Following quickly on the heels of last week’s incident packed season opener in Australia, today’s F1 Grand Prix in Malaysia was somewhat anti-climatic.  Following their 5 place grid penalty that placed them mid-pack the McLaren’s were never really in a position to threaten the Ferrari’s who, until Massa threw his car off the road, looked set for a 1-2 finish from the drop of the flag.

Perhaps championship considerations are already weighing on Lewis Hamilton’s mind as he seemed to drive a somewhat conservative race as if he was protecting points rather than going for places. Certainly not the hard charging Hamilton of the 2006 GP2 season, or even last year in F1. His cause was not helped by less than perfect pit work from the McLaren team either.

With  no real surprises, stand out performances or  incidents the race was hardly a classic. But having said that, the racing was a definite improvment that continues to reinforce the fact that without electronic driver aids the 2008 F1 car takes a real driver to be able to handle it on the edge.

A fact emphasized by the top three of Raikkonen (Ferrari), Kubica (BMW) and Kovalienen (McLaren), all who have proven car control skills.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm and is filed under Formula One. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.