(Eric Vargiolu DPPI - Renault Sport F1)
Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo does not anticipate a repeat of last years Multi 21 saga that marred last season's Malaysian Grand Prix. The Australian replaced countryman Mark Webber at the reigning world champions for this season following Webber's decision to join the World Endurance Championship with Porsche.
This time last season, Vettel had one podium under his belt after finishing the Australian Grand Prix in third place behind Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso. However, bring the clock forward a year and this season Vettel was out-qualified by Daniel Ricciardo in Melbourne and failed to finish the race and was out performed by Ricciardo during the race. Vettel only managed to complete three laps.
The Milton Keynes based squad will be hitting the reset button in Malaysia as it will give them the chance to start out fresh. However they are playing catch up to their rivals.
So, who are the early pace setters. Mercedes, McLaren and Williams Martini Racing. Valtteri Bottas drove a fantastic race for Williams and has scored more points in the opening race then the team scored throughout the entire 2013 season and are currently 4th in the Constructors standing's. The Mercedes AMG F1 Team are certainly the team to beat heading to Malaysia as Nico Rosberg took a dominant victory in Australia finishing the race 26.7 seconds ahead of McLaren's Kevin Magnussen.
The Brackley based squad were caught up in their own team orders issue at last years race in Malaysia which saw Nico Rosberg being told by then team principal Ross Brawn not to challenge team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton will be looking to get back on terms with Rosberg next weekend because while Nico won the race in Australia, Lewis retired from the race having qualified on pole position.
The weather forecast for next weekend's race in Kuala Lumpur does not look good at this point as they are expecting thunder storms on Saturday morning just before Qualifying and then again on Sunday just before the race on Sunday and when it rains in Malaysia it pours. It is also due to be very hot with highs of 33 degrees and lows of 24 degrees.
It is certainly going to be a very interesting weekend in Malaysia.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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