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Ferrari play down engine worries as Chinese GP weekend gets underway

Ferrari - strong pace but engine worries

Ferrari insist they are happy with the overall progress of their car and have downplayed concerns over engine performance so far this season - but they will be fire fighting this weekend at the Chinese GP.

The team have suffered a series of problems this year but engine and electronics head Luca Marmorini is confident these can be overcome.

"We have carried out an in-depth study and the problems are not related," he told the Ferrari website.

"I'm happy because I think the Ferrari package is quick."

Despite the engine concerns, Ferrari have started the season strongly, with drivers Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso first and second in the drivers' championship and the team leading the constructors' case by 10 points. But the team have been plagued by engine problems.

In Bahrain at the start of the season, Ferrari were forced to change the V8s on their cars before the race after discovering slight reading abnormalities, while at the recent Malaysian Grand Prix, Alonso and both Ferrari-powered BMW Saubers were forced to retire from the race with engine failures.

Down Under Dream Team ready to fly

Red Bull backed Hartley is championship favourite

Inspired by memories of the greatest trans-Tasman partnership in motorsport history, New Zealand’s Brendon Hartley and Australian Daniel Ricciardo debut as Red Bull team mates in the opening round of the 3.5 World Series Renault Championship in Spain this weekend (April 17-18).

The pairing of these two 20-year-old Australasians in the same team is a nostalgic reminder of the famous 1960’s partnership between Denny Hulme and Jack Brabham. That Kiwi-Aussie combination triumphed; producing back-to-back Formula 1 World Championship titles – Brabham in 1966 and Hulme in 1967 – in Brabham-built chassis, powered by Australian Repco V8 engines.

Reminiscent of the early career partnership of Hulme and Brabham; more than 30 years later this contemporary pair are already intimately involved in Formula 1 racing with a leading Grand Prix team.

Hartley and Ricciardo currently split the Reserve Driver role for the two Red Bull-owned Formula 1 teams (Renault-engined Red Bull Racing and Ferrari-engined Scuderia Toro Rosso), alternating attendance at Grand Prix race weekends and sharing a ‘test driver’ role in the Red Bull Racing chassis development simulator at the British team’s Milton Keynes base.

NZV8 season stats highlight McIntyre’s abilities

McIntyre accumulated some impressive statistics
Top race driver John McIntyre can look back on another highly competitive season in the New Zealand V8 Championship with the satisfaction of knowing that his own performance continues to improve.

Since starting John McIntyre Racing in 2006, the Nelson-based driver has accumulated some impressive statistics with his own car and team.

In these four seasons, McIntyre has either won the series outright or secured a solid second place in arguably the hardest-fought motor racing championship in New Zealand. McIntyre has taken more pole positions, more race wins, and more round wins than any other competitor.

‘Johnny Mac’ has contested 27 rounds and 81 races across these four seasons, including one non-championship round at the Hamilton 400. He’s won 9 (or 33.33%) of the possible 27 pole positions, 27 (or 33.33%) races from 81 starts and achieved ten (or 37%) round wins from the 27 rounds.

“It’s actually a very instructive thing to do – to break down your performance as a team like this,” says McIntyre, whose team is based in Hawke’s Bay, his home province. “Of course, it’s fantastic to see how we’re improving as well.

Vettel win in Malaysia is ominous for opposition

Vettel dominated in the Malaysian heat

After scoring pole position at the first two races and dropping from the lead with a technical problem each time, Sebastian Vettel of Germany leaped from third on the grid at the Malaysian Grand Prix here on Sunday to take the lead from his Red Bull teammate by the first corner. He never dropped it.

Through the extreme heat and humidity, Vettel and his car held it all together and took his first victory of the season, the sixth of his career and his first at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Mark Webber, his teammate, held on to to second place, giving the Red Bull team a one-two finish.

“A big relief, sorry,” Vettel said, before apologizing that he felt a little tipsy from drinking too much Champagne on the podium to cool down from the extreme heat. “I’m very pleased. It’s a great day for us, for Red Bull, with the first two races not finishing where we wanted to be.”

Nico Rosberg, who started the race in second position in his Mercedes and slotted into third by the first corner, also held on to that until the end. But Rosberg’s third position highlighted all the deceptive start and bad luck for his teammate, Michael Schumacher, in his return to the series after three years in retirement. The German, winner of seven drivers’ titles and known as a master of the rain, managed to qualify only eighth in a wet session on Saturday, where his young teammate placed their Mercedes car second on the grid.