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F1 2011
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 2011 Formula 1 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix
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Round 2 , 10 April, 2011. Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Lap : 5.543km/3.444 miles | Offset : 0.000km | Race : 56 Laps - 310.408km/192.887 miles
Official Website
Pitlane speed limits:
60km/h during practice;
100km/h during qualifying and race
Changes to the Circuit since 2010
No changes have been made to the circuit since last year’s Malaysian Grand Prix
Lap record: 1:34.223 (Juan-Pablo Montoya, Williams-BMW, 2004)
[846] 09 April 2011 - Stricter front-wing load test
 
The technical regulations state that a front wing must be no lower than 75mm above the reference plane, which is the lowest point of the car excluding the plank (yellow dotted line). To check compliance with this rule, 100kg loads are applied to the two ends of the front wing (red arrows) in scrutineering, with movement of no more than 20mm allowed. This year the FIA have brought into force a stricter test in which loads are applied either simultaneously or on one side at a time. Despite controversy about their 'flexible' front wing, Red Bull have passed this test, leaving their rivals striving to develop similar solutions.
[847] 09 April 2011 - Ferrari 150° Italia - revised front wing
For Malaysia, Ferrari have modified their car's front wing slightly, with the addition of this small flap (red arrow) between the turning vanes. The team have also made some very subtle changes to the endplates. As they attempt to find more pace in the car, Ferrari's drivers have sampled several different front wing configurations during practice and Fernando Alonso was seen to run with a revised second flap. Felipe Massa, meanwhile, was on track on Friday and Saturday morning with an extra camera on the car so that engineers could watch the deflection of the endplates.
[848] 09 April 2011 - Red Bull RB7 - front wing selection
Red Bull have two front wings available to use in Malaysia, both illustrated here, but both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber opted for the inset version with its simpler endplate configuration. Arguably more importantly, however, both drivers also expect to use KERS during both qualifying and in Sunday's race, the team having opted not to run it at the previous round in Australia due to reliability concerns.
[849] 10 April 2011 - Renault R31 - new front wing
Renault have brought a new front wing to Malaysia, which features an updated endplate. The small fin on the exterior now has a twisted shape, but there is still a longitudinal hole through which airflow can pass (see blue arrow). After running back-to-back tests on Friday and Saturday morning, both Nick Heidfeld and Vitaly Petrov decided to use the new front wing in qualifying and the race. Petrov also briefly tested a new rear wing, before swapping back to the older version, which the team used in Australia.
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