Ferrari still struggling heading into race day

After a disastrous start to the 2012 F1 season for Ferrari in Australia last weekend, the Italian outfit are still struggling after qualifying 12th and 9th for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix. Felipe Massa is this weekend racing a new chassis, however the Brazilian still failed to progress to Q3.

With rumors immediately spreading of possible replacements for Felipe Massa after his torrid weekend in Australia, the Brazilian has refused to be drawn into deliberation regarding his Ferrari future, adamant that he is confident about his future within the team.

“Clearly, I can’t be happy with twelfth place, but we know that, at the moment, we do not have a very competitive car,” Explained an understandably frustrated Massa after qualifying, “Getting through to Q3 is very difficult and today I could only get close to this target. Yesterday and today in FP3, I was not satisfied with the balance of the car, but we managed to improve it for qualifying, which leaves me feeling confident for the race and for the future. Pressure? It comes from own will to always do the maximum and when I don’t manage it, I am the first to be unhappy.”

Last time out in Australia, Ferrari’s hopes of World Championship points rested with 2-time World Champion Fernando Alonso. This weekend in Malaysia, he looks the outright leader of the team, however he has only managed 9th on the grid. Ahead of him are the likes of Raikkonen, Rosberg, Vettel, Grosjean and Webber before he can even consider battling with the likes of Schumacher, Button and Hamilton for a podium.

“It was a good qualifying, because I think we got everything we could out of the car.” Said Fernando Alonso, “I had a KERs problem on my only run in Q3, but I don’t think it cost me any places, but it would definitely have made the gap to pole look more realistic. We must try and bring home points that could be significant for the Championship. The start and the first corner will be complicated, because so much is at stake then. At the moment, this car has many problems, but as a result, it also has a big margin for improvement.”

With so many different factors set to dominate proceedings during the race tomorrow, including the threat of rain and tyre degradation, Ferrari will have their work cut-out as they try their best to make the most of what is still a less-than-ideal situation for undoubtably the popular team in the sport.

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