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Formula 1
F1: Malaysian Grand Prix Technical Review
A technical review of the Malaysian Grand Prix...
Red Bull Racing was forced to adjust an element of the rear suspension on its cars last weekend at Istanbul Park. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
The third race of the 2010 F1 season at Sepang, Malaysia, was not quite as dramatic as the last round in Melbourne, however the torrential rain in qualifying did its part in shaking up the pecking order. Despite now leading the points table, Ferrari have concerns regarding the reliability of their engines, following the loss of Alonso and both Ferrari powered Saubers to engine failure.
Rum ours continue to abound about Red Bull's suspension being adjustable under Parc Ferme conditions, though these are strenuously denied by the team. McLaren have stated that they are working on a system to allow them to counter the weight differential between qualifying and race conditions, however Red Bull have said they will protest any such development. Meanwhile the McLaren F-Duct system has already started to spawn copies, with Sauber once again testing a system in practice with other teams pursuing development of their own versions.
Mercedes
Ross Brawn: "That was an excellent drive from Nico today and a first-class performance to secure his third career podium and the first podium for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team. We are delighted to have achieved the first podium for the Silver Arrows here in Malaysia and to be able to share the rewards of our hard work with our title partner PETRONAS at their home Grand Prix. My compliments to Nico for an assured performance today and over the weekend. Michael was in a good position after the start and we were looking forward to having a good race on his side but unfortunately it wasn't to be. The car lost a wheel nut which is a problem that we haven't experienced before. The wheel nuts are double-checked on the grid so we will investigate and put in place the necessary solutions."
Norbert Haug: "A great drive from Nico and our first podium after starting from the first row in our third race. The team had a first-class strategy and Nico did not put one foot wrong and secured this first and for us historic podium finish, at the home race of our title partner PETRONAS. Our gap to the two Red Bull-Renaults in front of Nico was still considerable and we all know there is more work to be done in order to catch up. However it looks like we are heading in the right direction and the point standings after three races dont look too bad. Sorry for Michael who had a great start and was positioned sixth when a wheel nut came loose which stopped his race. We will work hard and concentrated to make sure that our car will be fully reliable in the future and get quicker step by step. After Melbourne, Nico and the team performed again the quickest pit stop which is very rewarding for our guys and sometimes very important to get the right amount of World Championship points. Last but certainly not least congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing for their first and well deserved victory in 2010. Seb was the class of the field today."
Sauber
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: "A very disappointing race after promising starting positions. Pedro was forced to stop on his lap to the grid, and Kamui, who started from ninth, had to give up on lap nine. In both cases the engines failed due to problems with the pneumatic system. We have to analyse everything in order to understand the reason behind it."
Renault
Renault R30
Eric Boullier, Team Principal;"To finish fourth with Robert is another great result for the team. Obviously we benefited from our good qualifying performance yesterday and Robert made a good start to the race. After that he drove very well and the car showed good pace. Vitaly also made progress at the start, drove aggressively in the opening laps, and had a good fight with Hamilton. It's a real shame he had to retire because I think he could have scored his first points today."
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer; "Robert drove a great race today and was up to fourth on the first lap, which he held until the end of the race. We tried to catch Rosberg, but the Mercedes had pretty similar pace and so we had to settle for fourth. As for Vitaly, he made another good start and drove really well in the opening laps. When we changed him to the prime tires he struggled for rear grip, but then his race came to an end with the gearbox problem, which we are still investigating."
Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations; "We had a strong race today and have come away with a good result. We were clearly on the same pace as Nico Rosberg, although he managed to stay ahead of us as the strategy unfolded. The two Red Bulls were on another planet today and underlined the overall performance of the Renault engine which has finished in three of the top four places. Our fourth place today confirms our recent progress, but we must continue working hard. I would also like to say well done to all the mechanics, who have done a brilliant job all weekend in tough working conditions."
Lotus
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "The beauty of sport is that you have highs and lows, and after the high of yesterday, with Heikki in Q2, it was a bit of a low today. Jarno had some handling problems due to damaged bodywork at the rear, and did a great job to bring the car home. With Heikki, he had some very high temperatures which we managed to fix in the pit, and as soon as he was out again he was very competitive, took the car to the flag, and really showed what the car was capable of. So it was disappointing, but at least we managed to get two cars to the flag. We've learned a lot and are looking to move on and be on good form for China." Team Principal Tony Fernandes: "It was good to get two finishes; obviously we're unhappy with the position, but as we've always said it's a major achievement just to finish. And we did - as you could see later Heikki's car had good pace, so that's encouraging. We take a lot away from this weekend, and we'll take everything we have learned with us to China, and from Barcelona, as we've always said, we'll be looking to build on the very solid start to the season. I'm proud of the effort the whole team put in today in tough, hot conditions, and we're here to fight another day."
HRT
Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "A fantastic day for the team completing our first two-car finish in only our third race, with no pre-season testing. Bruno Senna had a good start while Karun Chandhok had a bad one. But Karun could find a good pace then and both drivers had reliable races. Again we have made a great step forward. We reached our goal with two cars finishing the race. Congratulations to the team who worked again hard to achieve this result. Now we have to work on more developments for the next Grand Prix in China."
Bridgestone
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tire Development: "This was a good and interesting race based around tire strategies. The hard and soft Bridgestone compounds performed very well, but with distinct characteristics. Those who started with the soft tyre had to stop sooner than those who started with the hard, as the soft had a shorter wear life. The hard allowed drivers to continue pushing, as shown by Mark Webber setting the race‚s fastest lap on lap 53 with this tire. The soft required a more forgiving style to maintain its performance. Drivers were able to use fresh tires sets in the race, as they did not use these tires in the wet qualifying yesterday. This meant we saw many fastest race laps as the race progressed, from drivers taking to the track on fresh rubber. Our compounds were able to support a variety of strategies and it was good to see the racing on track between many drivers at different times through the race. Even though the top three drivers used the same strategy, there were strong moves through the field using a hard-soft strategy. So many people predicted rain for this race, but today we did not need wet weather to provide excitement on track."
Cosworth
General Manager of Cosworth's F1 Business Unit, Mark Gallagher: "We were very pleased to see Virgin Racing register their first classified race finish in Malaysia. We have worked closely with them, as with all Cosworth-powered teams, to provide the flexibility to conserve fuel without impacting significantly on power output, so we congratulate Lucas and the team for a great race. Well done to Nico Hülkenberg for picking up his first championship point and extending the run of points finishes for Williams-Cosworth. It was also great to see HRT get both cars to the end and for Lotus Racing to register a finish in their home event." The oppressive heat and humidity of the Sepang International Circuit gave Cosworth the opportunity to evaluate its CA2010 engine in a different range of weather conditions following the outright heat of Bahrain and the comparatively cooler and wetter conditions in Australia just over a week ago. Although reliability continues to be in line with Cosworth's exacting standards, the company is not resting on its laurels where engine performance and fine-tuning is concerned. Mark Gallagher: "We have now moved into a different phase of our program, seeing scheduled engine changes across our four teams, with some engines that have been used previously in races now being used only in practice sessions. We have some engines running with close to 2,000kms accumulated during the opening race weekends. This is providing us with very useful information not only on the durability of the CA2010, but also on the overall experiences that the engines have been through. We always emerge from a race weekend with a job list in order to optimize the performance from the CA2010 as our teams constantly strive for performance gains or improvements in the installation. Although the engines are homologated, and thus development restricted, there are still many areas we can concentrate on to ensure that engines perform to their full potential. All the real time data we are gathering from our four teams is proving enormously helpful in this regard. It is clear that our engine manufacturer rivals have experienced some reliability issues over the first three race weekends, so good durability remains an important foundation of the CA2010 program. With reliability comes the opportunity to focus on optimizing performance in every area and the results of these first three Grands Prix have given us increased confidence in that area."
Rum ours continue to abound about Red Bull's suspension being adjustable under Parc Ferme conditions, though these are strenuously denied by the team. McLaren have stated that they are working on a system to allow them to counter the weight differential between qualifying and race conditions, however Red Bull have said they will protest any such development. Meanwhile the McLaren F-Duct system has already started to spawn copies, with Sauber once again testing a system in practice with other teams pursuing development of their own versions.
Mercedes
Ross Brawn: "That was an excellent drive from Nico today and a first-class performance to secure his third career podium and the first podium for the MERCEDES GP PETRONAS team. We are delighted to have achieved the first podium for the Silver Arrows here in Malaysia and to be able to share the rewards of our hard work with our title partner PETRONAS at their home Grand Prix. My compliments to Nico for an assured performance today and over the weekend. Michael was in a good position after the start and we were looking forward to having a good race on his side but unfortunately it wasn't to be. The car lost a wheel nut which is a problem that we haven't experienced before. The wheel nuts are double-checked on the grid so we will investigate and put in place the necessary solutions."
Norbert Haug: "A great drive from Nico and our first podium after starting from the first row in our third race. The team had a first-class strategy and Nico did not put one foot wrong and secured this first and for us historic podium finish, at the home race of our title partner PETRONAS. Our gap to the two Red Bull-Renaults in front of Nico was still considerable and we all know there is more work to be done in order to catch up. However it looks like we are heading in the right direction and the point standings after three races dont look too bad. Sorry for Michael who had a great start and was positioned sixth when a wheel nut came loose which stopped his race. We will work hard and concentrated to make sure that our car will be fully reliable in the future and get quicker step by step. After Melbourne, Nico and the team performed again the quickest pit stop which is very rewarding for our guys and sometimes very important to get the right amount of World Championship points. Last but certainly not least congratulations to Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull Racing for their first and well deserved victory in 2010. Seb was the class of the field today."
Sauber
Willy Rampf, Technical Director: "A very disappointing race after promising starting positions. Pedro was forced to stop on his lap to the grid, and Kamui, who started from ninth, had to give up on lap nine. In both cases the engines failed due to problems with the pneumatic system. We have to analyse everything in order to understand the reason behind it."
Renault
Renault R30
Eric Boullier, Team Principal;"To finish fourth with Robert is another great result for the team. Obviously we benefited from our good qualifying performance yesterday and Robert made a good start to the race. After that he drove very well and the car showed good pace. Vitaly also made progress at the start, drove aggressively in the opening laps, and had a good fight with Hamilton. It's a real shame he had to retire because I think he could have scored his first points today."
Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer; "Robert drove a great race today and was up to fourth on the first lap, which he held until the end of the race. We tried to catch Rosberg, but the Mercedes had pretty similar pace and so we had to settle for fourth. As for Vitaly, he made another good start and drove really well in the opening laps. When we changed him to the prime tires he struggled for rear grip, but then his race came to an end with the gearbox problem, which we are still investigating."
Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations; "We had a strong race today and have come away with a good result. We were clearly on the same pace as Nico Rosberg, although he managed to stay ahead of us as the strategy unfolded. The two Red Bulls were on another planet today and underlined the overall performance of the Renault engine which has finished in three of the top four places. Our fourth place today confirms our recent progress, but we must continue working hard. I would also like to say well done to all the mechanics, who have done a brilliant job all weekend in tough working conditions."
Lotus
Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: "The beauty of sport is that you have highs and lows, and after the high of yesterday, with Heikki in Q2, it was a bit of a low today. Jarno had some handling problems due to damaged bodywork at the rear, and did a great job to bring the car home. With Heikki, he had some very high temperatures which we managed to fix in the pit, and as soon as he was out again he was very competitive, took the car to the flag, and really showed what the car was capable of. So it was disappointing, but at least we managed to get two cars to the flag. We've learned a lot and are looking to move on and be on good form for China." Team Principal Tony Fernandes: "It was good to get two finishes; obviously we're unhappy with the position, but as we've always said it's a major achievement just to finish. And we did - as you could see later Heikki's car had good pace, so that's encouraging. We take a lot away from this weekend, and we'll take everything we have learned with us to China, and from Barcelona, as we've always said, we'll be looking to build on the very solid start to the season. I'm proud of the effort the whole team put in today in tough, hot conditions, and we're here to fight another day."
HRT
Dr. Colin Kolles, Team Principal: "A fantastic day for the team completing our first two-car finish in only our third race, with no pre-season testing. Bruno Senna had a good start while Karun Chandhok had a bad one. But Karun could find a good pace then and both drivers had reliable races. Again we have made a great step forward. We reached our goal with two cars finishing the race. Congratulations to the team who worked again hard to achieve this result. Now we have to work on more developments for the next Grand Prix in China."
Bridgestone
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tire Development: "This was a good and interesting race based around tire strategies. The hard and soft Bridgestone compounds performed very well, but with distinct characteristics. Those who started with the soft tyre had to stop sooner than those who started with the hard, as the soft had a shorter wear life. The hard allowed drivers to continue pushing, as shown by Mark Webber setting the race‚s fastest lap on lap 53 with this tire. The soft required a more forgiving style to maintain its performance. Drivers were able to use fresh tires sets in the race, as they did not use these tires in the wet qualifying yesterday. This meant we saw many fastest race laps as the race progressed, from drivers taking to the track on fresh rubber. Our compounds were able to support a variety of strategies and it was good to see the racing on track between many drivers at different times through the race. Even though the top three drivers used the same strategy, there were strong moves through the field using a hard-soft strategy. So many people predicted rain for this race, but today we did not need wet weather to provide excitement on track."
Cosworth
General Manager of Cosworth's F1 Business Unit, Mark Gallagher: "We were very pleased to see Virgin Racing register their first classified race finish in Malaysia. We have worked closely with them, as with all Cosworth-powered teams, to provide the flexibility to conserve fuel without impacting significantly on power output, so we congratulate Lucas and the team for a great race. Well done to Nico Hülkenberg for picking up his first championship point and extending the run of points finishes for Williams-Cosworth. It was also great to see HRT get both cars to the end and for Lotus Racing to register a finish in their home event." The oppressive heat and humidity of the Sepang International Circuit gave Cosworth the opportunity to evaluate its CA2010 engine in a different range of weather conditions following the outright heat of Bahrain and the comparatively cooler and wetter conditions in Australia just over a week ago. Although reliability continues to be in line with Cosworth's exacting standards, the company is not resting on its laurels where engine performance and fine-tuning is concerned. Mark Gallagher: "We have now moved into a different phase of our program, seeing scheduled engine changes across our four teams, with some engines that have been used previously in races now being used only in practice sessions. We have some engines running with close to 2,000kms accumulated during the opening race weekends. This is providing us with very useful information not only on the durability of the CA2010, but also on the overall experiences that the engines have been through. We always emerge from a race weekend with a job list in order to optimize the performance from the CA2010 as our teams constantly strive for performance gains or improvements in the installation. Although the engines are homologated, and thus development restricted, there are still many areas we can concentrate on to ensure that engines perform to their full potential. All the real time data we are gathering from our four teams is proving enormously helpful in this regard. It is clear that our engine manufacturer rivals have experienced some reliability issues over the first three race weekends, so good durability remains an important foundation of the CA2010 program. With reliability comes the opportunity to focus on optimizing performance in every area and the results of these first three Grands Prix have given us increased confidence in that area."
Spanish Grand Prix
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