By MF1 media
March 16 2006

If points were awarded for the number of words in a race preview then MF1 would score a solid 10! Now doubt boosted by fan support the team have been working hard to put on a better show for us in Malaysia, and here is what they’ve been up to. MF1Racing looks to bounce back from a disappointing opening race in Bahrain with a much-improved performance in Malaysia.

Having spent the week solving the technical problems that plagued both race cars at Sakhir, the team is cautiously optimistic it can finally demonstrate the reliability and pace it believes it is capable of.

Some members of the MF1 Racing team dashed back to Silverstone on Sunday night and have squeezed in a couple of days at the factory before heading out to Kuala Lumpur. Most of the crew members barely had a day off, and after packing everything away in Bahrain, went straight to Malaysia to unload and begin preparing the cars in the garages.

The schedule means there’s been little time to make many changes, but the team has been hard at work to address the frustrating driveshaft-related issue that afflicted both cars in Bahrain. Tiago Monteiro had a problem just before the start and took the T-car for the race, while Christijan Albers was struck on the grid and barely moved off the line.

Monteiro at least managed to maintain his good finishing record, but for Albers, such a short race day after months of preparation was incredibly frustrating.

“It was a weekend when we had a few problems, but that’s the way it goes sometimes, unfortunately,” says the Dutchman. “You want to get some more experience, you want to get some more data from the car, and it’s just a shame that we couldn’t have that. I am not so interested in just watching a race any more. I’m here to compete!

“I think it was possible to do good lap times, even better than we did in qualifying, because I knew that the tyres would come in within a few laps. In qualifying, we didn’t have time for that. I think on race speed, we would have been able to do lap times like the team in front of us.”

Albers says it’s too early to determine how the season will develop.

“It’s difficult to tell how competitive everybody is. We’ll have to see in Malaysia. It’s nice and hot, so it’s good for our conditioning, at least!”

For MF1 Sporting Relations Manager Johnny Herbert, Malaysia holds special memories. He raced for Stewart in the first event in 1999, and then the following year made his final Grand Prix start, this time under the Jaguar Racing banner – although it ended rather badly when a car problem pitched him off the road!

Herbert admits that Bahrain didn’t go as well as it should have, and he’s expecting better results this weekend.

“We were disappointed in qualifying, because we thought we should have done better than that,” says Herbert. “Then we had the problems at the beginning of the race. It’s typical, you go through testing and don’t have them, and then you come to the first race and you do! It had nothing to do with the heat. We hadn’t had it during the practice days, and they’d been practising starts. So we’ll learn from that. It was disappointing in the race, because we didn’t have the pace we should have. We’ve got to move on and improve on what we’ve done.”

Despite the poor performance, he feels the team has made great steps since last season.

“It looks better than last year already. The level is higher, but you’re competing against everyone else that has moved forward and will carry on moving forward, because development is what it’s all about. People will come back from these first two races, look at what’s happened to them, and say, ‘Right, what have we got to work on?’”

Swiss driver Giorgio Mondini makes his official Formula One debut for the Midland team, testing tyre compounds behind the wheel of the T-Car on Friday. The 2004 Formula Renault V6 champion will also be on standby as a reserve driver throughout the weekend.

Built in 1999, Sepang International Circuit is a high-downforce circuit with a good combination of technical corners. The heat and lateral forces, combined with a surface that has become increasingly bumpy over time, make this one of the most physically challenging tracks on the F1 circuit.

Tiago Monteiro (POR), Race Driver, Car #18: “I’m very glad to be back in Malaysia because this was one of my favourite tracks last year, actually. From a driver’s perspective, it’s really enjoyable to race here – very quick, very aggressive, nice high-speed corners – but at the same time, it’s also very demanding, both for the car and for the driver. The temperature, humidity and downforce loads will all be extreme, so it won’t be an easy race for anyone, I guess. But we understand why we had problems last week in Bahrain, so we know what we have to work on and how we can improve. Therefore, I’m really looking forward to doing better here.”

Christijan Albers (NED), Race Driver, Car #19: “Although the track is quite challenging, it’s very nice to drive and, from what I’m told, to observe a race at. The weather here is typically very hot, but it shouldn’t be a problem for us. The guys are working really hard to overcome the problems we experienced last weekend, and hopefully we’ll be OK. We’re pushing like hell to improve and I’m just anxious to get my first race lap of the season out of the way. After that, I can concentrate on getting into a good rhythm and putting all this hard work to good use.”

Giorgio Mondini (SUI), Reserve Driver: “I’m so excited to be here. This is so different from anything I’d experienced previously – not just the car, which is obviously much faster, but also the number of personnel at our disposal, their skill level, everything. They don’t call it F1 for nothing! It is the maximum, in every way. To be honest, I had hoped to get some more test time in the car before coming here, but my aim is still the same: to make the best tyre and car set-up choices for the race. I don’t know the track very well, but this should only take me 5 or 10 laps to figure out. After that, I should get up to speed very quickly.”

Dominic Harlow, Head of Race and Test Engineering: “It’s a back-to-back race, so it’s been quite an exciting push to get ourselves across from Bahrain and get prepared for this event. Like Bahrain, it’s a very hot environment here – it’s one of the main features of this circuit. In terms of our car performance, we’ll be looking to improve on Bahrain, obviously. We weren’t happy with what happened there, with a lack of reliability in the race, so we’ll address those issues. We expect pretty good performance from the package in these conditions, that’s for sure. We think we’re well suited to the hot climate with what we’re bringing here. We’ve got Giorgio Mondini in the third car this weekend, so it will be interesting to see what he’s got to say on the Friday. Apart from that, we’ll execute our normal programme and push as hard as we can to get the job done properly this time.”