Malaysian Grand Prix

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari (1st):
"I am very happy with this win, for me and for the team. It's a shame that Felipe was unable to let us bring home a result that was within our grasp. At the start I came alongside Felipe, but I did not take any risks, knowing I was stopping one lap later than him at the end of the first stint. "When that time came, I pushed to the maximum and I managed to come out of my pit stop ahead of him. From then on, with a clear track ahead of me, the car was perfect I was able to control the situation without having to stress the car or the tyres. We are struggling a little bit in qualifying, but in the race we have a very high potential. We have had a very complicated start to the season, but I have certainly not lost faith in the team: we can still do better."

Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber (2nd):
"It's a fantastic day for the team, for Petronas and for me - the second consecutive podium. After Monza 2006 I finally managed to get another podium myself. I want to thank everybody in the team who worked very hard over the last two months to improve the car. I didn't have a good start because of too much wheel spin, and was fighting with Nick and Jarno Trulli. "I took the dirty inside line and almost lost the car, but somehow I managed to get through the corner and overtake them. From this moment on I drove at my own pace. The Ferraris were too quick, but I was able to increase the gap from the cars following me. After the second pit stop I reduced the revs to save the engine and took it easy. I didn't feel very well all weekend and it was very hot in the car, so the last ten laps were pretty tough. But it all paid off with a brilliant result."

Heikki Kovalainen, McLaren (3rd):
"I am pretty happy with my third place today, considering yesterday's penalty, and it was probably the best possible result for us in these circumstances. Our strategy worked really well and it meant that I was able to be in clean air for most of the race. "The team really did a fantastic job and I am happy to reward them with my first podium for the team. I did have a small issue with graining during my first stint; however, I was able to stay out until lap 20, which helped me to overtake Jarno Trulli during my first pit stop. After my second stop I was able to play it safe and secure my third place, as it was not possible at this stage to go one better."

Australia race analysis - an afternoon of surprises

Three different teams on the podium, just seven cars running at the finish and not a red one in sight - not a prediction many would have made ahead of Sunday’s season opener in Melbourne. After the disappointment of 2007, McLaren made a near-perfect start to their ’08 campaign, while arch rivals Ferrari were left pondering exactly what went wrong.

Williams were also celebrating, after their best result since Monaco 2005, and there were surprises further down the order too. We take a team-by-team look at the Australian Grand Prix…

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton, P1

Heikki Kovalainen, P5

Pole position, the two fastest laps, and first and fifth places gave McLaren a great start to their season and the lead of the world championship, but things could have been better still had Kovalainen not suffered from the timing of his second pit stop. The team deliberately left him out an extra lap to let him open as much of a gap over the challenging Nick Heidfeld as possible, and they just got caught out by Timo Glock’s accident. Later, after Kovalainen had overtaken Fernando Alonso, he lost momentum on the pit straight when he accidentally knocked on the pit lane speed limiter while reaching to wipe the oil from Sebastien Bourdais’ broken Ferrari engine off his visor.

Hamilton had no problems at all, and described himself delighted with a car that he said was a dream to drive and much better than last year’s MP4-22.

Williams

Nico Rosberg, P3

Kazuki Nakajima, P6

It was like stepping back in time, when the points tables were published after the race: Williams in second place to McLaren. Nico Rosberg drove a storming race for the team, always in contention and only robbed of a possible second place finish by superior pit work by BMW Sauber which just - and it really was just - got Nick Heidfeld out of the pits inches ahead of him when they stopped on lap 21. That settled the issue, but Rosberg gave Heidfeld no peace in the closing stages when his FW30 was the fastest car on the track. His best lap of 1m 28.090s was very competitive with the German’s best of 1m 27.739s. And it was within six-tenths of the McLarens. Good progress indeed. With Kazuki Nakajima’s adventurous day earning him an eventual sixth place, Williams ended the day with nine points to McLaren’s 14. A most encouraging start.

BMW

SauberNick Heidfeld, P2

Robert Kubica, retired lap 48, collision damage

Like McLaren, BMW Sauber had a bitter-sweet race with Heidfeld finishing an excellent second and setting very competitive lap times, but Kubica losing ground after his first pit stop and later being assaulted by Kazuki Nakajima. Nevertheless, the pace of Heidfeld’s blue and white car confirmed the belief that they are only three-tenths off their silver rivals. It took a while to get the best of the car in practice and qualifying, but the race performance suggests that the avowed aim of a victory this year is realistic.

Renault

Fernando Alonso, P4

Nelson Piquet Jr, retired lap 31, accident damage

Fernando Alonso reminded everyone of his class as a driver with his brilliant passing moves on Kimi Raikkonen and Heikki Kovalainen on lap 50. The latter subsequently re-passed him, but the Spaniard overtook again immediately when Kovalainen had his pit lane speed limiter problem on the straight. Fourth place was perhaps a surprise, but with Nelson Piquet making a less than impressive debut and eventually retiring because of the damage he sustained in his part in the opening lap melee, it was not a great day for Renault. Alonso’s best lap, 1m 28.603s, was only the seventh fastest, 1.2s slower than Kovalainen’s best of 1m 27.418s. There is still much work to do here.

Toro Rosso

Sebastian Vettel, retired lap 1, accident

Sebastien Bourdais, retired lap 56, engine, P7

Like Red Bull, Toro Rosso had a brutal time ‘Down Under’. Sebastian Vettel was a first-corner casualty, and initially Sebastien Bourdais ran well down the field in 15th place. But then he lucked in when the pit lane opened on lap 28 during the second safety car incident, and suddenly he was not only running sixth, but looking good as he fended off, indeed pulled away from, the battling Kubica and Alonso. He appeared to have both of then nicely tucked up when his engine quit in a cloud of oil smoke on the 56th lap. All was not quite lost, however, for Barrichello’s subsequent disqualification elevated him from eighth place to seventh on his Formula One debut.

Ferrari

Felipe Massa, retired lap 30,

engineKimi Raikkonen, retired lap 53, engine, P8

Well, the pre-race favourite had an awfully tough time in Melbourne, against all expectations, and came away with a single point that was gifted by Barrichello’s disqualification.

Things began badly when Raikkonen qualified only 16th after his electronic fuel pump problem in Q1. He got a place back when Glock was penalised grid places, and was making them up hand over fist with some very aggressive driving in the opening laps. Indeed, by the time of the second safety car it appeared that the race was coming to him against all odds. But then he got a passing move on Kovalainen wrong and dropped to the back of the field. Another mistake saw him spin behind Glock, and eventually engine failure claimed him. Massa, meanwhile, spun on the opening lap, made two corrective pit stops, fought his way back towards the points, collided with Coulthard on lap 25, and succumbed to engine failure five laps later. Indisputably a tough weekend, especially as Raikkonen’s fastest lap was half a second off Hamilton’s.

Toyota

Jarno Trulli, retired lap 20, battery

Timo Glock, retired lap 44, accident

With Jarno Trulli running happily in fifth place for the first 20 laps, things looked promising for Toyota. But the Italian’s battery was steadily overheating and roasting his delicate parts in the cockpit, and he retired at his pit stop. Glock was the victim of Piquet’s over adventurous opening lap lunge, and was pushed into Fisichella. After that delay he got going and subsequently did well to resist Raikkonen for several laps. When the Finn spun he gained some respite, but later had his nasty shunt on lap 44 when he got off course exiting Turn 12, then found his TF108 hurled around on the unpleasant bumps before it was thrown into a long and damaging spin into retirement.

Red Bull

David Coulthard, retired lap 26, accident

Mark Webber, retired lap 1, accident

Red Bull had a desperately disappointing Australian Grand Prix. Webber was a first-lap victim, but Coulthard was on course for some points when he had his collision with Massa in the first corner on the 26th lap. Both blamed the other, but the upshot was a damaged car for Red Bull and nil points.

Honda

Rubens Barrichello, disqualified

Jenson Button, retired lap 1, accident

Honda lost Jenson Button in the first corner melee, but Barrichello drove well in the early stages to keep Raikkonen’s fuel-heavy Ferrari at bay. And the white and green car’s lap times were encouragingly competitive with Williams, Ferrari and Renault. Unfortunately, in the Glock safety car incident Barrichello had to pit even though the pit lane was not officially open, or he would have run out of fuel. Then he rejoined too soon, injuring a refueller, and then compounded the error by exiting the pits on the red light. He was given a 10-second penalty for entering the pits when he shouldn’t have, and was subsequently disqualified for the red light incident. Nevertheless, the team came away encouraged by the pace of the RA108, which was far better than almost anyone had predicted.

Force India

Giancarlo Fisichella, retired lap 1, accident

Adrian Sutil, retired lap 9, loss of hydraulic pressure

Force India came down to earth with a bump in Melbourne, after promising showings in testing. Nelson Piquet’s dive down the inside of Timo Glock at the start triggered the shunt that accounted for Fisichella, who was lucky not to overturn. Sutil started from the pit lane, in a car rebuilt around a new engine and transmission after his qualifying gaffe, and retired after eight laps with loss of hydraulic pressure.

Super Aguri

Takuma Sato, retired lap 33, gearbox

Anthony Davidson, retired lap 1, accident

The fact that Super Aguri even made Australia was something of a miracle thanks to the last-minute deal with Magma Group, but spare parts were thin on the ground and rumour had it that there were only one set of ratios and one gearbox per SA08. Anthony Davidson got boxed in in traffic on the opening lap and damaged a track rod against Takuma Sato’s sister car. Sato made up a lot of places on the dramatic opening lap, but his typically enthusiastic run ended with a broken transmission.

Intractable traction? Bridgestone on the removal of TC

The removal of traction control has certainly been a talking point at the start of the 2008 Formula One season. The Bahrain International Circuit, location of the third round of the championship, is a track where traction is important because the circuit layout has a number of tight corners leading on to short straights.

In previous seasons, traction control would have been well used in Bahrain. Here Tetsuro Kobayashi, Bridgestone Motorsport technical manager, explains the difference this makes to the official Formula One tyre supplier.

“The difference between a good traction control system and a good racing driver is not as great as some people believe,” says Kobayashi. “Traction control works to keep the tyres at the optimum slip ratio, which is the same as a top level driver tries to do. Just as there are better and worse drivers, so traction control systems car vary in how good they are too.

“Another factor to consider, on some circuits, is that traction control is used very little, as high levels of downforce provide aerodynamic load on the tyres which increases the level of grip available. Because of these factors, the lack of traction control is not a big consideration in terms of tyre design, and our data analysis from testing without traction control before the season started has backed this up.”

Of course, traction control was used most when grip levels were low, such as when drivers take to the track when it rains.

“When a circuit is wet, grip levels are lower so there is more need for traction control. When it is wet and there is no traction control, drivers will have more work to do,” explains Kobayashi. “The way that wet tyres work to get their grip is different from the way that dry tyres work.

“One example of this is that wet tyres do not grip through wear when used on a wet track. In contrast, a dry tyre gets some of its grip from the way it wears with the surface of the circuit. Our wet tyre design does not change because there is no traction control, just as the way the tyres get their grip does not change.”

Related to the removal of traction control, engine braking control is no longer present in 2008, and this is a change for drivers too.

“Controlled engine braking only provided a small amount of the total slowing of the car, with aerodynamic resistance and the brakes providing far more,” says Kobayashi. “An absence of ECU-controlled engine braking means the nature of braking may feel different for the drivers. “This could mean we see more brake locking and flat spotting of the tyres. However, drivers adapt, and Formula One drivers should be able to adapt rather quicker than the average driver.”

So, with no more traction control or controlled engine braking, do the tyres have to be re-designed to offer more grip?

“In a situation of single tyre supply, the level of potential grip available from the tyres is the same for everyone, and that is true if everyone has traction control, or if everyone does not have traction control,” says Kobayashi.

“In a competitive tyre supply environment we are always striving for tyre performance improvements, and this is the same regardless of whether traction control is present or not. Traction control operates to limit the power applied when grip is exceeded, or near to being exceeded. A competent driver works in exactly the same way.

“A driver who regularly exceeds the grip available will wear his tyres faster than a driver who does not, as well as post slower lap times. This would not mean we should make a tyre with more grip, rather that the driver should learn to use that tyre better.”

Traction control is not used over the duration of a lap, it’s only in certain parts of the track where it is needed.

“Generally the acceleration at the exit of a corner is very sensitive, and an area where a driver can make a mistake without traction control,” explains Kobayashi. “A driver therefore has to carefully manage his acceleration at the exit of corners.

“If the tyre characteristics are driver friendly, with a wide allowance for rough treatment, the driver can control acceleration easily. If they have only a narrow window, the driver will take a long time to get used to the characteristic and could spin when finding the limits.”

Much has been written and speculated about the removal of traction control and the changes this could bring.

“The lack of traction control does not mean that Formula One suddenly looks like a drifting championship, and drivers suddenly forget how to drive with maximum efficiency to produce the fastest lap time,” says Kobayashi.

“I believe our tyres have a wide allowance, and this means that the drivers can use our tyres relatively easily and, using them, can have exciting battles against others. This shows our tyre expertise in the FIA Formula One World Championship.”