Malaysian Grand Prix Thoughts

The Malaysian Grand Prix yesterday was a highly interesting race and gave us many talking points for the next few weeks. Here we are going to take a look at some of those.

Obviously the biggest story of the week was Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari taking the fight to Mercedes. For the first time in this turbo era someone made Mercedes look beatable. Kimi Raikkonen also had a strong race for Ferrari. If not for his puncture early on sending him to the back of the field it would have been interesting to see if he could have challenged for a podium as well. Either way though Raikkonen had an outstanding recovery drive.

As for Ferrari as a team the next couple of races will be huge. If Ferrari continues to look like they can be close to Mercedes then we may have a title fight on our hands this year between someone other than Hamilton and Rosberg. Mercedes will also be looking to bounce back and learn from where they went wrong this weekend. Mercedes definately made a error on strategy during the race in which they pitted under the first safety car. It is still difficult to say whether Mercedes would have won without pitting under the safety car but I think it would have been a fight right to the end.

Behind the front two teams Red Bull had a difficult race. There has been lots of tension between Red Bull and engine suppliers Renault lately and this will definitely not help. To make things even worse, Red Bull finished below the two Toro Rosso cars who also use Renault engines. Most people probably thought Red Bull could challenge to be the best behind Mercedes before the year started but the team looks as if podiums will be a struggle. If this type of form continues for the team the tension between them and Renault will become a huge storyline throughout the year.

The two Toro Rosso drivers both had good races for the team. Max Verstappen finished 7th to become the youngest points scorer in Formula 1 history which is a record that won't be broken anytime soon with the new Superlicense rules. It is surprising to see how they have seemed to be quicker than Red Bull at times this year considering they both use Renault engines and the inexperience of both of the Toro Rosso drivers. I think Verstappen has answered critics who have said he is not ready for Formula 1 but it still is early days. We have yet to see him go through a truly difficult time yet which will be the biggest test if he can handle Formula 1. Despite Verstappen's good form this year I have been even more impressed with Carlos Sainz this year. He finished one spot below Verstappen but I feel he has slightly more speed although that might change as Verstappen gets more experience.

McLaren had another difficult weekend towards the end of the grid but they will have hopefully learned more from the data that they gathered. Both cars did not break down during practice and as a team they got more laps in during the race than in Australia despite neither one finishing. I find it surprising to see Honda struggling as much as they have but I still think that we will eventually see Honda back up near the front hopefully sooner rather than later. If McLaren is still struggling near the end of the year it will be interesting to see how Alonso handles it. We knew he took a risk going to McLaren but I don't think anyone expected him and Button to struggle getting out of Q1.

One more positive note for the weekend was seeing Manor on track. The team had no preseason testing and did no running in Australia and also had limited running during practice. Despite all this, the team came close to getting within the 107% rule. The team should hopefully get slightly faster and not have as much of a struggle to qualify throughout the season. Bernie was not to impressed with how the team did not get on track in Australia but I think he needs to find a way to help the team make sure they can stay on the grid as Formula 1 is struggling with the number of cars they have on the grid. I think below 20 is too few so the sport should try to help Manor or any other potential entrants in the sport.

As for the race itself, I found this to be quite an interesting race. I liked the fact that the top three cars were all on different strategies and it made it uncertain who was going to win until the final pit stops. I think it would be good if there are more races like this because I think that differing strategies between the front runners tend to make for good races. They also help on tracks where it will be more difficult to pass as a unique strategy gives a way to overtake that is not on the track.

Overall I think this weekend was a very positive one for Formula 1. We saw a team take the fight to Mercedes and defeat them and we saw Ferrari get there first win in almost two years. I think the sport needed someone to challenge Mercedes and it is also a good thing for the sport when Ferrari is competitive. Hopefully as the year goes on we will see more weekends like this than like we saw in Australia.

What were your thoughts about the Malaysian Grand Prix? Do you feel Ferrari can challenge Mercedes all year? What did you think of the racing? Please share any thoughts you have in the comments section below.