Saturday: Reliability will be the key word tomorrow for Ferrari

Ferrari complained yesterday of a severe lack of performance. The team remained hopeful of performing better during the qualifiers, and ultimately, the result is the best of the season, even if it is not yet outstanding.

Massa and Räikkönen both managed to break into the top 10. They are 8th and 10th respectively with very difficult conditions to handle. The temperatures are hot, the tires wear quickly, and above all, the track changes a lot between sessions.

Massa was second in the practice session this morning and hopes to be both fast and reliable tomorrow in the race to score Ferrari’s first points of the season. 0 must no longer be after the Bahrain GP, or Ferrari is no longer Ferrari!

Felipe Massa – 2nd and 8th:

« It seems like we’ve taken a step forward today, but we know there’s still a lot to do. Personally, I’m happy with this return to the top 10 in qualifying and I hope to have a good race tomorrow to finish in the top eight. »

« This morning, the car was performing very well, but in the afternoon, I lost a bit of performance due to oversteer, probably caused by the warmer conditions. Tomorrow, it will be very hot again, which could affect the reliability and performance of the tires. We must try to finish the race as a priority to bring points to the team. We also need to make the most of the KERS, especially at the start. »

Kimi Räikkönen – 5th and 10th:

« I think that finishing better than 10th today was complicated. In the first two parts of qualifying, the car was quite easy to drive, but in Q3, I didn’t have any new sets of soft tires left, I had already used all 4 at my disposal. »

« With the KERS, the performance is much better. Tomorrow, the race will be tough due to the high temperatures. We will see how we handle that. The goal is to finish in the points. »

Stefano Domenicali – Director:

« We were aware of the current situation in terms of hierarchy and that it would be difficult today to enter Q3. You just had to look in Q2 where the top five were within the same tenth of a second… »

« The slightest mistake is very costly. Even if it’s not really Ferrari’s style, we will make sure to finish the race as a priority. We need to ensure we pass the checkered flag because with these temperatures, reliability will be very important. Our goal will simply be to score points. We don’t want to leave here with a blank score! »