Insight info recap from Malaysia GP& general situation Part3

By Various sources
April 5 2009

Part3 of the insight report, compiled by Afca

The season has only just started but we've had a lot of scandals and rows already, the Hamilton-Trulli story being the last one. ''At the moment Formula 1 is certainly not presenting itself in the way we want it to. Therefore I hope we will soon leave this situation behind. But Formula 1 has always lived by unpredictable things and irregularities. The discussions that publically come to life about this simply belong to it. But at the moment it's too much.''

However, Theissen approves of the outcome of the Australian GP being changed once more a week later. ''Evaluating a situation and coming to another verdict on the basis of new knowledge I think is very good. But to have three or four parallel cases goes much too far. And we have to get back to the one driver that is standing on top of the podium really having won the race.''

On starting the Australian and Malaysian GP later during the day having more tv viewers: ''Safety ranks first, then come the tv viewers. The logistics can be adjusted to that. In Melbourne the problem of the low sun was simply not thought about, that's a problem.''

''Here in Malaysia the rain is probably the biggest problem. A little delay would make the race come to an end because then it's dark already. It's to start the race later on but in this case 16:00 would have been better than 17:00 - and that's what our Malaysian friends tell us as well.''

- Glock will start from P3: ''I'm not happy with my attempt in Q3. Somehow I didn't get a feeling for the grip with the new tyres in my first flying lap.''

On messing up the Friday practice sessions but once again making up for it overnight: ''It was like in Melbourne. We need quite a while to find the optimal set-up. I had incredible problems braking into middle-fast corners. The set-up changes that were carried out overnight have paid off, especially mechanically.''

Gass: ''We are very happy. We expected to do well here. Yesterday we had some problems but we improved the car overnight. Things look very good for tomorrow now.''

Brawn GP probably still is a bit better: ''On each track and under all circumstances they've showed to be doing well. There don't appear to be problems when they put more fuel in the car. Therefore we shouldn't expect them to massively drop off but we will in any case give our utmost and try to fight them.''

Both Toyota drivers have the exact same weight but Trulli was 0.417 seconds faster than Glok: ''Jarno likes this track a lot. He already scored some good results here. I hope he can continue that.''

- Rosberg: ''After the good times from the practice sessions I was a little dissapointed. We're simply too slow. Today both cars from Brawn GP and Toyota were faster than us.''

There's room for improvement though: ''There's still a whole lot more to get out of the car.''

On the race: ''The podium is possible. But we're not going to win. Brawn GP is too strong for that. I hope for dry weather. But we would also be strong in the rain.'' During testing Williams already had some practicing in the wet: ''We know how to modify the car for it.''

On not having a KERS car nearby: ''They're too far off and shouldn't be a problem.''

Sutil: ''Today we worked well. We had no problems and this is all that's in the car. We could hardly have done any better.'' The German has the same objective as last Sunday: ''Having a good race and making it to the end.'' On the straights the VJM002 is actually very fast, which may help overtaking other cars: ''Everything's possible. I'm still positive.''

- Button: ''We've never driven with the car in the rain. That could become a whole new experience and I'd rather not undergo that during the race.''

''I had expected Ferrari to be stronger and I was also afraid of Red Bull. On Friday the car wasn't optimally balanced. We had to put in a bit of mental work to improve the car. That's the difference to last year. Nowadays, when we change something we notice it on the car. Last year you could do what you want but things always remained the same.''

When it stays dry then Button reckons Brawn GP will have the advantage: ''Our car is among the few that brings the hard tyres up to temperature. (Trulli: ''We don't have a problem with a the hard tyres either.'') This can be decisive when it gets cooler in the evening.''

Barrichello: ''I have more fuel on board than Jenson but that doesn't explain the big gap between us.''

The Brazilian ended up on P4 because the same happened to him as in Melbourne: ''With more fuel on board the car started to understeer. This especially hindered me in the middle-fast corners. I had to wait ages before I could hit the accelerator.'' And then there's the 5 place grid penalty: ''Now I'm behind a KERS car. It can take a long time before I move forward.''

- Vettel set the third fastest time but will have to start from P13 tomorrow. Normally you'd be hoping of rain but this of course is Malaysia... ''At Jerez we did a race simulation in the wet. But rain here isn't rain. Really the whole sky falls down on you.'' The confirmation of Vettel's words came an hour after qualifying had ended: there was a cloudburst above the circuit and the sky turned as dark as night. Anyway, in case it stays dry the sun isn't to pose as much as a problem as it did in Australia: ''In the evening the sun isn't so low here. Therefore the visibility is better.''