Setting the scene for Malaysia

If the Bahrain Grand Prix was all about "nothing to see here", last Sunday's rain-skewed race-around-a-park in Melbourne was the perfect riposte. So much so that many of those who called for wholesale changes to the sport performed an abrupt U-turn (not using the handbrake, for that would fall foul of anti-hoon laws) and decried those who had been calling for just that two weeks earlier.

That position conveniently disregards the fact that pre-race downpours cannot be relied on and that temporary tracks have historically been incident magnets in F1. Located between the two extremes, there is a lot to admire about the moderate view, although there is reason to expect the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend to produce a spectacle closer to that we saw in Australia than in Sakhir. If the on-track action is so-so, things are heating up a treat off it.