Australian GP 2011 - Ferrari Quotes

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Massa aims for fresh start in 2011

Felipe Massa says he is aiming to have a "completely different championship" than last year ahead of the start of the season this weekend.

"For sure, the goal is to have a completely different championship than 2010 in every direction," said Massa on Thursday in Australia.

"Being at the top and fighting for the top in every qualifying session and race which was not the case last year and I am really confident we can do that."

Massa endured a disappointing 2010, failing to win any races and being overshadowed by Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso in the standings.

But the Brazilian admits he is more optimistic for this year thanks to the Pirelli tyres suiting his style more.

"I am much more confident because the tyres works a little bit better in the direction to be a higher temperature and a better grip on the front, which is something I suffered with in qualifying," he said. "This is something that makes me a lot more confident and I hope as I said, that the q and race will be very different this race.

"You could stop three or four times in the race depending on the track. Last year we were stopping once! It is up to us to learn and have a very good strategy because the races will be different to last year."

Massa said he was also positive about Ferrari's form following a very strong winter of testing.

"I don't remember the winter from last year, but what I can say is that this winter it was positive. Looking that at all the changes in the rules and we were the team that did the most kilometres on the track compared to the other teams. On many days we saw cars running like 60 laps, cars having many problems and we were doing a minimum of 100 laps everyday so I think that's positive.

"Talking about the performance it is very difficult to say because we never on low fuel at the same time and soft tyres at the same time. We didn't do that so this is something we don't know but I can say we were one of the strongest over the winter.

"So if you put everything together I think we have a good car. But now we are going to be sure how good the car is and how sure Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren all the other teams and how we compare to them. For sure I expect Red Bull to be strong, but how much, even Red Bull doesn't know."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90126

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Sounds very encouraging

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Ferrari for Japan



Melbourne, 25 March – As the action gets underway at the Albert Park circuit, for the first round of the Formula 1 World Championship, the two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro cars are carrying a special sticker dedicated to Japan.

Fitted to the front wing support of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s 150° Italia cars, it features the Japanese flag with the message “Forza Giappone.” In this way, Ferrari wishes to shows its support for the Japanese people as they deal with the devastating consequences of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country on 11 March.

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Ferrari boss now concerned about Pirelli

Mar.25 (GMM) Stefano Domenicali has urged Pirelli to improve the durability of its 2011 tyres, despite recently shielding the Italian marque from the barrage of criticism, the Ferrari team boss admitted he is concerned about races beginning to unfold this season with multiple pitstops per driver.

“In the first race simulation in Barcelona, to achieve the best pace, we stopped four times,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“On Sunday (in Melbourne) there will be at least three, because when the performance drops, it is useless to leave a driver on the track without pace,” added Domenicali.

He urged Pirelli to develop its 2011 product.

“We suggested that tyres are made with a greater degradation in respect to 2010,” said Domenicali. “With Bridgestone you could almost drive a grand prix without stopping. But imagine the race here with so much traffic in the pits for 72 stops in 58 laps … I am concerned.”

Further concerns were being raised in Melbourne on Friday after a Pirelli tyre fitted to Sebastian Vettel’s car featured significant damage, but Red Bull team boss Christian Horner explained that the German had struck some debris.

Toro Rosso’s Jaime Alguersuari insisted he didn’t think anyone in F1 is “afraid” because of the Pirelli situation.

“There are many unknowns, many uncertainties, but it’s the same for everyone,” he told Marca sports daily.

Alguersuari said that “Every time you are on the track you understand more how they work”.

“Sometimes they give you something you didn’t expect, but every time you get more accustomed – us (drivers) and the team – to know how to set up the car better,” he added.

http://www.yallaf1.com/2011/03/25/fe...about-pirelli/

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On the opening day of the Formula 1 World Championship, Ferrari chose to show solidarity with the Japanese people, who have been so seriously affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit a fortnight ago. Therefore the two 150° Italia cars carried a phrase in Japanese and the country’s national flag. During today’s three hours of free practice, the Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers completed a total of 102 laps, split between 48 for Fernando Alonso and 54 for Felipe Massa.

Fernando Alonso: “Nothing new yet and what else would you expect? These two free practice sessions have not actually revealed the real relative strengths of the teams: this morning Red Bull went well and in the afternoon it was McLaren’s turn, with us and Mercedes always in the mix, while Williams and Renault also seem competitive. There are so many teams who could be in with a chance of going for the win and therefore it’s obvious that it will be necessary to have a good Saturday, without any mistakes if you want to start from the front row. Today, we concentrated mainly on analysing the behaviour of the Pirelli tyres, which seems a bit different here to what we saw in testing, partly because the track surface has very different characteristics. As far as strategy is concerned, we will need to be very flexible during the race, because at the moment, we know too little about the tyres to be able to say with certainty on which lap it will be best to stop. From what we have seen today, maybe we can do ten laps on one set of tyres, or maybe thirty! I am happy with the way the car is going: at the start there was a bit of understeer and we still are a way off from having perfect grip at the front, but it went better than I was expecting. We wanted to show that Japan was in the thoughts of all of us at Ferrari, which is why we ran with a sticker dedicated to the people of a country that has brought a lot to Formula 1 and where our sport has a great following.”

Felipe Massa: “We tested a lot of things in these two free practice sessions, splitting the work with my team-mate so as to explore different ways to go in terms of preparing for the rest of the weekend. I expected to set a quicker time, especially as the softs were not at their best until the fourth lap. On the hards, on the longest runs, it did not achieve much, as there were also a few drops of rain to complicate the situation. From what we have seen, the soft tyre shows less degradation than we might have expected, but we have to work out if that will still be the case in the race. This track is definitely less hard on tyres than Barcelona for example, where we did so much testing. This year it will be vital to study their behaviour carefully, circuit by circuit. The difference in outright performance between the two types of tyre is very marked. McLaren and Red Bull seem very strong, but there are other cars that can also be on the pace.”

Pat Fry: “This morning we worked mainly on evaluating a few aerodynamic updates on the front wing, while the afternoon was spent mostly comparing the two types of tyre that Pirelli has brought here, running with various fuel loads. Unfortunately, the second session took place in very variable weather conditions, with rain putting in an appearance, which made it even more difficult to assess the situation. During the first ninety minutes it seemed that the tyres showed less obvious degradation compared to what we had seen during the fifteen days of testing in Spain. As for the afternoon, I think we need to analyse the data very carefully, especially that part relating to the longer runs. Now we can get down to work: we can expect a long evening to prepare ourselves as well as possible for tomorrow’s qualifying.”

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An afternoon of study on Friday at Melbourne

Melbourne, 25 March – The Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa set the third and seventh fastest times during the second session of free practice for the Australian Grand Prix. Sunday’s race round the Albert Park circuit marks the start of the Formula 1 world championship.

Jenson Button’s McLaren set the day’s best time with 1.25.854, ahead of the sister car of team-mate Lewis Hamilton (1.25.986) and the 150° Italia of Fernando Alonso (1.26.001). The other Ferrari, driven by Massa, was seventh in 1.26.789 after 34 laps. In this afternoon session the team concentrated on set-up work on both the tyre compounds – hard and soft – with different fuel levels, along with some aerodynamic tests. Only a minor problem that was quickly resolved stopped Fernando for ten minutes.

The final hour of free testing will take place tomorrow at 1400 local time, before the decisive qualifying session that begins at 1700 local time.

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Many laps, many questions

Albert Park, 25 March - Before coming to Melbourne, we already knew that this year’s Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro car was reliable, thanks to an impressive mileage accumulated over the fifteen days of testing in Spain. So, no surprise then that Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa racked up over one hundred laps between them in today’s two free practice sessions. However, any questions relating to the pecking order among the twelve teams remain unanswered on a day best described as confusing, not least because of cool conditions and the occasional shower of light rain. Add in the fact that this semi-permanent track is also a bit green and dirty on the first day and clearly, the engineers will have a tough task analysing all the data from today, in order to prepare for the rest of the weekend.

Despite the fact that the media seemed determined to write off the McLaren team in terms of competitiveness, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton proved them wrong in no uncertain terms, setting the fastest two times of the day, with the Scuderia’s Fernando Alonso third. Red Bull Racing, who topped the morning time sheet, were fourth and fifth this evening, with reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel ahead of team-mate Mark Webber. In sixth place was Michael Schumacher for Mercedes, with Felipe Massa in the other Prancing Horse car seventh. Of the five new drivers making their F1 debut, the best of the bunch was Sergio Perez: the Mexican set the eighth quickest time for Sauber.

Dryer and warmer conditions are forecast for tomorrow, so it is possible that the first qualifying session of the season might start to deliver some of the elusive answers regarding the relative strengths of the teams. At the moment it’s too close to call and as Fernando pointed out, ensuring that every aspect of the team’s work is carried out perfectly will be the key to having a good day tomorrow.

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Alonso: Tyres impossible to predict

Fernando Alonso says his Ferrari team will not have a clear strategy for the Australian Grand Prix, the Spaniard insisting it will be crucial to be flexible.

Alonso, who posted the third quickest time in today's practice session, said it was impossible to predict the behaviour of Pirelli's tyres for the race, which is why he is adamant that keeping an open mind about the strategy for the race is very important.

He feels that unlike in previous years, knowing how the tyre will degrade on Sunday is now impossible.

"That is something that will remain unknown until Sunday afternoon," said Alonso of the tyres on Friday. "Not only here, but in all the races in all of the championship.

"In the test we saw high degradation on the tyres, but circuit to circuit it will depend because there are different asphalts, different energy into the tyres in all the circuits in the calendar, different track temperatures that we will face around the championship and it is impossible to say now we will do two stops, in Malaysia four and China three.

"There is no possibility to do that. We will go weekend by weekend.

"Also I think from Friday you normally see one kind of degradation that from Sunday is different, the track has a little bit more rubber and there are other categories that is helping the tyre well, so we will see. We have some good information today but on Sunday it will depend, and it will be in our hands to change the strategy.

"We will not have a clear strategy before the race. We will remain very open. We have fuel for the whole race so there is no panic to prepare any lap to stop. When the tyres are finished we stop, if the tyres keep going well we don't stop, so it will be the same for everybody."

The Spaniard also suggested drivers would be happier with a stronger tyres, but conceded they had to accept that the rubber is designed to improve the show.

"I think they have a very clear direction," he said of Pirelli. "They have been working with that tyre for a clear objective which is to make the tyre degradation a little bit higher, to see more pitstops and more show and there was the intention last winter, or the end of last winter, the indications from the FIA and they achieved that.

"I think the tyre had a bigger degradation. At the same time the grip level in the last lap is quite good, quite high and the timed laps are quite competitive regarding the double diffuser loss, so I think they work quite well.

"Obviously from a driver point of view we want the best tyre possible, and we could ask for maybe a better warm-up for the harder tyres that normally is difficult. Normally you need a lot of laps to make the temperature come and when the temperature is coming there is no more rubber on the tyres, so there are some difficulties there.

"Apart from that the tyres are working well and are the same for everybody so we need to get used to them."

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90194

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Alonso disappointed with gap to pole

Fernando Alonso does not believe Ferrari's qualifying pace in Melbourne was really representative of what its car can do, as he lapped 1.4 seconds off Sebastian Vettel's pole time on the way to fifth on the grid.

The Spaniard admitted that Ferrari had been slightly conservative, and went into Q3 with only one set of softer tyres available after using an extra one in Q1.

"We were not super competitive today from the practice," Alonso told television crews.

"For the qualifying we took a very conservative approach, we knew that if we took risks maybe we would be fourth, if we went safe we would be fifth or sixth so it was not the time to take any risks in the first race of the championship.

"But unfortunately we found ourselves with only one [option] set in Q3. We tried to do our best and fifth position is more or less what we expected before qualifying.

"The position we are happy with, the distance from pole we are not so happy. So this is what we have to look at and analyse tonight."

Alonso cited "overall grip" as the main thing Ferrari was lacking.

"Yesterday we had more grip and more overall balance, today straightaway both Felipe [Massa] and I felt less grip," he said, "maybe the track conditions were a little bit worse, but the other people were better than yesterday.

"We need to understand it a little bit better. Also the distance from Toro Rosso, Sauber, Renault... we knew from winter testing and yesterday we were one second in front of them whereas today it was only two or three tenths. So it was something lacking in our car.

"We will try and do a good race tomorrow and in Sepang we need to be close to the pole for sure."

Alonso also believes that Red Bull will not be as superior in the race as it was in qualifying.

"You never know until the first qualifying session of the season, until then it is only rumours, it's only a guess," he said of the champion team's pace.

"Today it is true that the gap was very big, but yesterday it looked quite close to be honest, to them and to McLaren. I expect that this was not the normal pace from us, and we will get better and better tomorrow."

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Qualifying not up to expectations

Melbourne, 26 March – It was definitely not the sort of qualifying Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro had been expecting and that the fans had hoped for: not so much because of the grid positions, but because of the time gaps to the fastest cars. Fernando Alonso ended up in fifth place and Felipe Massa was eighth, a very long way off an amazing Sebastian Vettel, who took pole in 1.23.529. The Spaniard’s lap was a 1.24.974, which was beaten by the other Red Bull and the two McLarens, while the Brazilian stopped the clock in 1.25.599.

Today the 150° Italia was not competitive enough to fight for the top places, but now it will be a case of waiting for tomorrow to see the situation when it’s a question of looking at race pace., Melbourne always throws up surprises and so it is a case of seeing if that will be the case once again and if those surprises will be positive ones.

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Massa still living the championship dream

Felipe Massa has insisted that he is still capable of winning the F1 world championship with Ferrari, despite the disappointment of being cast into the number two role in 2010.

The Brazilian was the unwitting victim of the Scuderia's desire to propel team-mate Fernando Alonso to the title as he was asked to move aside and relinquish a potential victory in last year's German Grand Prix. To make matters worse, the 'request' came a year to the day after the accident in Hungary that almost claimed his life. Only a few months before that, Massa came within seconds of winning the coveted title on home soil at Interlagos....

Many doubted whether he would still be at Maranello in 2011, but Massa will again partner Alonso and, according to the team, will start the season on an equal footing with the Spaniard. That, the Brazilian insists, is enough to keep him motivated in his pursuit of the title.

"I think I'm in a top team," he told CNN, "It's important to have a top car and, if I have that, I will fight to the maximum level to be the champion. Ferrari is just the top in motorsport, it is a dream car on the road and, for sure, it is the most important thing. When you drive for a team like Ferrari, it really is a dream come true.

"I believe in my speed, I believe in the way I drive and I believe I can win many races - and the championship. I think that's very important to have that inside your brain, to be stronger and stronger all the time. And I know, if I have all the possibilities and everything that is automatically for my driving style, for the way I drive, I can be there."

Many of Massa's problems in 2010 were, according to the driver, down to an inability to generate enough heat in the Bridgestone tyres. The Japanese firm is gone for 2011, replaced by Pirelli, and Massa believes that the change will do him good.

"Most of the problems I had last year should be alright for this year because the tyres are much softer," he noted, "To get the temperature in the tyres will be easier, so I expect not to have this problem, but we are a little bit early to say that. I like the tyres. They're very different from last year, so maybe we are going to have more pit-stops because, otherwise, after some laps, you are struggling a lot. It's a big change for the championship, it's a big strategy change, but I enjoy it."

If something is lacking on track, however, Massa can always call on Lady Luck for help, having revealed that he more than a tad superstitious.

"I have special underwear, which I race in most of the time," he explained, "[I wear them] just for the Saturday and Sunday and I don't wash them but, for two days, what's the problem?"

Like many drivers, he also insists on putting the same foot into the cockpit first, and even has the same ritual when getting out of bed, but insists that the habits are only there as a comfort.

"You win because you are doing the best job, but inside your brain it is important to have everything clean and everything ready and that's why sporting people are superstitious," he reasoned, "For sure, you would win because you have the underwear or because you are happy or whatever, but I think the superstition is just something that is inside your brain."

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Australia Saturday quotes: Ferrari

Fernando Alonso - 5th: "Clearly, we cannot be happy with this result, but we must not immediately make a drama out of it. We definitely did not get the most out of the car and we have to understand the reasons for that. Compared to what we saw at the tests, here we ended up much closer to cars that had been a long way off in Spain. We went well yesterday and we had a good feeling for the car, while right from this morning the situation changed, obviously for the worse. Now let's see how the race turns out. In testing and in yesterday's free practice, our performance over a long run was good and we were definitely closer to those who today seem to be a long way off. Fifth place on the grid is not too bad and it means I am in a position to fight for a podium finish in a race which is still wide open, if you only think what happened last year, with Kubica starting from sixth or seventh and finishing second. McLaren seems to have made a good step forward, but you should not dismiss Mercedes either, who were impressive at the last Barcelona test."

Felipe Massa - 8th: "We were less competitive than we could rightly have expected and there's no doubt about that. Sure, I did not think I would be fighting for pole, especially when you look at the very quick time that Vettel did, but I had hoped to be higher up the order. We had problems with grip on both the hard and the soft tyres on a surface where the tyres wear a lot less than we have seen in winter testing and they provide less grip on the first lap, or at least they do with our car. Now we have to prepare as well as possible for tomorrow's race, when pure speed will not be the only thing that counts, with reliability and team work being especially important. My spin in Q3? When I came out of pit lane, I accelerated and the tyres were evidently still too cold: the set was not damaged for the race, but it was definitely not a help on my only flying lap."

Stefano Domenicali: "We definitely cannot be happy with the way things went in this first qualifying session of the season and there is no denying it. However, there is no point in immediately getting into a state about it. We have to work out why we were unable to get all the potential out of our car at the track, at least in terms of pure performance. From what we saw in winter testing and in yesterday's free practice, our race pace is not bad and we will try and make the most of that in tomorrow's race. This year, more than at any time in the recent past, strategy will hold the key, while reliability, as ever, remains the number one priority."

Pat Fry: "We were not on the pace at the end of the first qualifying of the season and we have to take that on board. We knew Red Bull was very quick, but they were even faster than expected and also McLaren were better than us. We had to already use the first set of soft tyres in Q1 in order to ensure we got through to the next stage and we paid the price for that a bit in Q3, when we only one had one new set of Options. We have to study the data very carefully to understand what led to this situation. Having said that, we still have the race ahead of us and that's where the points are given out. Reliability remains the key factor: we have worked a lot on this front over the winter and we hope to reap the rewards of that now. Compared to last year, we will tackle the race with a different strategic approach and there could be some surprises."

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Ferrari Struggling With Tires - Costa

Ferrari technical director Aldo Costa says the team was mystified when it had problems with tire warm-up yesterday, which forced it to focus on using the soft tires earlier in qualifying than planned.

The problem was especially acute for Felipe Massa, who has always struggled in such situations.

“This morning the car was not fast,” he said on Saturday night. “We were doing some modifications yesterday following set-up development that we had to do to correct the balance of the car, but today it was not as expected, so we went back for qualifying with more or less the same car as Friday.

“Then we were struggling with the hard tires to find the correct warm-up. And the qualifying was all conservative, because we had to stay on the conservative side, so we used one set of soft in Q1, and had less sets in Q2 and Q3. It was a consequence of what happened in FP3.

“Felipe is struggling more than Fernando. It’s a problem that we saw in the past and never really solved.”

Clearly there could races coming up where being kinder on the tires will be an advantage.

“In some years it was a benefit to have this kind of car. We have done a race simulation in Barcelona, mainly with Fernando, and we were pretty happy about the result. We hope to gain some ground tomorrow [Sunday]. In the past it has worked – now everything is different, tire, cars. Let’s see tomorrow and understand if it’s then something we can let’s say we can have back in other conditions for the rest of the season.”

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...h-tires-costa/

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Australian GP - Nice fight back from Alonso. Massa finishes ninth

Melbourne, 27 March – Two drivers in the points with Fernando fourth and Felipe ninth: that was the outcome of the Australian Grand Prix, the first race of the season. The Spaniard’s race was affected by his start, when, going into the first corner he was pushed to the outside by other drivers and found himself down in ninth. Fernando did not lose heart and managed to make it back to fourth spot, finishing in Petrov’s wake. Felipe made a very good start and defended his position brilliantly in a battle with Button, but then, in the end, he made a stop that cost him at least two places. Both Ferrari men made three pit stops.

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Australian GP - Valuable points

Melbourne, 27 March - Both Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers finished in the points – fourth place for Fernando Alonso and ninth for Felipe Massa - in the Australian Grand Prix. However, it’s fair to say the team had hoped for better at the time they packed up the equipment in Barcelona after the last test of the winter. Effectively, yesterday’s disappointment in qualifying, with the Spaniard securing fifth place on the grid and the Brazilian eighth, meant that today’s 58 lap race was always going to be tough. The two men had contrasting fortunes: while Massa made a great start, moving up to fifth on the opening lap, before later slipping down the order, Alonso had a poor start, pushed wide at the first turn and dropping to ninth, before staging a great climb back up the order. Felipe had the consolation of setting the fastest lap of the race. The Scuderia picked up a total of 14 points which could prove very valuable later in the season, even if at the moment it is only enough to put Ferrari in fourth place in the Constructors’ championship.

Sebastian Vettel won in the dominant Red Bull, starting from pole and he was never troubled. He was joined on the podium by Lewis Hamilton for McLaren and Vitaly Petrov, who got his first ever top three finish by moving from sixth to third with a super start in the Lotus Renault. The other winners today were Formula 1 fans around the world because it seems that all the much talked about changes to the rules have indeed contrived to produce plenty of excitement on track. In fact, Massa was at the heart of the action, having a truly thrilling duel for fifth place, holding off Jenson Button in what was effectively the first Downforce Reduction System battle ever seen in F1, not forgetting the KERS of course. Alonso moved up to seventh and was closing on his team-mate and the McLaren man and on lap 11, both the Spaniard and the Englishman got past the Brazilian, but the McLaren driver was given a drive-through penalty for cutting a corner to achieve the move.

Webber started the first run of pit stops on lap 11, with Fernando coming in one lap later, with Massa changing tyres on lap 13. As others pitted they moved up to fifth and sixth places, with Vettel still leading from Hamilton, Webber and Petrov. Webber made a second stop on lap 26, Fernando coming in on 27 and Felipe on 31. With the leading trio yet to make a second stop, clearly Button and the two Ferrari men were going to have their possibilities blunted by the need to make a third tyre change, in the case of Fernando on lap 42, with Felipe coming in ten laps from the end.

Fernando closed on fourth placed Webber, but could not find a way past the Red Bull until the Australian pitted one lap earlier than the Ferrari. With his tyres suffering, Felipe could not hold off Button who took sixth place from him on lap 48 and the Brazilian dropped to tenth when he had to take on a third set of tyres. With new rubber, Felipe was flying, passing Buemi to go ninth after another thrilling battle and setting the fastest lap of the race just three laps from the flag.

Behind the podium trio, the remaining points went to Fernando, Webber and Button sixth. An impressive Sergio Perez finished seventh in his Formula 1 debut, all the more amazing as he made just a single pit stop, while his team-mate Kobayashi was eighth in the Ferrari powered Sauber, Felipe was ninth and Buemi tenth, also running a Ferrari engine in his Toro Rosso, making it five Prancing Horse engines in the top ten.

[sagi58]

I think its this one on youtube?

Thank you for posting that, Hermann!!
Just finished watching it!!