Bahrain Testing Affected by Fog

Although Ferrari was hoping to finally conduct some proper testing of their Ferrari F60 this year – following the rainy testing session at Mugello in January – fog prevented the Scuderia from running the necessary mileage at Sakhir, during the first day of testing at the Bahrain track.

Felipe Massa was scheduled to test the revised F60 on Tuesday and Wednesday, while teammate Kimi Raikkonen is scheduled to take over during the Thursday and Friday sessions. Nevertheless, the Brazilian only got to run 38 laps at Sakhir, as the heavy fog delayed the morning session by more than 2 hours.

Ferrari are not the only team that chose the Bahrain track in favor of Jerez, as BMW Sauber and Toyota F1 are also testing their 2009 challengers at Sakhir. Massa managed to top the morning session with the best time of 1.33.656, followed by BMW's Robert Kubica (1.34.397) and Toyota's Timo Glock (1.34.589).

As they didn't get to properly conduct tests on the 2009 slick tires this winter – at least not on the F60 – the Maranello team spent most of the last 2 weeks simulating the behavior of the new compound at the FIAT research centre (with the help of Marc Gené, Andrea Bertolini and Gimmi Bruni).

Also, the Scuderia have worked on an improved aerodynamic package that is to be thoroughly tested during the remaining 16 testing days until the season opener in Melbourne. The first of these revisions were already tested this morning, as the new F60 features some minor updates on its front & rear wings.

According to a statement on Ferrari's official site, the team will focus their testing this week on car's reliability and behavior of slick tires. The second 4-day testing at Sakhir will get under way next week, with Raikkonen taking the F60 on track during Monday's and Tuesday's sessions, followed by Massa in the remaining 2 days.