Friday: Ferrari reviewed all its new parts
Since the private tests at Mugello, Ferrari's Fridays have been very studious, with the flow of new parts remaining continuous. Today was no exception, as the Scuderia undertook valuable work evaluating these new components. Work they hope will pay off tomorrow but especially on Sunday.
Fernando Alonso – 5th and 7th:
Overall, it was a positive day during which we tried different new parts on the car: some worked well, others require some modifications and could be used at Silverstone. Naturally, we also worked a lot on the tires, which seem to degrade quite significantly here. In this regard, we must consider that conditions can change rapidly depending on the cloud cover. With a completely clear sky, the temperature can easily rise by 4 or 5 degrees and change the behavior of the tires. Now, we need to carefully analyze the data Felipe and I have gathered and determine the best possible combination of settings and technical solutions for qualifying and the race. This year, pole position seems less important than in the past, and I think that’s the case even on a circuit like this one: obviously, it’s always important to be first at the start, but that doesn’t mean if you start further back, you have no chance of winning. The championship? I’m not here to do the math; I take things race by race. Today, Hamilton is ahead of me, so the goal is to leave Valencia ahead of him, and after, maybe at Silverstone, Vettel will be first, and he will be the target.
Felipe Massa – 14th and 15th:
« We have accomplished an enormous amount of work in developing the improvements we have made here, and now, with the data in hand, we will try to choose the parts that give us a performance boost this weekend. This morning, I focused mainly on a series of aerodynamic comparisons, so I didn’t use the tires or the car in the best way possible. The afternoon went much better; I was pleased with the balance and handling of the car on the circuit. It’s a shame I made a mistake on my first lap with the soft tires, right at the start of the lap: my time, considering also that I was one of the first to use the soft tires, would undoubtedly have been better, and I could have finished much higher on the timesheet, even though it counts for little on a Friday afternoon. There’s still a lot of work to do, because I expect to see very fast cars tomorrow, but over a long distance, the situation isn’t too bad: there’s a bit of tire performance drop, but overall, the times were good. The wind? It has been a nuisance, especially in certain parts of the track where it made locking the front wheels easier. »
