After Jarno Trulli was demoted in Sunday evening’s Australian Grand Prix, the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton moved up into third place and the final podium position, meaning that the season opener ended much better for the Woking based squad than originally expected, especially after starting 18th on the grid.

Compared to their test results in Barcelona two and a half weeks prior, this is a marked improvement, however the result was mainly due to Lewis’s perfect drive and a good strategy by the team. Added to that, some of the incidents in the race went in their favour, including the incident between Vettel and Kubica three laps before the end.  

Taking all this into consideration, Lewis knows not to expect the same again this coming weekend in Malaysia….

“Firstly, we shouldn’t get carried away by our podium in Australia. Yes, we had a fantastic race but we’re all aware that our car isn’t capable of repeating that sort of performance on sheer pace alone,” he said. “And Sepang is one of the tougher tracks on the calendar, one where we will probably be further from the frontrunners than we were in Albert Park.”

“The track is both fast and technical so requires good mechanical and aero grip. It’s much more aero-dependent and rear-limited than Melbourne so it may highlight some of the shortcomings in MP4-24. Nevertheless, we’re all really encouraged by the progress we’ve made and I know we’ll be pushing as hard as ever to put more points on the board in Sepang.”