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Even before the winter tests in Spain in February had come to
an end, the media and “F1 experts” were already talking
about Scuderia Ferrari being “in crisis.” However, in
interviews with the press, the drivers and senior
management did not deny the fact that the F2012 was
displaying some shortcomings in overall performance,
particularly on the aerodynamic front and in terms of
top speed. There were positives too, such as the
Prancing Horse’s inability to get tyres up to
temperature quickly, apparently having been solved with
this year’s car.
The opening
round in Melbourne showed that the Ferrari did not have
the measure of the fastest cars. However, just seven
days after he finished fifth in the Australian Grand
Prix, Fernando Alonso stood on the top step of the
Sepang podium and got down from it leading the Drivers’
championship. How could this happen? A miracle? An
accelerated one week development programme?
Nothing of
the sort as the team’s Technical Director Pat Fry
explained. “Our position is down to a combination of
circumstances, especially the fact that Fernando had two
very good races,” began the Englishman. “In Melbourne,
after an issue in qualifying, Fernando’s good start and
good first corner made up for a lot of things. The
weather conditions at the last race worked in our favour,
as our car worked well there and he made the most of the
opportunities that came his way. We got the pit stop
calls right and the pit crew did a fantastic job, so
that every time Fernando came into pit lane, we either
gained places or extended the lead still further. For
Fernando, it’s great to be leading the championship,
something I would have not expected just a few weeks
ago.
“I certainly wasn’t expecting to have one driver leading
the championship. From quite early on in testing, we
realised we had quite a few issues we needed to sort
out. Everyone at the factory has been working hard at
that, as we still have a long way to go. I think our dry
qualifying performance is still around 8 tenths off the
best while we want to be the best ourselves. Damp low
grip conditions suit our car and flatter some of the
issues we have with the F2012 at the moment. You could
see that in Melbourne on Friday and again in the race in
Malaysia.”
While the Scuderia’s Spanish double world champion has
his name at the top of the classification, team-mate
Felipe Massa has yet to score a point, struggling more
with the car balance. “The car is quite difficult to
drive and Fernando has managed to get the most out of
it, while with Felipe, we have struggled to find the
right balance to keep him happy,” admitted Fry. “In
addition, in Malaysia, we had Felipe on intermediates
after the red flag but we had a lot of understeer and so
we took the gamble of an additional pit stop which did
not work out. The fact the tyres were only graining and
not worn out was about the only call we got wrong from
the pit wall at the last race. It was a set-back for
Felipe, one of a few unfortunate circumstances for him.”
“If I was asked to rate the overall performance of the
Scuderia so far, I’d mark it differently depending on
different sections of the company,” continued Fry. “The
team, the mechanics at the track have worked very well:
in Melbourne we had the quickest pit stops and in
Malaysia the speed of the pit crew and the strategy saw
us gain position or time on others every time we pitted.
However, ranking the actual performance of the package,
I’d rate it much lower. Another plus is the way the team
is responding, dealing with the stresses of trying to
play catch-up. The manufacturing department, working on
some of the more aggressive requests we’ve made, has
responded very well. So, it’s been a great team effort,
but we haven’t done a good job in getting the car out on
track to be quickest from the start.”
Technical development of a Formula 1 car usually moves
along two paths: the first one follows a plan set out
even as the car is first being designed and built, while
the second feeds off lessons learned during testing and
races. At the moment, because of the performance
shortfall, the Scuderia is also having to move down a
third path, which involves trying to speed up
development and introduce updates earlier than planned.
“We are constantly working on improving the issues we
have,” said Fry. “New parts are coming through and we
are trying to get them to the race track as quickly as
possible – We will have five updates for China, some are
quite visible others less so. Then there will be a
bigger upgrade package for Spain. It would be nice to
have them earlier, but we have already brought forward
some parts we were developing for Spain and we should
have them in China.”
Naturally, Fry’s main focus is within his own team, but
he can allow himself a quick assessment of the F1
hierarchy after the opening back-to-back races. “I was
slightly suprised by Red Bull’s comparative lack of
pace. McLaren were relatively quick but I would have put
these two teams the other way round if you’d asked me a
month ago. Mercedes also seem quick, but they have
similar rear tyre degradation to the past, so while they
are good in qualifying, their race pace drops away and
Lotus is the other team that has done a good job,
looking quick from the very first test in Jerez.”
There have been eight Chinese Grands Prix to date and
Scuderia Ferrari has won three of them, starting with
Rubens Barrichello’s victory in the event’s inaugural
year, 2004. Then, 2006 and 2007 saw victories for
Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen respectively.
Fernando Alonso won from pole in 2005, although not at
the wheel of a red car and the Spaniard was also on the
podium for the two following years in second place.
Felipe Massa has also enjoyed the view from the
spectacular podium at the Shanghai International
Circuit, coming home third in 2007 and doing one better
the following year.
The Shanghai circuit is just under five and a half
kilometres in length and the facility itself is built on
an epic scale as a testament to China’s desire to be the
biggest economic powerhouse on the globe. It is one of
designer Hermann Tilke’s more challenging track layouts,
with many long corners that generate high lateral
g-forces, so good overall balance and stability under
braking are important aspects of the car package.
Pirelli is providing its Soft and Medium compound tyres,
but the smooth surface means tyre wear is not usually a
problem here, although with few races held during the
season, the track can be rather dirty for the first day
of practice. “Shanghai is a good mixture,” confirms Fry.
“There are long low speed corners where you need a good
front end and there’s a requirement to brake and turn in
at the same time, so carrying speed through the first
corner into the second is particularly interesting.
There are some reasonably high speed corners too and a
1.3 kilometre straight with the DRS zone at the end of
it should make it interesting for the race.” The Chinese
Grand Prix has often been affected by rain and no doubt
that would suit the plans of the Scuderia, given
Alonso’s wet weather performance in Malaysia.
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