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Ferrari team
principal Stefano Domenicali admitted to being "very
very disappointed" after his two drivers came away with
just four points from the Canadian Grand Prix in
Montreal on Sunday. Kimi Raikkonen was eliminated when
he was hit from behind by Lewis Hamilton when stopped at
the pit exit lights, and Felipe Massa salvaged fifth
place in spite of an extra pit stop to refuel.
"Unfortunately traffic lights in Canada are not really
our friends," said Domenicali. "Last year we had a
problem, this year we've had a different kind of
problem. It was also a shame for Felipe because he did a
great race, and we had a problem with the refuelling
system, a seal broke and no fuel was delivered so we had
to call him straight back in and that spoiled a great
race for him.
"So it's been a big disappointment because we have
prepared for these two races in a great way. In spite of
that, we took less points than last year. That was a
disaster in terms of performance so we are very very
disappointed."
He was, however, able to take some encouragement. "It is
in these conditions when you really feel the need to
react and be very strong because you see that we have
all the elements that are ready for the fight. We know
that our competitors are strong, no doubt, but the
championship is long and we will see. We will fight
until the end."
Hamilton was hit by a ten place penalty after his
collision with Raikkonen, which Domenicali called "a
fair decision. Honestly, I expected something. You
cannot exclude him from points in the race because he
didn't finish, so to be realistic, pragmatic, knowing
the rules, yes, that's what I was expecting, so that
will be part of the show in the next race."
The next few races are more conventional, so would this
be more advantageous for Ferrari. "The near future for
us is very clear," said Domenicali. "We need to go back
to our standard in term of points. We need to work, be
humble, we know that the others are pushing, BMW took a
lot of points today, McLaren not too many, but they are
strong, they will be there. We need to keep on working,
no mistakes, reliability, we saw that we paid for a
problem on the rig, and that's it, that's the way we
have to tackle the next Grands Prix, not only France."
And Domenicali looks forward the next races with relish.
"Absolutely. It's very disappointing to collect the
points that we collected in the last two races given the
way that we prepared for them so we are really looking
forward to reacting in the right way and the spirit of
the team, I can assure you, is the same."
Domenicali said that he expected a complicated
championship this year, potentially three-way. "I said
at the beginning of the season that I was expecting
McLaren first and BMW second as our main competitors.
Today was a really good race for them, no mistakes,
easy, I would say because of the situation. They are
there, they are strong. We need to fight them."
Finally, Domenicali underlined his enthusiasm for
Canada, but admitted that work has to be done to ensure
that there weren't further problems with the circuit.
"It's great to be here in Canada, it's fantastic. You
feel the people, you feel the atmosphere that is really
fantastic. But we cannot race in conditions like these,
it's not very good. Unfortunately, this isn't the first
time that we've had this kind of problem and I think
that they have to do something."
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