Ferrari Report – A Champagne Toast, Please!

Ferrari reassures while ensuring the minimum. This is the observation made by the Scuderia a few hours after the victory of the outgoing world champion, Kimi Räikkönen. An impeccable race by the Finnish driver allowed him to score his first 10 points this season. Starting second, he managed to overtake his teammate, Felipe Massa, thanks to the pit stop strategy.

The latter was less fortunate today. A lapse in attention and there he is, stuck in the Malaysian sand! With this off-track incident, the much-anticipated double win for Ferrari slips away. The Scuderia is now 13 points behind McLaren, which impresses with its consistency.

Kimi Räikkönen – 1st:

« I am very happy with this victory, for me and for the team. It’s disappointing that Felipe didn’t manage to hold on to 2nd position. At the start, I found myself next to Felipe, but I didn’t want to take any risks. »

« When the time for refueling came, I pushed my pace to the maximum and managed to exit the pits ahead of him. From that precise moment, I had the track to myself, and the car was perfect. I was able to control the situation without having to push the tires too hard. We struggle a bit in qualifying, but in the race, we are very competitive. The start of the season was very complicated, but I certainly haven’t lost faith in the team: We can do even better. »

Felipe Massa – Retirement:

At turn 31, I was a little too close to the curb exiting turn 6, and then lost control of the car entering the following corner. We need to check if the impact point with the curb damaged the car. The one-two finish was achievable this weekend.

« Obviously, it’s been a very difficult start to the season for me, but there is still a very long way to go. We have great potential, as we saw today, and I remain as confident as ever. »

Stefano Domenicali – Director:

« It was a bitter Easter day. We are very happy with Kimi’s victory, but equally disappointed for Felipe who retired after a small off-track excursion. This weekend, we showed what the team was capable of after a very bad weekend in Melbourne. »

« We know that we still have a lot to do to improve our overall performance but especially our reliability. Congratulations to Kimi, who delivered a superb race, and to our commercial and technical partners like Philip Morris and Shell. »

Luca Baldisserri – Sporting Director:

Today, we showed that we had a clear advantage over the other teams even though we didn’t manage to score the maximum points today. It’s very disappointing because after the bad start in Melbourne, we could have hoped for a double in Malaysia.

« Incidents like the one that happened to Felipe are part of racing. We must now prepare as well as possible for the next Grand Prix in Bahrain. »