The war of words between Ralf Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya; Jenson Button's first podium finish; David Coulthard's hair colour; and a lot more stories from the Malaysian Grand Prix. This is Ann Bradshaw's take on the weekend's events

Watching the race from Malaysia brought two sayings to mind - 'people in glass houses should not throw stones' and 'the pot calling the kettle black'. After all the fuss Ralf Schumacher made about going to "have him off the track" if his teammate, Juan Pablo Montoya, attempted an overtaking manoeuvre on him like be did in Oz, it was interesting to see his clash with Mark Webber.

As could be expected both him and Mark saw the incident, which put paid to the Australian's hopes of recovering from a disastrous start, from a totally different perspective. Mark, who finally parked his Jaguar in the gravel, is usually very phlegmatic so for him to say: "Ralf drove into the back of me and gave me a puncture. I think he was pissed off that I tried to overtake him," was quite a statement. Then Ralf, having suffered a very uncharacteristic BMW engine failure, countered this with "I was trying to overtake Mark but then I realised there was not enough room and I backed off, trying to avoid the collision, however Mark didn't give me enough space." Not surprisingly Mark's quotes were sanitised by the time ITV televised a re-run of the race and the Jaguar team's release came out.

Unfortunately for the Jaguar and Williams teams, both cars ended up as retirements, but thankfully for F1 fans the Malaysian Grand Prix was a much more exciting event than the race in Oz two weeks before. Michael Schumacher did not have a bad weekend, in fact he could not have had a better one, but at least he had to work for his third win in Malaysia, which was the 72nd of his career and Ferrari's 168th. The opposition had managed to get closer and Rubens Barrichello, despite claiming before the race that he felt he could win the World Championship this year, did not mirror his teammate's performance.

I am hoping the readers of this column will now forgive me for being patriotic and getting excited about third place for Jenson Button. In fact, if you live in the UK you would be forgiven if you were not able to tell your mother when you took her out for her Mother's Day lunch who won the race, but could tell her who came third. Jenson, who is seen as our only hope for a World Championship in the near future, broke his F1 duck and, on try 68, he got onto the podium. He was headline news on TV and radio, and it was great to see him there on merit and not because there were lots of retirements.

Not surprisingly the questions he was asked on BBC radio soon turned to the subject of where he would go in the future. The excitement that he could be back at the UK-based Williams team is understandable, but I for one hope he stays with BAR and gives the team that put their faith into him a reward for this. Strange that at the end of last year we were all wondering what F1 would be like without Jacques Villeneuve, and now just two races into 2004 he is already forgotten. On the subject of Jenson and Williams, I am sure the first person to congratulate him and the BAR team was Sir Frank Williams. Ths will not be because he wants him back, but because Frank loves racers and good competition and will be truly delighted for all the boys at Brackley. I remember when the team scored their first points in Australia in 2002, the first congratulatory fax sitting on the team's machine on Monday morning was from Frank.

In fact it was good to see several of the other drivers congratulating Jenson. Fernando Alonso, who was carrying a black ribbon symbol on his car and helmet in memory of the victims of the Madrid bombings, was very gracious in his praise and what the first podium means. Michael Schumacher seemed genuinely pleased to have him alongside him in the press conference, and Jenson's Monaco neighbour, David Coulthard, was ready to join him in what I am sure was going to be a massive post race party. Mind you, David did take this opportunity to get a name check in for the Columbus Hotel in Monaco, in which he has a stake.

However, the most surprisingly thing about David to me was the fact his hair looked a little more ginger in colour than usual. I suppose the fact he is one of the older F1 drivers and is looking at possibility of retirement at the end of the year means he must be keen to make himself seem younger. He is definitely not the first and will definitely not be the last to take such action. I know at least a couple of drivers who very rapidly turned from dark brown to grey in the months following their final Grand Prix drive!

I have only been to Malaysia once, in 2000, but I was there for three weeks so know a bit about the track and the heat the teams must have been experiencing. It is almost unbearable as you are in temperatures up to 100°F and the pitstop crew will be sitting there in triple layer nomex overalls the same as the driver is wearing. The drivers have lots to concentrate on, but the mechanics are sitting in the garages watching the TV screens and waiting for the call to scramble them into the pitlane for pitstops. They have to be physically and mentally alert and if you are sweating like a pig then it must be the most uncomfortable two hours of each year.

There is nothing you can do to relieve the heat. You cannot cut holes in your suit, as this will negate its fireproof properties. You have to grin and bear it. Luckily for the teams there is a way you can reduce the effects of the heat on the cars. You cut holes in the bodywork and on Sunday the Renault must have resembled a colander as it had an extra 13 holes in it to keep the engine, gearbox, etc cool.

On the subject of sitting around doing nothing, I heard an interesting story about how Juan Pablo Montoya and his wife, Connie, entertain themselves. They play space invaders. When I was told this story it did not surprise me, as I know how much JPM enjoys playing computer games. When I went back to the team in 2001 I always knew where to find him. He was in the back of the motorhome playing computer games on a big screen. However, technology has moved on since then and it seems him and Connie can play against each other even if they are not together. They have remote control sets and if he is in the debrief and she is in the awning they can still compete against each other. I am not sure whether this would be something the team's engineers would encourage!

Talking about something teams would not encourage, I was surprised to see Olivier Panis driving through the pitlane giving his team a rather unfriendly wave. Sadly for him, this out of character show of emotion was followed by a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane. The second time he went through he just shook his head at his Toyota paymasters. Martin Brundle speculated he might have been asked to move over to let Cristiano da Matta through, but whatever the reason it was enough to get one of the nicest men in Formula One annoyed.

His press release comment statement read: "A radio communication problem resulted in an unscheduled pitstop. It is a real pity because the car felt good and was handling well." This was followed by that of Mike Gascoyne saying: "A radio communication problem meant that Olivier came into the pits unnecessarily and then got a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane." I have to suggest there might be more to these than meets the eye. Apologies to the team if I am wrong, but the 'body language' from Olivier was quite telling!

On the subject of body language, as usual Ross Brawn was magnanimous in victory. The TV boys caught him after he had been to the podium and he admitted they had been pushed by JPM and that their success was due, in large amounts, to the Bridgestone tyres. Many race results are put down to the result of the tyre war. Bridgestone are in a very lucky position as they have one top team who call the shots and that is Ferrari. Not wishing to be disrespectful to the other Bridgestone runners, but they are playing a support role.

Meanwhile, Michelin have to keep many more top teams happy including Williams, McLaren, Renault and BAR. Before the start of the season it was muted this split in loyalties could be the French company's downfall. While I am sure it is difficult to keep everyone happy, I applaud the way Michelin have taken on the task and we see teams who never question the job the tyre manufacturer does for them.

While the tyre companies are doing a great job, I still think the people who produce the fuel rigs could do a better one. I hate to hear drivers talk about fuel rig problems. In Malaysia, after the race, Kimi Raikkonen explained he had suffered from a problem in his second pitstop, and Nick Heidfeld was another person to suffer. I appreciate this is a very sensitive piece of equipment but it would be nice to see this problem eliminated from the race weekends.

The F1 teams now head to Bahrain, while I personally head to Monza in Italy for my first FIA European Touring Car Championship race and to Dubai for the launch of the A1 Grand Prix series. Monza sees my BMW boys pitted against the Alfa Romeos and SEATs. Meanwhile I cannot wait for the Dubai adventure. I have now met His Highness Sheikh Maktoum Hasher Maktoum Al Maktoum whose brainchild this series is. He is great fun. A 26-year-old dynamo who loves motor racing. He looks and sounds like Juan Pablo Montoya, but has not called me Grandma yet!

I think this will be a lot of fun and will keep the motorsport world busy in the European winter off- season. It is a series that will not go up against any existing championship and I will make sure in the post Bahrain column I take time to explain its concept. Between now and then I am sure the teams will be working flat out to see what can be produced to catch up with Ferrari, who already have a 16-point lead in the constructors' battle, and Michael Schumacher who is leading his teammate in the drivers' title race by seven points.

About the author:
Ann Bradshaw - Annie - began her motor racing career as a teenager, helping out her brother in local rally races in England, where she grew up. In the 1970s she organised motor racing events in England, and was later the press officer for the RAC MSA - the motorsport governing body in Britain. In mid 1980s, she became press officer to team Lotus, where she worked with Ayrton Senna. Shortly after, she moved to the Williams team and was working there for several years, when once again she found herself working with Senna. She worked with Damon Hill after the Brazilian's death, and moved with the British Champion to Arrows. She also worked with the Panoz team in the United States, before becoming a freelance press officer, now working with Compaq and BAR among others. Annie joined Atlas F1 as a regular columnist in April 2002.

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