(Scuderia Ferrari SpA via Twitter)
Kimi Raikkonen has denied that his issues during the Australian Grand Prix were brake by wire related. Speaking during Thursday's FIA Driver Press Conference ahead of Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix the Finn said:
'I don't know where that came from, I mean that's not the issue. There is nothing wrong with the system.
Raikkonen went on to say: 'It is just mainly set up, to get the car as I like it to run, how I need to have it'.
'I am sure once we are making stuff for me so hopefully once we get those it will get a bit more easy, get a bit more feeling in the front end. So it will take a bit of time'.
Raikkonen was joined in the press conference by fellow Finn, Valtteri Bottas who was asked about his performance in the opening race in Australia.
'Yeah, really eventful. If we look at the whole race we need to be happy. With the result we have more points, double the points than last year. So it's a good beginning for us but it could have been better. We could have definitely , without mistake, been fighting for the podium.
Bottas was asked about this years new cars and he said:
'Yeah, the cars have quite less downforce than last year so you are sliding a bit more, with more engine power also it makes it a bit more tricky, but I like it. I really think the cars are fun to drive. I hope it looked good from outside I think we made an exciting race with the new cars, new engines so I think it's good.
Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat was asked about his Formula One debut:
'It was a good race, also eventful for us. It was everything new for me, so obviously many things to learn during the qualifying, the race so it was good. P10 is an result but we always want some more. In the end, we would always like to get more points in the future and the more we get the better it is.
Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi was asked about his return to Formula One to which he replied:
'Hi, first of all I think I have to say it's great to be back in Formula One. I think after one break doing like GT...I think I definitely enjoyed GT but Formula One is one of the top categories and I think I was missing the development and of course racing with top drivers, which I think is one of the exciting times, so I'm very happy to be back.
Lotus F1 Team driver Pastor Maldonado was asked about his teams performance in Australia to which he replied:
'The pre-season, it was quite tough for us. We have been working very hard and trying to push to solve all of the problems. These kind of problems, when you get at the bottom of the problem you see they are not huge problems: easy to fix but it took so much time from the test. In the first race again. So I think we miss free practice, even on Saturday, quali, so we've not been able to do proper long runs and to see our real potential of the car because of this kind of issues we've had. And now I hope to have a better weekend. We’ve been working hard again to try to improve. We improve quite a lot for the race. We had never been able to run for more than 10 laps together and during the race we did more than 30 laps with both cars - which is a step forward. Now we are fully focussed on finishing the race and I think if we finish the race we will be in a good position to fight for good places.
The Enstone based team will be hoping a better weekend because neither car finished in Australia. Despite this however the team were able to collect some valuable data that should enable them to improve the car.
Australian Grand Prix winner Nico Rosberg reflected on his start to the 2014 season:
'Well it’s been a fantastic start to the season, definitely, yes. I think the whole team has done a great job with these new regulations, with the car and engine and powertrain that they’ve built and yes, it’s been great to win the first race, for sure, fantastic. But now… went on holiday after that, so obviously the holiday was a little bit better, thanks to the win but now back to just fully focussed on getting the most out of this race.'
Free Practice One gets underway at 2AM (Irish time) tomorrow morning while Free Practice Two gets underway at 6AM (Irish Time). This will be followed by the team principal's press conference.
©Ben Johnston 2014
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