Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Australian GP - Ferrari - Preview

Ferrari head to the Australian Grand Prix this week ready to start their 2009 campaign.

The new F60 package has been reasonably strong in testing with Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen recording the fifth and seventh fastest times respectively in the final group test at Circuit de Catalunya.

Massa, who missed out on championship success by a single point last year, acknowledges that Brawn GP in particular are very strong rivals, but is confident that he can replicate his 2008 race form.

Team-mate Raikkonen had a less successful campaign last year, but the 2007 world champion is looking forward to the new season even if unwilling to make any pre-season predictions.

Felipe Massa
"It was a long wait, longer than usual, as the Australian GP's date had been moved, but now we're ready to race and I can't wait."

"I'm going to Australia with great confidence and optimism, but also with some caution: the test results are not always repeated during the race weekends. We've seen during the tests that there are also some other very strong teams, especially in the last sessions the Brawns. It seems that they've got the fastest car at the moment and I think that their pace is real; maybe they found something that makes the difference. We'll see in Melbourne; but I think they've got a good car and they did their tests with the right weight."

"I'm 100 percent ready, perfectly in shape and I think that this also applies to the team.
We made some mistakes last year and we've been working hard all winter long to improve where we weren't perfect."

"Everybody worked hard, analysing the mistakes, trying to find solutions. I think we're very well prepared and that we've done some great work."

"My team-mate is still my strongest competitor and I think that Kimi will be very strong - as usual. My goal is very simple: I want a season like in 2008 and to reach that goal I have to stay concentrated and work very hard. The first race is always a bit like a leap in the dark, but I can't wait."

Kimi Raikkonen
"I enjoyed this winter break more than usual. I spent most of the time with my family and friends in Switzerland and Finland, but I mainly trained very hard and in a different way to be ready for a very demanding season."

"It's difficult making predictions, considering the many rule changes this year. Ferrari was very competitive during the tests; but we'll do the F60's countercheck at Melbourne, when we'll all meet in the race with the same fuel at the same time. Only then we'll see how strong we are and maybe we've got to wait for a couple of races to have a clearer situation."

"It seems that a really long time has passed since the last race in Brazil, also considering all the changes of the car: it will be really interesting to see how its development will evolve. When things go well you're having more fun, but we still haven't raced this year, so it's really a bit too early to say anything."

"We hope that everything will be the way we expect it to be. There's a lot less of aerodynamic downforce than last year, so we'll be slower in the fast corners, but the car will have much more grip in the slow ones, due to the slicks. Therefore the lap times haven't changed a lot. I can confirm that I like the F60 more than last year's car. It's much more fun to drive and it reminds me more of the cars I was used to some year ago. The KERS is something very interesting and easy to use: I hope that it will make overtaking easier."

Stefano Domenicali
"It will be a very demanding season, as usual. We've got a new single-seater, which we've prepared with less miles of tests, due to the rules. But you've been really brave and we're leaving for Melbourne convinced that we can fight for the top positions as usual. It won't be easy and we've got to remain concentrated."

Kimi Raikkonen have confident on KERS

After a difficult season, Kimi Raikkonen hopes to regain the form that carried him to championship success with Ferrari in 2007.

While Raikkonen is looking forward to the first race of the season in Melbourne this weekend, the Finn does not expect the result in Australia to be particularly representative of the season as a whole.

"Albert Park is a very particular circuit, just like the city itself is very special," Raikkonen began. "Maybe we've got to wait until Malaysia to see which teams will be ahead."

"As usual I can't wait to start a new season," he continued. "Putting on the helmet and racing is something worth living for. The number of tests has been limited, but I had fun anyway to work on a completely new car."

Ferrari will be one of a handful of teams to run its new Kinetic Energy Recovery System from the first round this year and Raikkonen is confident that the new technology will be a benefit to the team.

"From the first test the whole team was positively surprised by how well the KERS works," he explained. "Everybody is expecting more overtaking now, but I think it's still a bit too early to say what will happen and if the lower downforce will help when you're in a slipstream."

Raikkonen finished third overall last year behind team-mate Felipe Massa and champion Lewis Hamilton.

Trulli doesn't like race in the afternoon

Jarno Trulli on Wednesday made clear he is not a big fan of the move to 'twilight racing' in Formula One.

This weekend's action in Australia, and again in Malaysia in just over a week, will take place notably later than usual for the benefit of European television audiences, but not late enough to necessitate expensive floodlighting.

Qualifying and the races are scheduled for 5pm local, meaning that by the end of the sessions, the sun will be low in the sky.

"I don't know about it," the Toyota driver told the Melbourne newspaper The Age.

"I've never raced before this late in the afternoon. I don't know what the light is going to be. In Singapore it was totally dark, with lights. This will be different again.”

"In truth, I prefer the sunny day time," the 34-year-old Italian added.

Ferrari's Felipe Massa this week also referred to the later timetables for the opening races of the 2009 championship.

"The first race is always a bit like a leap in the dark, but I can't wait. As the race starts at 5pm let's hope that it won't also end in the dark!" the Brazilian joked.

Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella said: "It may be a bit darker at the end of the race, but I don't think this will change a lot for the drivers."

Renault cut Alonso payment

The cut to Fernando Alonso's 2009 retainer represents more than a third of his originally contracted pay, one newspaper has reported.

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore on Tuesday revealed that the Spanish driver, and his team-mate Nelson Piquet, agreed to reduce their salaries in reaction to the global recession.

The Milan magazine Chi said the Italian did not mention figures, but the British newspaper Daily Mail claims that 27-year-old Alonso's reduction was from about 13m (euro) in the original contract, to just over 8.5m.

The newspaper did not say how much Piquet was due to earn this season, but it is claimed the 23-year-old was one of the sport's lowest earners who will now be paid just 270,000 (euro).

David Coulthard critics Kimi

Kimi Raikkonen needs to put in more effort if he wants to return to contention for world championships, former team-mate David Coulthard claims. Coulthard partnered the now 29-year-old Ferrari driver at McLaren between 2002 and 2004.

But the Scot, who retired as a race driver and this week touched down in Melbourne for his new role as a TV pundit and Red Bull advisor, believes the Finn let his game slip last year.

In 2008, Raikkonen was outclassed by his Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, ultimately trailing the title runner-up by 22 points.

"Massa has proved himself a world-class driver and Raikkonen should be there, but we saw a chubby, lazy driver, slightly lethargic-looking, last year," Coulthard told the Daily Star.

"I think it could go either way with him. Has he still got the hunger? He's a supreme talent, but he's not putting the effort in," the 37-year-old added.

Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali this week said 2009 is an ‘important season’ for Raikkonen, who seems ‘motivated and thinner - three kilos (lighter) they tell me’.

Brawn GP financial problem

Despite the recent management buyout-out and the 2009 car's sterling test pace, the future of Brawn GP reportedly remains under a very dark cloud.

In the decisions of the World Council meeting earlier this month, it was noted that despite the Brackley-based team simply requesting a name-change, Brawn would in fact be considered a 'new entry' for this season.

"The contract the team had with the FIA was to run as 'Honda', which they are no longer in a position to do," the FIA said.

Outwardly, the technicality has resulted in Brawn shifting to the very bottom of the pitlane, and being assigned the lowest race numbers for 2009.

But we noted last week that new teams usually must wait to receive full revenue entitlements according to F1's commercial agreements.

It is on this point that the Swiss specialist publication Motorsport Aktuell expresses concerns about the survival of the Mercedes-powered team. It claims that Brawn could not simply change its name to Brawn, therefore keeping Honda's financial status, because while the teams unanimously agreed, Bernie Ecclestone exercised his veto.

Brawn is therefore missing about 22 million (euro) of its projected 2009 budget, in a state of affairs that could date back to a news item in February.

Then, we reported that managers Ross Brawn and Nick Fry turned down the F1 Chief Executive's offer to help complete the buyout.

"They should have taken what I offered," Ecclestone was quoted as saying.

"It was a very good offer for everybody concerned. It gave them complete protection but they wanted to do things on their own. Now all we can do is hope and pray," Ecclestone added.

Australian GP - Force India - Preview

The Force India team completed the 2008 season without a single championsip point to its name, but the Vijay Mallya-led outfit expects to display better performances this year during its second Formula One championship under the FI guise.

In addition to the sweeping changes to the regulations which should favour a closer field, the technical partnership Force India signed with McLaren and its supply of Mercedes engines should allow the team to move higher up in the rankings and possibly gather those elusive first points.

This week-end's Australian Grand Prix will be the first opportunity to try out the VJM02 package in race conditions; both Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil return to defend the team's colours on the track.

Giancarlo Fisichella:
"Australia is a good place for me personally. I won the race in 2005 and started in second place in 2006 and with a car that was not as competitive as we would have liked, I finished in fifth in 2007. For these reasons, it's a fantastic track for me, but it's also a great track to drive."

"With a combination of short straights, second and third gear chicanes, this 16-turn track requires medium to high downforce and good traction is essential, particularly early on in the weekend when the track is 'green.' It is very slippery on the Friday as it doesn't get used very much over the year, and then conditions just get better and better for the race."

"There are a few chicanes in third gear so you need to have a good car under braking, but don't brake too much so you can still get into the chicane with a good speed. Turns 11 and 12 are quite quick and it's quite hard for the brakes, and the last corner is quite interesting. It's important to be quick but there is always a lot of understeer and the car slides on four wheels."

"This year the race will start a bit later at 17:00, so it may be a bit darker at the end of the race, but I don't think this will change a lot for the drivers. In Singapore we raced under the lights and it didn't seem to make a lot of difference from our perspective."

Dominic Harlow, Chief Race Engineer:
"The culmination of winter development and car build effort makes Melbourne an exciting and technically challenging race. The Albert Park circuit is hard on brakes and, being a temporary construction, has a constantly changing grip level. The weather offers plenty of variety for the teams to deal with, from 40-degree heat as in 2008, to rain disturbances from the southern oceanic region."

"For the first time ever the race this year will be an evening event, potentially leading to cooler track conditions, however Bridgestone's softer tyre will almost certainly struggle to resist graining and degradation."

"One very important fact to remember at this circuit however is the seemingly annual first corner accident where nearly five months of anticipation can be over in a few seconds. We have often seen Safety Cars in Melbourne, and it could figure again in this year's race, and the change to the regulations could particularly mix things up."