iSport F1 Pitstop: Ferrari were clueless in the Malaysian Grand Prix rues iSporter Maharshi Vaishnav.
The Malaysian GP showed Ferrari in bad light. While the race was quite interesting, Ferrari was no where close to the opening 2 races of the season. The grid was quite interesting with Webber on pole and Rosberg, Vettel and Sutil occupying the next 3 slots. The opening laps threw some good viewing and had a lot of smaller battles throughout the race. But as far as Ferrari is concerned, it was a race to forget.
Stefano Domenicali has had huge boots to fill, thanks to the illustrious lineage. But then he can’t allow the team be so seemingly clueless. Not only did Ferrari goof up in qualifying, but they also seemed inferior throughout. There was a dearth of overall strategy and their conservative engine make up was definitely not working. They seem to be tuning their engines a tad bit milder so that they can conserve fuel and don’t overheat. But then, this robs them of the all important straight line speeds. This was agonizingly evident through the start / finish stretch and through turn 14 into 15. Also, an aerodynamic addition akin to McLaren would definitely help. Hamilton was rampant thanks to his wing stalling device.
I am sure Felipe Massa was mighty relieved to salvage 6 points after starting 21st. His grid position exemplifies how Ferrari got it so woefully wrong. After spending the opening laps struggling behind the relatively slower cars, Massa was superb overtaking Button for 7th place. While he was ecstatic at scoring points out of a hopeless position, he did warn the Ferrari engineers about the F10’s reliability issues. With Fernando Alonso suffering an engine failure in the dying stages of the race, Massa quite surprisingly heads into China with a 2 point championship lead.
Alonso meanwhile confessed that the Malaysian Grand Prix was probably the hardest race of his career. He lost his gearbox in the formation lap and later had no clutch to aid him. Despite this, he valiantly fought Button for 8th place before the engine failure robbed him of a vital points finish.
Ferrari would love to slug it out with their traditional rival McLaren. My worry is that Red Bull is gaining ground faster than expected. This is getting juicier with every race. Ferrari will have to do that extra bit if they intend vanquishing both.
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