FORMULA 1 2011

[MIKA27]

Alonso expecting another 'difficult' weekend

Fernando Alonso says he's expecting another 'difficult' weekend following a slow start in practice which saw him just ninth quickest, over 1.7 seconds behind Mark Webber.

The Spaniard endured a tough start to the year at the Australian Grand Prix and he fully expects Malaysia to be on a par, with the F150 struggling for pace.

"Given how things went today, it looks like being a difficult weekend, but we will do all we can to get close to the quickest," he said following FP2.

He did however urge it was too early to give up, confident that Ferrari would catch up sooner or later.

"This is only the start of the season. We are not quick enough to fight for the win and pole position, but that does not mean that we have to throw in the towel.

"Instead we have to step up our efforts to quickly reduce the gap that separates us from those who have done a better job than us."

[MIKA27]

Suspension failure for Petrov and D'Ambrosio

In a bizarre coincidence, Jerome d'Ambrosio and both Renault drivers, Vitaly Petrov and Nick Heidfeld, all suffered front-suspension failures during first practice in Malaysia.

D'Ambrosio had a spectacular failure which resulted in him taking to the gravel sideways after the suspension on his MVR-02 shattered under braking.

Virgin team principal John Booth was disappointed by the setback it caused, meaning the Belgian failed to complete a single lap in FP2.

"This morning we experienced what we suspect was a suspension failure to the front right of Jerome's car, which was obviously disappointing," said Booth.

"The combination of the wheel flailing on its tether and the car ending up in the gravel trap meant that the damage was quite considerable. As the problem occurred just a few minutes before the end of Free Practice 1, we faced a major battle to rebuild."

Nick Heidfeld's failure was a little less explosive, unlike his team-mates. The Russian suffered a similar fate to the Virgin driver when his suspension also shattered under braking, ripping the tyre from his car.

The issues at Renault were both put down to a faulty material batch which hadn't been tested prior to FP1.

"Both Vitaly and Nick suffered failures under braking in the front uprights early in the first session," explained technical director James Allison.

"As a precaution we stopped running the cars until we had understood the problem. We quickly established that the two failed items had come from the same material batch and that nothing from this batch had run prior to today.

"It took a little longer to rule out other potential causes but once we were confident that the failures were related to a material problem we released the cars for the second half of afternoon practice where they ran without problem."

[MIKA27]

Hamilton: Vettel as my team-mate could work

Lewis Hamilton has contradicted Christian Horner's comments that he and Sebastian Vettel couldn't work together, re-igniting talk that the two could become team-mates in the future.

The Red Bull team principal tried to throw water on the fire after he sparked talk of Hamilton joining Red Bull, compared such a pairing to when the Brit partnered Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

"It's difficult to see how you could have two drivers of Lewis's and Sebastian's calibre under one roof," said the 37-year-old.

"There tends to be fireworks as we saw with Fernando Alonso and Lewis [when they were team-mates at McLaren].

Hamilton doesn't agree, highlighting his current pairing with 2009-world champion Jenson Button as an example of two high-calibre drivers working in harmony.

"Look at me and Jenson [button]. World champions can race together as long as there is quality in the team," he told the BBC in the Malaysian paddock.

"A partnership can work as long as a team exists to win a constructors' championship and for the drivers' championship.

"With our team being a manufacturer, it means equally as much to them to win the constructors' as it does the drivers'.

"I don't know if that's the same for them [Red Bull]. It doesn't necessarily affect them because they're not a car company, but I think it [working with Vettel] is possible."

Despite the 2008-world champion affiriming his future remains at McLaren, he added 'who knows what can happen in the future', which is sure to spark further rumours that he could be set for a Red Bull future.

"I'm contracted for the next two years and I'm committed to that, but it doesn't mean I can't promise anything.

"I am focused on my job now and I want to win world championships here, and I hope that continues, but you never know what happens in the future."

MIKA: Will we see 2 straws in that drink?

[MIKA27]

Vettel the unstoppable wins in Malaysia

Sebastian Vettel took yet another demanding victory in Malaysia, following his win in Australia a fortnight ago. The German led from start to finish without worry.

Jenson Button and Nick Heidfeld join him on the podium to take their first podium finishes of the season.

Mark Webber narrowly missed out on a podium by just 1.3 seconds, but finished over ten seconds ahead of the two Ferraris' followed by Lewis Hamilton who suffered rear damage after a collision with Alonso.

Race report below results

Revised Malaysian GP Results following time penalties, denoted by - *

01. S. Vettel Red Bull

02. J. Button McLaren

03. N. Heidfeld Renault

04. M. Webber Red Bull

05. F. Massa Ferrari

06. F. Alonso* Ferrari

07. K. Kobayashi Sauber

08. L. Hamilton* McLaren

09. M. Schumacher Mercedes

10. P. di Resta Force India

11. A. Sutil Force India

12. N. Rosberg Mercedes

13. S. Buemi Toro Rosso

14. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso

15. H. Kovalainen Team Lotus

16. T. Glock Virgin

17. V. Petrov Renault Retired

18. V. Liuzzi Hispania Retired

19. J. d'Ambrosio Virgin Retired

20. J. Trulli Team Lotus Retired

21. S. Perez Sauber Retired

22. R. Barrichello Williams Retired

23. N. Karthikeyan Hispania Retired

24. P. Maldonado Williams Retired

[MIKA27]

Hamilton and Alonso receive 20-sec penalties

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso both received 20-second time penalties following the conclusion of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hamilton received his for excessive weaving whilst defending his position against Alonso, whilst the Spaniard received his for the accident he caused between the two a lap later.

Hamilton drops to eight as a consequence, Alonso remains sixth.

[MIKA27]

Another double-DNF for the Williams duo

The Williams team suffered yet another double-DNF of the season, following both drivers reliability issues in Australia.

The Grove based outfit are yet to complete a race distance as Pastor Maldonado suffered from a misfiring engine, whilst Rubens Barrichello pitted after a left-rear puncture and then a hydraulic issue which terminated his race.

Technical director Sam Michael says the performance is unacceptable: "As a team, we expect to, and must, perform much better than that on all fronts."

Both drivers are now looking forward to the Chinese GP in just a weeks time where they both hope to complete a race.

"I am now looking ahead to China where I will be pushing to complete a full race distance and get a better result," said Maldonado.

Barrichello added: "Right now we don’t have a reliable car and we’re playing catch up, but the team back home are pushing hard to get things resolved and bring performance to the car. I believe they will be there soon."

[MIKA27]

Alonso: 'Contact lost me a podium finish'

Fernando Alonso believes his contact with Lewis Hamilton could have cost him a podium in Malaysia.

The Spaniard was fourth before the accident and hounding the rear of the McLaren, however without his DRS system working it made passing difficult.

Heading into turn four, Alonso slipstreamed the McLaren, but unfortunately the two made contact damaging the front-wing of the F150º, resulting in a stop for both drivers.

"It was very close. The rear wing didn’t work for me in last part of the race so I couldn’t overtake in straight line which was the best possibility," he told the BBC.

"Unfortunately we touched and I broke my front wing and we had to pit again. It cost me maybe a podium today but we will try again in China."

The Ferrari's race pace was better than expected and came as a pleasant surprise to Alonso.

"Today we were fighting wheel to wheel with the McLaren's and Webber as well. That was a surprise for us because in Melbourne we were not close enough."

[MIKA27]

Confusing afternoon for Button

Jenson Button admits it wasn't all plain sailing at the Malaysian Grand Prix as the different strategies made things a little confusing.

The McLaren driver, who started fourth on the grid, claimed his first podium of the 2011 season with a second-place finish behind Sebastian Vettel.

However, with most of the front-runners opting for three-stoppers, Button feels it was difficult to know what was going on around him.

"It was a really confusing race in a way, understanding or trying to understand the pitstops and whether it is worth looking after the tyres or not, so pretty tricky," said Button.

"In the last stint putting the prime tyre on, the car came alive, I had so much more grip. I had a feeling the tyre would not go the same way as the prime tyre."

"I had so much more grip and I had a feeling that the tyre wasn't going to go the same way as the soft tyre, and my pace was much better in the last stint. It was a fun race, a couple of really good battles. "

Although he is delighted with P2, he admits he wanted to push Vettel a little harder in the end.

"I was happy to come away with a second, I had the team telling me to back it off and look after the tyres," he said.

"But, in a racer's mind you want to push as hard as you can and try and catch the leader. Even though it was not really on, I had to give it a go. I had a lot of fun out there, and great to get 18 points.

"A big thank you to the whole team for doing a magnificent job today with the pit stops and the strategy. I think we've made some good progress, so I think looking forward to China we should be excited and hopefully we can challenge these guys (Red Bull)."

[MIKA27]

Schumi: We just don't have the pace

Michael Schumacher says there was nothing wrong with his Mercedes W02 in Sepang, well, except for the fact that it's just too slow.

The German had an interesting race on Sunday, where he was involved in several battles with his rivals. In the end, he finished P9, scoring Mercedes GP's first points of the 2011 Championship.

And P9 was probably the best he could have hoped for as the seven-time World Champion concedes his team's W02 is lacking in pace.

"I had a straightforward race today which was even a bit exciting towards the end but really full of ups and downs before. The start was quite good and then it was mainly about managing the tyres," he said.

"We probably couldn't have expected to take more than two points today and we certainly have to work on our race-pace which is not yet where we want it to be.

"We are all aware of that and we are more than ready to keep working hard to make the necessary steps forward.

"Over one lap, we can already be at a good level when the car is working well, but we need to continue to work on our race performance."

However, team boss Ross Brawn says pace isn't Mercedes GP's only issue - they also need to learn to read the weather forecast a bit better.

"The team and drivers did a great job today but obviously we are not fast enough at the moment," he said. "We had a couple of stints which proved to be a little too long, as we stayed out to see if the weather might bring an opportunity.

"That was our decision, and when it didn't rain as had been predicted, we paid the price with the loss of perhaps a position or two.

"Overall, the work from the team was strong today with good pit stops and the cars were reliable in very challenging conditions. We will continue to work at it and I look forward to having a more competitive car and being able to mix it where we want to be."

MIKA: IMO not good enough on behalf of the Brawn/management. We are talking about a team who should know better based on their racing pedigree and Brawn too, one of the best tacticians in F1 making errors by misreading the weather forecast... Nico and Schumi did a great job considering.

[MIKA27]

Team Lotus hail Sepang progress

Team Lotus declared the Malaysian GP as a breakthrough after driver Heikki Kovalainen fought for places with bigger and more established teams.

Kovalainen traded lap times and battled with drivers from Toro Rosso, Force India and Mercdes, on his way to a final finish in 15th place.

"Our pace was very good at the end, particularly when we were with the leading cars, and we were very close to passing one of the Toro Rossos as we came over the line," said technical boss Mike Gascoyne.

"That shows just how far we have progressed. This weekend has been by far our strongest race performance since we came back into Formula One last year so, for me, it is really good to see the way we are racing again."

Team principal Tony Fernandes, head of Malaysian budget airline AirAsia, agreed that it was a landmark weekend, despite clutch problems for its other driver, Jarno Trulli.

"Well I think we can officially say we were racing," he said.

"It was a real shame about Jarno as I really wanted two cars to come home, but Heikki drove a fantastic race and it is exciting that he was really pushing the Toro Rossos in the final few laps."

He added: "He kept pace with cars that were much faster than us during qualifying so I'm thrilled that we have recorded 15th at what was a very tough circuit, so huge congratulations to the whole team and well done to everyone."

Team Lotus are starting their second season after finishing 10th in last year's Constructors' Championship.

[MIKA27]

No quick fix for Red Bull KERS issues

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have been warned that there may be no quick fix to the KERS issues that appear to be the only ***** in Red Bull Racing's armour at the moment.

Although Vettel has won the first two races of the season, the German and team-mate Webber have battled with ongoing KERS issues - and neither driver had a fully functioning system throughout the whole Malaysian Grand Prix.

And with just one week until the next race in China, which is another event where KERS is crucial for lap time, Red Bull technical chief Adrian Newey has admitted that his outfit is still only beginning to get on top of the hybrid system.

"The reality is that it is a system in its infancy," said Newey. "We are not a manufacturer team so we are having to develop KERS ourselves, which has not been our area of expertise in the past.

"We are also doing it on a limited resource, limited budget and with limited experience, so we are on a rapid learning curve. How long it takes us to get to the top of that learning curve remains to be seen."

When asked if the problems were such that they could take some time, Newey said: "The fact that we are still finding new problems implies that is the case."

Some of the problems that Red Bull Racing has suffered with its KERS have been related to the ultra-aggressive packaging that Newey has demanded for the RB7 – but he has insisted that the team has not been too on the edge with it.

"I don't think so," he said. "If the problems we had were all related to the packaging then the answer would be yes, but they are not."

Webber did not run KERS at all in the Malaysian GP, after suffering a problem with it prior to the start, while Vettel was told not to use his in the second half of the race.[/b]

"With Mark we had a problem off the line that meant he could not use it at all, during the race, including the start," said Newey. "He had a problem on the lap to the startline – it was a fresh problem, not a problem we have had before.

"With Seb – we had a problem that meant we could have continued to run it, but from a safety point of view we thought it best to turn it off and not take any risks."

[MIKA27]

Heidfeld hails 'fantastic' start

Nick Heidfeld hailed his start in the Malaysian Grand Prix as fantastic after helping him secure a place on the podium.

The Renault driver scored his first rostrum finish of the season, the first in two years, after making a sensational start from sixth on the grid.

Heidfeld was second by the first corner and then went to finish in third position. His last podium had also been in Malaysia in 2009.

The German, who failed to score in the season-opening race in Australia, admitted his first podium with Renault was a big step.

"The start was fantastic, good fun," said Heidfeld. "In Australia I made up many positions at the start, but I didn't expect the same starting from sixth.

"I felt myself fighting with Seb who watched me in the mirrors. After that I did the best I could but Sebastian was quite a bit quicker then.

"In the first stint there were some drops coming down and I called the box to say tyres going off. They said 'stay out' as we didn't want an extra pitstop.

"We had some good pace later on, especially with the Prime tyres and then had to defend from Mark who came flying by, then Mark attacked but his tyres started to degrade.

"My first podium for Lotus Renault is a great step."

[MIKA27]

Debris put Perez out of Malaysian GP

Sauber rookie Sergio Perez was forced to retire from the Malaysian Grand Prix after running over debris from another car.

The Mexican was following Sebastian Buemi's Toro Rosso in 14th position when he pulled off the track on lap 25 after his Ferrari engine switched off.

"Something came out of the car of Buemi and hit the ground of my car," Perez told the BBC. "Then I lost the power. We have to now analyse and see what really happened."

Perez, who starred on his Formula 1 debut two weeks ago in Australia finishing seventh on the road before Sauber was disqualified from the results because of a rear wing infringement, said had he continued he wouldn't have expected to produce a similar performance in Malaysia.

"We got the pit strategy wrong, I stopped too late for the ideal position on the racetrack, so because of that my race was not going very well," he explained.

[MIKA27]

Buemi says penalty too severe

Sebastien Buemi believes his penalty during the Malaysian Grand Prix was too severe.

The Swiss driver got a stop-and-go for speeding in the pitlane, a penalty that ruined all his chances of fighting for the points.

Buemi, who finished in 13th position, felt a drive-through would have been much more fitting.

"I made a good start, passing Rosberg and was running well, closing up on Kobayashi and Schumacher, but at my first pitstop, I had the impression that the pitlane speed limiter had not been engaged.

"I immediately pressed it again, which deactivated it, so I sped in the pitlane and picked up a ten second stop-go penalty, which I felt was a bit severe, as usually you get a drive-through penalty which loses you less time.

"After that I gave it my best shot but it was not enough to get a reward for the work, as I felt we could have got the Force Indias and at least finished ninth. I only changed tyres twice and it's true that the last few laps were very difficult because of the degradation."

Team-mate Jaime Alguersuari also endured a disappointing race, the Spaniard at a loss to explain his problems during the event.

He finished in 14th.

"I need to analyse this race with the engineers, because to be honest, I don't really understand what happened: we were slow and the tyre degradation was very high, higher than on Friday," he said. "I struggled to clean the graining off the front tyres and was losing performance with every passing lap.

"On the positive side, I made a good start, gaining a few places. But soon I found I could not keep up with the guys in front. Given the difficulties I had, I feel that finishing the race was in itself an achievement and the best I could do today."

[MIKA27]

Mercedes looks for DRS wing fix

Mercedes GP believes tweaking its rear wing design to make airflow over it more stable will be key to resolving the problems it is having with the Drag Reduction System (DRS).

Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher have been hampered in the last two events with DRS issues - where the wing does not return to its ideal downforce-producing performance for corners after it has been opened up on a straight.

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn believed that alterations to the rear wing design for Malaysia had cured the issue – but ongoing problems for his drivers have shown there is more work to do.

Explaining the problem his team is facing, Brawn said: "When you activate the rear wings, when the flap goes up, effectively the flow stalls. It separates off the wing. And when the flap comes back the flow reattaches and the wing works normally.

"We are having some situations where the flap comes back and the flow doesn't reattach immediately, so it takes a little bit of time before the flow reattaches.

"We have made some modifications since Melbourne and it looked okay in most of practice. But then it [the problem] seemed to come back again during qualifying.

"In Michael's case, on his qualifying lap, there were several corners where the flow was unstable, and it happened in Nico's case as well.

"Obviously with the qualifying mode you are operating the RFA [Rear Flap Adjuster] at many points on the track, whereas in the race you are operating it one point on the straight, so it is aggravated when we get into qualifying."

Brawn said he did not yet have an explanation for why the Mercedes GP wing appeared to be so inconsistent – although he suspected that crosswinds could be to blame.

"Separation of rear wings is not a new phenomenon because we all design the rear wings to be at the limit of attachment to get the maximum performance from it.

"We have seen many times that a rear wing will work perfectly okay, but in a crosswind or unstable condition you will get some separation, so we have got this separation going on and that is what caused the difficulties in qualifying.

"We thought we had solved the problem and, if you look at the car here, you will see on the lower wing there is a thing we call the ski ramp. It is an aerodynamic device on the middle of the lower wing to reduce the pressure on the rear wing.

"It has cost us a little bit of performance but we have made the rear wing much more stable, and that is what we have been running here. And up until qualifying we were quite comfortable with it, but we had a reoccurrence in qualifying."

Brawn believes that Mercedes may need to tweak its rear wing to gain less from the straightline speed boost of the DRS.

"That is the balance you are trying to strike," he said. "Obviously our wing has been designed with an evaluation of a huge number of elements, not just downforce/drag. It is stability, it is response rate. All those things are assessed in the windtunnel.

"But you are always trying to push close to the limits, and we are trying to gain as much performance from the wing being activated as we can.

"The gain in straightline speed for our wing is quite substantial but we have this bit of instability. It is not unique. It is not new – but it caught us out at the wrong time here."

[mikec]

I'm very very disappointed with the progress of this car and Brawn and Co. have no excuses this year as to why they aren't fighting for podiums every weekend. The slow progress of the car has destroyed Shumachers comeback and I expect he will be calling it quits this year unless Mercedes can pull a "McLaren" and improve the car rather promptly. I had high hopes for Mercedes this year and I'm afraid Ross Brawn will have to shoulder the blame. They may have to look towards next years car very soon if things don't shape up.

[MIKA27]

I'm very very disappointed with the progress of this car and Brawn and Co. have no excuses this year as to why they aren't fighting for podiums every weekend. The slow progress of the car has destroyed Shumachers comeback and I expect he will be calling it quits this year unless Mercedes can pull a "McLaren" and improve the car rather promptly. I had high hopes for Mercedes this year and I'm afraid Ross Brawn will have to shoulder the blame. They may have to look towards next years car very soon if things don't shape up.

Hi Mike and welcome.

Yes, I agree 100% with your comment. I was a HUGE fan of Ross Brawn, I believe he and Schumacher at Ferrari were a strong force. Mercedes GP and Ross Brawn have delivered a car that SHOULD be a lot faster for both Nico and Schumacher yet these guys are rather slow and are being out paced by Saubers, Renaults etc.

It's rather sad considering both drivers deserve a great deal more, their talents are not being respected by media, fans etc. Watch this space, Norbert Haugh may remove Ross Brawn altogether.

[mikec]

Alright so I am reading the trades today and see that Ferrari are racing back to Maranello this week to frantically find a solution to improve their qualifying trim and speed for China this weekend and McLaren are introducing a new floor and some other bits also for this weekend. The word coming from Merecedes....NOTHING planned for this weekend. What's going on with these guys I ask, you would think they would be the ones frantically searching for speed. By the way where's Rory Byrne when you need him (retired?). Maybe he was the one that made Ross look so good over the Ferrari winning years. Perhaps they have secretly already shelved this car and are moving on with their 2012 contender. So many questions to be answered by this group.

[MIKA27]

Pirelli under fire for 'marbles'

Pirelli may be forced to look into their compounds after drivers complained of the "marbles" hitting them during Sunday's Malaysian GP.

The Sepang offered an interesting test of Pirelli's tyres as the heat and humidity caused severe degradation. This created "marbles", pieces of discarded rubber, that hit - and even hurt - the drivers.

"There are a lot of marbles out there, maybe too many. Come the end of the race, it gets difficult to overtake," Paul di Resta, who finished P10, told The Telegrah.

"The other big thing is that they kept coming up and hitting me in the hands. In the middle of a fast corner, these lumps of rubber would be smacking into my hands as I turned the wheel.

"Rubber is not the softest material and if it got you in the right place, it could hurt. It happened quite a few times over the weekend and as you go into the corner, the rubber runs across the tyre and flicks up."

Di Resta's comments, though, were new to Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembrey.

"I have not had those comments from the top three but if it's an issue, we will have to confront it," he said.

"There was a lot of overtaking though. We will have to analyse all the overtaking manoeuvres but the marbles have to go somewhere and that is a difficulty for us."

However, the only solution to this problem - and Jenson Button's complaints that the tyre wear made for confusing strategies - is to build more durable tyres. And that would lead to one-stop racing.

"We either go back to a one-stop strategy, if that's what they feel is better, or we continue to do what we have been asked to do," Hembrey added.

"I don't have a magic wand. I have been told it was the most exciting race for a long time. If there weren't any marbles, would it be any more exciting?

"People don't want to go back to a procession. We have been asked to do something and we have tried to do it. I thought it was good for the show but if people think it's not right, we will change it.

"It's hard for us - we are in the middle. I am not being defensive because we are doing what we have been asked to do. Everyone needs to decide.

"The only way we could create the forced strategy was to make the tyres wear. That's what we have had to do. If they want to go in another direction, they will have to tell us.

"If I am going to be criticised for making the races more exciting, I don't know what to say."

[MIKA27]

Boullier: Petrov's shunt was terrifying

Vitaly Petrov was at a loss to understand an accident in Malaysia that Renault team principal Eric Boullier described as "terrifying."

Just over two laps from the chequered flag and with eighth place in his sights, Petrov ran wide, striking a kerb that then launched his car into the air.

On thudding back onto the Sepang circuit, the impact jolted the steering column out of place, leaving Petrov with no means to control his car.

The Russian, however, superbly managed to slow his speed, although ran into a polystyrene advertising hoarding on the other side of the track before finally coming to rest.

"I have to say it was terrifying to see him jumping so high," said Boullier.

"When a Formula One car is flying like that, the landing is never going to be good, and the steering column mounting broke.

"That was as a consequence of when the car landed. Nothing else. It was just one of those things, but it was bad enough.

"When I saw the steering column in his hands I thought something had gone badly wrong.

"But when I saw how high he was flying, I understood why. He did a very good job to keep the car under control with no steering."

Petrov played down the incident as he said: "To be honest I still don't understand what I did.

"The corner is a difficult one, and I knew Lewis (Hamilton) was behind me, but there were only two laps to go and I knew my tyres were good.

"But I picked up some rubber which resulted in understeer and I went wide, and it was a big bump there.

"When I took off and hit the ground, my first thought then was that my race was over.

"It wasn't scary for me. You know it's going to be a big shunt.

"It's actually more scary when you see a wall coming towards you when you crash."

After finishing third in the first race of the season in Australia a fortnight ago, Petrov was naturally gutted not to have scored at least something on this occasion.

"It was a small mistake from me that shouldn't have had the consequences it had," added Petrov, whose team-mate Nick Heidfeld was third.

"Both cars should have been in the points, but the good news is we clearly have the pace needed to compete this season."

[MIKA27]

Ferrari bosses looking for answers

Ferrari's team bosses will travel more than 10 000 miles over the next few days as they look to sort out their woes before the Chinese Grand Prix.

Team principal Stefano Domenicali, technical director Aldo Costa and assistant Pat Fry have flown back to their base at Maranello in Italy after their lacklustre displays in the opening two races of the season. They will then dash back to Shanghai to prepare for this weekend's race.

While the rest of the team though have already made their way to China, the trio will be keeping a close eye on the "investigation into the aerodynamics" after the 150º Italia struggled to keep up with Red Bull and McLaren in Australia and Malaysia.

"The team has already arrived in Shanghai, ahead of all the equipment making its way from having been used up until yesterday in Malaysia," the Ferrari website reported.

"Some of the team however, already set off for Italy last night. Domenicali, Costa and Fry are actually expected at Maranello this afternoon, in order to keep a close eye on the car's development programme.

"The number one priority is still naturally enough, an investigation into the aerodynamics and on finding out why the cars' performance on track does not match the numbers produced by the wind tunnel. It is a very tricky operation, with consequences for every area of the development process: better to follow it first hand, to push it along a bit further. That way some updates planned for later races might actually be available earlier, hopefully starting here in China."

Meanwhile Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has added he two cents on the Italian outfit's poor start, saying their response will be "amazing".

"I am definitely not satisfied with the way the season has begun, but I have complete faith in the people here who know how to react when the situation is tough," said di Montezemolo.

"I am sure there will be an amazing response. I know everyone is working flat out and I have great faith in the human and technical strengths of our people. I believe the period when the most we can hope for is a podium will soon come to an end.

"I hope we see some improvement, especially in qualifying and to see us be competitive as we were in the [Malaysia] race. But I reckon that will be difficult as I don't think Ferrari can turn it around in the space of a week."

[MIKA27]

Williams to test new exhaust system

Williams hope their new exhaust system will give them a much-needed boost at this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix.

The Grove-based team have made a disappointing start to the 2011 campaign with Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado failing to finish the opening two races of the season in Australia and Malaysia. They are also yet to make it through to the final qualifying session.

Technical director Sam Michael says they've set their sights on points in Shanghai and also revealed that Barrichello's FW33 will sport a new exhaust system during practice on Friday.

"We are still aiming for a top ten qualifying performance and to get some points on the board in Shanghai," Michael said.

"We also have a new exhaust system for Rubens' car that we will test and evaluate on Friday."

Barrichello hopes the upgrade will help them to "finish a race where they belong".

"We have an upgrade to the car this weekend which I hope will improve our speed and overall performance," he said.

"It hasn't been a good start to the season for us as we are yet to finish a race where we belong, but I'm hoping the upgrade will help us to move forward."

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Heidfeld cautious on Chinese GP predictions

Nick Heidfeld says he's unsure of what the pecking order will be in China, given that some teams will be bringing larger updates than the Renault team.

The German driver managed to secure a podium finish at last weekends Malaysian GP, giving him the record of the most podium finishes without a race win.

He admitted it was too early to predict if he could further that record with another podium, but hoped the good form experienced in Sepang would continue over to Shanghai.

"It’s too early to say [if we can be on the podium again]. It really depends on the upgrade packages the other teams bring to China, which might change the pecking order a little bit," he explained.

"We had a good upgrade in Sepang, and our package this weekend in Shanghai is not as big."

The R31's top speed will be a major advantage says Heidfeld, after the team recorded some of the quickest straight-line speeds, boosting his confidence.

"I think it's a circuit where our car will go well because we have good top speed, which should pay off down the long back straight."

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Support mounting to ditch 2013 engine plans

Support is mouting for Formula One to ditch plans for a new 4-cylinder 'green' engine to be introduced in 2013, with Jenson Button the latest to voice his concern.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and Bernie Ecclestone were first to dismiss the formula as 'poxy', adding that it was a 'PR gimick'.

Ross Brawn also revealed that there are some discussions going on between the teams behind the scenes to evaluate whether or not there was support for the new plans.

Button is the latest to add his voice, suggesting F1 should return to the days of V10 engines.

"Most of us drivers would like the V10 engines back," he told El Pais.

"It was just so incredible to hear that roar of 20,000 rpm. In 2004 or 2005, the noise was really impressive. That's in the past, although the V8 also sounds good."

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Mercedes preview the Chinese GP

Michael Schumacher: "I am, of course, looking forward to racing in Shanghai as challenges fire me up as much as everybody else in our team. We know that we have little time to build after the race in Malaysia but we are learning with every lap that we race, so we are heading there with an open mind and full of ambition to do better than in the opening races. We know that our fans in China are very enthusiastic and really get behind us, so we will definitely try to put on a good show for them."

Nico Rosberg: "The Shanghai International Circuit is an enjoyable challenge and I have good memories from the race last year when I finished on the podium in third place. Our start to the season this year has been tougher but I'm looking forward to turning the wheel in a more positive direction this weekend. I like driving this track and have been pretty quick here in the past. We could have qualified higher in Malaysia so we know that more performance is there, when every system is operating correctly on the car. Hopefully we can improve further and make that happen in China. We are working on it very hard."

Ross Brawn, Team Principal: "With the back-to-back races taking place in Malaysia and China on consecutive weekends, there is little time to make significant changes to the car ahead of our visit to Shanghai. However, we are using the few days available to undertake a thorough review of our first two race weekends and identify those areas where we can make improvements for the Chinese Grand Prix. The hard work will continue at the factory while we are in Shanghai to ensure that we are in a stronger position for the start of the European season. Looking ahead to this weekend, the Shanghai circuit is an extremely impressive facility and one of those tracks which produces exciting races year after year. China is a very important market for both Formula One and Mercedes-Benz, and we are very much looking forward to our visit."

Norbert Haug, Vice-President, Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: "This weekend's Chinese Grand Prix is the second race in eight days and a logistical challenge for all of the teams, who must transfer their equipment from Malaysia to China in a very short space of time. The circuit characteristics in Shanghai are different to Sepang. Whereas both tracks include a similar proportion of straights, there were more fast corners in Sepang; Shanghai features only two of them, and requires good braking stability, traction and straight-line speed. Temperatures are expected to be below 20 degrees, roughly half the level we experienced last weekend in Malaysia, and it has been the general experience so far with the Pirelli tyres that higher temperatures have helped to achieve more consistent lap times. We are expecting a difficult and challenging weekend for our team, like we had in Malaysia, where a finish in the lower part of the points rankings was the best that was achievable with our current technical package. However, our lap times in the later part of the race looked better relative to the competition than they had on Friday and Saturday. In China, we wish to continue to improve before we can make further necessary steps with our technical package during the three weeks before the start of the European season."