It may be two wins out of two races for Sebastian Vettel, giving Red Bull a good early lead in the Constructors’ championship, but things are not 100% perfect at Red Bull.

We know that they didn’t use KERS in Australia, and although they tried to incorporate the power boost in Malaysia, Mark Webber didn’t get to use it at all in Sepang, while winner Vettel was told on the radio midway into the race that he should stop using KERS. Interestingly, the World Champion went on to set a fastest lap once he heard that news, as if to show that he and the RB7 didn’t need any help.

“With Mark we had a problem off the line that meant he could not use it at all, during the race, including the start. He had a problem on the lap to the startline. It was a fresh problem, not a problem we have had before. With Seb, we had a problem that meant we could have continued to run it, but from a safety point of view we thought it best to turn it off and not take any risks,” tech chief Adrian Newey explained.

It’s still an issue that needs to be resolved, especially with the Shanghai circuit coming this weekend, and master designer Newey admits that they’re struggling.

“The reality is that it is a system in its infancy. We are not a manufacturer team so we are having to develop KERS ourselves, which has not been our area of expertise in the past. We are also doing it on a limited resource, limited budget and with limited experience, so we are on a rapid learning curve. How long it takes us to get to the top of that learning curve remains to be seen,” Newey said.

McLaren, Ferrari, and the rest of the chasing pack must be hoping that they take as long as possible to get there!

Team Lotus, who call themselves the “true Malaysian racing team”, finished its home race with one retirement and the sole finisher in 15th place. That was Heikki Kovalainen, who was ahead of Virgin’s Timo Glock and behind the Toro Rossos. On the surface, it’s the same old position they’ve been in since joining the sport, but Team Lotus has hailed yesterday’s performance as its best ever.

“A very strong race from both drivers although unfortunately Jarno stopped in the garage with a clutch sensor problem. We looked to do a two stop strategy with both cars. We might have struggled with Jarno as his tyre degradation was slightly higher, but it worked well with Heikki,” explained Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer.

“Overall our pace was very good at the end, particularly when we were with the leading cars, and we were very close to passing one of the Torro Rossos as we came over the line which shows how we have progressed. This weekend has been by far our strongest race performance since we came back into Formula One, so it is good to be racing again,” a happy Mike added.

“Well I think we can officially say we were racing today! It was a real shame about Jarno as I really wanted two cars to come home but Heikki drove a fantastic race and it is exciting that he was really pushing the Toro Rossos in the final few laps – maybe with a couple more laps he would have passed one of them,” enthused team boss Tony Fernandes.

That’s something many would like to see. In this weekend’s Chinese GP perhaps?

So it didn’t pour after all despite the hints and predictions, but yesterday’s Malaysian GP was still an exciting race with plenty of action. There were lots of overtaking moves (and counter moves), some pit stop mistakes and unusual moments, such as when Vitaly Petrov’s steering wheel dislodged after a WRC style jump. Even the press conference that we sat in was an entertaining affair – a PC with Jenson in it is rarely boring!

The British driver with the hottest WAG in the paddock (Ms Michibata wasn’t spotted at Sepang this year, sigh!) wanted to name the Renault of Nick Heidfeld in an answer, but was momentarily lost for words. He then turned to Nick on his left and asked “what should I be calling you?” causing the entire room to burst out laughing. The third placed stand in for Robert Kubica then sheepishly answered “Lotus Renault GP” to more laughter. If you’re wondering, Button was poking at the Lotus name battle that’s being heard now in British courts.

There were more jokes with the equally fun Vettel, but on to a more serious note, Button, who is well known for his smooth driving style that’s kind to tyres (in contrast with his teammate’s all action style) told us that the higher rate of tyre degradation of the Pirellis is a good thing, and that the Italian tyre company did a good job considering the development time. He can say so, because he did 19 laps with the prime tyres when everyone else didn’t go past 16.

It’s not an easy task. “The thing is it’s very difficult to understand what to do with the tyre. If you try and preserve it sometimes you make the situation worse as you are not carrying as much speed through a high-speed corner and then you get less downforce and you damage the tyre more so it is a very, very tricky situation to be in,” he said.

Of Vettel being the man to beat, Button said that “we can’t let the Red Bulls have it their own way for much longer” adding that they need to find some improvements, which is in the pipeline.

Red Bull’s Vettel is unbeatable at the moment, and has the confidence to match the on track performance, which is two poles and two wins in two races. While maintaining that RBR cannot stop pushing, and that the gap between them and McLaren is much closer here than in Australia, he declared: “But I am not worried, to be honest”.

Since he won pretty much unchallenged, we assumed that it was an easy time, but not so apparently. “When you come in for your first stop and you know it is drizzling around turns 5,6,7,8 then you just pray for the rain to stop as other people might stay out, one or two laps, and they get a free stop as it starts raining. It was tight. All in all I think it was a difficult race today,” the champ said.

Next up is the Chinese GP, which is this coming week. We’ll leave you with a treat – check out the pretty Petronas ladies after the jump!
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