Insight info recap from Malaysia GP& general situation

This informations emerged bfore the race, but still have validity after it, as most of it talks about the team's form, and crticial issues like KERS or double decker diffusers. Compiled by Afca

- A McLaren member: ''P13 and P14 is in line with the potential of our car.''

Wurz: ''McLaren mostly lacks aerodynamical grip which has to be compensated for by mechanical changes. You can see Hamilton's car is set-up extremely softly to create more mechanical grip. A Brawn GP driver wouldn't be able to drive with a set-up like that at all. McLaren lacks 1.1 second to the front runners.''

- Costa: ''We don't get the hard compound in the operating window.'' Brawn GP and Toyota don't have any problems with that, Massa: ''Is that surprising then ? These two teams have the double-decker diffuser and thus the necessary amount of downforce to make the tyres work.''

- Raikkonen on his KERS problems yesterday: I wasn’t really scared but I was a bit surprised. And I also had some difficulty breathing. Certainly there’s been some worries over the safety aspect but in the end everything has gone well. And if somethingl like this is to happen again in the race then it should no longer be dangerous. There’s nothing that can kill you. KERS is locked in a safe place, it can neither touch nor harm you. Therefore it’s not a problem.''

It took two hours to change KERS yesterday. The electric engine is placed right underneeth the oil tank and is connected to the crank shaft. The batteries weigh more or less 25 kg and are placed in a 12-15 cm high carbon fibre boot which is as wide as the area of the fuel tank and is placed inside of it.

- Heidfeld complained about traffic: ''Not in my fast lap but in the outlap. Barrichello came near me so rapidly that I had to move aside. Later on he was in front of me and I wasn't able to go as fast as I wanted in order to get the tyres in the operating window. That's annoying because the track kept getting faster and I wasn't able to exploit that.''

On the decision to use KERS: ''The simulations (between using the device or not) were not clear. Therefore I wanted my feeling to decisive. I feel better with KERS. It gives a few advantages. Firstly the fact that you're able to power boost at the beginning of a qualifying lap, secondly the start of the race and thirdly the fights.''

''You can very well simulate the laptimes when you have KERS on board having it switched on or off. However, the problems start when you need to calculate how the car reacts when the KERS elements have been taken out. This changes the centre of gravity of the car and then the consequences are hard to predict.''

With 692 kg of fuel Heidfeld has the heaviest car on the grid: ''That's the only advantage starting from P11. You can freely choose your fuelload.''

What's the prefered type of weather ? ''I wouldn't mind rain.''

Theissen on lodging an official complaint against the double-decker diffusers: ''At the end of the day it doesn't make any difference whether three or four teams decide to protest. Only for judicial reasons it was important that someone complained here. It's to make sure that (the case at) this race will be treated by the appeal court in the exact same way as the case from Melbourne. We were already prepared to protest in Melbourne therefore we've taken up this role now. And the three teams that have already protested in Melbourne have supported our complaint in written form.''

The double-decker diffuser is said to bring 0.5 seconds. So if those diffusers will be banned then the gap to those teams will be dramatically reduced: ''But obviously we'll only be satisifed once we're at the front. But in any case it would change things completely. We would find ourselves in a good position.''

The teams in question defend themselves saying the complaining teams could have come up with this idea themselves: ''It's not a matter of having this idea, in fact it's been on the table several times and has also been discussed by the Technical Working Group. And because of these discussions we simply assumed that the diffuser is not in the grey area but outside of the regulations.''

Regardless of the decision that will be taken on the 14th of April, BMW Sauber has started working on a similar design: ''We've started developing something like it, eventhough, like before, we don't think it's in the spirit of the rules. It costs a lot of money and we rather not go this way but we simply don't have any choice. We have to develop it in case you will definitively be allowed to use it.''

''You certainly don't come up with a well working overall solution. I wouldn't bet my life on us having this solution by the time of the Spanish GP. To be honest, I don't know either where we are in this respect. After all, it's a lot more than just the development of a diffuser. It has an influence on the entire aerodynamic concept. This requires a whole lot of development work and at the moment I cannot tell when we will be ready with a solution that is better than what we have now.''

A word on the current grid situation: ''It's good to have fresh teams and fresh drivers at the front. It's good to sometimes have someone else up there. A Formula 1 car is the most complex piece of machinery that you can imagine. So it's inevitable there are grey areas. You cannot couch such a complex piece of machinery. But when there's a situation like this on then it's necessary to react quickly to get it under control.''

This info continues:

Part2

Part3