Friday: A Carefree Day for Ferrari
With the three-week break, many teams arrived in China with new parts, and Ferrari is no exception. Now they will have to decide which ones to keep for the rest of the weekend.
Fernando Alonso – 5th and 3rd:
« At the end of the day, the general feeling is positive. We worked well and on top of that, it’s always a lot of fun to drive here in Shanghai. Between the two sessions, track conditions improved significantly thanks to the other categories that ran this morning after our practice session. The increase in temperature means that conditions were similar to those expected for tomorrow. Once again, the tires will play a big role in this Grand Prix because there is a high level of degradation. We will need to ensure we choose the right strategy for Sunday, as well as decide which new parts we will keep. As usual, we can expect a long evening of work to study the data. »
Felipe Massa – 7th and 1st:
« Today, I immediately had a good feeling with the car, even though at the beginning I wasn’t completely satisfied with the performance on medium tires. We were as fast as our competitors. When I switched to soft tires, the car improved, and I was able to set the best time of the day. It was impressive, like driving two different cars. Our race pace seems competitive, the car is easy to drive on both types of tires, and the degradation is not excessive, although the difference between the soft and medium tires will be an important factor in choosing the right strategy. I am confident and hope the weekend continues in this direction. »
