Räikkönen: “The team worked very well during the winter”

Well placed in the wake of Mercedes from a chronometric point of view and the distance traveled, the Team Ferrari can have a smile at the end of the first week of winter testing in Barcelona.

With 468 laps on the clock, including 201 for the only Kimi Räikkönen, the Italian team demonstrated certain reliability, also underlined by the good performances of the customer teams Sauber and Haas, which allowed the Maranello block to be the most diligent on the track after four days.

Caution remains logically in order for the transalpine clan and its 2007 world champion. “It’s a new year, a new car and new rules, argues the Finn.

And it is these rules that determine the feeling you have while driving, because you go much faster than before. It’s a combination between the tires and the car. What I can say, The team worked very well during the winter.

Whether or not this is enough, we cannot say yet. I didn't pay attention to what the other teams were doing, or the lap times, because at this point it doesn't mean anything. »

The old pilot McLaren and Lotus recognized, however, that Scuderia Ferrari seemed to have worked well compared to a lackluster 2016, marked in particular by the departure of technical director James Allison, and a season without a victory.

“I feel like we learned some lessons from last year and right now we can't complain about how the testing went, adds Räikkönen.

But before Melbourne we have one more week of testing and we still have a lot of work to do. Every year we know more or less where we want to be and sometimes everything goes well and other years not so much. »

Find the report of the first week of the Barcelona tests, produced by our special correspondents in Catalonia, in issue 2104 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday March 6 in digital version, and from Wednesday March 8 on newsstands. Guide F1 CARhebdo 2017 is also available in digital version, and on newsstands.