Sebastian Vettel reigned supreme in the Formula One season opener in Australia but beaten rival Lewis Hamilton said McLaren would come back hard in the second race in Malaysia.
Vettel led the season-opener from pole position ahead of Hamilton.
“I came to Melbourne feeling fitter than ever, so I’m looking forward to going to Malaysia, which is probably the toughest race of the year,” said Hamilton. “I’m also looking forward to seeing what additional performance we can bring to the next race. The engineers know where there’s more performance to be gained, and we’ll get it to the track soon. I think we can challenge for the win at Sepang.”
Whitmarsh pleased with outcome
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh said McLaren’s dramatic improvement from indifferent winter testing pointed to further improvement in the coming races.
“Overall when you consider where we were a few weeks ago, you’d have to say that for us to come away from Australia with 26 world championship points is a pretty decent outcome,” he said. “More importantly, though, it means that we’ve got a very promising platform from which to develop our car and compete for world championship honours this season. Roll on, Malaysia.”
DRS to be reviewed
The Formula One governing body is to analyse the effectiveness of the Drag Reduction System (DRS) after the Chinese Grand Prix scheduled to take place on April 17, confirmed FIA race director Charlie Whiting.
The moveable rear wing – introduced for the first time in Melbourne – proved to be largely ineffective although it did lead to some overtaking in turn one. Whiting said that the governing body, after thorough examination, will be willing to make changes in the system if required.
“It is true that the effectiveness of this system in Melbourne was not ideal,” said Whiting.
“The straight is too short and the corner before it too fast. We’ll see what happens in Malaysia and China and then adapt the system as needed.”
Pirelli leave Trulli ‘shocked’
Meanwhile, the Pirelli tyres have also come under intense criticism with Lotus’ Jarno Trulli suggesting that the specifications of the new rubber changed after the final tests.
“They’ve left us all shocked,” Trulli who ended up 13th in Melbourne, wrote in a column for Republica.
“I don’t mean they were better or worse than we had expected, they were completely different: it’s as if they have been changed since the last tests in Barcelona.”
Although predictions regarding drivers needing to pit as many as four times did not come true in the season-opener as Sauber’s Sergio Perez managed to make it through till the end with just one tyre change, Trulli’s team certainly had some issues with the tyre warm-up.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2011.
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