Alonso praises Ferrari progress

[vcs316]

Fernando Alonso has praised the progress made by Ferrari with its new F150th Italia after completing the second pre-season F1 test of the year at Jerez.

Alonso ended the final day with the third quickest time behind Rubens Barrichello and Kamui Kobayashi, but was able to complete well over 100 laps in a series of long runs as the amount of mileage completed by the new car exceeded the 3,000km mark.

The Spaniard insisted that the reliability shown by the car at both Valencia and Jerez was the most pleasing aspect of the testing completed thus far although he was quick to point out once again that too much focus shouldn’t be given to the times set.

“The best thing about these first two test sessions is definitely the reliability,” he said. “Both myself and Felipe have been able to always do at least one hundred laps a day, which is very positive. Our aim in these tests is to make the car as tough as possible and then, when we get to Bahrain, introduce some developments aimed at performance.

“As I often said recently, there is no point in looking at the time sheets, but it would be very surprising if any teams other than Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Renault and Mercedes are fighting for the wins. Red Bull ended last year with an advantage of around half a second over the others and it would be strange if they were not the strongest in Bahrain.”

Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa spent much of the Jerez test working on the new Pirelli tyres and the double champion admitted there was still work to do to get used to the tyres before the season opener.

“It is the biggest change of the year and there is still a lot of work to do to adapt the car set-up and driving style to these tyres,” he said. “From what we have seen so far, we will need to run different strategies with more pit stops. We managed to do around forty laps, not all at one go, on the same set of tyres, but we know that in the much higher temperatures of Bahrain, the situation will be very different.”

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/130220...-progress.html

[vcs316]

Alonso won't be drawn on Ferrari form

Fernando Alonso says Ferrari has made 'very good progress' this week at Jerez but still refuses to measure the F150th Italia against its rivals.

He finished the final day of the test in third place, but it was the 115 laps he covered and the long-run consistency of the Ferrari that most pleased the Spaniard.

"I'm very happy," he said. "After four days here at Jerez, no problems for Felipe [Massa], no problems for me, so we are doing some very good progress.

"We know that this year the tyre consistency is not the same as last year. One of the biggest changes for 2011 is how the tyres degrade, so we are working on that area.

"It's true that we found every day some new solutions we need to analyse. But obviously I will not tell you which tyres I used for which run."

Alonso added that it's still too soon to try to judge Ferrari's competitiveness against the likes of Red Bull and McLaren, and that the aim for next week's Barcelona test will be more mileage.

"There is not much time to prepare, I think in three days' time we are in Barcelona ready for the test. We will keep focused to make the car very strong, to make more than 100 laps every day - that's the target.

"To see performance of the car and to evaluate how competitive we are, we need to do it Sunday after the first race in Bahrain. Then we will say the car is good or the car is not so good.

"Until that point, our efforts are made to make the car strong. All the little problems that you can find in tests, the temperatures, whatever, this is the time to solve them."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89469

[wacko]

As much as race pace is good to have, single lap speed is great to have. F1 races are such that qualifying plays a very big part in the results, I am keeping my fingers crossed that the F150 (along with our amazing drivers) is able to pull out the single lap times when needed on Saturdays.

[Greig]

with the moving rear wing then quali is probably less crucial now, I would much rather have the race pace

[RedRebel40]

with the moving rear wing then quali is probably less crucial now, I would much rather have the race pace

True!

[brava]

with the moving rear wing then quali is probably less crucial now, I would much rather have the race pace

I hope so, but not sure yet as how effective would be the new rear wing at overtaking

[aroutis]

Exactly. Right now what counts is the race pace and the consistency. And it would help if we're very good with the tyres, and it seems that we actually are.

I don't wish to be ahead of myself but it seems we're doing actually quite good. Let's wait tho for the next tests, and definitely for the first 3 races before we can start cheering ;)

[ferrari4life]

In 2005, how was Kimi able to blast through the field from dead last after the Mclaren failed in quali and end up in the top 5? There was no gadgets to aide passing. What has changed?

[Greig]

The grid is much closer in performance now

[Ant Raikkonen]

In 2005, how was Kimi able to blast through the field from dead last after the Mclaren failed in quali and end up in the top 5? There was no gadgets to aide passing. What has changed?

Indeed.
Kimi ran a lot longer on fuel in those races particularly and was able to make up a lot of places with that strategy, coupled with a very fast car to make it stick. Races that spring to mind are Silverstone, Magny Cours & Suzuka.
I think at France he started something like 14th and after the pit stops were all sorted he slotted into 2nd if memory serves.

[ferrari4life]

The grid is much closer in performance now

I can see how that might explain Alonso having problems passing the Renault in the last race last season. But both our drivers has a hell of a time getting by some of the real slow teams when they found themselves at the back of the grid last year.

[Julie B]

No I don't think they did, see Alonso in Australia, Massa in Canada

[Alessandra]

“The best thing about these first two test sessions is definitely the reliability,” he said. “Both myself and Felipe have been able to always do at least one hundred laps a day, which is very positive. Our aim in these tests is to make the car as tough as possible and then, when we get to Bahrain, introduce some developments aimed at performance.


Oh, there is method in our madness.........for sure

[Rob]

with the moving rear wing then quali is probably less crucial now, I would much rather have the race pace

yeah for me pole is nice, but race pace and being able to run at the front with a hard consistant pace is far more important. Pole is only bragging rights, oh i got 10 poles this year!! ok how many did you convert too wins???

Pole doesnt, sometimes it does win you the race. This year we have few more elements in the race adjustable rear wing, KERS and the possiblity of 2 or 3 pitstops this year. So strategy will come into it again this year aswell.

[brembo man]

yeah for me pole is nice, but race pace and being able to run at the front with a hard consistant pace is far more important. Pole is only bragging rights, oh i got 10 poles this year!! ok how many did you convert too wins???

Pole doesnt, sometimes it does win you the race. This year we have few more elements in the race adjustable rear wing, KERS and the possiblity of 2 or 3 pitstops this year. So strategy will come into it again this year aswell.

Well said. That's what Vetell didn't do all year, win from pole. That's why for me; it's soooo hard to get over that last race.

[scuderiafan]

Again, i am optimistic, considering the RBs long run pace this year.

I think that they will be faster than us in Quali, but we will have the better race pace, maybe because we can conserve our tyres better than anyone else. Pretty much every car of ours since 2006 hasbeen able to do this, why not?

And if this happens, i can totally see people accuse us of cheating, like Pirelli give us better compounds because of italianness.

Now this is all theoretical and wishful thinking, but it could happen.

[RockyRaccoon]

I have to admit I'm getting pretty nervous about the RB7 now...although I'm like this pre season every year. I still haven't got over the shock of Alonso being knocked out in Q2 at Aus 2008, I naively thought Renault could fight for the championship and then in 2009 I was certain it was going to be Renault v Ferrari v Mclaren and look how that turned out! Since then I've taken it seriously when one car looks to be ahead and well to me Red Bull seem to be ahead. We have a secret weapon though...two much better drivers than Red Bull!

[brembo man]

Again, i am optimistic, considering the RBs long run pace this year.



And if this happens, i can totally see people accuse us of cheating, like Pirelli give us better compounds because of italianness.

Now this is all theoretical and wishful thinking, but it could happen.

Well it's true ! Please know i'm kidding, before I get bombarded with troll remarks.

[Hermann]

"It was a satisfying/reasonable day": Means, "we are a bit concerned"
"The reliability is good": Means, "the car is very slow"
"We remain positive for the season ahead": Means "we've got some catching up to do"
"I am confident": Means "I am worried"
But..."I am very happy": Means "I like they way things are going"

"We are very happy with the work we did today" - good!
"We obtained some positive results with the work we did today". - bad


You decide...


*Not my idea- copied from autosport

[F1_Fan]

who reads that crap site called autosport?