Kuala Lumpur // When it was revealed that Sebastian Vettel's dominant display at Albert Park in Melbourne last month had been achieved without the use of the much vaunted Kers device, moans echoed around the paddock.
The season, said the voices in unison, was over.
The Kinetic energy recovery system (Kers) had been reintroduced in a quest to provide more acceleration and improve overtaking opportunities in Formula One, yet Red Bull Racing's reigning world champion had won the Australian Grand Prix by 22 seconds without even using it - albeit due to reliability issues.
So when Vettel reappeared yesterday and announced that "Kers is on the car and we are confident it will work", the fear that was expected to be injected into the opposition was absent.
"I think that it is a little bit early to kill the championship," said Ferrari's Felipe Massa, when asked if he were afraid Red Bull will coast to the title with further victory on Sunday. "For sure, if you don't use Kers, you lose a little bit of lap time, but it's very difficult to predict how much they will improve or not because we don't have a clear picture."
Massa's teammate, Fernando Alonso, went as far as to say he believed Ferrari may even benefit from Red Bull's lack of running with Kers and that the Italian manufacturers have "a bit of an advantage with installation and experience".
Jenson Button warned that Red Bull may suffer once more from reliability problems, but Vettel's teammate, Mark Webber, said it was a "no-brainer" to fit the RB7 with the energy saving device.
"We haven't tested it since Melbourne," Webber said. "It is the first time it has gone back on the car, so it will give us some more confidence here [in practice today]. You need to get Kers working reliably and it is something you should have on the car."
Vettel, who won in Malaysia last year, added that because of new weight regulations there is now "no upside to running without [Kers].
"This year is different. If you don't run it, it is a disadvantage. Australia was a one-off in that we were able to win the race even without Kers, but it's not the plan for the season, because there is no advantage to it. We have it here and we want to use it."