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The Turkish Grand Prix has seen a hat-trick
of wins for Felipe Massa, with consecutive
victories from 2006 to 2008. Fernando Alonso
(above) has also been a frequent visitor to
the podium in Turkey,
finishing second in 2005 and 2006, with a third place in
2007. |
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The
seventh round of the Formula 1 World Championship takes
place at the Istanbul Park circuit, just outside the Turkish
city. A relatively new venue, it is an appointment that
Scuderia Ferrari looks forward to, given that a Prancing
Horse car has been first past the chequered flag three times
out of a total of the five Turkish Grands Prix held to date.
Those wins were the result of a hat-trick for Felipe Massa,
with consecutive victories from 2006 to 2008. Fernando
Alonso has also been a frequent visitor to the podium in
Turkey,
finishing second in 2005 and 2006, with a third place in
2007.
The logistical challenge which faced all the teams in
dealing with the very tight schedule at the start of the
European season, having the Spanish and Monaco Grands Prix
take place back to back, has not ended yet. Although the
Turkish event is considered part of the European leg of the
championship and the paddock features all the motorhomes and
trucks associated with this part of the calendar, the
distance to Istanbul from Maranello and indeed from all the
team bases is very long, so that the most efficient method
of getting there is by sea transportation from the port of
Trieste on Italy’s east coast, with the shipment leaving
there last Saturday, a couple of days earlier than usual.
The task
of preparing for the following race will also have to be
fitted into a short space of time as the next challenge is
that, this year, the next round is outside Europe in Canada.
All the equipment will be back in Maranello on the Wednesday
after the Turkish Grand Prix and, just two days later, the
cars and equipment boxes will be on a flight bound for
Montreal, to join the non-technical equipment sent out by
sea a few weeks ago. Only after the race in Quebec will the
logistics department be able to pause for breath. At least
the Icelandic volcano, which has disrupted so many F1 travel
plans, seems to be behaving itself for the time being.
Having opted not to run the blown rear wing on the low-speed
streets of Monaco, the device will make a return in Turkey
and Friday’s free practice session will be used to evaluate
a new management system for this wing, although its actual
structure remains unchanged. The aim of the change is to
make it more user-friendly for the drivers. Generally, the
characteristics of the track, which runs anti-clockwise,
should suit the car well. Bridgestone is bringing its Soft
and Hard compounds, which theoretically have not been best
suited to the F10, but much work has been done in this area
to improve the situation and make the car competitive
whatever tyre choice is available. One can also expect
higher temperatures this weekend than was the case in
Barcelona, the last time this combination of tyres was on
offer.
The 5.338 km track is considered to be one of the most
challenging of the new generation of circuits, offering a
good mix of low, medium and high speed corners with a couple
of genuine overtaking opportunities. The stand-out corner is
Turn 8, which is effectively four left hand turns all strung
together. The lateral G-forces at this challenging corner
are probably the highest the drivers experience anywhere on
the F1 calendar, with the fact the track is anti-clockwise
putting an extra strain on neck muscles, more used to going
the other way round. Additionally, this year’s refuelling
ban will involve manhandling a very heavy car through the
turn in the opening stages of the 58 lap race. Whatever the
outcome in terms of the final result for Massa and
Alonso, the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix will be a very special
date to inscribe in the Ferrari history book, as this
Sunday’s race will be the eight hundredth Formula 1 Grand
Prix in which a Prancing Horse car has taken part, the first
one being the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix.
ItaliaspeedTV:
Scuderia Ferrari Turkish
Grand Prix Preview - Felipe Massa Interview
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