Q: Kimi, can I ask you about your experiences with KERS last weekend? Was it of use to you and how much did you use it?
Kimi RÄIKKÖNEN: I used it all the time if nothing is wrong with it. For us it has been better in testing, it was good there, so I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t use it.

Q: And a two time winner here. This is obviously a good circuit for you?
KR: I like the circuit. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky. It is a nice place, quite a bit different from others. It is very humid here. When it rains, it rains heavily, so we will see how it is this weekend.

Q: Would you say you are more optimistic than you were in Australia?
KR: I mean the end result could have been pretty okay without my accident. Probably the speed is not where we want to be right now but this is a completely different place. It is more like a normal circuit compared to Australia, so we will see how we can do here but I still think that our car is not too bad, so we should be able to get good results once we get everything going well.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) A question to everyone on the subject of KERS. Do you see it more as an offensive or defensive button at the moment? Are you using it more to overtake people than stop people overtaking you? To the guys that don’t have KERS, are you finding it is being used to overtake you or stop you overtaking somebody?
KR: We use it for lap time. Of course it can help you overtake or defending your position at some places but it really depends what happens during the race where you are going to use it.

Q: (Juha Päätalo – Financial Times Germany) This one is for Kimi and Lewis: theoretically, the KERS should be an advantage at restarts but in Melbourne it didn’t seem to help at all. Do you think that was because of cool tyres and are you expecting a different picture at other races? 
KR: As I said, it depends on many different things, it’s not just that you get 80 horsepower and you are going to get around somebody or you can pass easily. It’s always if your car is good or it’s not good and if you get a good run on him, or he gets the jump on you at the restart. It’s just not pretty straightforward thinking. At the start, it definitely helps but at a restart it’s not so easy.

Q: (Will Buxton – Australasian Motor Sport News) One for everybody on tyres: how much is the wider gap affecting you guys in the race, how much is it going to change strategy over the coming races? 
KR: For sure it makes the race much more exciting when somebody has the harder and somebody the softer tyres, so it makes the lap time difference much bigger between the cars, so you can see some overtaking. It’s also a little bit tricky to get them working in the way you want sometimes. For us the soft tyre didn’t last very long, so we just came in and changed the tyres, it was a good move. Everybody needs to suffer on the worse tyre at some point in the race. For us, we decided to start with them.

Q: (Andrea Cremonesi – La Gazzetta dello Sport) And I would just like to know from all of you if only the weather can change the first two steps on the podium for Sunday? 
KR: It can change anything or everything if it rains like it was raining just now. We will see what happens.

Whenever a team has a bad race weekend, the general feeling is always one of impatience to try again as soon as possible and after failing to score points in the opening round and only one car classified at the finish, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro gets a chance to redeem itself immediately this weekend, with Round 2, the Malaysian Grand Prix, at the Sepang Circuit, outside Kuala Lumpur.

In Malaysia one of the key areas the Scuderia will be looking into from the start of free practice, will be optimising the useage of the tyres, as this is one area where the F60 appeared to struggle in Albert Park. One of the major changes in the rules is the fact that Bridgestone has been instructed to bring two types of tyre that are significantly different one from the other, whereas last year, the two types of tyre that had to be used during a race were often very similar in terms of wear and performance characteristics.

The result is that not only do you have make your car work on two different tyre compounds, it has to work in two different operating ranges of temperature, for example a soft tyre that works at high temperatures and a hard that works best at lower operating temperatures. These rules are the same for everyone of course and teams have to find the best possible solution, which Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro clearly failed to do in Melbourne last weekend. Both Ferrari drivers started on the softer tyre in the Australian Grand Prix and although this did not work for Felipe and Kimi, it was not necessarily a bad strategic decision as other drivers did the same and went on to finish in the points. Tyres now seem more sensitive to individual circuits, because during winter testing in Bahrain, the team managed to complete longs on these same tyres with absolutely no problems.

Another interesting element that came under the microscope after the first race of the season, is the effect of KERS on tyre useage. It was clear that, particularly with the super-soft, wear rates were higher than expected on the rear tyres because of the extra strain created by the KERS system. The team needs to continue analysing the best way to use it, having seen the advantage it brings, specifically at the start, where Felipe gained two positions (not counting the third, as Barrichello was just slow.) This means it is a useful tool, even if there might still be a question mark over its use for overtaking.

In terms of reliability, the broken upright from Felipe’s car has been taken back to Maranello for metallurgical analysis, to see if its failure was due to stress, quality control or some contact made earlier in the race. Its failure is all the more surprising as the uprights are one of the few components on the F60 that are virtually identical to those on previous years’ cars. Kimi’s differential problem is still under investigation after a quick look on Sunday night prior to shipping the car to Malaysia where a more thorough check will be carried out.

The mood in the team was not the best on Sunday night, but Ferrari has been in this situation many times before and knows what it must do in terms of working hard to react. This is one of the hardest starts to any recent season, as the crew did not finish work in Albert Park until around four o’clock on Monday morning, flying to Malaysia a few hours later and on Tuesday morning, work was already underway on setting up the garages and preparing the cars at the Sepang circuit. The team is confident it will fight back, although there are bound to be some unknown factors in Malaysia as the race runs to the same late-start schedule as Australia, which means running the cars on track at a time of day when traditionally, tropical storms are commonplace. As to the question mark regarding visibility, there might still be one in Sepang, but instead of a dazzling setting sun, drivers might have to contend with a lack of visibility as darkness falls.

As a general comment regarding the state of the championship after the opening round, the teams seem much more closely matched than last year, so that the slightest difference can result in drivers missing out on Q3 on Saturday, therefore more effort will have to be concentrated on qualifying performance this year, making better use of the tyre choices available, at the expense of looking purely at race performance. However, it has to be said that one team is, for the moment, going to enjoy a far easier time. For the other nine, the fight looks like being very tight.

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Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is confident his team will produce a “strong response” in this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix after its dismal start to the season in Australia.

The Maranello squad was surprisingly uncompetitive in Melbourne, suffered more than most from tyre wear and ultimately retired both of its cars with mechanical problems.

Montezemolo believes a clearer picture of the 2009 pecking order will emerge at Sepang and expects Ferrari to be closer to the pace.

Speaking in Modena on Tuesday, he said: “I expect to see the true balance of power in Malaysia on a more conventional circuit than Melbourne.

“The first race went a lot worse than we and I had expected.

“We made a few too many mistakes.

“But I’m convinced, indeed I’m quite certain, that there will be a strong response from our side, even though the cars are the same.

“I trust the team and I know that they are working very hard. We’ll see the fruits already by next Sunday.”

Montezemolo said the epic season-long duel between Ferrari and McLaren for last year’s world championship had allowed rival teams to leapfrog them.

“There’s no doubt that we’re paying the price for the 2008 championship, which was fought until the last corner of the last lap of the last grand prix,” he said.

“Like McLaren, we had to develop our car right up to the end, while the others were able to begin work on completely new projects several months earlier.

“Let’s not forget that this year’s car isn’t an evolution. So those who had the extra time were able to gain a head start.”

Montezemolo also called on F1’s authorities to swiftly clear up the controversy over the rear diffuser regulations, which he said was damaging the sport’s credibility.

Ferrari is one of the teams protesting the ‘double decker’ diffusers used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota, which are thought to be worth up to 0.3s per lap.

“I want clarity over the regulations,” said Montezemolo.

“It’s not good to start a season with such important question marks.

“Either these diffusers are legal, in which case that must be stated and proved quickly – even though we and many other teams don’t think they are – and then we will adapt.

“Or else they are not legal, in which case also we must be told as soon as possible, because those who interpret the regulations and aren’t going by the rules create an inequality in performance that is unacceptable.”

Source - ITV

It was the first time in many years we were left without a single point in the first race. So, obviously, yes - it was not a good start to the season. By far. It’s frustrating, but there is nothing we can do to change it anymore. We just keep pushing hard and try to improve next time.

It was only one race and things can turn around very quickly. Also last year Melbourne was not that good place for us and then one week later I won in Malaysia. Again things can turn around very quickly. The weekend overall was a very disapointing experience. We did not score any points and we did not have the quickest car on the circuit. There is a lot of work to be done, but I have a great team behind me to change things quickly.

It was one of the toughest weekends I have ever had in F1. We lost some valuable time in practise and it was a painful setback. Every lap counts, especially now when testing is so limited. It’s always hard to say how much we lost, but for sure it did not help. Probably the best thing for us was that the KERS system worked well at the start, but I did not get a clear path to take full advantage of making up positons. It was not enough go gain places, but the feeling to use KERS is great. Our speed was not as competitive as we expected beforehand. I was not so surprised to see the Brawn GP at the front. We already saw in testing that they have been very quick. Now there are new favourites at the top. Obviously it’s going to be very tight and very challenging fight for the championship and that’s very good for the sports.

Before going to the season I said, that we need to see how things are after the first two races. Malaysia is more of a normal circuit to judge how competitive we are. I think the championship is wide open. This was only the first race of the season and whilst it would have been nice to start the season well, there are many races remaining. It’s too early to start making predictions. The picture will become clearer only after the first 4 or 5 races.

Now we go to Malaysia, which has always been good place for me. It’s a proper circuit compared to Melbourne. Due to the cars being so different this year, it’s very hard to know just where we are compared to our competitors. I just love to race at Sepang. It’s a very challenging place, the weather is hot like in a Finnish Sauna and it really demands a lot to get good weekend there. We have a lot of work to be done after Melbourne, but we will do our very best to win the race again.

Source - Kimi’s Official Website

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