This weekend sees the second race on the 2007 F1 calendar, with the circus moving to the Sepang Circuit on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.
On the back of their impressive showing in Melbourne Ferrari go into the weekend as the team to beat. There are still a few question marks over the Scuderia's form going into the weekend though. The first is reliability. In Melbourne they suffered a gearbox failure on Massa's car which will be a worry for some, but more potentially troublesome are the problems with Kimi Raikkonen's engine. It developed a slight water leak in the latter stages of the last GP, causing the engine to overheat slightly. Ferrari will need to take the decision either to take a 10 place grid penalty by replacing the engine, or risk running the engine with it's supposed problems. Prudence would suggest the former option, as even from the middle of the pack the car should still have the pace to make it to the podium, and if you could pick one Grand Prix to have cooling problems then Malaysia would be last on the list as it is the most gruelling race for both car and driver due to the sweltering heat and humidity.
The second question mark over Ferrari's form is the "movable floor" debate. After Ron Dennis brought the issue to public attention in Australia the FIA have looked into the matter and have issued a clarification to the regulations, meaning that the deflection test in scrutineering will now have to be carried out without the contentious spring mechanism attached. If you haven't been following this one there is a good illustration of the facts HERE. The jury is still out as to how much of an effect this will have on Ferrari (and BMW-Sauber's) overall performance. The device is believed to facilitate a higher top-speed on the straights, and the Sepang Circuit has a couple of very long, fast straights so perhaps it will shave a tenth or two off their optimum laptime. If so then it should move McLaren a good bit closer to their big rivals and we could see Alonso and Hamilton breathing down the back of Ferrari's necks.
The other controversy which looks to be coming to a head at Sepang is happening at the other end of the grid. It appears Spyker have lodged a formal appeal to the stewards over the legality of the Torro Rosso "customer car" chassis. Speed TV are reporting that the race stewards have now confiscated a number of parts from the STR pit for further inspection (Article HERE). While it is unlikely that this will prevent STR from racing this weekend, it certainly casts a dark shadow over the team and they could well be in hot water in the weeks to come.
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Originally Posted by Kitdy
