Fry: I think our pace should be similar to Melbourne

Scuderia Ferrari’s Technical Director, Pat Fry, was one of the participants in the traditional Friday FIA press conference. The Englishman was first asked for a comment about the team’s performance in Melbourne, especially in terms of race strategy, one of the key topics following on from the Australian Grand Prix.

“I think our people were pleased with the race pace of the car. It was quite obvious that Kimi was going to be two-stopping. I think you could see him two seconds back from the group. I don’t think we could have followed suit and competed on a two-stop which is why we went for the aggressive three-stop, which got us through the traffic. With that and the 60km/h pit lane limit, it’s always that balance between two-stop and three-stop. We weren’t brave enough to make the two-stop work. Kimi was, so good luck to them, or well done to them. We just need to keep on working on the pace of it. It’s nice being second but you always want to win don’t you.”

From Melbourne to Sepang, Fry was asked about his expectations considering two major unknowns, the weather and tyre degradation. “I think our race pace will be good here, similar to Melbourne,” maintained Fry. “In terms of tyre degradation, I’m not sure yet, We need to go and look at the numbers. Obviously, today’s running was a little bit mixed up. When everyone was doing their long runs this afternoon, there was rain in turns six and seven. Hopefully we will be able to get the degradation under control as well. As for strategy, I’m not sure how close we are to a three to four changeover or a two to three changeover.”

Fry was also asked to comment on the good form shown by Felipe Massa, who has again been very quick in these two first sessions at Sepang. “He’s got a good attitude and he’s driving very well, very sensibly, not overdriving the car. If you look at last year, the first half was a bit of a struggle, the second half was a lot better and he’s continued that form into this year. That’s obviously good for us in the Constructors’.