Mercedes’s advantage over the rest of the field aside, Hamilton’s advantage
over his team-mate was crushing. He was two seconds ahead after one lap, and
pulled out a further 1.2 seconds on lap two. By the end of the race it was
17.3 seconds. As Jenson Button said after the race, that is a massive margin
of victory over a team-mate, and Rosberg will be wondering how he can pull
it back next weekend in Bahrain.
Ferrari are struggling to make it a three-horse race
Ferrari are not on the pace, but in truth they have not been since 2008. In
2010, Fernando Alonso took it to the final race thanks to some bouts of
unreliability for Red Bull, but they were not the class of the field.
And history seems to be repeating itself once again this year. The team now
have one of the strongest if not the strongest driving pairing on the grid,
with Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, so it’s difficult to blame them for the
team’s struggles.
We know Alonso went sniffing around for another drive last year, and more
negative noises have been coming out of the Spaniard so far this season. He
labelled the first part of his race in Sepang a “nightmare”, adding that he
“felt slow all race”. Oh dear. This is not what we expect of Ferrari.
Dining at the hotel and ready to get some rest. Today, as always at Sepang, we lost a great amount of water. 2.8kg out..;) #Goodnight
— Fernando Alonso (@alo_oficial) March 30, 2014
Sweeping changes to the regulations were supposed to provide an opportunity,
but on the evidence of the first two races they may have even fallen further
back. And you can’t argue with the 32-year-old’s consistency: in both races
he has finished almost exactly 35 seconds behind the leader.
The car doesn’t seem too bad in the corners, it’s the straight bits in between
that are causing them problems. Expect more unhappy noises from Alonso if
Ferrari don’t start to improve.
The temperature between Red Bull the FIA is rising
Much of the conversation in the paddock this weekend was dominated by Red Bull
and their fuel flow sensor appeal. You can only wonder what Charlie Whiting,
the race director, is thinking at the moment.
In the build-up, Christian Horner reiterated the team’s argument that they do
not think these sensors are good enough or reliable enough for Formula One.
The FIA clearly felt they had to say something in response.
Although they refused to answer any questions directly about Red Bull, the FIA
called a sort of back-to-school seminar for journalists on the whole fuel
flow sensor. It was slightly perplexing, complicated, and had a slightly
comical atmosphere when the FIA’s head of power train lost his blue pen as
he was drawing graphs on a whiteboard. But obviously, the FIA were extremely
keen to state how rigorous and reliable they believe the sensors to be.
Back to school with FIA technical briefing on the fuel flow rate… pic.twitter.com/ifmfKd07JQ
— Daniel Johnson (@danielt_johnson) March 28, 2014
Sunday was not totally free of the issue either, as the sensor on Ricciardo’s
car failed completely. A useful piece of evidence in Red Bull’s case? Horner
simply smiled, and said once more that the team did not trust these sensors.
But other teams couldn’t help stick their nose in to the whole issue. Eric
Boullier, racing director at McLaren, said there was “no debate”.
“We have been told to use it, so we use it. No debate. When you have two
systems to measure your fuel flow, there will always be discrepancy between
them.
“If you find an interest in using system A because you find more performance,
I understand you may choose this way. But if in a regulated championship you
are told to use B, [it’s] out of the question [not to]. We have to respect
the fuel flow so we have to have a system to measure it.”
A rumour then began circulating that FIA President Jean Todt had contacted
Vettel to warn him about bad language, after he described the engine sound
as “s***” earlier in the week. It has been strenuously denied both by the
FIA and the team, but it did not help diffuse the row. We will learn more at
the appeal hearing in Paris on April 14.
Bernie Ecclestone is up to something…
The sport’s 83-year-old chief executive turned up on Friday in Sepang, and
after cracking a joke about how he wishes “he could get it up”, he found the
engine noise not as bad as he had feared, but he still wants more noise.
Away from the engine sound, which hopefully will drop off the agenda in the
next few races, rumours were hanging in the hot, humid air that Ecclestone
was planning an audacious bid to regain ownership of Formula One.
The theory goes that he has been talking down the sport in an attempt to make
CVC Capital Partners keener to sell. He would then look for the help of
Dietrich Mateschitz, Red Bull’s owner, Ferrari, and his vast array of
business contacts to regain a controlling stake in Formula One. There are
many possible complications, including where his trial for bribery sits in
the scheme of things, but the rumours have been building with each passing
day.
On Saturday night he dined with Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal
and his nominated successor, and the publicity shy Donald Mackenzie,
co-founder of CVC. Who knows what was discussed, but the following morning
Ecclestone then had breakfast with Toto Wolff, Mercedes head of motorsport
in a hotel near the circuit.
Mercedes are thought to be one potential obstacle, given their issues over
compliance if Ecclestone is found guilty of bribery, so was this a case of
the 83-year-old putting a proposition to them? Impossible to say at this
stage. Then again, it’s not as if Ecclestone is ever short of potential
dining companions…
The development race is going to be ferocious
Formula One teams always develop quickly, but this year it’s going to be more
quickly than ever, simply because the cars are brand new, so there is more
scope for improvement. Just look at Williams in Sepang.
In pre-season, many were touting them as Mercedes’s closest challengers based
on their long run pace in Bahrain. But after a troubled weekend in
Australia, through a mixture of rain, a mistake by one driver, and another
being taken out at the first corner, it’s fair to say more was expected in
Malaysia. Aside from their team orders trouble, both Bottas and Massa
finished nearly a lap down.
Have they already lost ground in the development race? By the same token,
there is nothing to say that Mercedes will maintain their advantage all
season, but at least they have the finances to keep up.