Formula One news

A third fruitless race for Ferrari

The Ferrari team continued its disastrous start to the season in China, as the reigning Constructors' World Champions leave Round 3 without points. With Kimi Räikkönen tenth and Felipe Massa out of the race due to technical problems, Ferrari has failed to score points in a season's first three races for the first time since 1981.

"Today, we are very annoyed about what happened to Felipe," said team principal Stefano Domenicali. "He was driving an amazing race when an electrical problem saw the engine die; he was third at the time and, even though he had a heavy fuel load, and he was lapping in the same time as the fastest cars and would have almost certainly finished the race on the podium. Kimi switched his strategy, going from a two to a one-stop, but he could not get higher than tenth; on his first set of tyres the pace was reasonable, but with the second he suffered constantly from a lack of grip which kept him out of the points.

The team's progress has been hindered by their lack of KERS this weekend, after suffering technical woes with the system in Malaysia. Domenicali stressed that the team will be relying heavily on a major aerodynamics upgrade ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in two races' time.

Barcelona couldn't come soon enough for Felipe Massa

"Obviously, I'm very disappointed and a bit upset but I am still motivated," Felipe Massa said following his retirement. "All of us must work together to get out of this situation. The team is united and there is a real will to turn things around as soon as possible; we should soon be getting some significant aerodynamic developments, but it's true that we also have to sort out our reliability as soon as possible."

As the Brazilian retired on the back straight, Räikkönen was in the mix for much of the race, which included an entertaining scrap with old rival Lewis Hamilton. "In the early stages, it wasn't too bad but then, after my stop, I lost grip from the tyres and I was no longer able to push as hard as I wanted," the 2007 champion said. "We have made mistakes and are not quick enough - it is easy to criticize now, but we know how to turn things around."

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