Preview: 2004 Malaysian Grand Prix - Round 2 of 18

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Situation

Sepang is built on reclaimed forest land just outside of Kuala Lumpa. In having the race in March the organizers have placed the race in the hottest and most humid time of the year. The excess of heat and humidity may well lead to problems for all the drivers (it is even possible that Schumacher may actually break a sweat!) while the less fit drivers can expect to emerge from their cockpits at the end of the race looking like they have just done a couple of lengths of the pool rather than driven a race! What this also means is that you can expect a lot of mechanical failures towards the end of the race as well as the cars getting quite strung out as the drivers get tired out. Sepang is quite hard on tire wear and the hot temperatures will emphasize this so some teams may have trouble getting through scrutineering afterwards.

Setup and Strategy

Sepang is a great mixture of all types of corner but the slippery nature of the track has led to many teams running very high levels of down force (some teams even claim that this has the third highest down force settings after Hungary and Monaco!). The key to a quick lap around Sepang is being able to turn in accurately and get the power down early. A two stop strategy is usually the way to go though you can just have a one stopper as most of the teams did last year (this seems far less likely this year with the ban on refueling between qualifying and the race). The increased wear on the tires from the higher temperatures and the higher pitlane speed limit for this season makes this less attractive this time round, however. There is a high likelihood of rain at some point in the race.

Standings

The standings page will be updated in each race preview with the latest results. Click on this link to jump to the new page window that contains the 2004 F1 Driver's Championship Standings and 2004 F1 Constructor's Championship Standings.

The Teams

This section will be updated in each race preview with the latest news and tidbits regarding the 2004 F1 Teams and their drivers. Click on a link below to jump to the latest team report in a new page window.

Alex's 2004 Malaysian Grand Prix Predictions

More images of Ralph Hummerich's 2004 cars at Sepang

Download a pdf of this article here (442 kb).

The F1 2004 Season Preview is located here.

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