Team Ferrari: German Grand Prix Race - Race Round-Up
Jul 20, 2008
Shell
Nine the number of points picked up by Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro in the German Grand Prix, thanks to a third place finish for Felipe Massa and a sixth with Kimi Raikkonen. After the first tenraces of the season, Felipe finds himself second in the Drivers’ classification, with Kimi third, four and seven points respectively off the leader. The Scuderia continues to head the Constructors’ Championship. Next week, the F2008 will be on track at Jerez de la Frontera, for four days oftesting: on the first of these, Luca Badoer will be at the wheel, followed by Kimi (two days) and finally Felipe.
Stefano Domenicali: “This was not a good day and there’s no point denying it. Our rivals werestronger than us and we have to work out why, without however getting caught up in nebulous and superficial analysis. For the first time this season in a race, we did not have the pace we had expected to run at, with both Kimi and Felipe. We suffered constantly from a lack of grip and, in thefinal stages, Felipe’s brakes were also overheating which complicated still further the managementof his car. The Safety Car offered us the opportunity to give it another go and all things considered, I think we made the right choice in terms of strategy, but when your pace is inadequate, it istherefore difficult to get a good result. We have to work well over the coming days to react in the right manner to return to the level we were at just two races ago.”
Felipe Massa: “It was a difficult race. Right from the beginning, Hamilton’s pace seemed unbeatable and I understood that it would be very hard to beat him. I never had good grip and, in the final stages, I also had brake problems and was not even able to attack Piquet, whom I congratulate on the first podium of his career. We must try and understand why, this weekend, wehave not been a match for our rivals. They have definitely improved, but I think this was more a case of us having taken a step backwards. However, we are still confident: we have the ability toget out of this situation, right from the next race.”
Kimi Raikkonen: “This was definitely not the kind of race we had been hoping for. We have struggled all weekend and we have to try and understand why. Usually, our race pace is always good, but today that was not the case, because I almost always suffered with a lack of grip: only in the final stages did the situation improve a little bit, but it was never enough to be competitive. Wehave a test in Jerez, where we will try and improve the car so as to arrive in Budapest in better shape. This is definitely not a crisis, but we have to study carefully the handling of the car tounderstand if we have taken the right road in terms of development.”
Luca Baldisserri: “This weekend, to be honest, we were not competitive enough to fight for thewin. Again today, we did not have the speed to go up against our main rivals. When the Safety Carcame out, we opted for a double pit stop and I think that was the right decisions. Then in the final stages of the race, Felipe did not have the right grip level and furthermore, he had problems with his brakes which first prevented him from attacking Piquet and then from adequately fighting off a closing Hamilton. We have to carefully study our situation to try and understand how to return tobeing as quick as we had been up to a short time ago.”
