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[LewEngBridewell]

While words have been spoken about some sort of "master plan" for RBR this season, McLaren expect their car to be even faster in Sepang.

McLaren has warned its rivals that it could be even stronger in the Malaysian Grand Prix because its car excels on the type of high speed corners that are a feature of Sepang.

Although Jenson Button was in a class of his own in Melbourne, his team boss Martin Whitmarsh suggests that the Albert Park circuit did not actually play to the strengths of the new McLaren.

"If you looked closely at ourselves in testing at Barcelona, we were pretty good in the high speed corners," Whitmarsh explained. "We looked like we were quickest in the high speed corners and, if anything, Red Bull was beating us in [low speed] traction areas.

"So to come to a circuit like this [in Australia] and see we were reasonably strong in relation to them is good. I think the theory goes then that we should be strong when we get to the next track.

"It is a high speed track and, based on our performance, we should believe we are going to be quite quick there. We are looking forward to next weekend. I think we do fancy our chances there, but who knows. Let's see how we go."

Whitmarsh also thinks that rivals Mercedes will be stronger in Malaysia, after its strong qualifying form evaporated in the race in Australia.

"Mercedes is definitely quick, and we thought they were going to be a much stronger threat to us in the race," he said.

"If you had said to me before the start, I would have said that Mercedes was the biggest threat to us. They were very, very quick - quick in a straight line, and I thought they were going to be quite a handful for us.

"As it turned out, I think they underperformed. They can do a better job than they did in Australia, that is for sure."

Source: Autosport

[scotty]

Jenson should be in with a good shout of winning in the rain; but there are a number of drivers that excel in the rain but Jenson seems to be the specialist in recent seasons.

When he bumps Hamilton out of contention.

Or when Hamilton spins like in Hungary

In other news:

Sebastian Vettel has conceded McLaren has the upper hand over Red Bull at the moment, and that his team will need to dig deep if it is to overhaul its rivals in the fight for the world championship.

Although Vettel bounced back from a disappointing sixth place on the grid to finish second last weekend in the Australian Grand Prix, he never looked like being able to threaten runaway race leader Jenson Button.

Despite not getting the best out of his car in Melbourne, particularly in qualifying, Vettel was under no illusions about how strong McLaren appears to be.

"I think at the moment they have the upper hand," said the double world champion. "They showed it here. But whether they still have it next week remains to be seen.

"Surely they look very strong. They had an excellent winter. Pre-season testing was very good for them and they seem to be in very good shape, whereas there are a lot of things we need to do to catch up. Hopefully we will be able to do that and beat them."

Although there were stages of the Australian GP where Vettel was a match for Button, he does not think that he had the package beneath him that would have allowed him to overhaul the 2009 world champion for victory.

"Initially I was quite happy because we caught up with Jenson and I thought we might have a go, but he was too strong. I think you have to respect that and see the fact that he was unbeatable.

"He pulled away immediately [after the safety car] and I was struggling. I think I held up Lewis [Hamilton] at that stage a bit, struggling to get temperature, but after a couple of laps I was back into my rhythm and it seemed alright.

"I think we stabilised the gap to Jenson ahead and pulled away slightly from Lewis. It was a good race after that but surely we had no chance to beat Jenson."

Despite not being able to repeat his victory from last year, Vettel was still pretty happy with the overall weekend.

"I think we had a very good start of the race and I was able to find a rhythm quickly and get past a couple of people, especially the Mercedes because to get them is usually quite tricky. They are usually quite quick on the straights and we've seen that last year a couple of times that many people got frustrated behind them, so that was crucial.

"I think the pace was pretty good and I was happy with the car. It was an important race for us to learn about the car and the potential was there. Surely Jenson deserved to win, so congratulations to him and the McLarens, but to finish ahead of Lewis was great for us."

[What's Burning?]

Jenson should be in with a good shout of winning in the rain; but there are a number of drivers that excel in the rain but Jenson seems to be the specialist in recent seasons.

When he bumps Hamilton out of contention.

Or when Hamilton spins like in Hungary

Kimi's been known to make a few wet pirouettes himself. This weekend may be a regular Swan Lake!

[scotty]

Jenson should be in with a good shout of winning in the rain; but there are a number of drivers that excel in the rain but Jenson seems to be the specialist in recent seasons.

When he bumps Hamilton out of contention.

Or when Hamilton spins like in Hungary

Kimi's been known to make a few wet pirouettes himself. This weekend may be a regular Swan Lake!

I thought this was about Button and Hamilton

[Hammer278]

Jenson should be in with a good shout of winning in the rain; but there are a number of drivers that excel in the rain but Jenson seems to be the specialist in recent seasons.

When he bumps Hamilton out of contention.

Or when Hamilton spins like in Hungary

Kimi's been known to make a few wet pirouettes himself. This weekend may be a regular Swan Lake!

I'm tempted to put the closing laps of Spa 2009 vid again here....but let's not detract from topic.

[calvins48]

Not looking good weather wise. Especially seeing as the race and Qualifying are on at 4pm local time or should i say rain time in the tropics...

There was once a point in my years watching F1 that rain would be a very exciting prospect, but now all I really fear is safety cars and red flags Here's hoping for an exciting race like Canada!

We won't get a race like Canada because the FIA banned those sorts of things - races now have a 4-hour time limit if there's delays. Still, that's quite long.

If the weather's gonna be as bad as what's been predicted, we should expect little to no running and most sessions (including the race), red flagged or constantly under the SC. Probably half points awarded and all that

[bud]

Well if they started the race earlier you'd probably have dry running. Blame Bernie.

[calvins48]

Blame Bernie.

That's always a laugh!

[andrew]

Well if they started the race earlier you'd probably have dry running. Blame Bernie.

Dry running's for wimps. More fun when it gets wet!

[bud]

Well if they started the race earlier you'd probably have dry running. Blame Bernie.

Dry running's for wimps. More fun when it gets wet!

Tropics its more than just wet it will be like 09 again! We probably won't even have a race if the thunderstorm prediction is accurate.

[andrew]

Well if they started the race earlier you'd probably have dry running. Blame Bernie.

Dry running's for wimps. More fun when it gets wet!

Tropics its more than just wet it will be like 09 again! We probably won't even have a race if the thunderstorm prediction is accurate.

No point in worrying about something that might not happen. We've had 2 races since that were not affected by the weather.

[Hammer278]

Well if they started the race earlier you'd probably have dry running. Blame Bernie.

Dry running's for wimps. More fun when it gets wet!

Tropics its more than just wet it will be like 09 again! We probably won't even have a race if the thunderstorm prediction is accurate.

Don't worry...it rains hard but passes very quickly. I'd say 20 - 30min duration tops. At most, we might have 10-15 laps of SC due to weather conditions. I'm hoping for none though. A dry race would do it for me.

[bud]

Yeah it rains hard so what about standing water? hopefully there is better drainage now days.

[Hammer278]

Yeah it rains hard so what about standing water? hopefully there is better drainage now days.

That's what the SC train is for, to get rid of standing water.

And there was nothing wrong with the drainage in the first place, as you know the track is made with no tilt/elevation as specified by the regs, unlike normal roads where water is able to escape.

FYI, the race in 2009 was stopped not due to the water, it was due to lack of light as dusk was setting in.

[LewEngBridewell]

There are certain tracks which I prefer to have a dry race. These include Melbourne and Monza, simply because I associate these events with sunshine and smiles.

I also prefer Sepang to be dry. Simply because the rain is ridiculous there!