This is More Like it
By Mark Hughes
BBC F1 commentary box producer
Before the team orders controversy ruined Ferrari's otherwise triumphal weekend at the German Grand Prix, there had been another cloud hanging over the team.
Rival teams were suspicious that the F10's front wing - and that of the Red Bull - was so close to the ground when under load out on the track that it was surely gaining a big aerodynamic advantage.
After studying photographs of all the cars in action, these rivals could not see how the wing could do this without the aid of some illegitimate linkage and were suspicious the car was not legal.
They presented photographs and calculations to governing body the FIA and outlined their concerns.
Both the Ferrari and Red Bull were checked extensively by FIA scrutineers post-race and found to be in full compliance with the regulations.
It was one more little tell-tale sign that Ferrari are back as a very serious threat.
But even before their controversial one-two result in Germany, there were signs that the car's underlying performance had taken a sharp upwards turn.
Around the fast sweeps of Silverstone, Fernando Alonso had qualified a strong third. It was a long way adrift of the pace of the Red Bull but was best of the rest - and on a circuit that was expected not to suit the car's characteristics.
"I knew as soon as we were quick at Silverstone that we were going to be very fast at both Hockenheim and Hungary," said Alonso.
The Ferrari F10 is a car that has always excelled on slow corners, where the emphasis is on braking and traction. It has strong braking and even better traction and Alonso in particular can maximise these traits superbly.
His pace at Monaco before crashing out of the final practice session and damaging his car enough so he took no part in qualifying had looked set to see him fighting for pole.
Two races later, the slow turns of Montreal resulted in the Ferrari being a potential race winner before backmarkers intervened.
But in between those two slow-corner tracks came Turkey and its super-fast, seven-second-long Turn Eight. Through that corner alone the Ferrari was losing more than 0.5 seconds to the Red Bull as its shortfall of high-speed downforce was exposed.
Ferrari should be sufficiently in contention for Alonso to get himself right in the mix
At Valencia the team's new blown diffuser was introduced and two weeks later at Silverstone came a totally new front wing - the one that was causing such suspicion at Hockenheim.
The car was quick at Valencia but that was no real test because it is primarily a slow-corner circuit.
Silverstone was much more demanding of the aerodynamics and the car was far closer to the pace than it had been at Istanbul, where Alonso had failed even to graduate from second qualifying.
It is still more competitive through slow corners than fast but the upgrades have brought a big chunk of improvement in its high-speed aerodynamics.
Alonso lost out on pole to Sebastian Vettel at Hockenheim by a scant two-thousandths of a second and the car was, if anything, slightly faster than the Red Bull in the race.
But Hockenheim has only a couple of fast corners, the rest being second or third gear.
The Hungaroring this coming weekend should be a similar story - and Alonso heads there absolutely on a mission, knowing that only a sequence of victories is going to bring him into title contention by the end of the year.
But will the car remain good enough on the subsequent circuits to keep that challenge alive?
Spa's sequence of super-fast turns might be expected to favour the Red Bull, although that should be tempered by the two very long straights in sectors one and three and how the RB6 lacks straight-line speed.
The performance pattern of the sectors at Hockenheim suggest that the Ferrari's new-found downforce has also come at some expense of straight-line speed, though.
However it plays out, the Ferrari would be expected to be less at home at the Belgian circuit than the German or Hungarian ones.
Monza is all about low-drag aerodynamics and, although the Ferrari's braking and traction will be a very significant boon there, this might be expected to be McLaren territory.
Singapore should be an ideal Ferrari/Alonso track, the fast sweeps of Suzuka may well see Red Bull dominant, South Korea we do not yet know, Interlagos and Abu Dhabi should both suit the Ferrari perfectly.
So unless either Red Bull or McLaren each get perfect runs between now and the end of the year, the Ferrari should be sufficiently in contention for Alonso to get himself right in the mix - providing the team maximises every opportunity.
One worrying little factor in that scenario is the team's heavy engine usage this year.
A 10-place grid penalty for an additional engine over the eight could have catastrophic implications on the team's title challenge - and all this is on the supposition that they do not receive any points penalty for the events of Hockenheim.
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