From Ferrari Media and Autosport.com
Circuit: Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello – 5.245 km
Driver: Kimi Raikkonen
Car: Ferrari F60
Weather: air temperature 8/10 °C, track temperature 8/10 °C. Very cloudy, with rain in the afternoon.
A week after Felipe Massa gave the new Ferrari F60 its debut at
this track, today it fell to Kimi Raikkonen to begin the real work of
developing the car.
The Italian squad were originally scheduled to test at the Portimao
circuit, but decided to stay in Italy because of the poor weather
forecast in Portugal.
However, the weather was no better at Mugello, and the first test was affected by rain all day.
Kimi Raikkonen took to the track with the F60 for the first time to complete 54 laps with a best time of 1:34.430, and reached a speed of up to 124mph.
The team reported no technical problems.
Raikkonen will continue testing at Mugello tomorrow, before handing it over to Felipe Massa on Wednesday.
Testing during the winter isn’t a very compatible time (unless you’re testing at Bahrain of course), so unfortunately the first test with the F60 wasn’t much. Kimi was well enough to come back to Italy to test and so he’ll continue tomorrow, hopefully with better weather. There have been reports about the F60 having illegal exhausts, where they are open to the outside of the bodywork when they should be enclosed beneath like the other new cars. But the car is most definately a huge work in progress. There’s also confusion in the fan community still, as to why Kimi has the No.3 and Massa the No.4 as revealed by the Official FIA 2009 entry list last week. Ferrari are using only one F60 at the moment, so the No.3 car seen with Kimi today is the same as the one Massa had used during the F60 roll-out after the launch. Reports in Italy confirmed that Ferrari did vaguely acknowledge the numbering ‘error’ with Kimi and Massa however nothing developed. Meanwhile F1-Live.com have reported:
higher race number than his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for the
2009 season.
The Brazilian ran the number 2 in 2008, following Raikkonen’s title success the year before.
But Massa was the standout Ferrari performer last season, winning
six races compared to Finn Raikkonen’s two, and coming within a single
point of Lewis Hamilton’s drivers’ crown.
However, Massa will run the number 4 on his F60 this year, while Raikkonen’s entry will run the number 3.
"It means nothing, numbers are just numbers but maybe the FIA has
made a mistake," Massa said at the ‘Wrooom’ Ferrari media event.
Massa is saying: "But maybe the FIA has made a mistake"? Hmmm, so it’s not properly confirmed afterall as Massa is repeating what Ferrari said. But it’s just a number; a number based on the 2008 season and as a Kimi fan, the 2008 is over and I don’t care. Does Kimi care about the numbers on his car, apart from having the No.1? I doubt it. We’ll have to wait and see what becomes of this rather irritating and unneccessary confusion.
FUCK ISRAEL 
Haha. Massa is such a cry-baby. What does it matter if its number 3 or 4 on the car?? He does a poor job of hiding his disappointment. lol"Maybe the FIA made a mistake?" Translated: "Listen guys, I have a huge inferiority complex towards Kimi, so could you not take the lower number from me – pleeease… *beg*" 😀
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Hiya! I´ve been one of the people who has been complaining about the car numbering….sorry! I have to realise that, as you said, Kimi doesn´t care about the number on his car as long as it is nr.1, so as a true Kimi fan I shouldn´t care either. But, I dunno, I had/have hopes that he´ll still get the 3 after all. That´s the last thing I´ll say on the matter, I don´t want to annoy people any more! ;pAs for the test, yeah, with such crappy weather little can be done…..I was very surprised about the illegality of the exhausts, why would they launch their car with illegal parts? I´m sure they´ll revise them though and get them right before the season starts….as you said, the F60 is a huge work in progress.Keep flying Kimi!!! (awww, I wonder if he feels better!)
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Hi! guys how are you all? Sorry for being away but it feels really fantastic to be back more so with many of the 2009 cars already launched and action on the tracks underway. Saima I wanted to know why are the teams running one car unlike last year in pre season testing when they had two of them. I just need your clarification. Moreover aren’t there any comments from Kimi after Monday’s testing… thnx… Keep flying Kimi….
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Sol – I seriously doubt those exhausts are illegal. It doesnt make sense that Ferrari would make something that is so clearly visible illegal. Then they would just have to do double the work to remove that design again.I think people are complaining because they see a clever solution they didnt think of themselves. But time will tell..
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@Soren- Yes, I thought exactly the same as you, but since so many websites were coming up with that story, of the illegal exhausts, I didn´t know what to believe, and then Saima mentioned it…..but then again if you look at the other teams, all their exhausts are covered, part of the bodywork….so I don´t know really, I’m sure it´s just something to stir things up a bit….we´ll see.;p@Hasan: Hiiiiii!!!! Welcome! It´s been such a long time! Did you finally get married? If you did, congratulations! It´s good to have you back here!
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Yeah, I only mentioned the reports about them being illegal, I didn’t necessarily mean I agreed with that though ;)@Hasan: Great to have you back! Glad you’re good and well. I’ll post more info about the tests today later. I’m currently watching the Obama presidency inauguration lol
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I read a couple of places that Aldo Costa have actually said the exhausts on the car from the launch are illegal. But only because it was 2008 exhausts on it. So they will be changed. And if you look at the car they tested with at Mugello this week, you can tell the exhaust pipes are much shorter. But probably not the final design yet.
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Yes, that’s exactly what’s going on Soren 🙂 It doesn’t mean anything at this stage whether parts are illegal or not. The car isn’t final for Melbourne and the season yet.
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