A typically hot, humid and thundery weekend is forecast for the Malaysian grand prix.
New championship leader Jenson Button travels to Kuala Lumpur eyeing a weather forecast of possible rain for all three days of track action.

And as ever in tropical Malaysia, the highest chance of rain is always in the late afternoon.

“Bernie (Ecclestone) loves a late start,” smiled Red Bull’s Mark Webber, “and, once again, the race has a late kick-off.”

Indeed, qualifying and the race are not scheduled until 4pm local in Malaysia, ensuring a more civil early morning wake-up for F1′s bulk live audience in Europe.

“Late afternoon is usually when the rain comes in Malaysia, and when it comes you know about it,” said Australian Webber. “It’s something to be wary of.”

Even more nervous about the rain forecasts will be HRT.

After sitting out almost the entire winter whilst rebuilding the struggling Spanish team following Colin Kolles’ departure, Pedro de la Rosa and Narain Karthikeyan failed to qualify in Melbourne.

“In Australia we were only able to complete seven timed laps so I need to get more track time, get to know the car better and improve the setup,” said de la Rosa.

Marussia Racing’s new MR01 finally made its first on-track appearance during a promotional ‘filming’ day at Silverstone, just a few miles from is Banbury base.

The Anglo-Russian team endured a torrid time in its attempts to get the car ready for the third and final group test at Barcelona last week, having skipped the opening session in Jerez to prepare the MR01 for early March, only to fail the mandatory FIA crash tests. Although both Timo Glock and rookie Charles Pic got some miles under their belts in Barcelona last month, it was at the wheel of the 2011-spec car, leaving them preciously short of time in the new machine ahead of its race debut in Melbourne next weekend.

The Silverstone shakedown, part of a promotional event ahead of the car’s departure for the Australian Grand Prix, will provide both team and driver with vital information on the new machine, which has been conceived after a ground-up re-evaluation of the way Marussia designs its racing cars. As such, the car is almost entirely new, with very few carry-over components from last year’s Marussia Virgin MVR-02.

The desire to make a clean break from the previous CFD-only creations presented the design team, led by technical consultant Pat Symonds, with the challenge of going back to basics to produce a solid mechanical package, whilst maintaining an eye towards achieving the incremental performance steps required to move the team forward.

The starting point for the design programme was a consideration of the people and resources available to the Banbury-based team. The former three-base operation has been consolidated into one site, the Marussia Technical Centre in Banbury, bringing the various elements of the business together to form ‘one team’. In particular, the design department and practices now benefit from far greater integration and collaboration. Furthermore, the aerodynamic department has been completely restructured and the aero methodology reinforced, blurring the boundaries between CFD and experimental work in the wind tunnel, as well as enhancing the fidelity of the team’s aero approach.

The technical partnership forged with McLaren Applied Technologies in July of last year has also been influential in the design process and the relationship is starting to yield benefit as the advanced facilities that the Marussia team has access to have been used to prove the correlation process with the MVR-02. It is however early in the relationship and the MR01 will become a beneficiary of the relationship in due course.

The key design priorities were to address previous aerodynamic deficiencies and, mechanically, achieve greater weight saving. At the same time, a lot of the detail of the car has been refined and the design team have been a little more adventurous than before, stepping closer to the engineering boundaries. The car can best be described as a significant evolution of its predecessors. The relationship with McLaren is also evident, as the MR01 is only the second car launched this season, after the Woking giant’s MP4-27, to eschew the stepped nose concept favoured by the rest of the field.

“We are very pleased to be running the new MR01 for the first time this morning,” team principal John Booth admitted, “It has been a long and frustrating wait for everyone in the team, but we can now get back on track – literally – and start working towards the first race of the season in Australia next weekend.

“Today is the first of two promotional events, so while the drivers will be able to get a feel for the car, they won’t be able to draw any real conclusions until we start running in anger in Melbourne. Nevertheless, this is an important day for us and we’ll enjoy every minute on track with the new car.”

Glock turned the first laps with the MR01, beginning his third season with the team and providing the all-important element of continuity required to keep moving the package forward. He is joined in 2012 by Frenchman Pic, who embarks on his rookie year in F1, having made the step up from GP2 to replace Belgium’s Jerome d’Ambrosio. Both drivers will get track time with the new car over the next two days, albeit running on demonstration tyres as opposed to the Pirelli P-Zeros that they will use once competition starts in Melbourne.

 Lotus’ impressive start to the 2012 season hit a speed-bump on Tuesday.
While the former Renault team’s new E20 car set the pace at Jerez, Romain Grosjean had to retire early when the Barcelona test kicked off on Tuesday.

“I was very quickly aware that the car wasn’t responding as it should,” said the Frenchman.

Grosjean was shaking down the second E20 chassis, but it will now be sent back to Lotus’ Enstone headquarters for investigation.

“Fortunately (on Wednesday) we will have the chassis which ran perfectly in Jerez so I should get some good track time,” he said.

Team boss Eric Boullier played down the problem.

“This is a minor setback to our overall test programme,” he said. “If this is the only issue we have during testing then we will still be well prepared for the start of the season.”

Dani Clos insists he is delighted with his new role as HRT tester, despite some seeing him as little more than a ‘pay driver’.
A reporter for Spain’s Diario AS newspaper admitted to the 23-year-old from Barcelona that when he read the news about his Clos’ new role, he surmised that the driver must have some lucrative backers.

“That’s definitely not why I’m here,” Clos insisted.

He admitted however that he is also “looking at some options” to split his time between HRT and another race series this season.

“There are offers but I’m happy with HRT. Some people would give their right arm to be here.”

Clos conceded, however, that if he had lots more money to spend on formula one, he might have been appointed as Pedro de la Rosa’s teammate in the place of Narain Karthikeyan.

“It’s obvious that if you contribute more then you have more options,” he said, “but for me this is my place now, and where I have to be right now.”

He revealed that the role will include running on Friday mornings at grands prix, rather than the symbolic role played by many ‘test drivers’ nowadays.

“Yes, yes, I’ll do Fridays,” said Clos. “I will not be one of those who are there just to be there.”

He also denied that his new deal could fall apart the way countryman Andy Soucek’s did at Virgin in 2010, when the Spaniard was promised track time that never materialised.

“I have no fear in that regard,” insisted Clos. “I trust the team.”

Sebastian Vettel’s Suzuka crash was an embodiment of the kind of “perfect year” he has enjoyed in 2011.
That is the claim of Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, referring to the Red Bull driver’s nudge into the Degner wall on Friday morning.

The fact Vettel lost no track time, because the crash happened right at the end of the session and the mechanics had enough time to repair the car for the afternoon, shows that “When you do everything right, everything goes right for you”.

“This has been a perfect year for him, also with a tremendous superiority of his car,” Alonso is quoted by the EFE news agency.

“He has always done a perfect job in the moments that he had to; with his pole positions, in the races, with his problems only on the Fridays.

“There have been some extremely difficult races, for example in the rain in Canada where he managed to stay calm to finish second.

“It is true that he has had some luck but he has done the perfect job at the key moments,” the Spaniard added.

On Suzuka, Alonso said Vettel might finally be challenged by a rival team – McLaren – in the qualifying hour, with championship rival Jenson Button topping every practice timesheet.

But the Briton played down his tiny mathematical chances.

“It’s like challenging a four year old to a 100 metre race. You’d totally destroy him,” said Button.

Narain Karthikeyan will get two more outings at the wheel of the HRT prior to his race return in his native India late this month.

After losing his full-time race seat to Daniel Ricciardo three months ago, the 34-year-old’s sponsors have secured a one-race return for the Indian to contest his country’s inaugural grand prix.

The Spanish team announced at the weekend that, after his run in Vitantonio Liuzzi’s car for initial Friday practice in Singapore recently, Karthikeyan will return to action on the first day of this weekend’s Japanese grand prix at Suzuka.

HRT said the outing, with Karthikeyan once again in Liuzzi’s car, is to “continue with his preparation” ahead of India on October 30.

Karthikeyan told the Times of India he is happy with his re-acclimatisation to the Cosworth-powered F111.

“I was just 1 tenth slower than Ricciardo during Friday practice (in Singapore),” he said. “That is great considering I was away from the cockpit for a while.

“I will again be doing Friday runs in Japan and Korea before racing in India and I am sure of getting enough track time to be ready for the big show,” added Karthikeyan.

Narain Karthikeyan will warm up with a Friday practice session in Singapore before racing in his native India next month, HRT announced on Saturday.
It was already expected that the 34-year-old, despite losing his full time race seat to Daniel Ricciardo earlier this season, would return to the cockpit for the inaugural Delhi grand prix.

And he will re-acclimatise with the initial practice session in Singapore, the Spanish team said.

“It is great to have Narain back in the car as it will give him critical seat time before he drives at the Indian GP,” said team boss Colin Kolles.

Karthikeyan confirmed: “The team had assured me that I’d be driving (in India) when I stepped out of my seat after the European GP.”

Meanwhile, Force India’s regular Friday driver Nico Hulkenberg has revealed he will not be in action in Singapore next weekend.

“The team wants to give Adrian (Sutil) and Paul (di Resta) more track time and I understand and accept the decision,” he said on Twitter.

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear: Medium, Hard (both asymmetric)

The traditional two-day post-race test at Valencia proved a valuable opportunity for Bridgestone to continue with its fundamental tyre development programme and four test items were prepared for each of the 17 MotoGP riders.

The test items offered by Bridgestone were one developmental front tyre compound, two developmental rear tyre compounds and one developmental rear tyre construction, each of which was given valuable track time by almost all riders during the two days, despite their own busy test programmes.

Testing schedules were delayed on the opening day of the test due to early morning rain showers that left the track greasy, but in the afternoon Colin Edwards embarked upon an exhaustive tyre test with the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team. Conditions on the second day were much improved, and with crucial track time under their belts almost all of the teams and riders tested the four new tyre specs.

The results of this test will allow Bridgestone to determine the direction of future tyre development.

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“This test was very valuable for us as we were able to obtain a great deal of data from our four developmental specs thanks to the support of the teams and the riders. During this test the teams and riders had intensive test programmes of their own but they dedicated time to our tyre test programme so I am very grateful to them for this. Our test programme of one front and three rear slick tyre specs is a fundamental study for our future tyre development and we obtained a lot of positive feedback and very promising data from these two days. From these results we can now start our new development strategy for the future. This test marks the end of field activity for 2010, and I want to thank all the teams and riders once more for their support of Bridgestone and our tyre testing not only these last two days but throughout the season.”

Romain Grosjean will assume the role of Renault’s official reserve driver at Spa-Francorchamps this weekend.

The Swiss-born Frenchman is replacing injured GP2 driver and regular F1 reserve Ho-Pin Tung at the Renault-liveried DAMS team in Belgium this weekend.

Renault said on Tuesday that Chinese Tung might return to his duties at Monza in two weeks, and in the meantime “an official replacement” for the F1 role will not be named.

But the Spanish sports newspaper Marca says that for Spa, 24-year-old Grosjean – who contested the last 7 grands prix for the team in 2009 – will be the F1 reserve.

Meanwhile, the Finnish publication Turun Sanomat, and Italy’s Autosprint, report that Force India’s Paul di Resta is a candidate to replace Pirelli’s new tyre tester Nick Heidfeld as reserve driver at Mercedes.

Mercedes-powered Force India said on Tuesday that di Resta will not be on track during Friday practice this weekend because its race drivers need maximum track time at “unique” Spa-Francorchamps.

Scot di Resta, 24, drives for AMG Mercedes in the German touring car championship DTM.

Autosprint also said GP2 driver Jules Bianchi, already with a Ferrari development contract, could make his F1 debut with Ferrari-powered Sauber in 2011.

Paul di Resta will sit out a third successive Friday morning practice on the sidelines of Montreal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve next week.

Force India’s rookie reserve driver took over the 2010 car for initial practice in Australia, Malaysia, China and Spain.

But in the interests of maximising the regular race drivers’ practice time, the Scot did not drive in Bahrain because of the altered track configuration, or in Monaco “due to the challenging layout of the circuit”.

And Adrian Sutil or Vitantonio Liuzzi also did not have to give up their cockpit at Istanbul Park last Friday, because the VJM03 was fitted with “some new development items”, including the F-duct.

It has now emerged that di Resta, 24, will also not be in action on Friday ahead of the Canadian grand prix late next week.

“Paul will be back in the car in Valencia and will also drive at Silverstone,” team manager Andy Stevenson said.

“In Canada, we want to give our two regular drivers as much track time as possible.  The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is a very unique track,” he added.

(GMM)

Christian Klien on Thursday said it has not been decided if he will drive during the opening practice session in Turkey.

Soon after he was appointed as a reserve and Friday driver by the HRT team, Austrian Klien drove in morning practice in Barcelona.

It then emerged that HRT’s other reserve driver, Japanese Sakon Yamamoto, would likely be in action on Friday morning in Turkey.

“All four drivers will be in Turkey,” Klien, 27, said, referring also to race drivers Karun Chandhok and Bruno Senna.

“Who gets to drive the Friday practice is a decision entirely left to the team management after weighing all factors,” he explained.

“Track time has become a scarce commodity.  And the test ban hurts a new team even worse than the established ones,” said Klien.

(GMM)

It is probable that Nick Heidfeld, Mercedes GP test driver, will not be able to test the MGP W01 at Jerez racetrack.
Heidfeld, will travel to the Grand Prix this year as a possible substitute of the official pilots; Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Nonetheless, with only 12 test days left, the Mercedes Director, the German, Norbert Haug said they would not be in conditions to offer Heidfeld racetrack time with the new MGP W01.
“It is expected that, before the beginning of the season, Michael and Nico will have as many test kilometers as possible,” said Haug. “In the improbable case that he [Heidfeld] has to subtitute one of our leading pilots, Nick is well prepared to immediatly do a good job.”
Mercedes will resume its tests this Wednesday in the Andalucian racetrack of Jerez, together with nine of his rivals for the next season. Ross Brawn, boss of the team, has made it very clear that he has the intention of reducing the time gap with the Ferraris performing a series of modifications to the single-seater.