Friday: Great adaptation of Fisichella at Ferrari

It’s a festive weekend on the horizon for Scuderia Ferrari, racing in front of its fans this weekend. This first Italian day on the Monza track was quite positive but without excess for the two drivers. A seasoned Ferrari driver with Kimi Räikkönen but another Ferrari driver without a reference point, as Giancarlo Fisichella settled into the F60 cockpit for the first time today.

The Finn, the man in form at the moment, enters the top 10 in both sessions with the 10th and 8th fastest times. The Italian makes a good impression this morning with an 8th time. Adaptation is difficult, that’s for sure, with the KERS but also the cockpit position. This afternoon, he falls to the 19th position, but the Scuderia assures that this session wasn’t focused on pure performance. We want to believe them!

Kimi Räikkönen – 10th and 8th:

« Overall, I am reasonably satisfied with how things went during these three hours of free practice and the first impressions are good. It is still possible to improve the overall level of the car for tomorrow morning’s free practice. The new curbs don’t allow us to do just anything, which is not a bad thing considering the difficulties we have experienced in this area in the past. Our long-term pace is not bad and we will do our best to fight for a spot on the podium. As for the tires, the softest compound is certainly faster, but it is also quite consistent in terms of performance.

Giancarlo Fisichella – 8th and 19th:

« I am satisfied with this first day, which was particularly difficult in terms of driving. I had difficulties adapting to the different buttons and also discovered the KERS. This morning, the braking at Ascari was incredible. I had to adapt to the soft tires earlier than expected. I felt more confident with them and managed to maintain a steady pace. In the second session, we were not seeking performance and I had a lot of fuel on board. The potential is there, but I need a bit more time to improve, particularly in terms of braking and on the curbs. »

Chris Dyer – Räikkönen’s Chief Engineer

« We can be satisfied with the work done with the two drivers today. We completed our program without any problems, focusing on finding the best set-up for the car. We are happy with the performance on the long runs and, naturally, tomorrow morning, we will work on performance over a single lap to prepare for qualifying. Giancarlo [Fisichella] approached the workday without experiencing the slightest difficulty, and we are not worried about his lap times because the fundamental thing for him is to gain experience in the car equipped with KERS. »