BARCELONA, May 8 – Ferrari will be bidding to make a fresh start to the 2009 season this weekend when they run cars with revised ambitions in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.
After enduring – and then ending their worst start to a season in 28 years – the defending constructors’ world champions have arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya with a new motor home and an air of determination.
"We have new parts and we are going to have new goals, we hope," said Brazilian driver Felipe Massa. "We just don’t know where we are going to be yet – we have to wait and see."
Massa’s Ferrari team-mate Finn Kimi Raikkonen finished sixth to score their first points of the season at the fourth race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, last month.
This weekend, after struggling in a non-competitive car, both will be driving cars with revised aerodynamics including new diffusers, after adopting the double-decker system run by the successful Brawn team – a system that Ferrari protested against and attempted to ban.
They will also continue to run with the Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) on their cars, having worked to reduce their cars’ weight, notably for Raikkonen.
In a comment on their website, Ferrari explained that Raikkonen will be using a lighter car to assist him in accommodating the KERS on his cars.
"The reason only Raikkonen will use it is that his physique and height means he weighs more than Felipe Massa — and therefore it is more of a challenge to accommodate the weight of the KERS system on his car," said the team.
The team believes that KERS will give them an advantage in Sunday’s race in which 2007 champion Raikkonen is bidding to end a winless year since his last victory in the 2008 Spanish race.
But they are keeping their fingers crossed for improved reliability after enduring problems that led to them removing it from their cars at the Chinese race a month ago in Shanghai.
Massa also had KERS troubles in Bahrain.
The KERS materials weight around 30 kilos, but give a brief boost of about 30 horsepower on a lap when needed by a driver for overtaking or pulling away from a close rival.
Ferrari said also that it had been a difficult job to redesign their car to use the new diffuser system.
Massa said: "If it all works as well as I hope it does then finally we will happy and can compete this year. But let’s wait and see."
