Ferrari started the fifth round of the grand prix season on an upswing with the new evolution of their car, the F60B.  The car was made considerably lighter and more stable with new aerodynamic (cough – Super Diffuser – cough) pieces.  By the final practice on Saturday before the round of Qualifying, Ferrari had once again stepped into familiar territory, at the top of the time sheet table.  Once again, “Good” had made it back into the Ferrari garage.

However, Qualifying would be a completely different story.  Not learning from past mistakes, Kimi Raikkonen set out early to set a time and then failed to go back out as times came tumbling down.  Soon the Fin would be out in the first round of Qualifying putting him in 16th place.  This is “Bad” for Ferrari and an outrage from a fan’s point of view because we could all see it and wondered, “what was Ferrari thinking?”  Did they not learn from their mistakes from Massa’s qualifying catastrophe in Malaysia?  I’d like to think that I could be the guy in the Ferrari garage screaming at the engineers to get Kimi and Massa out on the track.  However, I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t happen.  Do you think with all the potential price cuts people are starting to cross train in other fields and they are losing track of their focus?  I’m sure there are a thousand things going on in the garage that we, the public, are not aware of but someone has to be responsible for not sending Kimi out.  I mean let’s really look at this, over the last several rounds of qualifying all the cars have been so close to one another.  We are talking that most of the time they are within a second of one another between ten cars or more.  So why wouldn’t you send someone out on the track when times are going down.  The only reason that I can think of is that there was a mechanical problem with the car and Ferrari didn’t want to expose them.  Maybe there’s something deeper that the public are not aware of.  Because in the end, Kimi’s car failed on him after he had pushed the car from sixteenth starting position to ninth, when the car failed and he was out of the Spanish Grand Prix.

Kimi Raikkonen doesn't get our of Q1 at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2009

Then to top off Ferrari’s weekend was the fact that Ferrari didn’t put enough fuel in the car telling Massa to slow down when he was fighting for a podium finish.  This was such an “Ugly” scene to see.  Having to let Sebastian Vettel by and then later on the final lap, letting Fernando Alonso by was the knife in Ferrari’s back.  Massa was a trooper though and I will admit that even though Kimi is my main man in Formula 1, Massa is finally starting to get on my good side.  I like the way he ended last season’s championship finish humbly and respectfully.  In my mind, he’s finally starting to become a class act.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though and it’s not a train either.  I like that Ferrari have evolution-ized the car and that they’ve finally become fast again.  They are not at the top of the time tables all the time like the Brawn GP and Red Bull teams but they are progressing, where McLaren Mercedes if failing.  I like that Kimi and Massa are still up-beat about the team and they’re confident that they can once again be at the top.  Although my Fantasy Formula 1 League is boding well for me, I have hopes that Ferrari’s, Cavallino Rampante will once again have free reign over the field.  Go Ferrari Go!