Kimi Räikkönen was not able to get the second pre-season test off to as good a start for Ferrari as his teammate had done at the first pre-season test. He suffered some unfortunate gearbox issues that seriously hindered the amount of mileage on the car, but Räikkönen is still “not concerned” about the technical issues.
Räikkönen was only able to complete 72 laps for the opening day of the second pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Just two hours after Fernando Alonso parked his McLaren at the end of the pit exit and brought out the first red flag, the Ferrari came to a stop trackside, bringing out the second red flag of the session. It was determined that it was a gearbox issue and the team spent a large amount of time in the garage rectifying the issue, although they were able to get back out onto the track to finish the day.
The Finn says he isn’t concerned with the issues because the purpose of testing is to find and repair the technical issues before the season starts:
“It is normal to have some little issues during testing like we had with the gearbox today, but I am not concerned as we have time to fix it. That’s the purpose of testing, learning new things and trying something different. We still have something to be done of course but it is a normal process this time of the year. It is a different story when we go racing. We will know pretty soon what will happen in Australia but so far the car feels good. I have no idea what the others are doing, lap times may vary with different tyres and fuel levels, but we know what we are doing and we are pretty happy with the way the car is handling. I think we have a very good package, time will tell if it is good enough.”
The Ferrari also had an issue during the first pre-season test last week, running into a fuel pump failure with Räikkönen behind the wheel. However, it’s not only the Ferrari team that has been experiencing issues. The Haas F1 Team, which also uses the 2016-spec Ferrari power unit, also had issues. They had a problem with the fuel system after only 23 laps of running. They were not able to return to the track.
As a result of the issues for Ferrari today, Mercedes was able to top the time sheets for the day, a place that we have become so accustomed to seeing the Silver Arrows in the recent seasons.
