Friday Report: Ferrari – Too Early to Make a Prediction

Studious day at Ferrari. The day was dedicated to testing some aerodynamic updates brought to the car. Alonso is satisfied with the situation, even though he admits it’s not easy to determine a hierarchy from this first day.

Once again, the Spaniard emphasized the importance of strategy and the ability to react at the right moment depending on the tire degradation, which seems much less significant than in Barcelona.

Opinion shared by his teammate who believes he has not been able to get the most out of his car so far.

Fernando Alonso – 3rd and 3rd:

Nothing new for now. These two sessions have not yet revealed the true level of the teams. This morning, Red Bull was doing well and in the afternoon, it was McLaren’s turn with us and Mercedes not far behind while Williams and Renault also seem competitive.

There are so many teams that could have a chance to fight for victory, and that’s why it will be important to have a good error-free Saturday if you want to start from the front row. Today, we mainly focused on analyzing the behavior of the Pirelli tires, which seem a bit different from what we saw during the winter tests, partly because the track surface is different.

«Regarding the strategy, we will need to be very flexible during the race because right now, we don’t know enough about the tires to be able to say precisely at which lap it will be best to stop. From what we’ve seen today, maybe we can do ten laps with a set of tires, or maybe thirty! I’m happy with the car’s behavior and we’re still trying to achieve perfect grip at the front, but it’s better than expected. »

We wanted to show that Japan was in everyone’s thoughts at Ferrari, which is why we raced with a sticker dedicated to the people of Japan, a country that has contributed a lot to F1 where our sport is still very popular.

Felipe Massa – 11th and 7th:

We tested a lot of things in these two practice sessions, and we shared the work with my teammate to explore different avenues to prepare for the rest of the weekend. I expected to set a better time, particularly because the softs are not at their best before the 4th lap. With the hards, on the long runs, I couldn’t do much because there was a bit of rain to complicate the situation.

From what we have seen, the soft tires degrade less than we expected, but we need to work if we want that to still be the case during the race. This track is definitely less harsh on the tires compared to Barcelona, for example. This year, it will be vital to study their behavior, circuit by circuit. The performance difference between the two types of tires is very pronounced.

McLaren and Red Bull seem very strong, but there are other cars that can also be competitive.

Pat Fry – Head of Strategy:

This morning we worked on evaluating aerodynamic innovations on the front wing, while the afternoon was dedicated to comparing the two types of tires that Pirelli brought here. Unfortunately, the second session took place in changing weather conditions, which made the assessment of the situation more difficult.

«During the first 90 minutes, it seemed that the tires degraded less compared to what we had seen during private testing. I think we need to analyze the data very carefully, especially regarding the long stints. »