F1: Baldisserri seeks perfection to end of season.

[Rory Phoulorie]

Monday, 3rd September 2007

Chief Ferrari engineer Luca Baldisserri wants perfection from Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa if they are to overhaul McLaren in the standings.


Luca Baldisserri has set Ferraria clear target for the remainder of the 2007 Formula 1World Championship, although it won't be an easy one; he wants a 1-2 finish in the final five races to bring the title back to the prancing horse.

Honours between Formula 1's �fantastic four' have been remarkably even this season, with Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonenand Felipe Massaall scoring three wins each so far.

However, despite this, Ferrari continue to trail McLarenby virtue of a less than perfect reliability record, something their rivals have excelled at by scoring 24 finishes from 24 starts.

As a result, Ferrari need to see out the season without any more failures and, going by the possibility that McLaren finishes each race to the end of the year, need to start taking serious points off their rivals having fallen eleven points adrift, not counting the 15 extra points McLaren could have reinstated in the coming weeks. It is something Baldisserri is all to aware of.

"These days I am just happy if Ferrari wins rather than having a strong emotion for one driver," he says referring to the fact that he was previously a race engineer for just one driver before taking on the overall role this year.

"But I see the face of the "losing" race engineer if the other car has won and I remember that feeling! Now for me it is different especially at the moment, as we try to regain championship points and get first and second in every race."

Baldisserri sees no better time to start this run than at Ferrari's spiritual home of Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. Twelve months on from the announcement that Michael Schumacherwould retire, Baldisserri is delighted to be returning in front of the tifosi.

"I have been with Ferrarisince 1989 and I think I started attending the Italian Grand Prixevery year apart from that first one. Until last year, Monza was one of two home races for us in Italy, whereas this year, without the appointment at Imola, it is the only one. That means we can expect more pressure than usual, as there is only one chance to get a good result at home."

�Last year in Monza was also a very emotional race day. Michael won the race and it was then that he announced he was retiring. He told the whole team over the radio after he had taken the flag that he would be retiring at the end of the year. To be honest, the rumours had already been circulating for a while, but for some of the guys it was a big surprise and I remember tears in the eyes of some of the mechanics.�

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