Malaysian F1 Grand Prix: Will Sepang go out with a bang?

So it’s so-long to Sepang, as Malaysia’s F1 adventure comes to an end this weekend.

I’m sad that this is the last Malaysian Grand Prix, because the Sepang circuit is one of the best of the new-school offerings on the calendar.

And it’s only an hour from Kuala Lumpur, which is itself a great excuse to make the trip to this race – amazing food, a superb skyline and, once upon a time, a shortish flight to Melbourne if you fancied taking in the Aussie GP as well on an F1 adventure halfway around the world.

The end of F1’s Tilkedrome era

Sepang was the first F1 circuit to spring from the pencil of controversial uber-designer Hermann Tilke and it may well have been his best effort.

The layout is instantly recogniseable, with two huge straights slicing into the infield area.

The track itself is a wide beast, encouraging drivers to experiment with different race lines – particularly useful if Sepang is hit by one of those traditional Malaysian downpours.

But all of this hasn’t been enough to encourage the Malaysian government to keep bankrolling F1 and it’s not really surprising.

Tickets are good value here… and that’s because the local demand simply isn’t there. Of course, F1 is all about attracting a global audience but, despite having 1.5million Kuala Lumpur residents just down the road, Malaysia has never shown any signs of taking F1 to its heart.

It’s appropriate, though, that this year should see Sepang’s swan-song – the circuit kicked off Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 revolution, swamping the calendar with ‘Tilkedromes’ bankrolled by governments in places such as Bahrain, Russia and China.

The sport’s new owners, Liberty Media, are much keener on bringing F1 into city centres – quite possibly to tie in with their Formula E circus – and Copenhagen is already lining up to become a petrolhead destination.

Sepang’s demise is certainly timely, then, if a little disappointing.

Who’s got the edge?

If we’ve learned anything this season, it’s that betting on ‘sure-thing’ results in F1 is a fool’s game.

Lewis Hamilton comes into the race on the back of that memorable victory in Singapore – memorable for Ferrari’s implosion in the first 100metres.

But Sepang has some challenging corners, and Mercedes has struggled with set-up on more than one occasion this season.

We’re unlikely to know who’s nailed set-up until Q3 but don’t be surprised if there are some strugglers, particularly in the silver cars.

Hamilton’s record is not great here. He’s won only once, in 2014, and had a handful of other podiums but, by his standards, Sepang is a bit of a ‘meh’ circuit.

Sebastian Vettel, on the other driving glove, has won four times – and every odd year since 2011 – and sits at the top of the Sepang winners’ table.

Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher have won three times and Kimi Raikkonen – yes, Kimi – has a couple of victories to his name. So Vettel is guaranteed to finish as Sepang’s top dog whatever happens at this final Malaysian Grand Prix. Well, unless Alonso is allowed to fit two of those Honda engines in the back of his McLaren.

Anyone else to watch out for?

Yes, the Red Bulls, obviously, particularly if it rains. Well, if it rains hard enough for wet tyres but not so hard that race control pull the plug.

And there are thunderstorms predicted for race day…

Those two long straights will handicap the Bulls but they’ll be there to Hoover up any spare podium places should things go awry for Merc or Ferrari.

Of course, given the season Red Bull has had, that means Daniel Ricciardo will be there to Hoover up any spare podium places while Max Verstappen is sat in the garage bemoaning yet another DNF.

Someone else to watch is Pierre Gasly, the GP2 star being punted into Daniil Kvyat’s seat at Toro Rosso.

It’s hard to know what Gasly would have to do to not to be racing in F1 for the next part of his career. As for Kvyat, his career with the Red Bull family has been jammed firmly in reverse for a couple of seasons, and the Russian is now getting used to being shoved aside mid-season to make way for new talent.

A man who might be quietly feeling a little pressure is the other Toro Rosso driver, Carlos Sainz. He’s not short on talent and he’s popular but he’ll need to keep his nose in front of Gasly this weekend.

Elsewhere, everyone will be hoping that the Malaysian weather does its thing – that way, we’ll get a mixed-up grid, a full two hours of track time and a ton of stuff to moan to Race Director Charlie Whiting about.

Get the popcorn in…