2006 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW
The Formula One fraternity moves to Malaysia this week for
round two of the 2006 World Championship. Following the season
opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, Team McLaren Mercedes
arrives in Malaysia looking to build on the pace of the MP4-21
demonstrated at the Sakhir circuit.
With only four days between the Bahrain event and Free Practice
in Malaysia, the team travelled straight to Kuala Lumpur's
Sepang circuit to begin preparations for the race, with the
MP4-21s and other trackside equipment also leaving in the
early hours of Monday morning, arriving in Malaysia on Tuesday
14th. Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya are spending a
couple of days in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore respectively,
to start acclimatising to the hot and humid conditions of
the Malaysian Grand Prix. Sea freight for the race left the
McLaren Technology Centre on Friday 27th January and arrived
at Sepang on Saturday 4th March, after a period in storage
in Kuala Lumpur.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
"My race in Bahrain showed that the MP4-21 is a competitive
car, despite the heavy fuel load I had for most of the race
compared to the cars around me, it was quick. I now want to
get back on track in Malaysia and have a better qualifying
session, so that I can improve on my finishing position in
Bahrain. Sepang is a track that sees car set-up compromised
between efficiency at high speeds, for areas such as the start
and final straights where we reach full throttle, and good
grip for the slower corners, such as the complex at turns
one, 14 and 15. Parts of the track are great to drive, such
as the S complex and you need to really push through here
to get a good lap time. After Bahrain, I have been spending
a few days relaxing and doing my fitness training in hot conditions.
I will also focus on getting used to taking on a lot of fluid
to replace what is lost through sweat. Dehydration affects
concentration levels, muscle strength and endurance, and so
I have been working with my trainer to avoid this. We also
have to make modifications to the cars to cope with the heat,
for example there will be larger air cooling intakes on MP4-21
for this race."
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA
"I am really looking forward to the Malaysian Grand Prix
this weekend, Sepang is a track I love to race on and it suits
my driving style. I am hoping that this will help me and the
team to find a better set-up with the car than I had in Bahrain
and that we will be putting more points on the board. The
wide track and its sweeping corners mean there are a few good
overtaking chances, I guess the main opportunity is corner
15, but you do need really good traction to make the most
of it. Other characteristics of the track are the gradient
changes, including through the complex at the end of the first
straight, and the different cambers. Of course the humidity
is another major factor, Malaysia is a really punishing race
physically. It gets so hot in the cockpit, up to 50 degrees
centigrade and you lose a lot of fluid, up to four litres,
during the race alone. The tropical climate means that it
could rain at any minute, so that is always a bit unpredictable,
particularly because when it rains in Malaysia, it really
rains!"
MARTIN WHITMARSH, CEO FORMULA ONE, TEAM McLAREN MERCEDES
"It was an interesting start to the 2006 season in Bahrain,
which gave us the first opportunity to understand how the
new qualifying and tyre change regulations would operate in
race weekend conditions, and to gauge our genuine competitiveness
compared with the other teams. Of the latter, it was a reassuring
race for Team McLaren Mercedes with the performance of the
car meeting our expectations. Despite Kimi's issue in qualifying
and Juan Pablo's handling concerns, we were able to take ten
points from the weekend, which is a good basis to build upon.
We now move to Malaysia, where tyre wear is a key factor.
Despite a smooth surface characteristic, the hard acceleration
and braking points combined with the high track temperatures,
which can reach 50 degrees centigrade, tends to punish the
tyres. Our Michelins performed well in Bahrain, with the intensive
development work conducted with the test team and Michelin
over the winter to ensure we adapt back to short stints proving
invaluable, and we hope this performance will continue at
Sepang. After Malaysia, our test team will return to the track,
at Paul Ricard in France, to continue their programme. This
will include conducting the shakedown of chassis 4 of MP4-21,
which we aim to get out to Melbourne for the Australian Grand
Prix."
NORBERT HAUG, VICE PRESIDENT, MERCEDES-BENZ MOTORSPORT
"We learned in Bahrain that the level of competition
is higher than we have ever previously seen in this sport.
A demonstration of this was the fastest lap times of the top
seven drivers, which were all within just over four tenths
of a second and the best lap times of the top ten drivers
in qualifying all within about a second. We were quite pleased
with the performance of our technical package and are now
looking forward to the Malaysian Grand Prix. The conditions
at the Sepang circuit will be different from those experienced
in Bahrain last weekend, as the race takes place in hot and
very humid conditions with a chance of rain this time of the
year. The track with a smooth, low grip surface is quite hard
on the tyres as a result of the high surface temperatures.
Close to 70 percent of a lap will be run under full throttle,
so the track is quite stressful for the engines.”
USEFUL STATISTICS
Malaysian Grand Prix McLaren Team McLaren Mercedes Kimi Juan
Pablo
Circuit length 5.543 km Race starts 597 187 88 86
3.44 miles Race wins 148 44 9 7
Race distance 310.408km Pole Positions 122 43 9 12
192.887miles Points 3051.5 1144 287 285
Laps 56 Podiums 385 132 31 27
Inaugural race 1999 Fastest Laps 127 57 16 12
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