(© Ben Johnston 2015)
Scuderia Ferrari head to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix
having taken victory last time out in Malaysia.
Four time world champion Sebastian Vettel started the race
from the front row alongside pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and went on to take his
first victory for the Maranello based outfit in only his second race with the
team.
Although Vettel won the Malaysia Grand Prix his team mate
Kimi Raikkonen was arguably the star of the race coming from the back of the
field following a puncture to finish the race in fourth place just behind the
Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Speaking ahead of this weekend’s
Chinese Grand Prix, Scuderia Ferrari third driver Esteban Gutierrez commented
saying:
‘It’s a very different
circuit to the one in Malaysia, both in terms of its technical characteristics
and when it comes to the weather. Shanghai has many fast corners, such as turn 1
that leads on to the long finish straight. This, along with the fact that
usually, it’s quite cool in Shanghai, means the tyres are made to work in a
very different way when compared to Sepang. In fact, in Malaysia, we benefited
from the fact our tyres had very low degradation in the high temperatures.
However, in China, the track surface will be much cooler and there are some
very heavy braking points: at the end of the long straight, you actually have
to decelerate from 330 km/h down to 60 in around 120 metres.’
The Mexican, who last raced in Formula One with the Sauber F1
Team at the end of last season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix joined Ferrari over
the Winter went on to say:
‘It’s definitely a good
passing opportunity, but if you don’t have a well-balanced car, then you can
suffer from tyre graining after just a few laps. “I think it will be a harder
race than Malaysia for us. But, all the same, we hope to be able to
reduce the gap still further to our competitors and to make the most of our
current potential with both our cars. China is a very important market for
Ferrari road cars and we want to do well in front of the many Prancing Horse
owners and fans there.’
The Maranello based outfit head to China in second place in
the Constructors championship, 24 points behind the Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1
Team while Sebastian Vettel is on 40 points just three points behind
championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
© Ben Johnston 2015
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