet to fall. And that was where my race was pretty much over. When the race was halted, the conditions were very difficult. There was so much water on the track and I was struggling to drive the car even in second gear. Clearly we cannot be happy with our start to the season: in Melbourne, I was the one to make a mistake and today it was the team, the result being we find ourselves without any points.”

Stefano Domenicali:
“We are very disappointed because once again today, we leave a circuit empty handed. With hindsight, it’s clear that we took some wrong decisions, especially in Kimi’s case at his first pit stop: the information we had at the time was that the storm was due to hit in a very short time, when in fact it took a few more minutes for the rain to come. Felipe was very unlucky: another forty seconds or so and he could have stayed on track with the extreme wet tyres, finishing in a good position at the end of the race. Clearly we have to extricate ourselves from this situation, without panicking, but with every one of us taking on our responsibilities: we have to dig deep and react, starting immediately. We have to change our mentality and accept that we are in a different situation to the past and that therefore we have to tackle it with a different approach, both on track and in Maranello.

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It has been hard to write a report for this weekends GP. Not just because Kimi had another disastrous result but I’m still feeling cheated out of a proper race. I totally agree they couldn’t have raced in those conditions but can’t help but think there were another 23 laps out there which could have provided much excitement with a drying track. 

Its Bernie’s fault - he should never had agreed to a late start time in Malaysia. He put pressure on the organisers to agree to a night race and this was the compromise. He knew however (from the other 9 years F1 has been at Sepang) that it always rains at that time of day at that time of year. The fact that it was dry just after the race was called off (due to the 2 hour rule) compounds this - if it wasn’t for the fading light it would have been fine to race. Another reason why a normal start time would have meant the race could have been restarted - although it would have meant an hours wait while the rain fell. 

Congratulations to Button for holding it together to take another win. He dropped down to 4th at the start but kept his head when it mattered, ran longer in the first stint and set some stunning laps before his first stop which helped him move back into the lead. 

Another great win for the Brit but I can’t help but think he’s a little disappointed that he didn’t get to over 75% race distance and secure the full 10 points. After all if the ‘diffuser’ ruling goes against Brawn (along with Toyota and Williams), or even if it doesn’t in fact,  these first two races may have been his real chance to get ahead before the usual front runners resume normal service.

He was very lucky though as on lap 30 Glock was leading the race before he pitted for full wets. A decision which cost the luckless German his first win and in fact two places in the end. It was a real pleasure to see Timo get a solid result and his second podium ever. He seems such a nice guy and his gamble on inters really deserved a reward.

Kimi and Ferrari sadly had another race to forget. Things started well and the Finn was in a solid 5th (doesn’t that sound awful - he should be fighting for wins!). Sadly the team jumped the gun with the decision to switch to full wets at his first stop, when the rain hadn’t even started to fall properly yet. This wrecked his race before it had even started but if a restart had happened he wouldn’t have been part of it as the KERS system on his car was playing up again - I’m guessing the river of water on the circuit he had to drive through might have had something to do with it. 

So with the race red flagged and aborted Kimi was placed 14th. Totally gutting to see the Kimster finish in such a low, ‘pointless’ position and it seemed the only highlight to race day was seeing him chillaxing with an ice cream and can of coke, while the rest of the field were stressing out over the possible restart!

I really feel most of all for the fans at the circuit though (especially those who travelled a long way), who waited for almost an hour in the rain not knowing if they’d see anymore racing or not . I’d have been frustrated, gutted and angry (like I was at Indy 2005) but maybe thats just me.

All in all a very bad start to the season for Raikkonen and his fans. Two races and no points. However all of the other teams/drivers you would have expected to be fighting for the title are on minimal or no points as well. So thats a bonus I guess. 

Jemela Coventry

Race Results

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Button        Brawn GP              (B)  55:30.622
 2.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  + 22.722
 3.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  + 23.513
 4.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  + 46.173
 5.  Barrichello   Brawn GP              (B)  + 47.360
 6.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  + 52.333
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  + 60.733
 8.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  + 71.576
 9.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  + 76.932
10.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  + 102.164
11.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  + 109.422
12.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  + 116.130
13.  Piquet        Renault               (B)  + 116.731
14.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  + 142.841
15.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1 lap
16.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +  1 lap
17.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  1 lap
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes  (B)  +  2 lap
Fastest lap: Button, 1:36.641

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)     1
Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)     0

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1. Jenson Button 1′35.181


2. Jarno Trulli 1′35.273


3. Timo Glock 1′35.690


4. Nico Rosberg 1′35.750


5. Mark Webber 1′35.797


6. Robert Kubica 1′36.106


7. Kimi Raikkonen 1′36.170


8. Rubens Barrichello 1′35.651**


9. Fernando Alonso 1′37.659


10. Nick Heidfeld 1′34.769


11. Kazuki Nakajima 1′34.788


12. Lewis Hamilton 1′34.905


13. Sebastian Vettel 1′35.518*


14. Heikki Kovalainen 1′34.924


15. Sebastien Bourdais 1′35.431


16. Felipe Massa 1′35.642


17. Nelson Piquet Jnr 1′35.708


18. Giancarlo Fisichella 1′35.908


19. Adrian Sutil 1′35.951


20. Sebastien Buemi 1′36.107

*Ten place grid penalty for causing an avoidable accident with Robert Kubica in the Australian Grand Prix.

**Five place penalty for a gearbox change.

Weightings
Button Brawn BGP 001-Mercedes - 660,0
Jarno Trulli Toyota TF109 - 656,5
Timo Glock Toyota TF109 - 656,5
Rosberg Williams FW31-Toyota - 656,0
Webber Red Bull RB5-Renault - 656,0
Kubica BMW Sauber F1.09 - 663,0
Räikkönen Ferrari F60 - 662,5
Alonso Renault R29 - 680,5
Barrichello Brawn BGP 001-Mercedes - 664,5
Heidfeld BMW Sauber F1.09 - 692,0
Nakajima Williams FW31-Toyota - 683,4
Hamilton McLaren MP4-24-Mercedes - 688,0
Vettel Red Bull RB5-Renault - 647,0
Kovalainen McLaren MP4-24-Mercedes 1- 688,9
Bourdais Toro Rosso STR4-Ferrari - 670,5
Massa Ferrari F60 1- 689,5
Piquet Renault R29 - 681,9
Fisichella Force India VJM02-Mercedes - 680,5
Sutil Force India VJM02-Mercedes - 655,5
Buemi Toro Rosso STR4-Ferrari - 686,5

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Bridgestone’s soft tyre allowed Jenson Button to set an exciting pole lap of 1min 35.181secs at Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Button took pole by just over nine hundredths from Panasonic Toyota Racing’s Jarno Trulli. Track conditions were improved from Friday, with more rubber down, but teams and drivers still struggled to find the best compromises with the exciting new cars and Bridgestone’s slick tyres.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today showed us that the cars are very close to each other on lap times. For example, in FP3 the top thirteen cars were covered by a second. In terms of tyre performance, the soft tyre has an advantage of about around 1.0-1.3 seconds over its best lap. The soft is able to deliver its best lap time generally on its first flying lap and the performance drop-off does not appear to be as extreme as we saw with the super soft tyre in Australia. The hard gives its best lap time after around 3-4 laps and we have seen very durable performance from it, so it should be the better race tyre.”

How have track conditions evolved since Friday, and what are your predictions for the race?
“Sepang is an interesting circuit as the track surface improves a lot over the course of the race weekend. This is because the high temperatures mean that the rubber laid melts into the track surface allowing very good surface from a grip point of view. Race strategy should be interesting here, as the difference between the tyres in terms of performance drop-off is not as great as in Australia, so there could be more strategy options.”

Qualifying was something of a struggle for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, given that Felipe Massa was knocked out as early as Q1 and Kimi Raikkonen could do no better than ninth in Q3. “This result is definitely not up to our expectations, even if we knew it would be a difficult qualifying,” commented the Scuderia’s Team Principal, Stefano Domenicali. “However the aspect that really leaves a bitter taste in the mouth is the way in which we tackled the first part of the session. We made a false assumption that cost us dear with Felipe, who was immediately out, failing to make the first cut. Tomorrow, it will be a long and difficult race, with a question mark over the weather which can change really quickly. We will have to make the most of our race pace and the start: in Australia, we saw that anything can happen and we will have to be ready to pounce on every opportunity, with the obvious proviso that we cannot make any more mistakes.”

Kimi Raikkonen:
“Honestly, the main problem is that, at the moment, we are not quick enough to fight for the top places. The car is not lacking in any particular area, but we do not have enough grip to be as quick as those who finished ahead of us today. Tomorrow’s race will be very tough. We will try to make the most of the start. In Australia, it was very good but there was nowhere to go, whereas here, the straight is long and the track is wide. Furthermore, as we saw yesterday, our pace is competitive. We have to improve our performance but obviously, it is important to have the regulations clarified as quickly as possible, to understand in which direction to go. Both types of tyres work well over a distance and we will try and exploit that.”

Felipe Massa:
“I am very disappointed. If I had ended up sixteenth because of a lack of performance, then I could have accepted the result, but like this it hurts even more. The track improved so much with each passing lap and my first run was not perfect and nor was it enough. We did not react in time and lost the chance to have another go. No one person is to blame: we are a team and we lose or win all together. We have to change our approach and tackle qualifying in a different way to the past. There is no room for error and we have to give it our all, right from the first session. Nevertheless, I am very motivated. It won’t be the first time I will have to tackle a race starting way down the order and I know I can count on having a strong pace. We will have to try and exploit every opportunity to make up places.”

Luca Baldisserri:
“We opted to do just one run on the new soft tyres in Q1 in order to save a set for the following sessions and to do that run right at the start of qualifying as we were worried about the threat of rain. Then we did not react quickly enough in recognizing that the track was improving much more than we had expected and we watched our two drivers slide further and further down the order, to such an extent that Felipe didn’t make it to Q2. Now we have to concentrate on the race. We know our potential over a distance is better than that shown over the first lap and tomorrow we will have to make the most of that.”

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Bridgestone’s soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber on track at Sepang for the first day of the Malaysian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen’s Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro set the day’s fastest lap time in the afternoon practice session held in hot but cloudy weather conditions. AT&T Williams driver Nico Rosberg used the hard compound to go fastest in the morning session.

The hot and humid 5.54km Sepang circuit provided a challenge for competitors still mastering the 2009 specification cars and Bridgestone’s latest slick tyres and new tyre allocations. Today was the first time that Bridgestone’s hard compound tyre has been used by teams, and the first time a Bridgestone soft compound has been used at Malaysia.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today’s running was interesting as it was the first time that the teams have used the hard compound. This tyre worked very much as expected, in line with our predictions, so we are very pleased. As designed, this tyre takes longer to warm-up than the soft, but it looks to deliver good constant performance once in its temperature working range.

How durable do you expect the soft compound to be in Malaysia?
“Today we saw most running with the soft compound take place in the afternoon session, when track temperatures were dropping. We did not see the same level of drop off as we did in Australia with the super soft compound. Also, we did not see the same amount of graining as we did last weekend, which should make life easier in this respect for the drivers here. Sunday’s race does not start until 17:00 hrs, so we do not expect extreme heat like we have seen in Malaysia in the past, which should make life less difficult for the tyres.”

Todays first session saw the Williams, Brawn GP, Red Bull and Ferrari fighting it out to be fastest. Nico again ended up on top with his Williams team mate second after the hour and a half session which remained dry throughout.

Lewis Hamilton managed to claim seventh position but finished the session early in the pits with his team removing the floor of his car  His team mate Heikki however only managed 7 laps and spent the majority of the first session in the garage with his car in bits.

The final few minutes were pretty manic. Both the Renaults went off into the gravel, with Piquet seeming to get a puncture - which will need to be investigated by the team and Bridgestone. However the main drama came from Kimi Raikkonen - who’s fire extinguisher went off in his cockpit just as he was setting green sector times and about to improve on his lap time. 

The Finn had to loosen his seat belt on his way back to the pits and try to raise himself out of the car as it was still moving because the extinguisher was freezing his legs. Its believed that this incident was caused by a KERS issue as the trouble seemed to come from where the batteries for this function are located in the drivers cockpit.

Free Practice 2 which predominately also remained dry saw this KERS issue revisit Kimi but is less spectacular style. It was always felt that Sepang would be a real test for this new system with the circuits high temperatures, however no doubt it will be the forecast of rain which will be worrying its users most. The teams will have to monitor closely the amount of rain that gets into the batteries!

Despite more KERS problems Raikkonen set the fastest lap of session two with his team mate Massa finishing closest to that (+ 0.125 off his pace). Again it was then the Red Bulls, Brawn GP & Williams drivers who rounded off the top eight. Kovalainen managed to get back out and do 40 laps, finishing 7th with his team mate struggling with set up and finishing the day 11th.

Once again several cars went off the circuit, but the most spectacular accident coming from Giancarlo Fisichella crashing into the barrier at Turn 10. Most of the drivers fastest times came in the dying minutes. Despite the high track temperature many teams were struggling to get the most from the harder tires, needing several laps to get up to temperature.

Its looking close again for qualifying tomorrow but hopefully this time Kimi and Ferrari can get up front too.

Free Practice 1

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time              Laps

 1.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:36.260           27

 2.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  1:36.305 + 0.045   25

 3.  Button        Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.430 + 0.170   20

 4.  Barrichello   Brawn GP-Mercedes    (B)  1:36.487 + 0.227   22

 5.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:36.561 + 0.301   21

 6.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:36.646 + 0.386   18

 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:36.699 + 0.439   16

 8.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:36.703 + 0.443   23

 9.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:36.747 + 0.487   25

10.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:36.980 + 0.720   27

11.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:36.982 + 0.722   26

12.  Fisichella    Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.025 + 0.765   20

13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:37.039 + 0.779   18

14.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:37.199 + 0.939   20

15.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes (B)  1:37.241 + 0.981   18

16.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:37.395 + 1.135   12

17.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:37.634 + 1.374   22

18.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:37.640 + 1.380   17

19.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:38.022 + 1.762   19

20.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:38.483 + 2.223    7

Free Practice 2 

Pos  Driver       Team                       Time              Laps

 1.  Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B)  1:35.707            40

 2.  Massa        Ferrari               (B)  1:35.832  + 0.125   38

 3.  Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:35.954  + 0.247   40

 4.  Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:36.015  + 0.308   39

 5.  Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B)  1:36.026  + 0.319   36

 6.  Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:36.161  + 0.454   37

 7.  Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B)  1:36.254  + 0.547   31

 8.  Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B)  1:36.290  + 0.583   35

 9.  Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:36.397  + 0.690   40

10.  Piquet       Renault               (B)  1:36.401  + 0.694   35

11.  Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  1:36.515  + 0.808   30

12.  Trulli       Toyota                (B)  1:36.516  + 0.809   34

13.  Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:36.628  + 0.921   32

14.  Glock        Toyota                (B)  1:36.639  + 0.932   29

15.  Alonso       Renault               (B)  1:36.640  + 0.933   20

16.  Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:36.875  + 1.168   36

17.  Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:37.267  + 1.560   38

18.  Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  1:37.278  + 1.571   30

19.  Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B)  1:37.432  + 1.725   27

20.  Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B)  1:37.930  + 2.223   37

All Timing Unofficial

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