It's been a while since I posted in here (been doing my
Interesting F1 Stats thread), but now I'm back and giving it some proper attention. As I discussed with my Ferrari team-mate, Beyens, I felt I had a bit of trouble in the first few races of the season in really pushing the car. I wasn't as comfortable as I felt I could have been, which led to a decrease in my overall pace relative to my team-mate. I've also had a little bit of trouble in really dialling in the set-up of the car. Thanks to Beyens, though, I've been getting a lot of help in that lately and I'm learning about the car. His settings don't always work for me, out driving styles are a bit different, but I think his settings are a bit step in the right direction for me 👍
Bahrain started off as an encouraging weekend. Qualifying 4th and 8th in the Ferraris we felt we had a strong package for the season. Beyens got off to a flier to end lap 1 in 6th, however, my gearbox didn't get the message and we had to pit on lap 2. I came out in 17th position, my good qualifying result a memory of the past. Then I had a bit of trouble getting past on of the STRs, putting Impulse out of the race and causing damage to my car. I then got passed by one of the Hondas and was out of the race on the next lap. The damage to my car caused a handling issue which threw me off in the middle of 11. An inspired race strategy from Beyens saw him in the lead for several laps, even setting the Fastest Lap in the middle of the race. Then, as Beyens has already mentioned in his earlier interview, he was out of the race with a fuel pick-up problem.
I think we learned a few lessons from the first race. We rushed the new car to be brutally honest, a double retirement wasn't what we wanted from the season opener. However, we did take away the fact that we were quick in qualifying and Beyens had serious race pace. We were all looking forward to Malaysia then, to try to improve our situation and hope for an improvement in reliability. Sadly we didn't have any time for testing between Bahrain and Malaysia, but our test drivers Luca Badoer and Marc Gene were hard at work back at the factory testing the car.
At Malaysia, Beyens put in an absolutely stunning lap to claim the first Pole Position for our new car. My performance wasn't anywhere near as good, I was having serious balance issues from the start of the weekend which stayed through qualifying. My race set-up was really bad, I was struggling with corner-entry understeer and corner-exit oversteer, causing my tyre temps to soar. There was a lot of action on the first lap but I made my way through the field to finish the first lap in 4th, with Beyens having kept his advantage from Pole off the line. A mistake in communications saw me coming into the pits at the end of lap 2 and being fitted with Soft tyres - exactly what I didn't need with such an ill-handling car. To top it all off, I stalled coming out of the pits and had to be started again. I ended lap 3 last-but-one. At least I was still in the race, though, unlike Bahrain. I steadily climbed up to 11th position by lap 23, but I stayed there or just behind there for several laps. I couldn't pass those in front. A late-race collision with one of the Midlands could have been disastrous, but thankfully my car stayed intact.
Beyens went on to take an excellent win, while I finished the race very disappointed more than 70 seconds bahind in 13th place. We came away from the weekend with a very positive outlook on things, a win and a double-finish was just what we needed for the boys back home at Maranello and the rest of the team. Then we moved on to the next race at Melbourne.
Our qualifying performance wasn't exactly stunning. My set-up problems were back and I was again soundly outqualified by Beyens. A great first lap, however, saw us both up several places and into 4th and 8th spots. Lap 2 was even better, we both improved again up to 3rd and 6th. By the end of lap 5 we had exceeded our expectations and were holding 2nd and 4th places, looking good compared to those around us. I took advantage of the Safety Car and came in to pit whilst Beyens stayed on track, taking over the lead of the race. I had trouble making my way through the back-markers, stuck behind a Super Aguri for several laps. Then we were struck with reliability issues again, Beyens having trouble with his fuel system again. The probem seemed temporary, however, and he was able to carry on at his earlier pace. We had another double-finish but after the joy of Bahrain it was back down to a single points for an 8th place finish for Beyens. We were dejected.
This weekend at Imola, however, I think our cars should have good race pace. I couldn't compete in the qualifying session due to problems with my car the team has told me not to discuss, but Beyens and I are currently leading the Warmup time list, so we're both very happy about that. I think it should be an interesting race coming through from the back, as long as I don't trip over any of the back-markers and I find enough space to pass them.