Motor sport/Malaysian Grand Prix: The track temperatures at Kuala Lumpur's Sepang circuit might have nudged towards 60 degrees yesterday but the real heat yesterday in the build-up to the Malaysian Grand Prix came from the sparks flying off-track between Ferrari and their nine rival teams.
They are not just rivals on track but also in the battle for political supremacy in Formula One, and after attacking the Italian team for abandoning the GPWC motor manufacturers grouping to sign a "Concorde" agreement with Bernie Ecclestone for a reputed $100 million pay-off, the nine yesterday went on the offensive over Ferrari's breach of agreements restricting testing - originally conceived as a cost-cutting measure.
Ferrari flouted a long-standing agreement on testing in the week of a grand prix by running test driver Luca Badoer at the team's Fiorano circuit on Monday, and the nine yesterday condemned the action.
"Ferrari's actions not only potentially destabilise Formula One and increase costs but also provide Ferrari with an unequal advantage over all other teams," said the teams' statement. "The nine teams are requesting that Ferrari now reconsiders its position and acts in a responsible manner to support this valuable cost-saving initiative."
Ferrari managing director Jean Todt immediately responded, suggesting that the champions' test programme was, in fact, designed to aid underfunded teams who also run on Ferrari's Bridgestone tyres but cannot afford so elaborate a development schedule.
He added that, furthermore, the team would not reduce testing: "When the previous testing agreement was coming to an end, we tried to find a new compromise, which took the reality of the current situation into account. This did not prove possible and therefore we felt that no testing guidelines were in place anymore and we intend to continue on that premise."
The spat proved a briefly amusing diversion yesterday from track action that was, in the tradition of Friday practice, unrevealing as teams ran with a variety of set-ups and fuel loads in preparation for tomorrow's race.
Sauber's Felipe Massa finished the day with the fastest time but with the Swiss outfit on the home turf of their major sponsor, oil company Petronas, there was just the slightest suspicion the team had emptied most of that company's products from the fuel tanks to boost Massa up the largely irrelevant Friday charts.
One note of interest was sounded in the afternoon session as a succession of drivers, including Ferrari's Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, spun off as they attempted to settle on a weekend tyre choice in the cauldron-like conditions.
Formula One's new rules on tyres specify that a team cannot change a driver's tyres during the race, which has led Bridgestone and Michelin to develop more durable tyres, which, however, have less grip.
In Australia speculation that the cars would slip and slide more as tyres degraded and result in more driver error proved premature as cold and changeable conditions masked the impact of the tyres on racing. That impact is due to be more marked this weekend as the temperatures soar in Kuala Lumpur.
One man who should benefit is opening race-winner Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian's Renault is reckoned to be kind to tyres and Fisichella is also a forgiving master. The French outfit looked a potent force in Australia and could be so again here.
A more level playing field in Malaysia should waken some from the fanciful dream that Ferrari are a spent force this season, especially in light of technical director Ross Brawn's bald statement yesterday that the new car the team will introduce earlier than expect at the Bahrain Grand Prix in two weeks' time is already a second a lap faster than the model currently running.
