We returned to Sepang for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia last weekend, which was hit by a tropical storm just before the start…

After a break of nine years, it was a welcome return to Malaysia, which came back onto this year’s calendar with the help of the Bahrain GP organisers. Following the postponement of their race in April, a solution was found for them to hold the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit.

The Kuala Lumpur venue holds a lot of happy memories for the team, with back-to-back victories in 2005 and 2006, the latter also being a 1-2 finish. It is also the track where Pierre made his Formula One debut when we last raced here in 2017.

A busy start to the weekend

On arrival in Sepang, everyone at the team was quick to acclimatise to the heat, humidity, and jet lag — thanks to the four-hour time difference to Baku. Pierre made an appearance in the FIA Drivers’ Press Conference on Thursday, where he mentioned his debut here, 192 races ago, and how much he used to race this track on the F1 video game when he was younger.

He was followed by Flavio in Friday’s Press Conference, who caused intrigue when he entered the room brandishing a sheet of paper. While the journalists in the room tried to guess what secret information it contained, the reality was that it was simply a blank page — much to the amusement of many in the room and on social media.

As it was Franco’s first visit to this track, he returned to Enstone after Baku to run in the simulator, helping his preparations for this tricky, high-speed layout. Knowing he was coming to Malaysia with a five-place grid penalty for the first-corner incident at the previous race, and that a penalty for power unit components was coming, we opted to make an ICE change here. This added a further 10-place grid penalty, but Sepang is a track where overtaking is possible.

As a result, Franco’s running on Friday was purely focused on high-fuel runs, knowing that one-lap pace was less vital given his starting position for Sunday’s race. His times in FP1 and FP2 were therefore not a true representation. His 53 laps in total were about understanding the car’s behaviour, particularly the tyres on the abrasive Sepang surface.

Pierre ran a more conventional Friday practice programme across his 51 laps, collecting data and finishing in the top ten in both sessions. In fact, there was a lot of early running in FP2, as the potential for a disruptive storm appeared on the radar, only to soon disappear, as is typical of this part of the world.

Preparing for the heat

Acclimatising to the heat and the humidity was also crucial, with the FIA declaring a Heat Hazard. Keeping hydrated, wearing cooling vests and using ice baths were the order of the day.

It’s not just the drivers that need to be prepared for the hot weather, as the car was also tweaked to improve cooling to the PU, while we also made modifications to our brake ducts for this race and ahead of Singapore.

On Saturday morning, both drivers took to the track early in the session. After spending Friday focusing on high-fuel running, Franco reverted to some shorter, qualifying preparation runs in FP3 and posted a time which classified him P9 on the timesheets.

In qualifying, after Pierre had set a time good enough to progress to Q2, Franco joined him with a push lap on a second new set of Soft tyres. Pierre carried on the car’s strong form from previous races, progressing to Q3 for a P9 starting position, despite using two used sets in Q3 to save a fresh set for Sunday.

On the Saturday evening, it was incredible to see the Sepang Fan Forum so busy. Indeed, throughout the whole weekend, it was very special to have such a big crowd at this track.

A stormy race day

After a weekend in which the radar had shown that rain was threatening a number of times, a huge thunderstorm finally passed over Sepang around 40 minutes before the start of the race. With team members and drivers scrabbling around to avoid the worst of the torrential rain, the FIA had no option but to delay the start until the deluge had cleared.

Around 40 minutes after the intended start time, a couple of formation laps took place behind the Safety Car. But when a few runners encountered issues with their power units in the wet conditions, the starting procedure was aborted and we returned to the pits while the FIA updated its software.

That led to another delay, but with no more rain and high temperatures, the field was split on its choice of the optimum tyre for the start. Like many others, we gambled on slicks, but the track wasn’t drying as quickly as we had expected.

On the formation lap, Pierre was unlucky to get caught out by standing water and spun across the grass — fortunate not to make contact with the wall. He successfully caught the pack back up and started from P9 but, when he left the line, he was passed by those starting on Intermediate tyres. From there, the afternoon slipped away, with both cars running at the tail of the field during the first Safety Car period.

In the end, credit to the pit crew, who were extremely busy as Pierre and Franco both stopped a total of seven times during the race. In the latter stages, Franco was enjoying strong pace in the dry running, but ultimately he finished P13, while Pierre was three places further back. Pierre did at least record the fastest speed of the race, being clocked at 352kph (218mph).

Despite the disappointing outcome, it was great to be back racing in Malaysia, and we’re looking forward to the final race in this triple-header as we make our way 200 miles to Singapore for next weekend’s night-time street race.