| Source: autosport.com | ferrari.com |
REPORT
Ferrari had a difficult time of it today in Albert Park, with Fernando Alonso coming home fifth, three places ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. The race was won by Nico Rosberg in the Mercedes, the German’s fourth career victory. Daniel Ricciardo was second for Red Bull, while Kevin Magnussen was third on his Formula 1 debut with McLaren. Button was fourth in the other McLaren, finishing 6.2 seconds ahead of Alonso. The rest of the points went to Bottas, Hulkenberg, Raikkonen, Vergne and Kvyat.
The Scuderia leaves the Antipodes with 14 valuable points and plenty of data to analyse, as it strives to sort out a few teething troubles it encountered during this the first race for the highly complex 2014 cars.
QUOTES
Kimi Raikkonen: “That wasn’t a straightforward race. At the start, I managed to get away well and even though I was hit from behind by another car at the first corner, my car was undamaged. The speed was good, but at one point I was suffering with graining on the front tyres, I had very little grip and a lot of understeer. From then on, the car’s handling was not the same. When it was time for the first stop, we had to do a double stop and that cost me a place.”
“It’s definitely too early to make any definite judgement, because even if at the moment we don’t seem to be in great shape, we still managed to finish the race, scoring valuable points. We can’t be pleased with this result and we know there are many areas where we need to improve. But I’m sure that analysing the data from this first race will give us a clearer idea of the direction to work in.”
“The brakes are fine, we grained the front tyre and then you have no grip on the front. That is the main issue, [but] it is a combination of things. It is not the easiest thing but I’m sure we will find a solution for it at some point. We work until we fix it. If it takes a week or a month, I don’t care. This is how it goes sometimes.” (Source)
Pat Fry: “Going into this race, getting both cars to the finish seemed like the most difficult task, but in the end, we managed it. Today we saw how reliability can never be taken for granted: it caught some people out and it also affected our performance at some stages of the race. On both the F14 Ts, we had some electrical problems, especially on Kimi’s car, which meant he couldn’t use all the car’s potential. Fernando found himself behind Hulkenberg for many laps and he was only able to show what the car was capable of once he got ahead thanks to a spot on pit stop strategy. Kimi got a great start, but then for much of the race he suffered with graining on the front tyres and thus found himself having to defend, without being able to attack. There is much work ahead if we are to improve the car’s performance. We are up against several very strong opponents, but we have all the right tools to get the job done of closing the gap between us.”
Stefano Domenicali: “The first race of the championship has provided a clear picture of the hierarchy at the start of season. It’s also shown which teams appear to have done the best job of dealing with these new regulations. Today, we achieved our objective in terms of reliability, but the gap we need to make up, especially to Mercedes, was clear to see. The information we have gathered this weekend clearly points to the direction we must take and what areas need the most work. It will be important to catch up as quickly as possible and react in the way this team has always proved capable of doing. Our engineers know what the priorities are and which areas need the most immediate attention.”
RACE RESULTS
Original Result - 57 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h32m58.710s 2. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault +24.525s 3. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +26.777s 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +30.027s 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +35.284s 6. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +47.639s 7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +50.718s 8. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +57.675s 9. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault +1m00.441s 10. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault +1m03.585s 11. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1m25.916s 12. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap 13. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap 14. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps 15. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari +8 laps* Revised result - 57 laps: Pos Driver Team/Car Time/Gap 1. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1h32m58.710s 2. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes +26.777s 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes +30.027s 4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari +35.284s 5. Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes +47.639s 6. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes +50.718s 7. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari +57.675s 8. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault +1m00.441s 9. Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault +1m03.585s 10. Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes +1m25.916s 11. Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap 12. Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari +1 lap 13. Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari +2 laps 14. Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari +8 laps* * Not classified Retirements: Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault DSQ Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 43 laps Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 29 laps Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 27 laps Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 3 laps Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 2 laps Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 0 laps Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 0 laps Drivers' championship: 1. Nico Rosberg 25 2. Kevin Magnussen 18 3. Jenson Button 15 4. Fernando Alonso 12 5. Valtteri Bottas 10 6. Nico Hulkenberg 8 7. Kimi Raikkonen 6 8. Jean-Eric Vergne 4 9. Daniil Kvyat 2 10. Sergio Perez 1 Constructors' championship: 1. McLaren/Mercedes 33 2. Mercedes 25 3. Ferrari 18 4. Williams/Mercedes 10 5. Force India/Mercedes 9 6. Toro Rosso/Renault 6
VIDEO
Post-race interview with Kimi, SkySports
Australia GP Team Radio Transcript
- Kimi: At the moment we have an issue with the radio, because I cannot hear you.
- Engineer: OK, we look into that.
- Kimi: I need a little bit more front wing, I have front graining.
- Engineer: We will remove the lip from the rear and the equivalent will be half a degree.
KIMI RÄIKKÖNEN SPACE 