Oh, dear...IltaSanomat writes there is time for quarrelling in Ferrari about helmets. Kimi uses Bell helmet altho Ferrari has a deal with Schubert. Now Alonso has demanded he has to have some priviledge also if Kimi can use the helmet he wants..
quoteFerrari's problems in Australia "12 points more than Vettel and Hamilton"
Ferrari brought both cars in the points at the Australian Grand Prix, like McLaren, Force India and Toro Rosso. This is the positive aspect. The negative: The red cars are behind Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren only fourth force.
Finally Ferrari knows what is being played. And the others know how strong Ferrari is. Or may be if everything works. Fernando Alonso was 35.2 seconds behind winner Nico Rosberg in fifth place. This after the disqualification of Daniel Ricciardo was a fourth place.
But even that could not brighten the face of race director Stefano Domenicali: "The result is a disappointment. We need to catch up. Our problems are getting less but we haven't completely solved them."
Fernando Alonso praised the good team performance and the reliability of the car but said plainly: "Mercedes is at the front and also against Red Bull and McLaren we were too slow. Kimi was fighting with the Toro Rosso. He won in 2013 in Melbourne. This shows that we need to catch up. "
Ferrari had in Melbourne fundamental problems and two extraordinary handicaps which have also slowed down the red cars. Alonso drove the first ten laps without or with only half the power of the electric drive. That threw him back in 6th place. By a hair he would even fallen into the clutches of the Toro Rosso.
As punishment he had to stay behind Nico Hulkenberg 33 laps long. "I could go one and a half seconds faster, but could not pass. The Force India was on the line too fast for me."
Kimi Raikkonen also had problems with overtaking. His DRS did not work at times. Although he was within one second behind Jean-Eric Vergne, the rear wing would not open. Raikkonen had to wait for a mistake of the French to get past. Domenicali assumes: "There was probably a problem with the FIA signal."
Despite this clear result the Ferrari F14T is a puzzling nature. Like at the tests it showed a few highlights in Melbourne. Alonso drove third fastest lap just 0.138 seconds slower than Nico Rosberg. The Spaniard was in the third sector the absolute fastest. And there are all the curves. For the first time in years, the aerodynamics seems to be right. In the top speed the Red Diva was ranked fourth.
The problem of Ferrari is that it can retrieve its full power only for a few rounds. "We are losing temporary repeatedly power. Then leads to other problems with the charging of the battery and the power of the electric units," Domenicali admits.
The Ferrari should also be even over the weight limit of 691 kilograms. Rumours have it that alone the power unit is 13 kg too heavy, which also the customers Sauber and Marussia suffer from. The limit for the Power Unit is located at 145 kilograms.
Apparently the excess weight for Ferrari came as a surprise because the team was one of two teams against raising the minimum total weight to 700 kilograms. It's rumoured they saw the truth only when the Ferrari V6 and its ancillary equipment stood on the scale.
As can be heard from circles of the engine manufacturer, not only Renault has asked to rework on the engine in the area of reliability, cost and safety. The submitted Ferrari wishes for improvement is said to also be the use of new castings. Sounds like someone is trying to save weight.
Fernando Alonso is a man of clear words. That's why he differentiates his first result of the season: "I have twelve points more than Vettel and Hamilton. This is positive. But I lost 35 seconds on Rosberg. That must make us wonder."
After all they have learned a lot during the race. Alonso felt in retrospect not so disturbing to be that long in the slipstreem of Hulkenberg's Force India with the Mercedes engine: "This has given us good information. We now know what we have to work on." Domenicali expects the first answers from his motor people already till the next race in Malaysia.
Maranello, 17 March – The scenario suggested by winter testing turned out to be true in Melbourne, at the first Grand Prix of the year. There was little doubt that all the teams would be facing reliability issues, or that these will continue to be a decisive factor throughout the course of the season. As would car performance, which, from what was seen in Albert Park, means that all the teams will be working either to close the gap, as is the case for Scuderia Ferrari, or to maintain it in the case of Mercedes.
Reliability was certainly again encouraging for the Prancing Horse, even if there is still room for improvement to ensure that the new and complex power unit works at its best. However, the main task facing the team at the moment is increasing the efficiency of the F14 T, as the Scuderia’s Technical Director, James Allison explained to www.ferrari.com. “While we can take some satisfaction from the reliability shown by the F14T, it is clear that we have our work cut out to improve our car in order to compete on equal terms with the Mercedes team. There is plenty about the F14T that is working very well: The starts and the pace in the corners – especially the high speed ones – are particular strong points, but we need to work further on the stability under braking and the speed on the straights.” While it might be stating the obvious, in Maranello, the work goes on round the clock to achieve the improvements Allison mentions as soon as possible. “All the recent seasons in F1 have been characterised by a fierce development battle from March until November. With all the new regulations this year, the opportunities to improve the car are legion and we can expect the race to improve the cars to be even more intense than normal.”
Therefore, after the Australian Grand Prix, the lesson has been learned and there is a great desire to get the homework done. “Our competitiveness was not acceptable in Melbourne,” concludes Allison. “But we intend to fight our way back up the grid with the improvements that we will bring to the car.” http://formula1.ferrari.com/news/time-ho...n=140317_F1_EN+[gruppo%3A+F1+eng+-+contenuto%3A+post+GP+Australia]&utm_content=4176171935&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=401640786
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Sat Mar 15, 2014 5:15 pm
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