Fernando Alonso (4th)
“In a race like this, anything can happen. We did five pit stops to change tyres, which is definitely unusual: all in all, I think we took the right decisions at the right time. In a race like this you only understand at the end what would have been the best thing to do, as neither on the pit wall nor in the car do we have a crystal ball! I made a serious mistake at the start as my reflexes let me down and I left early. It’s never happened to me before and I am very disappointed with myself. Luckily, despite the penalty, I managed to finish fourth. The passing move on Felipe? If he was not my team mate, there wouldn’t be so much talk about it and for me it was a normal move and it definitely won’t compromise our relationship. We have a great potential and we must hope we get some normal races like the one in Bahrain. The start of the championship has gone well: we have shown we are competitive on all the tracks and we have what it takes to win the title. Clearly, we have to up our points tally and improve our qualifying performance. McLaren deserve the top spot, because even though they might not have the best car they have got the most out of it every time.”

Felipe Massa (9th)
“This was a very complicated race and clearly I can’t be happy with the result. Of course, two points are better than nothing, but in the upcoming races we have to do better and that means working on the development of the car. Right from the start, it was difficult to make the right choice in terms of what tyres to use because of the changeable weather. As for the passing move Fernando made, I ended up on a puddle of water coming out of the hairpin and slightly lost control of the car: he managed to get inside me, passing me going into the pit lane. I lost some places because of it, as I had to wait for his stop to be finished. In the closing laps, I was struggling a lot with the tyres, but Michael (Schumacher) was suffering worse than me and I managed to pass him. We have seen how the situation can change radically from one race to the next: we need to work as hard as possible to try and get the most out of the potential at our disposal.”

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal
“First of all, I want to compliment the pit stop crew, who did an amazing job today, handling three double stops without making the slightest mistake and also helping the drivers to make up places. As for the strategy choices, especially for the first stop, it’s clear from the top four finishers that two drivers made one choice and the other two a different one, which means it is difficult to give an instant assessment of which was the right one. With hindsight, Button’s paid off better, but it can also be said that, but for his penalty for a jumped start, Fernando could definitely have fought for the victory. As for the passing move involving Felipe and Fernando, we only saw it afterwards on the television replay and I think it was just a racing incident and there is absolutely no problem between the two drivers: when you are always racing to win, you can have moments like this. There’s a slight feeling of regret after these first four rounds of the championship. We have definitely ended up with less than we were capable of, sometimes because of incidents beyond our control and sometimes because of things that were down to us. Having said that, we are still fully in the fight for both titles and that is already very important. Now we must continue to push on the development of the car and its performance, especially in qualifying. Starting in Barcelona, we must get back on the podium and that is completely possible.”

Chris Dyer, Ferrari chief engineer
“An extremely difficult race, affected by the changing weather and, in Fernando’s case, by the incident at the start. After the start of the race, we opted to go for the intermediates, but the track did not stay wet enough for long and so we had to go back to slicks. Then, when the rain came, we went back to wets and both cars proved to be very competitive and the drivers did the best job possible of managing the tyres, better than many of the others, thus managing to gain some places. After the penalty, Fernando drove a great race, just as the pit stop guys did an exceptional job and very well done to them for that.”

Once again, the rain wreaked havoc in the race and caused a rather exciting race. Red Bull has a dissapointing China GP first caused by the Rain and a few scuffles and scrapes in the pit lane and on the track.



Ferrari had a very mixed race, firstly, Alonso jumping the start and having to do a drive through penalty. Whilst, Massa who didn't have much drama for entire race drove a very solid, but uninspiring race picking up just 2 pts by the end. 

Alonso was aggressive from the get go and actually ended up behind Massa after his drive through. Fernando actually passed Massa on the way in to the Pits as Ferrari queued their drivers for the Inters once the rain started again. Alonso's aggressive got him up to 4th place pushing Nico right until the end who finished in third. Unlike Alonso, Massa drove around very uninspiring mostly being too cautios in the difficult conditions. He did however pass, 7 time world Champion Michael Schumacher on the penultimate lap to claim 9th place.

Jenson Button gambled on slick tyres and paid dividens as he, nico and kubica were way out in front. A safety car erased the lead around half way through the race, and a superb drive from Lewis got him up to 2nd place just 1.5 seconds behind Jensen. Button's win means he leads the drivers' championship by 10 points.

Felipe Massa
"I'm a bit disappointed because I wasn't able to do a clean lap on my last run in Q3, Unfortunately, I made a mistake at the final corner which lost me at least a few tenths. Up to that point, I was in line for a lap that would have seen me into the top five, but when everyone is so close, it takes very little to find yourself dropping down the grid."

Fernando Alonso
"I think once again this is the maximum of our potential in qualifying, We know the race pace is a little bit better for us, and we feel a bit more comfortable with more fuel in the car and more longer runs. But in one-lap performance we maximise always the potential. We did in Bahrain, Australia and here, with three times third on the grid, and in Malaysia we made a mistake in Q1. In normal situation this is the maximum we can do at the moment. I prefer dry, but if it rains it is the same for everybody and this is a race situation. If it rains tomorrow it will be fine. It will be interesting to see how the race develops, with the potential of our car and how it normally performs. A dry situation will be more normal for us. Tomorrow's race will be determined by the weather."

Stefano Domencali
"In a championship in which at least four cars are all within a few tenths, it only takes a small error to find yourself in a position that does not match up to your potential, It might rain tomorrow, so there's a chance it could shake up the order, but it is clear that starting seventh, it will be hard to fight for the top positions,  in terms of race pace, we can hold our own, as was the case in yesterday's free practice."

Fernando Alonso was the lead charger for Scuderia Ferrari in the Chinese Qualifying, but couldn't match the speed of the Red Bulls.



Once again, young German star Sebastien Vettel sticks his car on pole with a very impressive drive, beating Mark Webber for a Red Bull front row lock out. Felipe Massa had a somewhat ordinary quali session, never really matching Alonso in all 3 sessions.

Vettel's time of one minute 34.558 seconds was 0.248secs quicker than Webber, 0.355secs faster than Ferrari's Fernando Alonso who took third place.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg qualified in fourth, again out-pacing team-mate Michael Schumacher, who was ninth.

Jenson Button was fifth for McLaren with team-mate Lewis Hamilton sixth.

It was a disappointing qualifying session for the McLarens, after their drivers had topped both of Friday's practice sessions and Hamilton had been fastest in the first two parts of qualifying.

"We were doing so well in practice and in Q1 and Q2 it was OK to be at the front," said Hamilton.

Ferrari ran their version of McLaren ‘F-duct’ device in practice for the Chinese Grand Prix today. But the first pictures of the system suggest it works differently to McLaren’s set-up and is not operated by the driver.



Ferrari use their shark fin to direct air onto the rear wing as per McLaren’s system.

But the air intake is situated further towards the front of the shark fin, with no signs of driver operation, as per McLaren’s F-duct. In the picture below it seems to have been taped over, suggesting they didn’t try running the system during practice. Alonso suffered an engine failure in the first practice session.

Ferrari have not copied McLaren’s device exactly. This could be for two reasons; perhaps they prefer this solution or, more likely, perhaps they have not been able to make changes to their chassis to incorporate a McLaren-style system under the rules preventing changes to the chassis construction during the season.

It may be that Ferrari’s device only operates when air flows into the opening at the front of the shark fin fast enough to stall the rear wing when it is passed out at the end of the fin. It is likely that this would only happen above a certain speed, whereas McLaren’s driver-operated system can be used at will, potentially much earlier on a straight, for greater benefit.

McLaren's F-Duct is still the center of attention as both McLaren drivers blits the speed traps and top both Practice sessions.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso set an impressive time of one minute 36.604 running on hard tyres and in race simulation.

Hamilton set the fastest time in practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix

The two-time world champion finished in 10th while team-mate and current championship leader Felipe Massa - running on soft tyres - was 11th, 0.340 seconds off Alonso's mark.

The Spaniard was forced to abandon his first session because of engine failure when flames billowed from his right exhaust pipe.

Fernando Alonso says he is not worried about Ferrari's engine reliability - despite another failure in China.

His first practice session was cut short when his engine, recycled from the Bahrain race weekend, caught fire.

"I'm not too worried," said Alonso, who now has six new engines remaining of his allotted eight for the season.

"On Fridays from now on we will use very old engines and that is the only risk. Everything is still going according to plan."

Ferrari downplayed concerns over their engine performance after Alonso and both Ferrari-powered Saubers retired from the Malaysian Grand Prix because of engine problems.

In Bahrain at the start of the season, Ferrari were forced to change the V8s on their cars before the race when they discovered slight reading abnormalities.

In the winter we've been pushing our engines to the limits of mileage and after finishing the life of the engine we did some tests and saw that the performance lost was very low

"We knew this engine was a little bit damaged after Bahrain and that it was degrading a bit every Friday," he said.

"The failure is something we were expecting, maybe not here but either here or in [the next race in] Barcelona.

"So this failure was maybe expected but the Malaysia one was a little bit of a surprise."

Ferrari had a very ordinary first practice and another worry for Alonso, as his engine let go after just 6 corners.

Jenson Button headed the first practice session for McLaren at Shanghai.

But the session had to be stopped for ten minutes after Sebastien Buemi suffered a shocking accident when both front wheels came off his Toro Rosso.

The Swiss driver experienced the failure at the fastest point on the Shanghai circuit under braking for the turn 14 hairpin.

The front suspension on the car appeared to fail in the braking zone for the corner in a manner similar to Kimi Raikkonen’s crash at the Nürburgring five years ago.

Buemi’s STR5 went straight on and came to a halt in the gravel trap with the driver mercifully uninjured. The session was re-started for six minutes before the chequered flag came out.

Two other teams suffered breakages over bumps at the circuit. The front wing on Timo Glock’s Virgin at turn one and Jarno Trulli lost part of his Lotus’s diffuser at the same corner.

Fernando Alonso suffered his second consecutive Ferrari engine failure in six laps as his Chinese Grand Prix weekend got off to a bad start.

Alonso was supposed to be testing Ferrari’s version of McLaren’s F duct. But he completed just half-a-dozen installation laps, not even getting chance to set a time before his F10’s engine blew.

The McLaren drivers were first and second for much of the session, but they were split by Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes before the end.

Michael Schumacher in the second Mercedes was fourth ahead of Sebastian Vettel and the two Renaults.

Felipe Massa has said he is in no rush to sign a new contract with Ferrari, despite speculation linking Robert Kubica to the Maranello-based team.

Kubica has enjoyed a strong start to the season with Renault, prompting fresh interest from the Italians.

Massa is in the final year of his Ferrari contract but is content to bide his time as negotiations towards a possible new three-year deal continue.

"I am very happy with my condition and the way we are working," he said.

"Even before my accident last year, some talks started over a new contract and the talks have started again." 

While their F10 is certainly a frontrunner, it’s no secret that Ferrari have been plagued by engine troubles since the start of the season.
 
In Bahrain the Italian team changed the V8s on the cars of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa after finding slight reading abnormalities, while at the recent Malaysia race Alonso - and both Ferrari-powered BMW Saubers - were forced to retire after engine failures.

After carrying out extensive analysis back at their Maranello factory, however, Ferrari’s engine and electronics department boss Luca Marmorini is relaxed about reliability and is confident that the engine’s poor record is the result of extraneous circumstances, rather than a symptom of something more serious.

“We have carried out an in-depth study into what happened and the two problems are not related to one another,” explained Marmorini. “In Sepang, Fernando’s engine suffered a structural failure, of a type we never saw during the winter. We believe there was a role played by the unusual way in which the driver had to use the engine during the race, because of the gear selection problems he experienced right from the start. Additionally, there is no connection with the problem the BMW Sauber team experienced on the engine front at the last race, which we believe was down to an issue with electronic sensors.”

Having established the reasons for the various problems at Sepang, Marmorini also revealed that Ferrari plan to reuse the Bahrain engines at this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix.

“Each car has eight engines it can use per driver over the season and we plan our usage strategy around this,” he explained. “As a precaution, we opted not to use the Bahrain race engines in Australia, but they will be used in China, having concluded that they are fit for purpose, despite what happened at the Sakhir circuit.”

Marmorini also declared that he is pleased with the overall progress of the car, even though he believes more can be done to get the most out of the engine.

“I’m happy because I think the Ferrari package is quick, even if it could always be quicker of course,” he concluded. “Having said that, our pace in the race can give cause for satisfaction on the engine and car side, even if we still have much work to do on the engine front to get even more out of it, whilst working within the restrictions of the current regulations.”

The championship leaders will be back on track on Friday, as this weekend’s Shanghai meeting gets underway.

Source: http://www.formula1.com/news/headlines/2010/4/10657.html