Formula 1 News

Stefano Domenicali: “It was a shame” 

Scuderia Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali attempted to clear up several points before looking forward to the next Grand Prix in Canada after Sunday’s race in which Felipe Massa finished on third place, but his teammate Kimi Raikkonen collided with the back of Adrian Sutil‘s car and finished in ninth place, out of the points.

The Finn had already suffered a drive-through penalty early in the race. “As you know, with three minutes to go before the start, you have to have the wheels fitted on the car,” explained the Italian. “But really, at the last second, we had a call from a mechanic to say that there was a problem there. The tyres had already been fitted for two minutes, so that’s why it’s difficult to understand what happened. Basically we were late working on the car which is why we had a penalty and that put him at a disadvantage.”

Later, the team switched Felipe to a one-stop strategy, based on a weather forecast which proved wrong. What probability of rain was mentioned. “A lot,” replied Domenicali, “otherwise we wouldn’t have done what we did. That was the reason why we took the gamble.”

The Italian agreed with his driver that they might have won but for that problem. “100% because the performance was very good. Just look at the first laps. We took the gamble regarding strategy because more rain was predicted on the radar and that was the reason why we changed Massa to another set of tyres because we wanted to be ready for another shower. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. “A lot of circumstances really were compromised in the strategy so we need to consider the points that were related to our decisions or our situation and decide on the things that are relevant to what have happened today.”

The team was uncertain as to what happened when Kimi lost control exiting Monaco’s unique tunnel. The car snaked from side to side under braking and the Finn thumped into the back of Sutil’s Force India VJM01, which was holding an amazing fourth place at the time.

“We haven’t analysed the data. Raikkonen lost the control of the car while braking, maybe blocking a wheel in a point of the track not yet perfectly dry. It was a shame because one of the things is that you don’t want to lose points this way. We have such a competitive car and it was such a shame to lose points like this. We are also sorry for our client, Force India. It was really not good.”

However, there was some encouragement to be taken from the weekend, even looking forward to the Canadian Grand Prix, the next race, reported Domenicali. “To be honest what we said was that we wanted to prepare more in a certain way and the real answer was as we saw yesterday. In that respect, we wanted to prepare for Canada taking the same kind of approach. We mustn’t forget that we have won four races out of six, and that’s something important. As I’ve always said, the championship will be very very long.”

Finally, Domenicali referred to the Brazilian’s performance, now just one point behind his teammate in the World Championship. “He was very competitive yesterday on a track which is not really one that he likes so he has grown and he will grow, and from the team point of view that will be a good point.”

source: Ferrari