Räikkönen to reuse 1st engine, despite fire

An investigation at Ferrari's base in Maranello has showed that Kimi Raikkonen will be able to reuse the power unit he ran with in Australian despite having encountered a fire that forced him to retire from the race early on.

Räikkönen showed promising pace after grabbing the second place during the tumultuous start in the season-opener Australian race. The Finn then had to retire after the safety car period as flames shot out of his car.

Ferrari had suspected early on that the turbo was the cause of the Finn's problem, but they could not be sure until inspecting the unit in Italy. After having it transported, an investigation shows that the internal combustion engine and the ERS survived the incident. The Finn, however, will have to use his second turbo for the Bahrain GP as that was fatally destroyed.

Ferrari has had problems with his turbo since the start of the pre-season tests. The amount of full-throttle sections and high temperatures at Bahrain will be serious tests for the reliability of components of the PU.

Teams have five power units for the season to use as the calendar consists of 21 races which increased the number of allowed PUs from four to five.