Ferrari to inspect Raikkonen's engine

Ferrari are to take a close look at Kimi Raikkonen's engine at the Malaysian Grand Prix to see if it needs to be changed following the minor problems he had in the closing stages of the Australia race.

Raikkonen dominated at Albert Park two weeks ago, but was instructed to slow down in the closing stages because of issues the team had picked up on their telemetry.

Ferrari's engine chief Gilles Simon said: "We had a small water leakage so the pressure dropped a little. And we were concerned about water temperature of course. That is why we asked him to be careful."

With engines needing to last two-race weekends, those small problems will be a concern for Malaysia - where high temperatures and long straights put extra stress on the power units.

Should the team feel that Raikkonen's engine may not last the full race distance then they may opt to change it prior to qualifying. This would hand the world championship leader a ten-place grid penalty.

Schumacher to have corner at Nurburgring

The Nurburgring will rename one of its corners. Track organisers decided to re-christen it 'Schumacher S' to honour Michael Schumacher who won the Formula 1 championship seven times in his career.

The German Grand Prix will be held at the Nurburgring on 22 July. The German will visit the race. Speaking about this special honour Schumacher said: "I am really proud to be honoured like this."

In July Schumacher will be the first driver to challenge his very own corner. Before the German Grand Prix, Schumacher will go on track to 'open' his corner.

New chapter for Ferrari off to a great start

Jean Todt was a happy man after Sunday's Australian Grand Prix. The Ferrari team boss saw the team's new driver win for the first time in the Italian team's car and Massa bring in a few points.

"I was very happy to get two telephone calls, the first from Michael as I was going up to the podium, which I handed to Kimi and the other from Luca di Montezemolo who was jumping for joy as if this was our first win in a decade. And indeed that is the feeling for us all!"

Ferrari team boss Jean Todt also says Kimi Raikkonen seems to be a lot happier at Ferrari than he was at McLaren. The Finn has been smiling a lot more, and especially after he took victory in the Australian Grand Prix.

"He seems to be a bit more smiling with us, which you know is not our speciality. But still, we are very happy with him and he seems to be happy with us," Todt said.

"Our relationship is just professional and friendly. He spends time with the engineers, the engineers are happy with him," he added. "And he spends time with the team. On Saturday I had dinner with him and Felipe and they were happy. It is just a good atmosphere and confirmed what everybody feels in the team."

Kimi and Ferrari Storm to Victory

Kimi Raikkonen stormed to a dominant victory in the Australian Grand Prix, his debut for Ferrari. The Finn took his tenth career win ahead of McLaren's reigning champion Fernando Alonso and F1 debutant Lewis Hamilton. Kimi also claimed pole position in qualifying and also had the fastest time in the 3rd practice on Saturday morning. Felipe Massa was forced to start last due to an engine change but made it up the field to finish in 6th place.

"The weekend has been very good and the race maybe looked easier than it was but my radio broke just before the start of the race so it wasn't ideal, but we had a clear plan about what we wanted to do," Raikkonen revealed.

"It was a good race, I didn't push too hard and just tried to pace myself," he added. "We were quite quick at the start and I didn't have to push as hard as I could have and then it was just a case of bringing it home. I've had good races here before but never been able to win and it's always nice to win on your first race with a team which I haven't done before."

"I've really enjoyed it and it's the perfect start to the season," he concluded.

Rapid Massa wraps up test in style

Today marked the end of a long test session at the Sakhir that involved nine teams over six days, preparing for the World Championship that gets underway on 18th March in Melbourne, Australia.

Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, both ran with a new 056 engine today, completing all the F2007 development programme which the team had defined prior to arriving in Bahrain.

Massa finished his work even before the lunch break, which meant that, in the final part of the day, Raikkonen was able to go back to using the aerodynamic package that he had already tried on Tuesday. Both drivers worked mainly on finding the best set-up for the car.

Massa completed 45 laps with a best time of 1:29.989s, while Raikkonen put in 77 laps with a best of 1:30.534s.

For Massa, his time was the fastest of the entire test and was the fourth time in the six days that he topped the timesheets.

With winter testing now over, the team will be concentrating on preparing for the trip to Australia.

On Thursday 8th March at Fiorano, Luca Badoer will carry out the shakedown of the cars that will take part in the first Grand Prix of the year.