Vasanth Dharmaraj’s Blog

I was totally charged to to see the season opener in Australia. The disappointment started early. Kimi had fuel pressure problem in the end of Q1. His car just stopped short of the pit lane entrance. Mechanics are not allowed to pull the car in to the pit lane. So even though Kimi had entered the Q2 session he could not set a time. he had to start from 16th position on the grid.

Massa went on to Q3 with out a problem but did not do well there. He did not heat up his tires properly in the out lap and could only manage to post the fourth best time. Well Ferrari have still problems with the single lap pace. How many years has it been since they had this problem? They got to do something about this.

Based on the pre-season testing, everyone had thought that Ferrari will probably dominate the entire season and most certainly dominate the Australian GP. Ferrari have traditionally done well in Australia. I thought that the worst was over for Ferrari with the qualifying missteps and the race would be better. They seem to have better race pace.

The start of the race brought out mixed emotions. Massa spun on his own in the first corner(?) where as Kimi made an amazing start and jumped from 16th to 8th in the first lap.

But things just got worse after that. Kimi was initially stuck behind Rubens for way too long. Then he made two mistakes while attempting overtaking maneuvers. Eventually his race ended with the engine giving away towards the end. He was classified as a finisher though and got a single point because of Rubens’ disqualification.

Massa did not do well either. He tangled with DC when attempting an overtaking maneuver and eventually retired. He had a couple of nosecones in his car changed!

Well Ferrari was not the only one with retirements. Only 7 out of the 22 cars finished the race!! There was too many offs in the race.

I think the drivers underestimated the importance of Traction Control and Engine Braking massively! During testing the drivers do not push the car as much as in the qualifying or in the race. So they probably did not realize the many ways the tech, Traction Control and Engine Braking, had saved them in previous years. Engine braking could have helped the Kimi’s move on Hekki and Massa’s on DC.

The lack of tech and this being the first race of the season I think lead to so many mistakes and retirements. Hopefully the driver are bit more aware of the limitations of the new car in the next race.

Anyway it is a very very disappointing start to the season for me. Hopefully it turns around in the next race. Still eager for Ferrari to start the season.

Related posts:

1. Spanish GP 2009: More mistakes from Ferrari
2. Brand new Formula One season
3. The Formula One season is Go!!
4. The 2006 Formula 1 Season
5. Heartbreaking end to the Hungarian GP