After the Australian Gran Prix Scuderia Ferrari weren’t necessarily happy with the finishing results of their drivers, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, but they saw the light at the end of the tunnel. Finishing fourth and seventh, after the DQ of Daniel Ricciardo, the Ferrari team was disappointed that neither of their championship caliber drivers landed on the podium but having both cars finish the race was a feat in itself.
The week that followed was filled with talk of learning and changing in hopes to improve their performance coming into this weekend in Malaysia. While reliability itself won’t win a championship it is the first step to building the new car into a contender. Both cars had some electrical problems that Ferrari Engineering Director Pat Fry hopes to have taken care of going forward. The problems had limited both F14-T’s performances in Australia giving Raikkonen and Alonso fits in trying to overtake as well as having them defending their positions rather than being able to be on the attack themselves.
The race in Malaysia will not only challenge the teams to finish the race with these cars that may not be technically 100% just yet but there will be the battle of the heat and humidity that Sepang brings. Temperatures reaching 30 degrees C (85 F) outside the car and cockpit temps in excess of 50 C (120 F) combined with high humidity means a grueling weekend for the drivers and crews. With such high temps without proper hydration this could mean a drop in performance from either the drivers or the crew physically or mentally. It is imperative that everybody is in top condition to bring the best that they can to the race weekend.
Ferrari test driver Pedro de la Rosa told the Scuderia website that even something as simple as a failure in the cars drink system could mean the difference in winning to not scoring points at all.
In most cases, even if he doesn’t drink anything, a driver can comfortably finish a Grand Prix with no problem, because he is physically prepared for it. But in Sepang, the conditions are so extreme that not being properly hydrated can see a sudden drop in performance, with obvious consequences when it comes to the final result. In the past here, we have seen drivers whose drinks system has failed, losing time here by having to take on fluids from a bottle at the pit stop.
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