Assessment: Ferrari once again a victim of deplorable reliability and strategy

Ferrari itself says that reliability is their weak point at the moment. The Marannello team does not find the reliability adequate and is experiencing several problems with its strategy. Yesterday, the team did not deem it necessary for Räikkönen to do another qualifying lap, and today it’s Massa who is paying the price by running out of fuel.

The Brazilian finishes 6th after being in 4th place with three laps to go. Räikkönen has to retire after 20 laps due to more hydraulic issues. Domenicali, the director, bangs his fist, but admits to having found a tolerable performance… Reliability will be the next step.

Felipe Massa – 6th:

I’m very disappointed to have lost two places in the very last laps, even though we finished in the points. We knew we wouldn’t have the pace of the Brawn GP, but we could fight with the Red Bull, and without this fuel problem, I could probably have stayed ahead of Vettel and Alonso. It was frustrating!

« I was really struggling with the hard tires, but on top of that, I had to save as much fuel as possible and stay ahead of Vettel… Then, the team told me that if I wanted to finish the race, I had to slow down and let Vettel pass. If I had made a pit stop, I wouldn’t have scored any points… Today, the race pace with soft tires was good even though we were missing a few tenths. Overall, we are back to fighting with the best.

Kimi Räikkönen – Retirement:

« I am very disappointed because I could have finished in the points today. Unfortunately, I had a hydraulic problem that prevented me from accelerating fully. As a result, I had to retire. I had a good start and even though I was stuck behind Heidfeld, the car was much better. We just need to solve these reliability issues! »

« We can still find the way. We are the same people as when we were winning titles for the last two years. We’ve won 3 out of the 4 possible, there’s no reason we can’t make it. »

Stefano Domenicali – Director:

There are positives to take away from this weekend, but we still have reliability issues. Our efforts in performance are paying off; it’s not by chance that we achieved the third fastest time in the race with Massa, but once again, the problem lies with reliability.

« We experienced issues that forced Kimi [Räikkönen] to retire and cost Felipe [Massa] two positions. This is not acceptable for a team like us. We need to get back to our usual standards, but we are in the process of solving this problem. »