From a seemingly disappointing start to the upgrade to a race winner returning to form, the first day back at Sepang produced plenty of winners and losers.
Here are our choices…
Loser – Mercedes (7th and 8th)
From absolute domination all weekend in Baku to fourth fastest team after Friday testing at Sepang, it looks at first glance like a sudden fall from grace for Mercedes – especially with the substantial upgrade package it brought here, estimated to be worth at least 0.3 seconds per lap. So what’s going on?
“Everything seems to be working as expected,” Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord said. “The drivers said they could feel the difference in the high-speed corners, and then the picture of the competition here on a circuit with a lot more mid- and high-speed content, I think, is more like a picture of Hungary than it was maybe last weekend in Baku.”
“We just have some adjustments to make, especially on the single lap. They (the drivers) said the long run was OK, but on the single lap Kimi was definitely talking about too much understeer, and it’s just not quite settled yet for any of them on this lap, there’s either a little lock up here or a wide run there, so hopefully we can sort that out tomorrow in qualifying.”
Baku winner George Russell felt that “at the moment Verstappen looks fastest on a single lap and McLaren looks fastest on long runs”, believing that Mercedes “just don’t have the car settings in the right window” and “that has nothing to do with improvements, we just need to do a bit of work overnight to try and improve tire degradation”.
Russell’s long run wasn’t that good, but Antonelli’s was much better, so Mercedes is probably in better shape than it looks – and Russell thinks so – at the moment, but there’s no doubt that this looks like a much tougher circuit than Baku for the car, regardless of the upgrade. -Ben Anderson
Winner: Charles Leclerc (1st)
First place and a gap of three tenths to his teammate in qualifying simulations, combined with a more than healthy long run, means there’s a lot to like about Leclerc’s Friday.
Moreover, it was his second F1 Friday on the track, the first including FP1 only in 2017 with Sauber (he was 16th during a wet session, slightly faster than his full-time teammate Pascal Wehrlein). How time flies.
Leclerc “obviously had to relearn the track” after all these years – but he has certainly looked on pace on the timing screens and is encouraged by this weekend’s form so far. If it is indeed deg-dominated, “we normally have a good racing car”, he stressed.
He and team boss Fred Vasseur, however, are wary of the important role that anticipation of track grip will play in the coming sessions.
“It’s a challenge for us, but for everyone, I think,” Vasseur said. – Valentin Khorounzhiy
Winner – Aston Martin (15th and 18th)
The mid- and high-speed corners of Sepang seem to naturally suit the B-spec Aston Martin much better than the long straight and low-speed content of Baku, and so it was comfortably the team’s best Friday of the season so far in terms of pace and result, with Fernando Alonso 15th, nestled between the two Haases and less than half a second behind the Audis.
Alonso wasn’t in a chatty mood after FP2 – he never is these days and seems to enjoy emphasizing how worthless he feels his post-session media commitments are by deliberately sabotaging them! – but according to his long-time friend (and team representative) Pedro de la Rosa, it was a “pretty decent day.”
“Coming back to Malaysia, there were a lot of unknowns, especially because there was a huge gap,” he said. “But it was pretty good overall.
“There is still work to do on Lance’s car. He was definitely happier in the second session but not quite happy enough.
“And other than that, everything went according to plan. Obviously the track is a little more slippery than expected. The tarmac is very rough and opens up in some corners. But it’s the same for everyone.” – B.A.
Loser: Williams (17th and 20th)
If Baku was the best-case scenario for the improved Williams’ debut, Sepang could be the worst-case scenario.
Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz were already bracing for a much tougher weekend here, after Sainz’s Q3 exploits and points finish in Baku, but Friday did little to allay those fears.
Williams was the 10th fastest car over a single lap, four and a half tenths behind the Aston Martin which it was well ahead of in Baku.
“We are extremely limited in terms of balance (so) I think everyone struggles, but no one has good balance, especially for us,” Albon said.
“Medium and high speed corners may seem better than I expected and low speed corners seem worse.
“We tried to make some changes for FP2 to improve the low speed, we did that, but then we lost the balance between mid and high speeds. So (we) win and lose.”
Chief track engineer Paul Williams said the team knew Sepang would “expand our package”, but it was important to help “really understand where those weaknesses are so we don’t carry them over to next year’s car”. – J.S.
Winner: McLaren (3rd and 6th)
McLaren played no significant role in the opening session, surprised by “less grip than we expected”, according to McLaren race director Randy Singh.
But the correction was substantial in the afternoon, catching the attention of Russell, who pointed to the MCL40 as the better race pace.
What he probably saw to make him say was a trio of 1’44.7-8s laps set by Lando Norris on softs at the end of the stint, a pace that didn’t seem to be available to either Mercedes or Ferrari – with the caveat that no one has yet optimized their stint approaches, set-ups or anything like that.
Oscar Piastri is there or thereabouts too – but this weekend’s specific challenge seems tailored to bring out the best in Norris in particular as he is. -VK
Winner: Red Bull (2nd and 4th)
First in FP1 (Max Verstappen), second in FP2 (Isack Hadjar) and good long-term pace, early signs indicate that the difficult pace of Red Bull’s Mercedes in Baku could be followed here in Sepang.
Although George Russell didn’t have a medium long run and Verstappen didn’t have a long soft run, we can only really compare Verstappen and Antonelli. Over five laps (the length of Antonelli’s average run), Verstappen’s average was three and a half tenths faster.
This is without knowing the operating plans and fuel loads, but it is encouraging.
Perhaps even more encouraging was Verstappen’s willingness to indulge in a little positivity on an F1 Friday!
“It was a long time ago, so there are no guarantees, but at least we had a positive start to the weekend,” he said. -Jack Benyon
Loser: Sergio Pérez (21st)
Only Franco Colapinto, penalized by 15 places on the grid and with a very different program, was slower than the Cadillac of Sergio Perez on Friday at Sepang.
“We tried something very radical on our side to try to calm down the degradation, but we went south with that and we just need to bring it back and try to get a better compromise,” Perez summed up after FP2.
His teammate Valtteri Bottas returned to form after his nightmare race in Baku, more than seven tenths ahead of Perez.
Cadillac racing director Marc Hynes said it was “good to see Valtteri back in form and with Checo we tried a development direction that maybe wasn’t the way to go.” -Josh Suttill
Winner: Racing Bulls (9th and 11th)
The Racing Bulls led the midfield last time out in the race in Baku, but that was in part thanks to Franco Colapinto wasting Alpine’s best race car of the year so far by eliminating him and his teammate, which both opened up two spots in the top 10 but also compacted the field under the safety car.
Before Baku, we have to return to Hungary for a race where Racing Bulls was in the lead. This includes a period with a replacement driver for Liam Lawson, but it still hasn’t been the strongest period in terms of pace.
It looks much sharper so far in Malaysia, with Lawson ahead of Gasly in FP2.
Gasly still looks very strong and Colapinto has been subjected to setup experiments that have entrenched him in the rankings. But strong signs, and no third consecutive fall for Arvid Lindblad in FP2… -JB
Winner: Sepang
Friday’s free practice sessions may not have brought the expected rain, but they gave plenty of signs that we’re in for an exciting first race at Sepang in nine years.
After a series of low-degradation, one-stop races, Sepang looks almost certain to reverse that trend, with drivers reporting extreme tire degradation on Friday.
That should produce a lot of strategic variation on Sunday, and it looks difficult to complete a single lap here with several drivers – like Mercedes pair Russell and Antonelli – making mistakes in their FP2 qualifying simulations.
It may only be a one-off return, but Sepang is already showing why the news of his unexpected return was so well received. – J.S.
Gn sports
