Formula 1 is back in Malaysia after nine years away, and the first day back told us plenty about what to expect ahead of the weekend, as well as tying up some important loose ends from Baku, as The Race reports. Mercedes has waited a long time to pull the pin on its major car upgrade that has now started to emerge at Sepang. The upgrade body cover was displayed in the pitlane on Thursday and we understand all the surfaces, bar the front and rear wings, have been redesigned on the W17. It should deliver a notable step forward—simulations predict an improvement in the region of three tenths of a second per lap, but that still needs to be validated on track. Mercedes feels as if it’s been somewhat flattered by recent track layouts like Monza and Baku favouring its car and exposing the weaknesses of others like McLaren, who went from being faster than Mercedes in Hungary and Madrid to struggling with a draggy car at Monza and Baku. So it wouldn’t have necessarily been fastest at Sepang without this upgrade, but if it does deliver that expected performance here, it could be very bad news for its rivals.
Esteban Ocon is not ready to accept a repeat of 2019, when he lost his F1 seat and spent a year on the sidelines, after being dropped by Haas for next season. Ocon urged media don’t write me off yet as he spoke for the first time since his split from Haas was announced on Wednesday. He is adamant his future is in F1 even though there is no obvious vacancy on the 2027 grid given all remaining seats are expected to be taken by incumbent drivers. It's clear that's where I belong, that's where I want to be, Ocon said, adding that he is not going to look elsewhere. Ocon had a year on the sidelines when he lost his Force India drive to Lance Stroll following the latter’s father leading a revival of the team when it fell into administration. It's not a 2019 yet, Ocon said, noting he does not want to feel 2019 again, though if he has to, he will. Ocon refused to discuss the reasons for losing his Haas seat beyond insisting the reasons are not performance, that’s clear. Haas is due to replace Ocon with Ferrari junior and F2 championship leader Rafa Camara after being blown away by the Brazilian in a private test, with Camara bringing significant commercial backing, although Haas is adamant this is a secondary benefit.
Given that his car and engine package is hideously uncompetitive, his disdain for this generation of F1 cars is huge, he's turning 46 next year and surely only has the faintest hope of adding to his 32 grand prix wins and two F1 world championships, it might seem like the only conceivable reasons for Fernando Alonso extending his Aston Martin-Honda deal into 2027 are either extraordinary faith in what would be the biggest miracle of Adrian Newey's career happening or a massive pay cheque. But listening to how he explained his reasoning at Sepang on Thursday, it's also something deeper and almost existential for Alonso. Regardless of how slow his car is, regardless of what this F1 regulations era is making him drive, he still feels quick enough and determined enough—and has concluded he cannot stop while this is still the case. At the end of the day, I feel fast, I feel motivated, I feel that I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and if I'm sitting at home watching TV, watching races, I will feel that I can do better than them, he said. Speaking of that time Alonso was away from F1, he again referenced how much his Indianapolis 500, sportscar and Dakar Rally adventures had both refreshed his mind and improved his driving, and threw in a watch this space hint that strongly suggests F1 won't be the only place we see him racing in 2027.
Ferrari drivers Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have admitted that speculation around the team, including the future of its leader Fred Vasseur, has been a distraction. Between the Azerbaijan and Malaysian races, Ferrari took the unprecedented step of hastily arranging a media call to reiterate its confidence in Vasseur after rumours he could be ousted at the end of the year and comments from ex-Red Bull boss Christian Horner that he would be interested in the job. It is hardly the first time Ferrari has been subject to intense media scrutiny, and Vasseur has been in the spotlight himself too. Typically, his drivers throw their support behind him, but this time they also revealed that the rumours have had an adverse impact internally. Hamilton said it definitely affects individuals within the team because every weekend they try and show up and do the best job they can. Leclerc added that you don't spend time speaking about the right things and at the factory we need absolutely everything to be pushing in the same direction. Hamilton, who joined Ferrari last year, cryptically observed that this team’s structure is a lot different to his predecessor Mercedes—where team principal Toto Wolff is also CEO and a stakeholder—which grants him autonomy and stability no other team boss enjoys.
Five days on from Fernando Alonso’s retirement in Azerbaijan and Honda still has not zeroed in on a technical issue to explain it. Alonso withdrew from the race after returning to the pits of his own volition, having radioed to say he thought they had an engine problem and was eight tenths of a second down. Afterwards, Honda did not see anything on the data to suggest a problem, and curiously, that remains the case now. After the race we did maintenance and we checked the engine physically, said Honda’s chief engineer Shintaro Orihara, noting that still they haven't found any issue on the data in the maintenance, factory checks, or trackside data. This clearly raises the possibility that Alonso parked a healthy car during a miserable race where Lance Stroll had retired early and the engine was so poor that Alonso could not pass and stay ahead of Valtteri Bottas even though the Cadillac driver was almost two seconds a lap slower than his own team-mate with myriad problems. Orihara indirectly moved to support Alonso, stating that the driver is the best sensor and Fernando has a lot of experience, so even if they didn't find any issue on the data they will check in this event with the driver's comments.
Liam Lawson was bemused why team-mate Arvid Lindblad hadn't picked up a penalty in Baku for driving into him on the first safety car restart, and while Lawson isn't going to make a challenge against his own team-mate—and Alpine isn't going to dish out any further consequences to Franco Colapinto for wiping out Pierre Gasly—Carlos Sainz has arrived at Sepang with a bone to pick with his Baku penalty. Sainz was slapped with a five-place grid penalty for ignoring yellow flags in Q3, his third visit to the stewards that weekend for three different yellow flag incidents. Sainz still isn't happy with his grid drop and he'll be bringing it up in the drivers' briefing on Friday at Sepang, stating that he still believes the yellow flag penalty wasn't explained and wasn't treated correctly if you look at exactly what he did. Meanwhile, Gabriel Bortoleto expressed frustration in his Thursday media session over how the debut of Audi’s major upgrade in Baku was perceived. Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were knocked out in Q1 and neither scored points in a chaotic race, but Bortoleto insisted the package works and that they had other issues in the race weekend that they didn't spot early enough. Team-mate Hulkenberg called the upgrade a clear step forward. Finally, the fact that the debut of Honda’s ADUO 2 upgrade went completely under the radar until Honda revealed it at Sepang probably speaks to just how far back Honda is coming from. An updated turbocharger was fitted to Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin in Madrid and Fernando Alonso’s in Baku, but neither really changed the harsh competitive realities as Honda makes incremental steps ahead of what it hopes is a much more radical step forward in 2027.
