Insight info: State of things in Malay's Friday

By Various sources
April 3 2009

Compiled by AFCA

- Alonso: ''My ear hurts, I have a temperature of 38 °C and despite using a whole lot of medications the body temperature isn't willing to come down. In qualifying I will only be 90% fit, in the race this will hopefully be 100%.''

''The team doctor and the physiotherapists look after me, so I'm in good hands. I have an inflammation of the middle ear and haven't be feeling well for two days. That's why today I only did the minimum amount of laps in order not to lose too much water.''

The Renault driver tried out two, three set-up changes and let his teammate do the majority of the work.

''Piquet tried out some alternative things. That has helped us a step forward. Everything else than a place inside the top ten would be a dissapointment.''

Piquet is a bit more cautious: ''A spot in the top ten is possible but it will be a hard fight.'' Sepang better suits the R29 than Melbourne. ''And I prefer this track, that also helps.''

The Brazilian is happy with the consistent laptimes on the soft compound: ''Contrary to the soft tyre in Melbourne we don't have graining here. The problem is rather the hard tyre. Over the first lap it's half a second slower. During the race it's only beneficial if you use it for an extremely long stint. Or very shortly at the end of the race.''

On KERS: ''It will be helpful to overtake with the two long straight of this circuit. Today I successfully tried it out.''

- Heidfeld had a depressing day. He was third last in the FP1, last in FP2. The German complained about balance problems that's why he used KERS and in the morning but didn't use it in the afternoon: ''The result obviously doesn't look great but in Melbourne things were similar.''

''Without KERS the car feels completely different. On the one hand the power boost obviously isn't there, on the other hand the brake balance complete changes.''

- Vettel: ''We've gone through our programme, contrary to Melbourne we did so without technical problems. We were fast and didn't have problems with the tyres.''

''The hard tyre has too little grip, this time the better tyre for the race is the soft one.''

RBR is doing well but the 21-year old will get a 10 place grid penalty, despite the team having provided the stewards with new data: ''Damn that penalty !''

- Glock was at loss today. P10 and P14 may still be explained by heavy fuel loads, the three mistakes pose a puzzle: ''The car was actually very good but in between the balance got lost (which is what happened in Melbourne as well - AFCA) and we have to find out why. The car suddenly started to oversteer. Luckily the set-up changes that we carried out at the end of the sessions brought an improvement.''

The Toyota driver is hopeful anyway: ''In Melbourne we also had a difficult day on Friday and then on Saturday we were clearly stronger.''

- Rosberg: ''We really had a good day. We often changed our set-up and setting up the car we've been able to make a good step forward.''

''We've been able to carry out a good test with the slicks. That was very important because we now have an idea what's possible with the tyres at this track.''

The Williams driver is happy with the physical work he did in recent months: ''My winter practice sessions have helped a lot when it comes to driving in the heat.''

- Sutil: ''We're in the similar position to Melbourne. We simply lack downforce. (Nevertheless) I'm always motivated and you always hope a litte that perhaps I'll be able to get into Q2 anyway.''

''Rain during the race would be positive. Then there's always more action.''

''It's hard to get the tyres up to temperature. Especially at the front we have no grip at the moment.''

- Ecclestone on Vettel's penalty: ''The penalty for Vettel is wrong. The poor guy has been punished enough by the accident. He lost a third place. If it becomes the rule that drivers receive grid penalties for collisions then soon there will hardly be any fights left. Then everyone will back off while we were actually willing to see more wheel to wheel racing

On the diffuser row: ''In the past we used to either accept that someone else had come up with a better idea or together we agreed on a common line.''

On Ryan being suspended by McLaren: ''I'm not sure whether the right decision has been taken there. Ryan was only an employee. Would someone like that act on his own account ? He's only a scape goat.''

- With KERS in the car it's impossible to lose as many weight as possible. The safety belts from Sabelt for instance now weight 0.685 kg instead of 0.870 kg (Brazil 2008). At the end of the season a weight of 0.550 kg is the target.

- The speedlimit in Malaysia is 60 km/h (during the practice sessions). In FP1 Hamilton speeded in the pitlane by 5.3 km/h costing him € 1,200,-. In FP2 Hamilton speeded in the pitlane by 2.6 km/h costing him € 900,-.

- Kubica has been given an official warning because 20 minutes before the end of FP2 he ignored yellow flags and set a new personal best time in the sector in question.