The race didn't went to well for Ferrari, their straight line speed is truly terrible. But on the positive side I think Kimi did a decent job this weekend. His biggest mistake was the start of the race, that is where he lost the most. But even so he had quite good pace, but he was screwed over by the safety car. It would have been a much more interesting fight if the safety didn't happen. Kimi has some shit luck. But this is only the third race and I think Kimi is actually adapting a bit better then I expected. I hope this is a sign of things to come.
It's so frustrating to have such good drivers in such an uncompetitive car. I just can't imagine how they felt watching the Force Indias and the Williams's pass them by, like they were Marussias. No offense.
quote Small points a disappointment for Bottas and Räikkönen The Racing Nerd April 7
Translated by our foreign correspondent, Nicole Damen
Heikki Kulta
F1 | Turun Sanomat 09:23 | 0
Both missed the start when their cars didn’t move in the 3rd and 5th grid.
Sakhir was supposed to the the best possible track for Bottas with the long straights, Ferrari again knew beforehand that Bahrain is one of the worst tracks for their F14T.
– We hoped for more points, but both cars were in the top 10 and we got 10 points all and all. Everything went wrong for me in the start and the tyre consumption was much harder than we expected, so we had to change from 2-stop -strategy to 3-stop -strategy, Bottas summed up.
– I lost so many positions in the start that it was impossible to recover from it during the race. Maybe I could have been one position higher and ahead of Alonso without the SC, but the team wouldn’t had benefitted anything from it, Räikkönen said.
– This looked like the worst place for us on paper already. We lack speed on straights and downforce. This track has long straights so it was difficult all the time. The car didn’t behave poorly, my own feeling is now much better, but we couldn’t do anything against the Mercedes-engines on this track.
– For example when Nico Hülkenberg came from the pitsop and I had only a few laps old tyres, he just threw his car from the exit of 8th corner on the inside beside me and I couldn’t do anything about it. It was on a completely different level, Räikkönen astonished.
– Fortunately China has only one long straight and more corners, it makes it easier for us. We get new parts to China and will surely be more stronger there.
Tough incident at the end of the straight
Räikkönen had a tough incident with Bottas at the end of the finish line. Williams had just overtaken Daniel Ricciardo when Räikkönen drove on the left side and Bottas came towards him with full speed. Valtteri avoided Kimi in the last second when he steered outside the track.
– I was quite surprised when Kimi braked so early. He was so far on the left that I thought I’d seen a blue flag in my screen ordering him to give way to Mercedes or someone else who was coming from behind. It happened so quickly that I almost hit his car’s rear end, Bottas explained from his POV.
– I saw yellow flags somewhere and of course I knew that Williams is somewhere behind me. Then suddenly he was right behind me. These things happen, Räikkönen said.
Alonso will test in Bahrain
Teams will test in Bahrain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fernando Alonso will do Ferrari’s job and Räikkönen will drive his own tests in May in Barcelona.
– When you have two days it’s better that the same driver drives on both days. This way we avoid the work when having to change the car and we can also test more parts, Räikkönen explained.
The work in Williams again is aiming that the FW36-car will in Spain be at least as competitive as it was in the opening race.
– I think that there will be differences in power relations in Spain, because all teams bring a lot of updates to their cars to Spain. We get something new for China GP, but we get a lot more to Barcelona, Bottas told.
Felipe Massa had a completely amazing start on Sunday and climbed up 3rd from 7th position. Massa proved his strenght in Bahrain once again, having won there twice.
Williams-team had only one radio message in Bahrain.
Ferrari's waddling as the 5th fastest team was a humiliation to the Italians. La Gazzetta dello Sport asked readers if Ferrari's season is already wrapped up and over 87 % was of that opinion. Reporter Umberto Zapelloni enjoyed the colorful race and the duel between Mercedes-drivers, but in the end he told his opinion about Ferrari's situation.
– This time we saw some overtakes, although it hurts to see how easily Force India overtook a clearly struggling Ferrari when they needed to. Like we were told on Twitter, even the safety car was faster than the Ferrari. It was enough to Luca di Montezemolo who left the track 10 laps before the end. Everybody overtook Ferrari, not only Mercedes and Force India. ”We have to work”, LdM said. Immensly, because a lot is not enough, Zapelloni critizised.
Marco Mensurati from La Repubblica said his opinion to the F1-people who whine that the new F1-era is boring.
– The only ones bored where those who's engines were manufactured in Maranello. If Ferrari, the tifosi and others who claimed that F1 is boring were serious, they should apologize.
– The F14 T isn't going anywhere. After all the protesting ("Ferrari doesn't have wings, they have an engine", which used to be di Montezemolo's and Co's phrase), Maranello fails themself when it's about the engine. There are no excuses anymore. Or at least there shouldn't be any, Mensurati critizises.
A guy post this in facebook. So sorry, no source. But its interesting.
quote Raikkönen vs. Alonso Average lap time: 1:45.547 vs. 1:45.532 Best lap time: 1:39.438 vs. 1:139.732 Faster lap number: 25 vs. 32 Total Pit Time: 1:14.877 vs. 1:14. 839
1st stint: Laps number: 13 vs. 12 Tyre: used soft vs. used soft Average lap time: 1:43.381 vs. 1:43.195 Best lap time: 1:42.105 vs. 1:41.917 Pit time: 25.009 vs 25.770
2nd stint: Laps number: 20 vs. 16 Tyre: used soft vs. used soft Average lap time: 1:43.206 vs. 1:43.090 Best lap time: 1:40.145 vs. 1:40.599 Pit time: 25.415 vs. 24.576
3rd stint Laps number: 8 vs. 13 Tyre: new medium vs. new medium Average lap time: 1:45.958 vs. 1:43.737 Best lap time: 1:39.438 vs. 1:39.923 Pit time: 24.453 vs. 24.493
4th stint Laps number: 16 vs. 16 Tyre: used medium vs new medium Average lap time: 1:50.029 vs. 1:51.186 Best lap time: 1:39.881 vs. 1:39.739