Australian GP: Ferrari race notes

Neither Ferrari saw the chequered flag in the Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the season. Felipe Massa retired on lap 29, when lying seventh, while Kimi Raikkonen had to stop on lap 53 and in both cases the retirements were due to engine problems.

Stefano Domenicali: "This has definitely been a very difficult start to the season and we have got off on the wrong foot. However, we should not react in an over emotional way to this. We weren't a phenomenon before and we're not carthorses now. We have to work out exactly what happened to the engines on both F2008s and they are being sent immediately to Maranello for analysis. As for the performance, we saw that when we were not running in traffic, we could run a very competitive pace. This shows that the potential is there, but we have to be in a position to exploit it, which means starting from the front. The whole team has not performed to our usual standard. We have to roll our sleeves up and react, as we know we can."

Kimi Raikkonen: "It's really disappointing not to finish the race, but at least the point is better than nothing. I had an engine problem, the reason for which now needs to be analysed. The car was good and I had a good pace when I found a free track ahead of me. I spun a couple of times trying to pass those ahead of me, but the first time, with Glock, I put a wheel on the grass and the second time, with Kovalainen, I was a bit too optimistic. This result is obviously not the best start to the season but it is a very long one and we are well aware that we are capable of recovering from far worse situations than this. We have to put everything in place and then we will be really competitive."

Felipe Massa: "A horrible start to the season. We had engine problems which is unusual for a team like ours. We have to understand what happened and react immediately. I was fighting my way up the order all race long. At the first corner I lost control of the car while battling with Kovalainen and ended up off the track. Then I moved up the order and could have finished in the points. The incident with Coulthard? I was on the inside and he closed the door on me, probably because he hadn't seen me. Our championship will have to start again in Malaysia. We know we have a good car we have to work to be able to use it as intended."

Luca Baldisserri: "There's not much to say about a disastrous start to the season. We did not work well on any level and this is the consequence of that. We know how important is reliability and we were severely lacking on this front. It is absolutely ages since we have seen two engine failures in a race. We have to look at every detail of this weekend to understand what went wrong and how we can improve. We have seen the technical potential is there and we have to do everything to use it to its maximum, starting in qualifying."

-credit: ferrari