Looking ahead to Malaysia – what’s in store at the next race?
The Malaysian Grand Prix has had a few shows in the past and has been a Ferrari stronghold at times but it’s the torrential rain that it’s famous for. Last year was the worst rain in recent history though for race day and the race had to be abandoned after just 36 laps with the win eventually going to Jenson Button though he only got half points.
The race retains it’s late afternoon start time so we’ll be hoping that the rain we had last year doesn’t make a reappearance on Sunday. The forecast doesn’t look that great though with Sunday having the least chance of rain at only 80%. If it does rain all weekend then the track is likely to be very green and the tyres will have a hard time, though if it rains in the race this won’t be an issue.
McLaren are trying to manage expectations ahead of the race as they don’t think they’ll be as strong in Malaysia as they were last weekend but then they only really shone in that race because of the strategy decisions that were made. I’d expect Ferrari to much more on form this weekend – that’s not to say that they were particularly off form last week but that they will have a stronger showing. Red Bull will be the interesting team as they will be worried about reliability and may opt to play things a bit safer which might make them less competitive – I wouldn’t count on it though.
Tyre wear during the race will be key – we saw in Australia that there is a lot to be said for track position and so we’ll have to see what strategies the teams can come up with to take advantage of that.
4 days until the race.
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