Malaysia Forethoughts: Massa, Virgin, Kobayashi, Schumacher, Hamilton, Pirelli

Felipe Massa scoffs at the notion that he somehow wronged Jenson Button during their terrific 10 lap “dice” in the Australian Grand Prix. It was the best this observer has watched in some time. The duel ended when Button's McLaren dove through an escape road to emerge ahead of Massa's Ferrari. One expected Jenson to give back the place immediately. Instead, he waited for instructions from his pit because he believed he deserved the position. Before he finally received an answer to his conundrum, Massa took off into the pits leaving Button no way to give back the place. The stewards, in turn, had little choice but to punish Button severely with a drive-through penalty that cost him more than 20 seconds—there went his high hopes.

Massa, meanwhile, is disappointed at the unimpressive performance of the Ferraris driven by him and his teammate, two-time world driver champion, Fernando Alonso. The team is unsure of the reason for their poor performance because their numbers during pre-race practice promised much more than the team achieved during the race. A frenzy of intense work will continue right up until the red lights go out in Malaysia. The team is determined to redeem itself, and this observer believes it is an uphill trek under Stafano Domenicali. Personally, I blame Domenicali for Ferrari's faltering fortunes since the departure of Todt.

Virgin Racing might well be thinking that they've bitten off more than they can chew in F1, and wunderkind Richard Branson might even be thinking that the precision of F1 is too much for even his bankroll to swallow. At the season-opener in Melbourne's Albert Park, Timo Glock's Virgin Racing car failed to finish due to a problem with the left front wheel. His teammate, Jerome D'Ambrosio finally finished the race 4 laps behind winner, Vettel.

Virgin will be unable to add any upgrades before before the Grand Prix in Turkey, which doesn't go until a month after Malaysia with the GP of China also two weeks before Turkey. Following their dismal outcome in Australia, team boss John Booth is hoping that advancing one step at a time will lead the team to improvement. For the next race at Sepang he is hoping both car will finish. For his part, Glock enjoys the Malaysia track and is eager to get the best possible result out of his car.

Kamui Kobayashi and Sergio Perez, his teammate at Sauber, both earned valuable points at the Australian Grand Prix by finishing 8^th and 7^th respectively. After the race they suffered the tragic loss of those points when stewards discovered that their moveable wings were a few millimetres off regulations. At the same time, they know that the unintentional infraction did not enhance their performance which indicates that they might have impressive pace at Sepang next weekend. Meanwhile, rookie Perez is pleased with his performance in his maiden F1 race, and is eager to get on to Malaysia to take advantage of his well-earned confidence.

Michael Schumacher remains confident that the Grand Prix of Malaysia will be a better story for his Mercedes team than was the season-opener in Australia. In spite of testing performance that promised the team would be in the heat of things, neither Schumacher nor his Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg finished the race.

Schumi was humiliated in qualifying by his failure to make it into P3, while young Nico qualified nicely in 7^th place. During the race, however, Michael's car suffered a blowout and some underside damage that finally ended his race on the 19^th lap, and Rosberg joined him on the sidelines two laps later, having been in a collision with Rubens Barrichello.

Ross Brawn, team principal at Mercedes, is confident that the intense effort being made at their factories will bring his team up the order at Sepang.

Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren teammate Jenson Button were struggling with under-performing cars before the season-opener. At the 11^th hour before Australia's race at Albert Park, they managed to replicate the unique exhaust design of competitor and eventual winner, Red Bull. Hamilton qualified second to Red Bull's Vettel, and finished the race second to Vettel as well.

Martin Whitmarsh, team boss at McLaren is fearful that the “Bulls” have yet to show their maximum performance. He envisions a situation wherein his team and those of Ferrari, Renault-Lotus, and the rest will find themselves with an even larger gap to the points haul of Red Bull, given the skill and speed of both Vettel and his teammate, Mark Webber.

Pirelli predicts that the Malaysian Grand Prix that is next on the F1 horizon will be the more difficult for their tires than will any other F1 race. Paul Hembery, Pirelli's racing boss voiced this expectation after the experience at Albert Park. In spite of severe degradation of the tires in testing prior to the start of the F1 racing season, Pirelli's performed better than expected on the track at Albert Park. They were even able to finish the race on a single tire stop for a single car, Sauber driver Sergio Perez. If there is no rain at Sepang during the Grand Prix of Malaysia, Hembery expects most cars to take on 4 sets of Pirellis.

For my Canadian readers, Malaysian Grand Prix broadcast times on TSN

Saturday, April 9 Qualifying: Malaysia Sepang - 3:55am et/12:55am pt            TSN

Sunday, April 10 Malaysian Grand Prix Race - 3:55am et/12:55am pt            TSN