Kimi!

Maybe Kimi/Ferrari thought he had a chance of getting a good lap or two in after the safety car then pitting.

 

and that would have been quite useless,
with a car already out and the SC coming out just in that momment of the race it would have been wise to refuel as soon as possible..

Strategy at ferrari it's not what it use to be......

 

There probably is a good reason which we will never find out, possibly related to the engine problems. I'm stumped, anyone have any other ideas.

 

Probably brain fade...but it might not happen again for a while. The team is made up of human beings who are, from time to time, prone to error in judgement.

 

Perhaps with his lighter fuel load he was expecting to get around Heikki and then put in a fast lap or two to cushion his place when he got back out of the pits (which by then everyone wouldn't have been so bundled up together). He was hounding Heikki like crazy as soon as the SC went in. Otherwise he was going to lose more time by coming out of the pits in last (or near last) after the SC went in, and everyone was really close together, then having to be fighting his way through the field again. That's the only thing I can think of.. I could be wrong though.

 

Perhaps just to be able to say he got as far as second -- before losing it in the pits.

The time to pit is *before* the SC -- when the fourth place car is still well behind. Once the SC comes out, everyone bunches up, and *then* the pits open, so just about everyone on the lead lap who doesn't pit will get around you before you can come out. (At Canada last year, they were saying that the pit exit goes red to keep you from rejoining while the crowd is going by.)

But pitting just after the SC comes back in isn't much better, as the cars are still bunched up. (There isn't all *that* much difference in lap times.)

There wasn't much difference between pitting under the SC or afterwards. Either way, a pit stop would move him well backwards. Given that he was on the pit-in line when the SC was announced, I doubt he had enough fuel to circulate until the cars spread out again.

But you're supposed to be able to refuel without penalty if you're already coming in when the SC is deployed. Kimi was coming in on lap 26, and the SC went out on lap 27. The team barely had time to radio him to stay out after the SC was announced. So I wonder if it wouldn't have been valid for him to have come in and fueled up anyway. (But then careful about that red light on the pit exit.)

Once he veered off the pit entrance on the SC announcement, his pit stop was trashed.

I guess they were just "counting coup", trying to get up to second if only briefly, just to say they got there at some point during the race.

Which really counts for absoutely nothing at all.
(Except to fuel the Kimi fanatics who would say "wow - 16th to 2nd - whatta genius" )

 

they won't.

it's a hard lesson for them

 

He did not come in as it was not part of the race strategy. He would have come out behind many slipping and sliding cars, a considered danger. Both he and Massa were on a one stop plan.

When you think about Massa qualifying 4th on full tanks, you realize Domenicali is correct, speed is not the issue with the F2008.

 

Since when Massa had a 1 stop strategy ? i surely didn't qualify with a full tank

Remember he crashed on the first corner and went 2 times to the pits...

 

i think they either forgot to fuel him on the 1st stop, or refuelling is banned while the SC is out?

 

exactly. When they say that the pit lane is closed for SC, it isnt really. You can still come in and stop you just cant refuel. So generally it is better to do whatever repairs then come around again when they open the pits (while SC is still out). You should then be able to catch the back of the field before the restart. Where as if you take the penalty, it won't be assessed until after the restart and you will lose a lot more time.

As for Kimi:

The only thing I can think of is that if they pit, they are guaranteed to be at the back +- 2 spots or so. If he waits and puts in a few good laps, he could make up some time on those at the back of the pack. This combined with the natural ~15 second first to last gap due to each car being ~1-2 seconds apart, would allow him to get out in front of a few cars. Its hard to pass at Melbourne, so track position is key. The team must have known that he had a few laps of fuel to make this work. But then why would he have been coming to pit just before the SC. Perhaps, Ferrari saw the accident (dont remember who's it was) happen and tried to get Kimi in, gambling that a SC would come out. Then the SC came out before he could get into the pitlane, so they told him not to.

Im not sure if he was on Kovaleinen's butt at this point, but I think so. They could have thought that he was being slowed so much that an early pitstop would be better. Get it done, then leap frog Heikki when he has to pit. I wish I had the lap charts that Autosport provides, but they are only for subscribers and mine ran out!

 

+1 come on folks don't give hope so easy. Kimi WDC 2007 and 2008

 

I'd rather see a bad race in Australia than beaching your car in China AND putting it at pitlane speed while 9 pts leading the WDC during Brazil.

Just sayin'... it was a bad weekend for Ferrari, not just their drivers. Its a team mistake.