Kimi and the team made the decision together
Turun Sanomat, Kuala Lumpur
HEIKKI KULTA
On Thursday Ferrari gave the impression that kimi’s engine would most likely be replaced, and that the final confirmation would be given on Saturday. That was only to give the rivals as little time as possible to react.
On Friday’s FIA press conference Kimi Räikkönen surprised everyone and stated that the engine will not be replaced.
“We have no reason to change it, said Kimi.”
Ferrari’s engine Chief Gilles Simon revealed that during the last week’s Malaysian test session, Räikkönen performed a test where theengine was put on similar stress as the race engine had in Australian GP. At the same time the original race engine was sent to Maranello where the team performed several tests on it.
“We performed the same amount of laps and simulated the same stress to the engine in Malaysian tests and in Maranello’s dyno. The two engines were taken apart and everything seemed to be ok. We also scanned Kimi’s race engine and found nothing.” -Simon
Since no malfunctions or damage was found neither at the original, nor at the intentionally stressed engines, Ferrari decided not to change the engine.
“We made this decision as a team. It’s always good news when you don’t have to change the engine. There was some worry, but now everything has been checked and seems to be good”, Räikkönen said.
Kimi was asked if the possibility of changing the engine troubled his mind.
“There is no point to worry about thing beforehand. When you aren’t absolutely sure how things are, it would be stupid to start worry about it. I worry about things later, if something goes wrong.”
Little set up work to be done.
“I’m not 100% happy with the car. The set up which worked well last week is not as good anymore. Here, every small weather change affects [the car] immediately. All it takes is some wind blowing from a different direction.”
Translation by Warwick.
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