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The tyres are a fundamental issue," says
Ferrari Team Principal Stefano Domenicali,
"the new tyres are significantly different
from the others, so there might be more pit
stops and we have to understand how not to
stress them too much." |
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Stefano, is it important to start well
this year? Yes, it’s
fundamental, also because if you don’t start gaining
points immediately, you can’t recover them later.
Naturally at the start there’s a higher possibility to
make up for possible mistakes, but the points lost can’t
be regained.
One year ago you won at the start. This year,
are you pointing towards the whole season or more
towards the early stages? Honestly I don’t
expect to see the real potential of our competitors in
the first tests, but we’ll know more in Barcelona.
Bahrain will be the first real test. Our strategy, which
is a conservative approach, is to make it to the end and
be ahead. To reach this objective the mobile rear wing
has to be interpreted and used best possible, together
with the KERS, where we had many problems in 2009, but
we hope that we could solve them due to our experience.
As far as aerodynamics is concerned I think that there
will be less improvement as the season goes on, so we
have to start well immediately.
Ferrari has worked and is still working on
limiting expenses and controlling them with the others.
We want to monitor the expenses attentively, because
when we enter a commitment we respect it. We were the
first to accept a step back for the greater good of
Formula 1 at an historical moment, when it was
necessary. We invested in places close by, in Fiorano
and in Mugello. But limiting costs can’t be something
where the whole system gets stuck. Knowing that other
teams really want to win, everything to be able to
compete on the highest levels has to be done, respecting
also non-motorsport commitments we’ve taken. We’ll
monitor this and we all will talk about it together.
Apart from the new regulations, how are you
prepared as far as the tyres are concerned? The
tyres are a fundamental issue. The new tyres are
significantly different from the others, so there might
be more pit stops and we have to understand how not to
stress them too much. The first tests next week are very
important to understand the tyres. I hope that it will
rain for at least one day, because we don’t have any
indication regarding the tyres’ behaviour on the wet,
apart from the first data from the test Pirelli carried
out under almost monsoon-like conditions. There are many
unknown factors to consider.
Which areas have been included in the cost
monitoring? Those areas include the chassis,
apart from the engine and the gearbox. Over the years we
tried to set a limit regarding the expenses also as far
as the number of people involved is concerned and the
external expenses we have to cover every year. We
lowered the expenses by about 30 to 40%, while we also
reduced the number of people in the group working in the
motorsport department.
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