2014 Malaysia Grand Prix - Preview

The second round of the Championship means that we progress onwards to Malaysia, the home of the Petronas Towers, beautiful landscapes and of course, Alex Yoong, the country’s only Formula 1 driver to have made a race start.

The city of Kuala Lumpur has been the scene of some very high-profile news in recent weeks with the disappearance of Flight MH370 being confirmed as officially missing. However just 60km away, the Sepang International Circuit will be playing host to the Grand Prix this weekend.

Having made its debut onto the calendar in 1999, the unpredictable climate has produced some intense racing over the last 14 years; Raikkonen taking his debut win in 2003, Schumacher and Barrichello recovering their way from the rear of the field to a 1-2 finish in 2001 and of course Jenson Button’s lucky win at the rain-shortened 2009 race.

It has also been the scene of controversy from Red Bull last year with the ‘Multi-21’ fiasco. As with Oz, sadness has also played its part Marco Simoncelli sadly losing his life at the 2011 MotoGP event.

The circuit itself is one of the more popular Tilke-designed tracks amongst the fans; Sector 1, although only three turns long, demonstrates great skill with drivers decelerating from over 200mph down to just 50 for Turns 1 and 2. The fast flowing second sector from Turns 4 to 7 and the difficult braking zone for Turn 14 before the long back straight leading into a tight left-handed hairpin make it a marathon for both driver and car with brakes and engines regularly failing.

Melbourne was an absolute thriller of a race as unanimously agreed by fans and enthusiasts alike. Who could have predicted that Red Bull would have made it onto the podium given their pre-season pace, only for it to be snatched away again after a fuel irregularity? Magnussen, anyone? 2nd place on his debut, only Jacques Villeneuve holds the same accolade. The same applies for Bottas, he would surely have been in with a chance of grabbing a podium had he not collided with the wall.

As was the case with Australia, the weather could play a crucial part in the outcome of the weekend, temperatures are expected to roar above 37°c with 87% humidity which should give a true idea of the running order, especially in qualifying with the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull all bringing upgrades to the event. Mind you, never read too much into the forecast, you can be hammering it around Sector 1 in bright sunshine and by Sector 3 you'll need a canoe.

Pirelli's tyre allocation of the Hard and Medium compound appears to be a rather conservative, if not sensible bet. The intense heat will surely play its part in causing severe tyre degredation, so the two hardest choices of rubber shouldn't cause too many problems for front tyre wear, however with the increased torque this year we may see some complaining of their rear tyres going off sooner than you expect.

Going on Australia's results, I would predict Mercedes to do well here, and they'll wish too as it's Petronas' home race, Rosberg as we know is on top form and Hamilton too. Williams will be looking to build on their one lap pace after a disappointing qualifying for the British squad, even given the conditions.

Ferrari and even Red Bull could be pretty handy come race day also. I would like to see the the underdogs of Sauber and Force India fighting up there, although we've not heard much on their development plans since Melbourne so that may be just a pipe-dream.

Caterham too will be looking to improve, after Kobayashi's race ended before the first corner and Ericsson's after 27 laps last time out. Rivals Marussia succeded in getting one car to the finish with Max Chilton again continuing his record, albeit in last place after both cars were forced to start from the pit-lane due to problems on the grid.

The race gets underway at 09.00 BST (16.00 Local Time). Don't forget for the British readers, the clocks go forward at 01.00am on the 30th. We will of course be providing Practice, Qualifying and Race Reports as the weekend unfolds.

Tom Brooks
Chief UK Editor