Planet-F1

Ferrari breathe a sigh of relief

Sunday 23rd March 2008

Ferrari are singing their own praises after the Scuderia brushed off their Aussie GP disaster to cruise to victory in Sunday's Malaysian GP.

Kimi Raikkonen strolled to his first victory of the season at Sepang, finishing 20 seconds ahead of his nearest rival and 40 in front of the first McLaren.

In fact the F2008 was so strong on Sunday afternoon that only a mistake from Felipe Massa himself could put an end to the Ferrari 1-2 that was on the cards.

But while the Italian stable could be crowing about their unmissable dominance, team boss Stefano Domenicali admits it's more relief than joy that the team is feeling, especially after doing everything wrong in Australia and allowing Raikkonen to run out of fuel in Friday's first practice.

"I think the sense of relief is connected to the fact that we really showed what is our potential," the Scuderia boss said. "We were strong all weekend, very good pace on both tyre specs and that is, for us, the main thing, that is positive."

"Honestly, we are very happy in a way, because of course want to show the reaction of Ferrari. After a very different weekend in Australia, that was not really unfortunately our standard or it was something that was difficult to digest, first of all, from us.

"So I'm very happy because we show that the team can do a great job. I think the best thing that I have seen is that we kept cool and calm as we are normally, without softening, in a negative way, the pressure that is normal when you have such a difficult start. But that's the main reason why I'm happy, to be honest."

But while many may be pushing Ferrari to the top of their 'favourites for the title' list, Domenicali reckons McLaren could bite back at the next race in Bahrain.

"I think that for sure it's exactly the same feeling as we said after Australia, when everyone said McLaren are in another world and we said OK, they did a great race no doubt but here we are and we will see that they have not really had a great weekend, but this doesn't say that they are like that," he said.

"For sure they behaved differently, they didn't have a great weekend in terms of performance but for sure they will be very strong in Bahrain, and what I can say is that for sure we have seen that also BMW had a great weekend and they are there.

"We need to respect them and we will for sure... they will be in the middle of the field for sure in order to take points from us, from McLaren, so we need to have a lot of respect for them."

Meanwhile Ferrari President Luca Montezemolo has hailed the manner in which the Scuderia fought back from their Aussie disappointment, praising Domenicali for his first race win as team boss.

"I expected a reaction like this, because I know how strong and competitive our car and also our team is," he told Autosport.

"I am especially happy for Stefano Domenicali, as it was his first win as team principal of the Scuderia Ferrari, but also for Kimi Raikkonen, who drove a perfect race.

"This is the best Easter present we could give to our fans."