The first round is over. Most of the cars managed to finish the much awaited Grand Prix. A year of drastic change: new engine, addition of a turbo charger, significantly more horsepower boost coming from kinetic energy recovery, more torque, less aerodynamics, more mechanical grip, and significantly less engine noise. I think we can all still remember hearing that Australian crowd roar in approval of it's newly appointed Red Bull pilot. But is this a change for the better? To hear the tyres squeal on corner entry, brake lock-up, or "roaring" out of the pits. Some argue that the "golden era" involving Senna had less noise but was the 'greatest' era in the history of our sport. Will this era prove to be comparable? 1 race in, it's hard to judge. But time will tell! The fire lit under this debate will surely burn for a while longer. And please, feel free to discuss!

On to Round #2. Mercedes come "home" after dominating the first round of the 2014 Formula 1 championship. At least with 1 car. Nico Rosberg proved victorious in an effortless fashion. Lewis Hamilton succumbed to misfortune. Losing one of his 6 cylinders due to an engine malfunction. Without this poor luck, I don't think anyone would question who the top 2 pilots would have been. But the order could be debated! We also witnessed the re-emergence of McLaren-Mercedes and Williams. Both teams were able to compete for a podium finish based on pace alone. Unfortunately for Williams, both of their pilots suffered from misfortunate. With Bottas clipping a wall and puncturing a tyre. And Massa being the victim of Kobayashi's first corner accident. McLaren were able to convert that pace into points. And they currently lead the WCC after their pilots finished P2 and P3. But who would have thought Red Bull would be competing for anything more than points, let alone a podium?! The most dominant team in recent memory showed exactly what has allowed them to record 4 WDC and WCC titles on the trot: pure determination and a vengeful desire for victory. Oddly enough, it wasn't "Vom Kartfahrer aus Heppenheim zum Weltmeister der Formel 1" (vettel) who was fighting for that podium position. But his newly appointed australian teammate! Vettel suffered from reliability issues. And Ricciardo was the victim of Formula 1's latest scandal: are the new Fuel Flow sensors appropriate for use? Ask Red Bull, you'll get a defiant "no." And it was this defiance that led them to disregard the FIA's advice to use the FIA certified Fuel Flow sensor instead of their own. Now they will have to fight in courts for Ricciardo's P2 finish.

Well.. that sure is a lot of talk. And we haven't even gotten to Ferrari yet! All ready the axe has found the heads of a few Ferrari employees. Which surely should tell you that Ferrari was not pleased with their performance. Alonso and Raikkonen were able to finish P4 and P7, respectively. But that is due in massive part to failures of quicker cars and Red Bull's defiance of the rules with Ricciardo's car. Or else the results would have looked worse. Alonso easily had the upper hand on Raikkonen throughout the race weekend. Straight from FP1. All the way to the end of the GP. Raikkonen had a better start than Fernando. If he did anything else better, please feel free to share! Raikkonen clearly doesn't look comfortable in the F14 T. The car "pushes" into the corners. it doesn't allow Kimi to brake confidently into the corners with the new brake by wire system, which is mandatory on these new 2014 machines. We saw a lot of white smoke coming from the front tyres of Raikkonen's car all throughout the weekend. And an uncharacteristic mistake during the race which allowed Bottas through because of yet another lock-up. Hopefully Ferrari can find a quick solution for Raikkonen. Because the following race is only in 1 week's time. As for Alonso.. he looked more comfortable in the F14 T. But the car currently doesn't have enough pace to fight at the front. This was easily the most anticipated driver pairing for 2014. And hopefully Ferrari can improve the car so the spotlight can shine on these two pilots, arguably the two best in the sport currently.

The Malaysian circuit is as follows:

for the thread!

will it be

But it is Malaysia .. The temps are always hot and there is always a threat of rain!

the http://www.formula1.com/default.html page gives bad weather for the race weekend...

still hope not..

D!!!

i'm sure hes on a diet! havent you seen how skinny he became? to icecream! finishes the race!!!

hoping something works well...


Malaysian GP – Maintaining reliability, improving efficiency

http://formula1.ferrari.com/video/malays...n=140325_F1_EN+[gruppo%3A+F1+eng+-+contenuto%3A+pre+GP+Malesia]&utm_content=4176150749&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=401658510

Todays PC