Ferrari: Pace bigger concern than reliability
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says he is more concerned about his team's lack of speed in Australia than its poor reliability.
Both Ferraris eventually retired – Felipe Massa with a suspension problem and Kimi Raikkonen with a differential issue – but were already running down the order after their strategy of starting on super-soft tyres failed to pay off.
"For sure reliability was a big issue but I have to be fair and honest – looking at how the race evolved, reliability hasn't affected our result today, because the race was already difficult," said Domenicali.
"The results were basically decided by the lack of performance.
"We didn't have performance anywhere, at any time.
"We have to put all the things in the proper list of priorities."
Although all the teams had issues with the super-soft tyres, Domenicali pointed out that BMW's Robert Kubica fought for victory on the same strategy that Raikkonen struggled to make progress with.
"The problem is just we last four or five laps [on softs], and to be honest that was unexpected," said Domenicali.
"This is something we need to understand properly.
"Kubica was basically on the same strategy as Kimi, and for sure they didn't destroy the tyres as we destroyed them."
But Domenicali said it was too early to make a definitive judgement about Ferrari's pace compared to its rivals.
"We'll understand the situation better next weekend [in Malaysia] where we'll be at a different track with a different situation, because one important element is tyre usage, which is also connected to KERS usage," he said.
"There are a lot of things that we need to understand."
He added that the only thing that was currently clear was the scale of Brawn GP's pace advantage.
"We have seen that the Brawn cars are very, very fast, strong and consistent," said Domenicali.
"In normal circumstances without any safety cars, they would have flown away."
Source: itv.com/f1
Ferrari boss Stefano Domenicali says he is more concerned about his team's lack of speed in Australia than its poor reliability.
Both Ferraris eventually retired – Felipe Massa with a suspension problem and Kimi Raikkonen with a differential issue – but were already running down the order after their strategy of starting on super-soft tyres failed to pay off.
"For sure reliability was a big issue but I have to be fair and honest – looking at how the race evolved, reliability hasn't affected our result today, because the race was already difficult," said Domenicali.
"The results were basically decided by the lack of performance.
"We didn't have performance anywhere, at any time.
"We have to put all the things in the proper list of priorities."
Although all the teams had issues with the super-soft tyres, Domenicali pointed out that BMW's Robert Kubica fought for victory on the same strategy that Raikkonen struggled to make progress with.
"The problem is just we last four or five laps [on softs], and to be honest that was unexpected," said Domenicali.
"This is something we need to understand properly.
"Kubica was basically on the same strategy as Kimi, and for sure they didn't destroy the tyres as we destroyed them."
But Domenicali said it was too early to make a definitive judgement about Ferrari's pace compared to its rivals.
"We'll understand the situation better next weekend [in Malaysia] where we'll be at a different track with a different situation, because one important element is tyre usage, which is also connected to KERS usage," he said.
"There are a lot of things that we need to understand."
He added that the only thing that was currently clear was the scale of Brawn GP's pace advantage.
"We have seen that the Brawn cars are very, very fast, strong and consistent," said Domenicali.
"In normal circumstances without any safety cars, they would have flown away."
Source: itv.com/f1
