By Tifosa
March 31 2010

It’s a short week in F1, with the Malaysian GP almost upon us. Ferrari had a relatively good weekend at Australia but no doubt will be eager to have both cars make the podium this time.

 

Sepang has been hosting the Malaysian GP since 1999. The track, designed by Herman Tilke, has sweeping corners and long straights. Of course, it has that sharp hairpin as well. One feature that stands out the most however, has been the changeable and unpredictable weather. It’s tropical, and that means high temperatures, rain or both together at this time of the year!

Who can forget last year’s race, carried out in the midst of monsoon conditions that were so bad, the race had to be called midway. Rain is expected again this year and the late afternoon start, too, provides some intriguing possibilities with regards to visibility. We saw how rain changed things around very quickly at Melbourne last week and made the race quite enthralling, with a lot of overtaking.

Rain also brings fluidity to tire strategies, depending on track conditions like wet/dry start and changing conditions during the race. For this round of the season, Bridgestone has brought its hard and soft compounds as well as inters/wets. Sepang can be pretty hard on tires with its slow speed corners that require heavy braking. The temperatures are normally quite high, even with rain and tire wear can be quite severe.

It looks to be another exciting race, thanks mainly to the likelihood of rain. Ferrari has a good record here and hopefully, it will be more of the same this weekend.

Numbers that count: Malaysian GP

Race Date: 4 April, 2010
Number of Laps: 56
Circuit Length: 5.543 km
Race Distance: 310.408 km

Lap Record: 1:34.223 - JP Montoya (2004)

Most wins (Driver): M Schumacher (3)

Most wins (Team): Ferrari (5)

 

Join us at the Malaysian GP for updates, fan chatter and the weekend as it happens!