Domenicali consoles Felipe Massa after his heartbreaking driver's championship loss at Brazil last year. (LAT Photographic) » More Photos

Referring to the KERS, the kinetic energy recovery system, introduced in 2009, Domenicali said: "First of all I want to make a political consideration as far as the KERS is concerned: our position, which we discussed with other teams, is, that in a moment, when one has to reduce costs, the introduction of such a system is a contradiction in terms. We can decide if we want to use the KERS in our car and when it's clear that the system will effectively improve the performance, which it seems to do in simulations, it will be our task and technical challenge, to push on with it. Today is a very important day also as far as this system is concerned and we're testing the new system on the track. I don't expect any surprises; but we'll definitely see the problems when it's used on the track. As you know tests are limited to 15,000 kilometers this year and there's no possibility to test after the start of the season. I expect that test stands and simulations will be used much more. As I already said there will be many more problems, but our main objective is reliability. Last year we paid a high price; this year, with a new system as complex as the KERS, our main objective is the verification of the reliability. The car on the track today confirms it; it's fitted with the KERS."

One of the journalists spoke about the importance of the human error in last year's Championship, asking if in 2009 the protocols as far as quality control and Team are concerned have changed: "The procedural reliability is part of the overall reliability," Domenicali said. "Human errors remain a characteristic of the team and the drivers, which gives a certain humanity to racing. We tried to improve the procedures and we introduced people from different areas to improve the procedures and increase concentration. Although human error will always be a part."

As far as the possibility is concerned that the teams will show up less prepared to GPs, due to new regulations and restrictions, the Scuderia's Director confirmed: "The new approach will lead to a completely different interpretation of the race weekends. The drivers might have a more important role: if the systems will work at 100% the drivers will have an extremely big delta performance, which will find its expression in tenths of a second; then there will be new tyres and the engine speed will be different; we have to understand how to deal with it the best possible way; and then there is the new wing the drivers have to get used to. The drivers are facing a season, in which they might have to give a bigger contribution I think."
As far as cost cuts, at Ferrari and the other teams, are concerned, Domenicali said: "It's difficult to say, because it's different for every team. We're working with the FOTA to determine if and how much we can reduce the costs. At best we can talk about percentages, because the organizational evaluations are different for the teams. Formula One's reorganization must not touch the technological part, but, as in our case, has to relate more to a contribution to production vehicles. The excesses of the past years have to be cut; now we have to understand how."

In case one of the top teams might see that it hasn't been set up the best possible way, what are the chances to recover during the season? "This is one of the most important points of the upcoming season. When we're heading for Australia we can't modify much. On Friday we can test what we want to use over the weekend. There will be more test stands and we might have to risk much more. If our car will be competitive right from the beginning, it will be a decisive element in understanding where we are."
As far as the new engine regulations are concerned Domenicali said that the agreement determines that every driver can use up to eight engines over the season when and where it is suitable. In case a ninth engine has to be used an appropriate penalty has still to be found.

The last questions were about Kimi Raikkonen's new race engineer, delivering engines to Honda and Michael Schumacher's contribution: "To use Andrea Stella as Raikkonen's race engineer has been decided last year. I want to underline that Dyer will have an important role in the coordination of the race engineers. As far as delivering engines to Honda is concerned this possibility is almost 0 at the moment. Michael is the only one with experience with slick tyres and, together with Luca Badoer, he will give an important contribution."

At the end of the month Kimi will participate in a rally: "Traditionally we always have a very open relationship with our drivers; we were criticized when Michael Schumacher played football on the race weekends. Letting Kimi drive a two-day rally is the same approach. We consider it two days of tests for him, although it's not Formula 1

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