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Whenever a team has a bad race weekend, the
general feeling is always one of impatience to try again as
soon as possible and after failing to score points in the
opening round and only one car classified at the finish,
Scuderia Ferrari gets a chance to redeem itself
immediately this weekend, with Round 2, the Malaysian Grand
Prix, at the Sepang Circuit, outside Kuala Lumpur.
In Malaysia one of the key areas the
Scuderia will be looking into from the start of free
practice, will be optimising the usage of the tyres, as
this is one area where the F60 appeared to struggle in
Albert Park. One of the major changes in the rules is the
fact that Bridgestone has been instructed to bring two types
of tyre that are significantly different one from the other,
whereas last year, the two types of tyre that had to be used
during a race were often very similar in terms of wear and
performance characteristics.
The result is that not only do you have make
your car work on two different tyre compounds, it has to
work in two different operating ranges of temperature, for
example a soft tyre that works at high temperatures and a
hard that works best at lower operating temperatures. These
rules are the same for everyone of course and teams have to
find the best possible solution, which Scuderia Ferrari
clearly failed to do in Melbourne last weekend. Both Ferrari
drivers started on the softer tyre in the Australian Grand
Prix and although this did not work for Massa and Raikkonen, it was not necessarily a bad strategic
decision as other drivers did the same and went on to finish
in the points. Tyres now seem more sensitive to individual
circuits, because during winter testing in Bahrain, the team
managed to complete longs on these same tyres with
absolutely no problems.
Another interesting element that came under
the microscope after the first race of the season, is the
effect of KERS on tyre useage. It was clear that,
particularly with the super-soft, wear rates were higher
than expected on the rear tyres because of the extra strain
created by the KERS system. The team needs to continue
analysing the best way to use it, having seen the advantage
it brings, specifically at the start, where Felipe gained
two positions (not counting the third, as Barrichello was
just slow.) This means it is a useful tool, even if there
might still be a question mark over its use for overtaking.
In terms of reliability, the broken upright
from Massa’s car has been taken back to Maranello for
metallurgical analysis, to see if its failure was due to
stress, quality control or some contact made earlier in the
race. Its failure is all the more surprising as the uprights
are one of the few components on the F60 that are virtually
identical to those on previous years’ cars. Raikkonen’s
differential problem is still under investigation after a
quick look on Sunday night prior to shipping the car to
Malaysia where a more thorough check will be carried out.
The mood in the team was not the best on
Sunday night, but Ferrari has been in this situation many
times before and knows what it must do in terms of working
hard to react. This is one of the hardest starts to any
recent season, as the crew did not finish work in Albert
Park until around four o’clock on Monday morning, flying to
Malaysia a few hours later and on Tuesday morning, work was
already underway on setting up the garages and preparing the
cars at the Sepang circuit. The team is confident it will
fight back, although there are bound to be some unknown
factors in Malaysia as the race runs to the same late-start
schedule as Australia, which means running the cars on track
at a time of day when traditionally, tropical storms are
commonplace. As to the question mark regarding visibility,
there might still be one in Sepang, but instead of a
dazzling setting sun, drivers might have to contend with a
lack of visibility as darkness falls.
As a general comment regarding the state of
the championship after the opening round, the teams seem
much more closely matched than last year, so that the
slightest difference can result in drivers missing out on Q3
on Saturday, therefore more effort will have to be
concentrated on qualifying performance this year, making
better use of the tyre choices available, at the expense of
looking purely at race performance. However, it has to be
said that one team is, for the moment, going to enjoy a far
easier time. For the other nine, the fight looks like being
very tight.
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