Sepang testing

[jens]

So the testing is over. The rankings have sometimes been quite strange, but we may make some conclusions, what can be expected from Sepang.

Basically there won't be too dramatic changes. Ferrari the fastest with McLaren closely behind and then BMW with a bit bigger gap. Renault despite that flier still remains a question-mark to me. Maybe Williams (if they can better their one-lap performance) and Toyota can challenge them. Kovalainen is one of the biggest questionmarks at Sepang. He has to perform better, otherwise he will get under huge pressure.

Red Bull and Honda - as both have insisted - better have to wait for the start of the European season (Sakhir is only one week later than Sepang, so there won't be significant changes compared to Sepang). Maybe Super Aguri can get mixed into the battle of "drinks" and "Earths". As Australia showed, Red Bull can be quick on one lap, but the question-mark remains on longer stints. Three years ago Webber qualified that Jaguar into front row, so we might him getting into the last quali session again.

[jas123f1]

Sure, there are some questionmarks, I think Red Bull is one of the biggest. However I was expecting more of them after that Adrian Newey was employed as constructor for their new car. Newey said recently that Red Bull needs more time (and who doesn’t) , but I have a feeling that it will get much better already in next PG and in Bahrain. I would like to see the "old man" on the podium at least once more before he shall retire forever.
Kovalainen is not a big questionmark for me, I’m sure he had a bad day in Melbourne (above the fact that it was his first competition after 1,5 years testing and that it was his first competition in Melbourne). The pressure from the team was not realistic (and with that car). It cant be so easy to make top results in F1. In my mind Flavio also made a mistake afterwards when he starts to speak too much (as usual) and show his frustration to the whole world. I think Kovalainen will at least be on the same level as Fisi but he needs only some GP first. So I don’t think there are any really problems and I'm sure Kovalainen knows it too.