Ferrari: still on defense in China

First session
F. Massa 15° 1.38.418, 20 laps
K. Raikkonen 11th 1.38.223, 23 laps

Second session
F. Massa 12th 1.36.847, 34 laps 275
K. Raikkonen 14th 1.37.054, 33 laps 276

Chassis: F. Massa 275, K. Raikkonen 276

Weather:
First session: air 18/20 °C, asphalt 27/33 °C, sun,
Second session: air 21 °C, asphalt 35/34 °C, sun.

“Abruzzo in the heart”. The message of solidarity with the populations affected by the earthquake of 6 April has been present since this morning on the Ferrari F60s of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen competing in the Chinese Grand Prix. “President Montezemolo wanted to give a signal of support to all those who are experiencing this tragedy and we are pleased to carry on our machines the name of a region of Italy that is very close to our hearts, especially in a moment like this” – declared Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Team Principal Stefano Domenicali – “As for today on the track, I can say that we saw our expectations confirmed. We will have to run some games on defense and try to do the best we can. It is clear that, without KERS, we lose a bit of performance and, at first glance, we do not have an improvement in the balance of a machine which, it should not be forgotten, was designed to have this system on board. We are in a difficult situation and we must try to remain calm and work with concentration, on all fronts.”

Felipe Massa: “We are in a difficult situation from a technical point of view but if we think about those who have been affected in their affections and in their daily lives like the populations of Abruzzo then everything takes on a different dimension. I hope that having this message – “Abruzzo in the heart” – on the car, as President Montezemolo wanted, can make all those people feel a little less alone. As for the track, I can say that the fight for the championship seems to be increasingly compromised. Here we are also without KERS and, consequently, we still lose performance as well as not having the aerodynamic load of the best cars. We must try to push the development of the car as intensely as possible but we are aware that it will be very difficult to catch up. The only recipe for getting out of these difficulties is work.”

Kimi Raikkonen: “The balance of the car is not bad and is not affected by the absence of KERS. The point is that we are too slow compared to the teams currently at the top. We must try to improve the car: today we are no longer able to fight for the world championship. We must not let go because we will be able, through the work of the whole team, to fight for victory again. It's not an easy moment but we are a strong group and we know how to get out of this situation. The softer tires seem to perform better than in Australia.”

Chris Dyer: “We worked mainly on evaluating the two types of tires made available by Bridgestone for Sunday's race. Here the softer compound seems to perform better than what happened in Australia while the harder one performs as expected. We had no technical problems during these three hours of testing and we were able to carry out an evaluation of the new aerodynamic solutions which, today, were fitted on Felipe's car: tomorrow they will be on both cars.”