22/05/2008
NEWS STORY
A busy day of free practice on the streets of the Monaco Principality: in the hands of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, the F2008 racked up over four hundred kilometers, with no technical problems arising on either car.
Stefano Domenicali, Team Principal: These three hours on track can be described as pretty useful. We gathered a lot of data which we now have to analyse to try and be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and Sunday's race. In particular, we have to try and improve our performance on the first lap, especially with the softer tyre, an aspect with which we struggled a bit today, compared to our main rivals. It will be a very tough weekend, which is in fact just what we had expected. There are so many variables to take into account: apart from the usual ones there will be the weather to consider, as the forecast is for it to worsen over the weekend, with a strong chance of rain. There is much work to do in the coming hours.
Felipe Massa: Our rivals are very strong here, even allowing for the unknown factor of fuel loads. I wasn't able to do a good lap on the soft tyres, but things went well on the hard ones: we have to study the situation calmly and try to get all the details right. If we compare today with the same time last year, I think we have made a step forward. We have changed the settings on the car compared to the past and now we hope we will see the benefits of this choice.
Kimi Raikkonen: I would say this was a normal day of free practice. We went quite well, especially on used tyres in the morning. But we struggled a bit to do a time on new tyres in the second session and now we have to look at the data carefully to understand how to improve. There is plenty of time to do that and so I am not particularly worried, at least at the moment. A wet race? It would make matters complicated but it would be the same for everyone.
Luca Baldisserri: We were expecting a particularly difficult weekend and these three hours of free practice have not give us any reason to change our minds. While it is true that our preparations for this race have produced some results, it is equally true that our main rivals have not been twiddling their thumbs either and therefore have turned up here in very competitive shape. Our weak point today was mainly to do with performance on new tyres, especially on the softer tyre. We must carefully study the day and try and make the necessary changes so as to be competitive at the highest level. On top of that, we must also keep a careful eye on the weather, which could be the decisive factor for Saturday's qualifying and especially in Sunday's race.