Rough start for F1’s return to Sepang

Track conditions and high tire degradation were a common theme among the drivers as the Sepang International Circuit began its first Formula 1 race weekend in nearly a decade for the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia.

The race should have taken place in Bahrain in April but after a late-season attempt to reschedule it failed to materialize, an agreement with Malaysia was reached to host the race at Sepang. Friday’s practice sessions were the first official F1 sessions on the track since 2017, and that put a number of drivers on the back foot.

“I think the tarmac’s a bit old and needs a bit of love, but it makes it interesting, makes it unique,” Alex Albon said. “The car’s not feeling great out there today so we expected that, a lot of work to do.

“It’s a great track. I wish the tarmac was a bit better [but] it creates character – I think it’s extremely aggressive. I think the strategies on Sunday will be really interesting.”

The Sepang design is popular, but the track surface throws an extra curve. Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images

Albon is a first-time visitor, but for Sergio Perez it marks a return to the venue, that is proving to be a very specific challenge in modern F1 machinery.

“Very different,” Perez said. "Very different cars. But the degradation of the circuit, it’s like Pirelli did the tarmac. It’s unbelievable. Obviously there hasn’t been much running lately here, but I think it’s going to be a very interesting race with a lot of degradation, plenty of stops out there. So it will be a challenging one.

“The track is obviously in pretty poor condition; there hasn't been any running. The heat, the amount of degradation – I haven’t experienced it very often, this sort of degradation – and then on our [Cadillac] side, we just tried very radical stuff that we went south with, so we need to come back with it for tomorrow and try to put it all together.”

Another debutant at Sepang – Oliver Bearman – suggested the track had changed a lot over the past seven years compared to Haas’ pre-race expectations, but that he understood the reason for the aggressive surface.

“It’s cool [the track], it’s really nice” Bearman said. “I really enjoy driving the layout. I think the only thing is this tarmac is incredibly rough – it's like Bahrain in terms of roughness and always with those tracks, you have a lot less grip, the car is moving around a lot more.

“It’s a bit less fun to drive, let’s say, than some other circuits. Probably less fun than it was 10 years ago – I’m not sure, I didn’t drive that. But it’s a really, really fun layout. It’s just a shame that the tarmac is so aged, but that’s normal in climates like this.”

George Russell echoed that sentiment as Mercedes also struggled to get the most out of its upgrade package, having introduced a number of new parts in Malaysia.

“Firstly it was great to be driving this circuit for the first time – I’ve never driven it before,” Russell said. “But with these conditions, there’s huge amounts of tire degradation, so that's the thing that is trumping everything for everybody right now and we just need to try and get on top of that.

“I think when you bring an upgrade to any circuit, it’s difficult to know what your pure performance is and what it isn’t. I think if we had our new car last week, we would have said things were absolutely incredible and I think if we had our old version today, I don’t think things would have been much different.

“So I think we just don't have the car setup in the right window. That has nothing to do with the upgrades and we have to just do a bit of work overnight to try and improve the tire degradation.”