The title protagonists from last year have admitted that their Melbourne woes are not a quick fix, with Ferrari fearing that it will take time to catch the Brawn cars, and McLaren lowering expectations for Malaysia after Lewis Hamilton's Australian podium.
Ferrari endured a miserable time of it in Melbourne, with Felipe Massa retiring with a technical problem after halfway, and Kimi Raikkonen also retiring late on after dropping out of the top eight thanks to a costly spin. But even when the cars were pointing the right way, they were still far slower than most had predicted. The cars qualified down in 7th and 9th places despite being lighter on fuel than most of the rest of the top ten runners. Team Principal Stefano Domenicali admitted after the race that the team had work to do, and insisted that improving the pace was a greater concern than reliability. "Reliability was one big issue, but I have to be fair and honest - the results of today's race were decided by a lack of performance," he mourned, "With Felipe, retrospectively, we were wrong with the strategy – it was maybe too aggressive and that was pretty clear. With Kimi it was okay in terms of strategy. So we have to put all the things in the proper list of priority.
"We saw Brawn is really very, very fast, strong and consistent. In normal circumstances, without any safety car, they would fly away. So if we have to target, that is our target."
Despite the admission that they are lagging behind the Brawn team right now, Domenicali didn't rule out an improvement in Malaysia this weekend. "For sure they [Brawn] were better than us, so just to understand maybe better the situation next weekend where we will be at a different track, at a track like Malaysia with a different grip situation."
Meanwhile, McLaren's problems remain even more deep rooted than those of the Scuderia. McLaren head Martin Whitmarsh has been quick to downplay reigning champ Hamilton's 3rd place at Albert Park as the likely early season exception for the team, rather than the rule.
"Frankly I think Malaysia will be very tough for this season," he said frankly, "I think we will improve the car but I think it is a high-speed, technical circuit, we are lacking in downforce at the moment and therefore it is going to be tough."
Though there is a very quick turnaround between the two back-to-back season openers, McLaren's technical boffins already have a new raft of parts to throw haphazardly at the MP4-24 in the hope of success, but the team looks set to remain a midfield competitor for now at least.
"We have an aggressive development strategy, we have to pick up the performance of the car," Whitmarsh trumpeted, "We will have new parts at all of the next races and we have to keep pushing until we are quick enough to reliably score points."
The admissions from the biggest teams on the F1 grid will likely be music to the ears of the Melbourne pace-setters, with Brawn GP, Toyota, Williams and Red Bull all looking set for another weekend in the spotlight at the front of the field in Kuala Lumpur.
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