Brawn will not repeat their front row lockout of last weekend after the team elected to change the gearbox on Rubens Barrichello's car, incurring a five-place penalty for Sunday's race.

The team had not reported any prior problems with the unit in question, however team principal Ross Brawn had recently gone onrecord as saying that it was a possible weak point of the BGP 001 chassis.

Referring to the gearbox, which after the switch from Honda to Mercedes power for 2009 had to be tweaked, he said: "For the moment that is our achilles heel.

"We are not yet over that mountain," he added.

Sebastian Vettel: "The heat in Malaysia is always a surprise, even if you're here for a couple of days before you jump in the car. It's very hot with the suit and everything and, no matter how much you prepare, the first outing is always a bad surprise - but, you quickly adapt. Every time you come in to the box it's like you've been in the shower. Fortunately I've got a bag with dry ice in it, which I put next to my balls, so at least they stay nice and cool! Today went well, with smooth running. We ran through our programme, did a lot of laps and got a lot of information about our tyres. There were no major problems with either car, so it was a good day."

Button said that the real unknown will be if there is a wet race as Brawn GP had no time to do wet testing and many of the teams have done very little.

"The new regulations have thrown everything up into the air, but I think a lot will change in the next few races," Button said. "We want to be in front for the whole season but it is going to be tough. Ferrari will not be slow for too long. I think that is the team that will start challenging us after Toyota and Red Bull. At the moment I am in a good position with two pole positions and a win. But we've only had one race! This car is much nicer to drive. It is not easy. You still have the movements with the rear end but it reacts to changes and we can work on the balance to get it competitive. For sure I would rather it was dry tomorrow, but we thought it would rain for qualifying. So now we have to do a lot of thinking and plan for what to do if it is wet."

The rain in Kuala Lumpur comes usually at the end of the afternoon and when it comes it is not drizzle. These are impressive tropical storms and the idea of a late start make it quite likely that the race will take place in very wet conditions. The race could last until seven o'clock tomorrow and as seven approached on Saturday evening a massive storm came rolling in... It was dark and rain cascaded on to the paddock.

The teams would need headlights on the cars...

Willi Weber has dismissed criticism of Michael Schumacher's role during Ferrari’s dismal Malaysian Grand Prix as “idiotic”, amid reports that it was Schumacher who made the premature call to switch Kimi Raikkonen onto wet tyres.

As the fallout from Ferrari’s worst start to a season for 17 years continues following its second successive point-less race, reports in the German and Italian media have suggested that the seven-time world champion turned team advisor had a hand in the squad's second tactical blunder of the weekend while on the pit wall at Sepang.

Despite running in a solid fifth place, the Scuderia bizarrely opted to switch Raikkonen to the full wet tyres at his first pit stop while the track was still fully dry – a move which wrecked the Finn’s race.

However, Schumacher’s long-time manager Weber says the media’s decision to pin the blame on the retired legend is incorrect and, without denying outright that Schumacher was involved in the decision, insists the call was made by senior team members.

“The criticism of Schumacher is totally idiotic,” Weber was quoted as saying by Italy’s Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.



“The attack on Michael makes no sense. He knows everyone and was at Sepang just by chance.

“The decisions from the pit wall were taken by the team.”

Since ending his record-breaking Formula 1 career at the end of 2006, Schumacher has held a loosely-defined consultancy role at Maranello with his duties having included several F1 tests, road car work and attendance at some grands prix weekends.

His contract with Ferrari, which he joined initially as a driver back in 1996, runs out at the end of this year and team boss Stefano Domenicali indicated during the winter that Schumacher’s future involvement would be decided later in the season.

Weber says a meeting about his client's future with Ferrari is scheduled for the middle of the year, but insists the events of Sepang will have no bearing on this – pointing out that it is quite clear that Schumacher doesn’t call the shots on strategy.

“It’s possible that the contract will not be renewed, but there will be a meeting halfway through the year so we’ll have to wait and see,” he added.

“But if his contract were not to be renewed, it would certainly not be because of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

“Michael may give some advice to the team, but he is not the team leader or team manager of Ferrari.”