 |
|
At the end of last week Fernando Alonso
spent a day and a half at Maranello. On
Thursday afternoon, the Spaniard tackled the
simulator, preparing for this weekend's
European Grand Prix with his engineers.
Friday's schedule included taking part in
on-track activity with a group of Ferrari
owners, who got to drive around the Fiorano
track with the added bonus of doing so with
a special "teacher" who just happens to be a
double F1 world champion. At the same time,
Alonso also did a few laps of the track at
the wheel of the F10 for promotional
purposes (above). Even though he only
completed very few kilometres, further
limited by the demands of the film script,
it was nevertheless his debut at the Fiorano
circuit at the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1
car. |
|
|
|
The
ninth round of this year’s Formula 1 World Championship
will be the twentieth running of a European Grand Prix,
although the name has been used more often than that: in
the early years of the championship, the title of
European Grand Prix was added to that of an existing race, as an
“honour,” so that for example, the very first
championship race, the 1950 British GP was also known as
the European Grand Prix.
Since then, the name has been used to get round the rule
that each country can only hold one Grand Prix per year.
In the past, it has been staged at Brands Hatch, the
Nürburgring (the nearest it came to a permanent home,
with twelve races being held in the Eifel mountains,)
Donington Park and Jerez, before arriving at its current
location, the Valencia street circuit in 2008.
It is
fair to say that the addition of a second Spanish race
to the calendar is down to the popularity and success of
Fernando Alonso, as until the man from Oviedo began
racking up race wins and then world titles, the
Spaniards had preferred their motor sport on two wheels
rather than four and even the Spanish Grand Prix
sometimes struggled to produce a large crowd.
As for Ferrari's other driver, Felipe Massa returns to
Valencia for the first time since 2008, as last year’s
race was the first one he missed after his Budapest
accident. However, the Brazilian can claim to be
unbeaten at this circuit as he won the inaugural event
in 2008. Alonso’s best result in Valencia was a sixth place
last year. Apart from Massa’s victory at the Spanish
circuit, Ferrari has five
other European Grand Prix wins to its name, four of them
courtesy of Michael Schumacher and one through Rubens
Barrichello, all of these being at the Nürburgring.
As has been widely reported in the weeks leading up to
this race, Scuderia Ferrari will this weekend introduce
several modifications and updates to the F10, although
not quite as far reaching or extensive as these same
reports have suggested! The most significant feature is
a new configuration for the exhaust system, aimed at
improving the aerodynamic efficiency of the car. There
will also be additional aero updates to the rear end of
the car. However, these changes are just the first in a
series of improvements to the F10 which will roll out
over what is a very busy part of the season, with four
races coming in the space of the next five weeks
preceding the summer break. The intensive development
programme will run throughout this period. Part of this
phase of development included an aero test, when
Scuderia test driver Marc Gene was at the wheel for one
day last week at Vairano. Also last week, the two race
drivers were in Maranello for sessions on the simulator,
in preparation for the 57 laps of the 5.419 km track
around the Valencia harbour. It is not just the fact
that the circuit is near water that gives it something
in common with the Montreal circuit, because although
Valencia requires slightly higher downforce levels than
the Canadian venue, it is similar in having some high
speed sections mixed in with stop-start corners, yet
again making good traction and braking two priorities on
the car set-up sheet.
Therefore there is every chance that the F10 could
display the same degree of competitiveness that it
showed a fortnight ago across the Atlantic. The fact the
team was disappointed with Alonso “only” managing to
finish third in Canada, after the run of play with
backmarkers went against him, shows that within Ferrari
the feeling is that the championship is still very open.
|
|
|
