Category Archives: F1 News

Stefano Domencali says that Ferrari has a lot of work to do before the next race in Malaysia – and is adamant that there won’t be any allocation of blame between the engine and chassis departments for the team’s form in Australia.

“We have a lot of things to do,” he said. “And what we need to do is to go home and make sure that the things that have to be are solved in the group are clear, with a clear responsibility. And then full stop, and no other discussion.

“We had some issue which was related to the fact that we couldn’t really use full power every lap, so it was connected to some bigger issue that we have to manage. I really hope that we will ready to be at a certain level, or at least to solve the issue that we had, already at the next race in Malaysia.

Regarding fuel consumption he said: “For sure that area is an area where we know we need to improve. You know it seems not logical, but the more power that you have, the less you stay on full throttle. We have also benefit on the fuel consumption side. So it’s like the cat has to bite the tail. For sure that’s an area where we have to improve a lot, but I don’t want to focus only on that, because also the car has to be improved.

“It’s a matter of everyone doing his job, and making sure they are focussed on what they have to do at home, without trying to say this is your fault, my fault. As a team we need to react together, and that’s what I’ve asked to all my engineers and all my people.”

Domenicali says the team will also focus on helping Kimi Raikkonen, who has had more problems with the F14 T than his team mate.

“I think we need to help Kimi in trying to find the right balance with the car, helping him because he deserves that. I think there was an improvement during the days. We are still not where we want, because this is something that as a team we want to make sure that everything will be done in order to help his driving style. I’m also sure that for Malaysia will be much better.”

Kimi Raikkonen left Australia with seventh place to his name after Daniel Ricciardo’s exclusion gifted him a place, but it certainly wasn’t an easy weekend for the Finn on his comeback to Ferrari.

A crash in qualifying was just one of his problems as he struggled to come to terms with the F14 T, and he was seen locking up in the race.

“The brakes are fine, always we had a little issue with it at the beginning of the race,” he said. “But then we grained the front tyre, and obviously when you do that you don’t have the grip on the front, then you lock very easily, and it understeers, that’s the main issue. It’s not the brakes, it’s a combination of things. Sometimes it gets a bit tricky.

“Unfortunately right now it’s not the easiest thing, but I’m sure we will find a solution for it at some point. It’s not the first time I’ve been in a situation that’s not easy, and we’ll work until we fix the things. If it takes a week, a month, I don’t care. It’s not the first time, that’s how it goes some times.”

Asked about the prospects for improving the situation he added: “We know more or less what we want to do. Obviously it’s not happening overnight, it takes time to produce certain parts or a certain way putting the things. We cannot promise that we’re going to fix the issue once we get something that we want.

“We can hope that it will work, but like I said I’ve been in situations before, and sometimes it takes a while. Unfortunately not the most easy position right now, but looking how difficult everything was, we still got something out. Obviously not what we want to achieve, but it could have been even worse. I’m sure we can only get better from here.

“I think if we can run the weekend without any issues, and the race without problems, I’m sure we can be much stronger. This is how it was here, and hopefully we can sort out most of the things for the next race.

“It wasn’t a very enjoyable race and not as strong we wanted, but the weekend overall I think we learned a lot, and hopefully we can cut down the problems and mistakes and get better.”

Christian Horner says that Daniel Ricciardo’s brilliant first drive for RBR in Melbourne will be a major boost for the Aussie’s confidence.

Ricciardo finished second on the road prior to being excluded, having not put a foot wrong all weekend.

“I think it should give him a great injection of confidence,” Horner said before the controversy erupted. “He’s been immensely impressive this weekend. The pressure of a home race in front of a demanding crowd, the first race, a debut in a new team. He’s not been in the spotlight when you’re racing in the mid grid like that, and he was perfect all weekend.

“What I was most impressed about was his communication from the car, how calm and relaxed he was. He’s fighting for second place and it didn’t even sound like he’d broken into a sweat out there. That was very reminiscent of exactly how Sebastian is, so really encouraging.”

Asked by this writer why the gap between Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen had see-sawed, he said: “I think it looked like it turned up the boost and power on Magnussen’s car, and then obviously he had to maybe conserve a bit of fuel later on. It’s a bit like poker in terms of how you use your fuel. We just wanted to make sure we had enough left to cover any challenge at the end of the race.

Horner said that the race had been uneventful for the Aussie, despite a scare just before the start.

“It was absolutely remarkable, free of any real issue. We had a drama when he left the garage, where the turbo didn’t work, so we had to get the car back in to re-set and basically power cycle the car, and it seemed to come back to life. So there was a drama as we were going out to the grid, but that fixed itself and didn’t re-appear.”

In contrast it was a tricky weekend for Vettel: “Both had new power units that went on Friday, both ran OK on Friday. There were a couple of issues software related [for Vettel] yesterday, and then a combustion unit issue today. I guess it was the same with Hamilton, of all the Mercedes his was the only one that didn’t finish, yet you’d expect his to be the one that did.”

Daniel Ricciardo has been excluded from the results of the Australian GP for a fuel flow irregularity, but the team has confirmed its intention to apoeal

A team statement said: “Following the decision of the FIA that Infiniti Red Bull Racing is in breach of Article 3.2 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations and Article 5.1.4 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations with Car 3, the Team has notified the FIA of its intention to appeal with immediate effect.
 
“Inconsistencies with the FIA fuel flow meter have been prevalent all weekend up and down the pit lane. The Team and Renault are confident the fuel supplied to the engine is in full compliance with the regulations.”

Rookie Kevin Magnussen stole the headlines a brilliant run to third place in his first race for McLaren.

The Dane chased Daniel Ricciardo over the line in Melbourne to join the elite group of drivers to make the podium in his first race.

“I can’t believe it,” said Magnussen. “It’s not a win, but it definitely feels like a bit of a win because the team is coming off a difficult season and they really wanted to come back and they’ve worked so hard over the winter. And working with a rookie as well who hasn’t got experience. It’s been tough for them, for sure – but they’ve done such a good job, made me feel really at home and made me feel comfortable with everything. I couldn’t have asked for more.

“I think me and Dan had pretty similar pace but obviously you can do stuff with the engine to try and push for a few laps and then you have to back off because you have to harvest the energy again. And you’re fuel saving as well and then stop for a few laps and then you begin again and you have to do more and catch that up. I guess it makes it exciting from the outside because it creates opportunities for overtaking, but it just wasn’t enough today. I didn’t have enough pace to get past Dan.”

Magnussen said he didn’t have any problems: “No issues with the car that we weren’t expecting. We didn’t really know what to expect but luckily we didn’t have anything really that came up that we couldn’t handle so again, big congratulations to the team and to Mercedes for providing such a reliable power unit. It’s quite impressive in the first year.”

Sunday’s race in Australia represents the first opportunity for drivers to make a proper start with the new cars, and go through all the procedures that build up to it.

Inevitably the focus will be on those at the front, and in particular how the two Mercedes drivers fare against the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo that splits them, and those behind, led by Kevin Magnussen.

“You can never really be totally confident about the starts,” said Lewis Hamilton when asked by this writer. “We practised, but you can always wish you had more practice. I think we’ve done as much as we can, and we’re hoping tomorrow starts off well, but whatever happens we’ll improve and learn from it. Generally the start procedure is very similar, it’s just the drive out phase there’s a lot more power, so wheelspin is going to be interesting.”

Meanwhile Rosberg stresseed how important it would be to get past Ricciardo.

“Of course it will be important to try and pass him,” he said. “And being on the clean side of the grid I have a good opportunity to do so, so I’ll try and do that. But even with the start with this new engine it’s still a learning process, and it’s going to take some time to optimise even that. I don’t know how optimised Red Bull are – hopefully not so optimised, and maybe we’ll have an advantage tomorrow at the start. If I could get him that would be a very important step, yes.”