Friday: Alonso cautious, Räikkönen comfortable for Ferrari
The Scuderia Ferrari says it has completed its program. Fernando Alonso, having not encountered any particular problems, remains cautious nonetheless. Kimi Räikkönen seemed very comfortable, setting the second fastest time twice.
Kimi Räikkönen (No. 7) – 2nd and 2nd
The Finnish driver says he is more comfortable than he was during the first weekend of the season: « It was really a positive day. I felt more comfortable with the F14 T today. »
He thinks that close attention will need to be paid to the behavior of the tires: « Our program focused on car settings and Pirelli tire testing. The handling seems to be good, although as we noticed during simulations, we will need to be particularly wary of degradation, which is very high here. »
Fernando Alonso (#14) – 11th and 5th
The Spanish driver did not encounter any problems today: « Everything went well, without any reliability issues, and we were able to complete a significant number of laps to understand the tire performance, which is very important here due to the high temperatures. »
He proceeds step by step: « The hard compound seems to hold up better on long stints, but it’s still too early to talk about qualifying and race strategy. For now, the only thing we can be sure of is that everything must be done to perfection. »
