F1-Blog

Ferrari still with car issues?

Just watching the Live coverage of the test session 1, and it looks like Kimi has again been forced to leave his car out on track, and walk back to the pits.

Have Ferrari still got the same issues as they did in Australia? it is another hot session in Malaysia. Kimi seemed to loose drive, as the onboard shots had him trying to change up, with the engine then not wanting to rev, and eventually shutting itself down, forcing Kimi to coast.

Also David Coulthard will not be taking any more part in this session, after missing the apex at a chicane entry, he ran over the second part of the corners grass inside, he then hit what must have been a kerb sticking out of the grass, and had the front end of his Red Bull collapse on him. Lots of work for the Red Bull Mechanics if he wants to be out in session 2.

DC’s off caused the session to be Red Flagged so that the track could be cleaned, and the car moved.

So far the fastest cars are the Ferrari’s and McLaren’s, with the two Toyota’s next up, with Trulli about half a second slower than Hamilton.

All the drivers so far seem to be struggling on entry into the last hairpin corner, with Timo Glock complaining about rear wheel lockup over his pit radio to the mechanics. Seems all the drivers are finding life in F1 without traction control and engine breaking less easy than they thought.

Update - Seems to be a bad day for Red Bull, Mark Webber’s Renault engine has just decided to blow up half way down the final straight. Fortunately he could just duck off and come into the pits, but there was certainly flames involved, so those Red Bull mechanics have a busy day ahead of them to get both cars out again for practice 2.

Update – Session ended, another couple of things worth noting. Massa looks quick, as does Nico Rosberg in all but the last sector. Vettel had a shock coming into the final hairpin, like Mark Webber last week he had a front brake disk explode on him. I would assume the teams use the same supplier, so there may be a design issue there somewhere.

Not 100% sure, but Lewis looked to abort a lap after having an off, running round the outside of a corner on the slim safety strip, and returned to the pits at a slow pace, whether he had just had enough, or whether there was an issue with the car we will have to wait and see.

Fastest five were, Massa, Raikkonen, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Hamilton and Alonso.