Gary's view – Malaysian Grand Prix
After watching events in Malaysia, former Jordan engineering chief Gary Anderson suspects Ferrari's race strategy favours Kimi Raikkonen – but he's taking nothing away from the flying Finn.
After watching events in Malaysia, former Jordan engineering chief Gary Anderson suspects Ferrari's race strategy favours Kimi Raikkonen – but he's taking nothing away from the flying Finn.
"Kimi Raikkonen stopped only a couple of laps after Felipe Massa, and it was quite strange that he was able to leapfrog him. I think that might have been a deliberate plan by Ferrari. He's the guy they brought in to replace a seven-times world champion, so they're not going to let him be overcome by a team-mate who Schumacher was able to dominate.
In saying that, Raikkonen drove faultlessly. The key moment in the race for me was at the first corner, when Raikkonen was intelligent enough not to bang wheels with his team-mate. He was well in control, and saw the big picture.
For the first time, Toyota had a car that worked in both qualifying and the race. They pitted on lap 17 - a reasonable race strategy. Toyota have always used their tyres pretty hard and dropped away in the race, but this car seems to be able to race pretty well. I think they've got something to build on.
It was tough for Williams. They just couldn't get the tyres working in qualifying, and I'm sure Rosberg qualifying 16th was a bit of a shock to them. There's a new track surface in Malaysia this year but, of course, that's the same for everybody.
Ferrari, McLaren and BMW kept their competitive level from Australia to Malaysia, whereas Williams have dropped off, so something's not right. The hard tyre in Australia was, in effect, the soft tyre in Malaysia, so there was continuity there. They'll have to look deeper into it.
BMW deserve a pat on the back. For a car that didn't look very good in the winter to score two second places in the first two races - that's a pretty good effort.
With these first three 'fly-away' races, it's really hard to do any kind of logical development of the car. The teams are really aiming to get as many points as possible and get back home to start their development for the European season.
I think over the rest of the season it'll be up and down between Ferrari and McLaren. But I think Ferrari have got the upper hand at this point."
