fAfter
yesterday's disappointment at watching Italy get knocked
out of the football World Cup, today the Scuderia's
total focus, as always in fact, was on preparing for
Sunday's race. While taking into account all the usual
Friday unknowns, regarding what programme the other top
teams are running, the European Grand Prix campaign
seems to have got off to a good start for Ferrari, as
Fernando Alonso ended the day fastest of the field of
twenty four, while Felipe Massa, who lost some track
time this afternoon, when his engine cut out after an
otherwise harmless spin, requiring his F10 to be brought
back to the pits on a truck, eventually got going again
to post the seventh quickest time.
Today's free practice was one of the busiest of the
season so far for the team, because the ban on in-season
testing means that Fridays at a Grand Prix are the only
real opportunity to track test new car developments and
here the F10s sported several, most significantly a
different design of exhaust system: no amount of wind
tunnel or bench testing work can accurately replicate
how something will work on track, especially with
components related to heat and high temperatures as is
the case with an exhaust redesign. So far, on this front
at least, the new parts are working well. Evaluating the
aero updates is possibly a bit harder, because the
Valencia track is always very dirty for the first
session of the weekend, although it improved
dramatically in the afternoon: for example, Fernando was
over three seconds quicker in the second session than in
the first.
Following the Spanish Ferrari driver on the afternoon
time sheet were the Red Bull duo, with Sebastian Vettel
ahead of Mark Webber, with Nico Rosberg fourth for
Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the McLaren, and
Robert Kubica's Renault wrapped up the top six.
With several other formulae competing on the Valencia
street circuit this weekend, by the time the Formula 1
cars are back in action for final free practice tomorrow
morning, the track surface should be much more rubbered
in, giving the team a clearer picture of what
improvement the new updates on the F10 have delivered,
prior to the afternoon's grid deciding qualifying
session.
Stefano Domenicali.
“I would say that our weekend has got off to a positive
start, but it’s too early to draw any real conclusion.
From what we saw today, we are on the pace on a track
that has some similarities to the one in Montreal. Now
we have to analyse all the data gathered over these
three hours, to be as well prepared as possible for
qualifying and especially for the race. As usual, a good
grid position will be vital, especially so here on a
track where overtaking is very difficult.”
Fernando Alonso: “Here, as in Montreal,
our car seems to work well, even if it’s difficult to
make a direct comparison, given that the track surface
is very different and that one needs a bit more
aerodynamic downforce. Together with Felipe, we worked
on the development of new technical solutions, but it is
hard to say how much we have improved compared to the
others. The F10 has turned out to be easy to drive and
competitive in every situation, both with low and high
fuel loads, but it is too early to say where we are:
this morning, the McLarens were very quick, the Red
Bulls are always on front running pace and even Mercedes
and Renault are very close. However, our only aim is to
be ahead of everyone, otherwise we wouldn’t be Ferrari.”
Felipe Massa: “The track was very
dirty, which makes it difficult to understand exactly
how much the new parts which we used for the first time
today have improved the performance of the car. I never
managed to get a clean lap when I was on new tyres with
low fuel and this explains my position on the time
sheet. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the handling of
my car. I think we have made a step forward in
performance terms and that we should be competitive this
weekend: I hope I can fight for a place on the top rows.
The spin? I hit a kerb, spun and then I chose to brake
to avoid hitting the wall: unfortunately the engine cut
out and we now have to look into why the anti-stall did
not work.”
Chris Dyer: “Today we had to carry out
a very packed programme to test the various new
technical updates that we have brought here for the
first time. We had a few minor problems this morning
with Fernando, which cost a bit of time, while in the
afternoon it was Felipe who lost out on half an hour’s
running time because of a spin. All the same, we were
able to manage the situation and gathered all the data
we wanted. We are reasonably pleased with what we have
seen: at the moment there do not seem to be any
reliability problems relating to the new configuration
of the exhaust system and the F10 is pretty competitive.
At this track, tyre behaviour seems more “normal”
compared to Montreal: the hard ones are struggling to
get up to temperature but improve lap after lap, while
the softs are more consistent than they were in Canada.”
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