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Pedro de la Rosa was in Maranello this week
for a seat fitting to fine tune his position
in the cockpit of the new car. He had a
series of meetings with the Scuderia
engineers to define his programme on the
simulator, which will constitute the major
part of his role as test driver. |
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It will
fall to Felipe Massa to give the car that Ferrari will
use in this year’s Formula 1 World Championship its
track debut. The Brazilian will begin work on
development of the new car, starting on 5 February at
the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, which hosts the first
of three test sessions of four days duration each, to be
held in the run-up to the start of the season. Felipe
will stay on track until 7 February before handing over
to Pedro De La Rosa, who will thus make his debut at the
wheel of a Ferrari.
In the meantime and throughout all the first part of
February, Fernando Alonso will intensify his physical
training, in preparation for a first part of the season
which, as usual will be very demanding, both because of
the long distances involved between the various grands
prix and because of the variety of weather conditions
encountered from Melbourne to Sakhir, with Sepang and
Shanghai in between.
Fernando will get behind
the wheel of the fourth car of his Ferrari career for
the first time on 19 February at Montmelo’s Catalunya
circuit. The Spaniard will drive for three days before
handing over to team-mate Massa.
The final test
session, also at Montmelo from 28 February to 3 March
will see Felipe and Fernando take turns on track:
Thursday and Saturday for the Brazilian, Friday and
Sunday for the Spaniard. This means the breakdown of
test days for the Ferrari men is as follows: Massa six
days, Alonso five and De La Rosa one.
In fact, Pedro was in Maranello this week for a seat
fitting to fine tune his position in the cockpit of the
new car. He had a series of meetings with the Scuderia
engineers to define his programme on the simulator,
which will constitute the major part of his role as test
driver. This means that his day on track on 8 February
will be important, as it will allow both the team and
the driver to work specifically on looking at the
correlation between the virtual and the real experience.
The work of assembling the new car goes on: yesterday
the engine was fired up for the first time.
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