In this article, part 3 of Hot Rod or Hot Dog, we turn our attention to those team for whom Malaysia was a trial, otherwise known as the Sleeping Dogs.
Lotus
- Qualifying: Kovalainen (19th) Trulli (20th)
- Race: Kovalainen (15th) Trulli (DNF)
It’s pretty much the same as last year really, but with a bit more development. Still ahead of Virgin, still a bit behind the midfield runners. The team continue to talk up their development, but how much of it was spin for their home race?
Kovalainen and Trulli continue to do good jobs and Trulli keeps suffering poor reliability. This one was the clutch, in case you were wondering.
Badger’s Best: Kovalainen
Virgin
- Qualifying: Glock (21st) d’Ambrosio (22nd)
- Race: Glock (16th) d’Ambrosio (DNF)
Virgin, Virgin, Virgin. They don’t really seem as serious as the other teams do they? They’re a sort of halfway house between Lotus and Hispania: rubbish, but not as rubbish as the lowly Spaniards.
Glock (who we at Badger still rate) said after the race that: “apart from the steps we still need to make in performance terms, everything is working well”. Right, well, that’s ok then. They can do pit stops and all the things around the racing, but when it comes to building a fast car, they haven’t quite got it right yet.
Virgin: a good team waiting for a fast car?
Badger’s Best: Glock
Hispania
- Qualifying: Liuzzi (23rd) Karthikeyan (24th)
- Race: Liuzzi (DNF) Karthikeyan (DNF)
They qualified. If that counts as a measure of success then YAY!
They raced, neither finished. End of.
Badger’s Best: Liuzzi
Williams
- Qualifying: Barrichello (15th) Maldonado (18th)
- Race: Barrichello (DNF) Maldonado (DNF)
Right, it’s not gone well for Williams in the opening two races of the season. At all.
Barrichello managed to qualify 15th which, on some of last season’s performances, is a very poor show. Maldonado continues to impress only a few people with his refusal to be faster than his team mate. That said, better drivers have tried and failed.
During the race both cars only managed a combined total of 30 laps, otherwise known as just over half race distance, with an engine misfire and hydraulic failure putting paid to Maldonado and Barrichello respectively.
As Sam Michael said after the race “As a team, we expect to, and must, perform much better than that on all fronts“. At least he knows what he’s got to do.
Badger’s best: Barrichello
Driver character graphics provided by Unlap – purveyors of BadgerGP T-Shirts and more motor-sport themed threads
