Stefano Domenicali on Wednesday said he hopes it rains at some point during the 15 scheduled days of pre-season testing before the 2011 opener.
F1 has switched from Bridgestone to Pirelli for this year, but solid sunny weather will mean the circus congregates in Bahrain in March without having tried the Italian marque’s wet tyres.
"If it doesn’t rain, there is no other way to try them," Domenicali told reporters at the ’Wrooom’ media event in the Italian Dolomites.
"That would make the first wet session at the track interesting," smiled the boss of the Ferrari team, a staunch opponent of F1’s harsh restrictions on track testing.
Also interesting in F1 will be the sport’s political side, Domenicali admitted.
At the end of 2012, the current Concorde Agreement will expire and there has already been some talk of a ’breakaway’ series.
"Right now it (the politics) is fairly quiet," Domenicali is quoted as saying by Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport. "I expect that to change by the middle of the season.
"The FIA, the teams and the commercial rights holder must together find a way forwards," he added.
More immediately, there has been talk that Red Bull broke a cost-saving agreement in 2010, but Domenicali denied that the team might be stripped of its championship titles.
This (the resource restriction agreement) is between the teams," said the Italian. "The FIA is not involved.
"So, a violation will not affect the results. If a team has spent too much, the agreement provides that it has to spend less in subsequent years," he added.
Ferrari wants to win both titles
When a new season starts you take a glance at the one that has just finished but, above all, you give targets for the new one. That’s up to the chief and for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro since 2008 that job has gone to Stefano Domenicali, who has begun his 20th year at the Maranello company. The stage for this announcement is a year older: Wroom is now in its 21st edition.
The Ferrari team principal said: “In 2010 we just missed out on the drivers title with Fernando Alonso and we came third in the constructors championship. The target for 2011 is as easy to say as it is hard to achieve – it requires taking one step forward in the drivers championship and two in the one for the teams. These have to be our targets because we are Ferrari. To manage it we want to have a car that is super-competitive and reliable from the very start. We know that we will have to be perfect, including in how we react to all the events that can crop up in a race weekend – because when the opponents are so strong and numerous this is what you need if you aspire to win.”
The new car will be presented on January 28 at Maranello and then, weather conditions permitting, it will immediately be used for some promotional shots at the Fiorano circuit. The car will have a livery based on the new logo that will adorn all the sporting activities carried out by Ferrari this year. Then it will begin the 15 days of pre-season testing allowed by the regulations on February 1 at the Cheste circuit in Valencia. The first driver at the wheel will be Fernando Alonso, who will hand over to team-mate Felipe Massa on the third day.
“The car that you will see at the Maranello launch will be very different from the one that makes its debut on March 13 in Bahrain,” added Domenicali. “We will continue to develop the car up to the last available day, as we believe the other teams will.”
The Valencia test will also mark Pat Fry’s debut in his new role of head of race track engineering – one that he holds in addition to his existing title of deputy technical director. Domenicali explained: “For a while we were thinking of improving the team in certain areas so this decision was not taken on impulse after what happened in Abu Dhabi – if anything it was just brought forward. Pat will have the responsibility of running all the track activities both technical and relating to the drivers. To do that in the most effective way, together with the race engineers, he will also have the support of the tools that will be available and improved by a new technical body that we have created: the Operations Research department, which will be headed by new arrival Neil Martin. This department will also have the job of improving the integration between simulator, wind tunnel and technical office. There will be no other changes.”
"Abu Dhabi is the past"
There was a vast number of questions during a three-hour, marathon media session, what with a press conference and TV and radio interviews that constituted the main part of Stefano Domenicali’s day at Madonna di Campiglio.
There was no way the 2010 season could be ignored, especially the way it all ended in Abu Dhabi. As usual, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Team Principal had a very reasoned approach to those events. “Everyone reckons that it was all down to Abu Dhabi and the mistake made there, but the truth is that the championship was lost in the early part of the season, when we failed to pick up the points that were within our grasp. At the final race we missed a decisive penalty shot, but as is the case in football, the best thing to do is to take another one immediately, to consign the mistake to history, even if it does not wipe out all the good work we did earlier. I clearly remember that, at the start of the summer, no one would have bet a single Euro on our chances of challenging to the end, but then we all know how it turned out. Now, throughout the team, there is a great will to do well and to put behind us this bad end to a season which was nevertheless a positive one, especially the second half, when we put on a great show of concentration and determination in what was definitely not an easy situation.”
“From a personal point of view, I can confirm that I did consider that it would be the right thing to do as team boss, and therefore the person ultimately responsible for every decision, to hand in my resignation, but I also told myself that it would be the wrong decision,” continued Domenicali. “Sure, in the days immediately after, I felt downhearted but then and with the support I got, first and foremost from President Montezemolo, but also the thousands of messages of support that came from all over, from partners to fans which only served to sustain my will to react. Apart from that, there’s no point crying over spilt milk, as all it does is goes our opponents an advantage.”
Source: NextgenAuto
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