Fernando can lift Ferrari

July 23rd, 2010 Nigel Roebuck

When it was announced, in September 2009, that Ferrari had decided to terminate Kimi Räikkönen’s contract a year ahead of time, and to put Fernando Alonso in with Felipe Massa, there was no surprise in Formula 1 circles. His first season with the team (2007, when he won the World Championship) apart, Räikkönen’s time with Ferrari had undeniably fallen short of expectations – more often than not, he was outpaced by Massa, a man on a smallish fraction of his retainer.

This has been a pricey season for Ferrari, which has not only had to pay off Kimi’s contract (while he contests the World Rally Championship for Citroën), but also to stump up for Fernando, who may be earning somewhat less than Kimi did (and certainly less than Mercedes is paying Michael Schumacher), but is still at the high end of the pay scale.

I’ll admit that when Alonso’s signing was confirmed I thought it good reason for other teams to quake a little. In the two years when Fernando won the World Championship, 2005 and ’06, Schumacher was still in his pomp, yet Alonso – with Renault – beat him. Put all that talent and commitment to work at Maranello, and how could anything much go wrong? When Fernando won the opening Grand Prix, in Bahrain, it seemed to suggest a stellar season for Ferrari.

As I write, immediately before Hockenheim, that remains the team’s only victory in 2010. All season long Red Bull has had unquestionably the quickest car, but it has been by no means the most reliable – and that, whatever else, has always been one of Ferrari’s strongest suits. When Sebastian Vettel’s car faltered in Bahrain, it was Alonso and Massa who took over.

Since then, though, it has been McLaren which has benefited most from Red Bull failings – and rightly so, because its car has been consistently developed, in the traditional McLaren manner, and if the MP4-25 is not the equal of the Red Bull (particularly in qualifying), in most of the races it hasn’t been far away. Thus, Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button sit first and second in the point standings.

Ferrari, meantime, has had a pretty thin season, and although Alonso has predictably outpaced Massa, one may be sure that he never envisaged, at mid-season, being only fifth in the championship, 47 points adrift of Hamilton.

In part this is because Fernando has made mistakes, which is uncharacteristic of him. There have been tangles at the first corner, an unfathomably jumped start, a shunt at Monte Carlo, which obliged him to miss qualifying and therefore start from the back – after being quickest of all in the first two practice sessions…

Many of the mistakes, I would suggest, have occurred because for a long time Alonso has necessarily been driving right at the edge in a car not truly on the pace. After an encouraging start to the season, Ferrari failed to keep pace with the developments other teams were introducing, and only in the last three races have decent innovations come through – in Montréal Fernando was right there, and only a couple of backmarkers kept him from threatening Hamilton in the late laps. In Valencia he was on Lewis’s tail, in third place, when the controversial safety car incident removed him from the reckoning. At Silverstone a drive-through penalty – also controversial – put him out of the points.

In Italy there is much talk of a crisis at Ferrari, and even speculation – misplaced, one hopes – about the future of Stefano Domenicali. Yes, the team has been through a very bad patch, but Alonso continues to insist that he can still be World Champion this year. He loves the team, and they him, but the time has come for a series of good results, and everyone knows it. I’m betting that Fernando will come on very strong through the balance of this season…

Source: MotorsportMagazine

Massa: Pre-season F1 Champion means nothing

Ferrari star Felipe Massa has played down suggestions that the Scuderia is the benchmark approaching the F1 2010 curtain-raising Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir in just under a fortnight's time - insisting that the title of pre-season champion 'means nothing'


Felipe Massa has brushed off suggestions that Ferrari is the benchmark heading into the 2010 F1 World Championship in just under a fortnight's time – insisting that the Scuderia 'never expects' to enter any campaign with an advantage, and stressing that there is no glory in being the champion of pre-season testing.

Many drivers have opined that the F10 is the car to beat off the back of test sessions at Valencia, Jerez de la Frontera and Barcelona over the past month, with both Massa and double world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso leading the way on occasion, and generally looking to have the most consistently competitive machine underneath them over short and long runs alike. The Spaniard has even gone so far as to describe his new scarlet contender as 'the best car he's ever had'.

However, whilst acknowledging that preparations have thus far gone according to plan, Massa – set to return to racing action in the curtain-raising Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir in mid-March, having been absent from the starting grid since his life-threatening Hungaroring qualifying accident last July – is adamant that neither he nor Ferrari will be taking anything for granted under the desert sun.

“We did what we had planned to do at the beginning of the month of testing,” the Brazilian affirmed. “We're very happy with the work done at all the tests. We wanted a competitive car, and I think we've achieved our goal. We've reached a good level of reliability, which is very important, and the car is consistent – and that is what we want to start the season.

“It's difficult to say who has worked best. [On the final day of testing] the timesheet said [Lewis] Hamilton, but we're all very close together – it's just tenths of a second. I am very satisfied with the car, [both] when we simulated qualifying and when we drove with lots of fuel on-board.

“We never really expect to have an advantage. We never expect to come to the first race and come to the front and win in an easy way, definitely not – but we expect to have a competitive car, and I think we have. It looks like it will be a tough and competitive championship, as I expected, but we are not here to be the champions of the pre-season. We are here to work on the car and fight for the championship.

“I think we're part of the group who did well in these tests – something you could see on the last day of testing, when many simulated qualifying. I don't agree at all with those who say we're the strongest; I would not say we are the best, but I think we're there in the middle of the competitive teams. We are there fighting. I can't say that we're going to Bahrain to win, but I know we'll fight for it.

“We had several aerodynamic updates [in Barcelona], which improved the car's performance. We now have to continue working in this direction. It's important to be ahead at the end of the year, not now. The same thing is true regarding the car; I have been lucky to be able to drive several very strong Ferrari single-seaters, and if the F10 is the best I've ever driven I'll only know after the race in Abu Dhabi!”

One remaining variable is just how the Bridgestone tyres will perform in the heat of Bahrain and Malaysia – two of the opening three grands prix of the forthcoming campaign – following unusually cold and wet conditions for the majority of testing. It is very much, Massa admits, a journey into the unknown.

“The situation might be a little bit different,” the 28-year-old agreed, “but during these sessions we got a good idea of how the tyres are working this year. Maybe a couple of times it was a little too cold for a certain type of tyre, but we could still collect much useful information, which will help us during the championship.

“Their behaviour will also influence the strategies; if there is lots of wear, maybe there will be more stops, but we'll see that race-by-race. This year, because the fuel aspect has been liberalised, the pit-stops will be even more unpredictable and will influence the results much more.”

Source: Crash.net