The first edition of the Malaysian Grand Prix featured the return to racing of Michael Schumacher, after he had broken his leg at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
It was a memorable weekend for Scuderia Ferrari, with Schumi starting from pole and working to help Eddie Irvine's chances of winning the world title. One year later in Sepang, with the Drivers' title already in the bag, the Prancing Horse team also secured the Constructors' crown. Malaysia was also the setting for Sebastian Vettel's first win in red back in 2015.
“The reaction of the team has been good and we were all enthusiastic about coming here,” Seb said. “We know we have a strong package, so now let's see what we can do. I want to win the next races and I don't need to think about anything else. I think we can still win and count on ourselves."
"It's up to us to make good use of our package. We have shown in most of the races that we are competitive and we still want to improve. I am looking forward to racing here, and then we still have a lot of races ahead and a lot of things may happen”.
The track is very technical, with corners that put the tyres under a lot of stress, thanks to the lateral acceleration loads, the abrasive track surface and the intense heat.
This year, having assessed the behaviour of their tyres, Pirelli has opted to leave the Hard compound at home, bringing instead the Mediums, Softs and Supersofts.
It's always possible that the rain tyres will also see some action, given the forecast for the weekend doesn't rule out the chance of storms, which are usually very heavy.
