By Huw Alban
April 23 2006

As I watched the Malaysian Grand Prix, I could almost hear the “anti’s” sharpening their knives eager to (attempt to) carve chunks out of our enthusiasm for Midland F1. Interestingly, comment on the forum has been broadly positive after the team’s performance in round two. There has been a lot of comment in the sport as whole about the 10 place penalty incurred when a team have to change an engine. I have to admit that I’m sitting on the fence on the rule, but this weekend it worked to Midland F1’s advantage. To quote the team’s official post race press release, “there might not be too many occasions when the (Midland F1) cars line up ahead of a Honda, a Ferrari and a Toyota on the grid…” So this weekend I’m firmly on the pro side!

The race itself (for me) was a frustrating affair. From the TV footage here in the UK, all I saw was the two M16s sink to the back of the grid as the rest of the field streamed away. Once the timing screen on F1.com settled down it was clear that Takuma Sato had got the jump on both Christijan and Tiago, and the Midland cars had sunk to the back of the field.

Christijan was able to get within half a second of the Sato’s Super Aguri, but no further until lap 16 when suddenly he appeared ahead on the live timing screen. Immediately the Dutchman started to pump in green sector times showing that we was capable of more pace. His pace was illustrated clearly a few laps later when he pitted and got out still ahead of Sato – that’s impressive to have gained that kind of advantage in only a few laps!

Meanwhile Monteiro had cruised up behind the Japanese driver, and again got within half a second of him but no further. There has been a lot of query on this site’s forum as to why the SA06 was so hard to pass.

As an ex-Arrows F1 Team fan I would consider myself reasonably qualified to put forward a suggestion on this one. Despite the media’s claims that the Arrows A23 car was slow, the team had an enviable reputation for engineering quality and from 2000 onwards were developing cars that were very efficient aerodynamically in a straight line. Add to that the fact that the Honda V8 is no slouch, and you got a very handy motor on a long straight. The aero backwash off the SA06 would have been awful making the M16 a real handful for Tiago in the corners.

In fairness to Monteiro he was also carrying his back complaint, and I have seen comment on the forum that he had an injection before the race and had to be helped into the car on the grid. I have to salute Tiago for his commitment to the team and the task in hand in actually doing what he did, although I do feel deep down that it probably did compromise his overall race performance.

The Tiago/Sato battle did attract the attention of the TV producers though. Around lap 30, the UK commentary noted that there was only half a second between the two and within a lap the coverage homed in on the two. As a fan of this team, I have to admit that it was really cool to actually be able to see the team on the racetrack for real. Timing sheets are great, and photographs are nice to see, but to get a glimpse of the team in competition made me feel very proud and very respectful of all the hard work that has been put in over the winter to get this car and this team ready.

On the subject of the team, the pit crew turned Tiago around superbly at his second pit stop in order to get the Portuguese driver out ahead of Sato. Once out he was immediately 1 second a lap quicker than the Japanese driver, but it was too late in the day for Tiago to make any further progress and gain any further places.

Why was the race frustrating? If it hadn’t been for those manual starts, which the team says were necessary to preserve reliability, then the result could have been so much better because both Tiago and Christijan would have been on front of Super Aguri’s and in the mix with the other competitors in the mid-field. I’m not suggesting for one second that we would have seen Midland F1 carving it’s way through the field in Schumacher-like style, but potentially the team would have been that much closer to the mid-field and stood more of a chance to gain places in the mayhem of the first few laps. Instead Midland F1 spent the race tucked up behind Super Aguri, and it took quick and clever pit strategy to move the team up the order.

Regardless of this I feel the team had a good race. They made a sensible decision on the start procedure, and called good strategy decisions during the race that saw the team gain places. In comparison to what happened in Bahrain, Midland F1 took steps forward last weekend, and made decisions that resulted in a two car finish and not many teams can make that claim for the 2006 Malaysian Grand Prix! What was a shame was that Midland F1 were not able to ‘cash in’ on the engine penalties that pushed them up the qualifying order.

Looking forward, the team are working on a solution to their drive shaft issues that forced them to compromise their starts in Malaysia and they’ve got a full two weeks to pull it together and get the solution out to Australia. I am told by my sources in the team that new aero parts are appearing on the car all the time, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see yet more appear at Albert Park. Hopefully there will be yet more engine penalties that will work to Midland F1’s advantage and, this time, those advantages can be retained because the team can make normal start procedures.

The team are making steps forward; small steps admittedly, but at least they are in the right direction. Christijan Albers mentioned on Dutch TV that the M16 will have a new front wing and suspension available for Imola which is also expected to be a step forward for the car.

Just like the review of the race in Bahrain, I’m going to turn to this site’s forum and home in on Mike R who makes a level, well thought out comment about last weekend and the next race in Australia. I fancy that Mike R is also catching some of the ‘Midland bug’ that I have been banging on about since November 2005!

“Given the problems and the difficulty in overtaking in F1, today’s result cannot be seen as terrible. Not great but certainly not terrible.

“To the committed Midland fans, do not despair, this is only the second of 18 races and with a promise of revised suspension for Imola things have a chance of improving. Sure other teams will also be developing, but Midland has more scope to do so than most.

“To the negative Jordan fans, do not write this team off just yet. To those of us that are undecided well at least the promised improvements give us something to look forward to, to see if the team can in fact progress through the season.”

Couldn’t have said it better myself!