3rd Winter test, Barcelona 2013

**rossopervincere** · 1st March 2013, 17:55

Ferrari '200 times better' than 2012 - Alonso

Fernando Alonso: "This year to make this car work it will be much more easy, that's for sure"

Fernando Alonso Teams:Ferrari Fernando Alonso says this year's pre-season has left Ferrari in a position "200 times better" than it was at the start of 2012.

Ferrari's poor pre-season last year left it on the back foot and even though Alonso took the title challenge down to the final race of the season he was ultimately unsuccessful in an inferior car to Red Bull's RB9. However, the signs have been more positive this
winter and Alonso confirmed the team had progressed from its position at the end of last year.

"We hope that we have reduced that gap [to the top teams] and we will arrive in Australia in better shape than Brazil, which means 200 times better than last year in Australia," Alonso said.

The team won't have the major Melbourne upgrades available this weekend, meaning they will only be tested for the first time during Friday practice, but Alonso said he is unconcerned.

"I'm happy to bring to Australia all the things. I think it was been a trouble-free winter for us in terms of correlations in that we put little parts they work as we predicted and expected, so to bring some more new things to Australia, I think we have to be confident that they will work as we think. So no big worries and Australia is not the final race of the championship, Australia will be the starting point for many packages coming this season."

When asked if he felt the car would allow him to compete for the world championship this year, Alonso said he was confident it would if only because it's better than the F2012.

"I didn't see any reasons to not think so because last year it was a very difficult winter, we were completely lost, we had some races with the exhaust I remember ... and we didn't know what the car was doing. We didn't understand what was going on in the wind tunnel and on the track, and with that car we fought for the world championship until Brazil.

"So we have now a car that is responding well to what we change on the car. We have a car that is doing what we expected the car to do. We know that maybe we are not the quickest still, but the starting point and the potential of this car is there. We can touch it now. Last year it was a dream to make that car work. This year to make this car work it will be much more easy, that's for sure."

**wacc** · 1st March 2013, 17:58

Wonderful photos of the car today, thanks guys

It's a pity that I could not follow the live stream. Looking forward to tomorrow.

**fronaldo** · 1st March 2013, 18:03

And its confirmed now Bianchi to Marussia..maybe Ferrari engine for Marussia in 2014?

**tifosi1993** · 1st March 2013, 18:06

Marussia F1 Team

We're pleased to announce that we've appointed Jules Bianchi to a race seat. This follows the termination of our contract with Luiz Razia

**Katu** · 1st March 2013, 18:13

i'm very happy with Jules news, good he doesn't have to wait for another year to drive, too bad the car sucks...

**Massimo** · 1st March 2013, 18:15

That's great news! For 2014 Marussia has no enginesupplier (cosworth didn't make a V6 turbo) so hopefully they're switching to Ferrari engines.
Allez Jules, make Luca Baldisserri proud!

**Jose Lorca** · 1st March 2013, 18:24

Congratulations Jules!

**shamim179** · 1st March 2013, 18:27

That's great news! Another team in red with a Ferrari engine!

Marussia are looking good this year. They're already bettern than Caterham despite having a Cosworth engine. They'll make huge strides next year with a Ferrari engine.

Interesting that Force India still haven't announced their engine supplier yet.

**shamim179** · 1st March 2013, 18:30

It's also interesting that someone from Force India was saying that options are still being explored for Jules before this announcement. Could Force India also be adopting the Ferrari engine?

**Katu** · 1st March 2013, 18:30

Originally Posted by shamim179

That's great news! Another team in red with a Ferrari engine!

Marussia are looking good this year. They're already bettern than Caterham despite having a Cosworth engine. They'll make huge strides next year with a Ferrari engine.

Interesting that Force India still haven't announced their engine supplier yet.

having Sutil and di Resta there would explain it all, i guess

**wisepie** · 1st March 2013, 18:35

A promising day for Fernando, we definitely seem to be playing down our chances and that's a good thing, means we can hit them where it hurts in Melbourne. Agree with Massimo about Italian press giving Ferrari a hard time, so just as well to be cautious about expectations, and thanks bluesilhouettes for explaining 'rake' to this idiot. Great news about Bianchi at Marussia, too, does this maybe mean some involvement from Ferrari in the future.....the B team perhaps?

**Grillo** · 1st March 2013, 18:55

Melbourne parts should be ready for next week test at Idiada. I read that's the current plan for the new parts @Clausell_F1

The F138 doesn't look too bad but we'll have to wait 'til Friday FP1 to see the final details.

Hopefully no team has a surprisingly fast idea/development up their sleeves so we can fight for both Championships.

**scuderiafan** · 1st March 2013, 19:02

Originally Posted by Bubbles

Yes, it appears they're progressively bringing the ramp closer to the floor. I expect the Melbourne package to have a proper ramp like Red Bull & Lotus have.

EDIT: It would be nice to merge all the little openings in the bodywork into one bigger hole on the car's center line. Perhaps like the Red Bull solution, or maybe one that's lowered like RB8's hole from last year - the one where those tunnels exited. It's clear Ferrari want as little blockage towards the beam wing.

Many have actually said this 'halfway' solution between the McLaren bulge and the Sauber tunnel could be very fruitful.

**F1NAC** · 1st March 2013, 19:12

lol

**Jose Lorca** · 1st March 2013, 19:13

Here's a comparison of Alonso's race simulation (before it rained) against those of Grosjean and Webber at the last test. Andrew Benson said the track was 0.6 slower today than when Webber and Grosjean did their race simulations, so I've taken six tenths off Fernando's laps:

Grosjean	Webber	Alonso
Start (medium)	Start (medium)	Start (hard)
1:31.446	1:31.040	1:31.932
1:31.647	1:30.979	1:31.928
1:31.422	1:31.282	1:30.916
1:32.090	1:31.334	1:30.566
1:32.582	1:31.632	1:30.492
Pit (hard)	1:31.881	1:30.684
Outlap	1:32.188	1:31.553
1:28.523	Pit (medium)	1:32.531
1:28.543	Outlap	1:32.869
1:29.785	1:28.457	1:32.247
1:30.759	1:28.853	1:32.201
1:31.128	1:30.561	1:31.722
1:30.940	1:30.594	1:31.722
1:31.716	1:31.252	1:31.531
1:31.359	1:31.072	Pit (hard)
1:32.642	1:31.347	Outlap
1:31.499	1:31.696	1:30.675
1:31.743	1:31.749	1:29.393
1:32.271	Pit (medium)	1:28.433
Pit (medium)	Outlap	1:29.120
Outlap		1:29.763
		1:29.825
		1:29.298
		1:29.653
		1:30.505
		1:29.842
		1:30.379

Not only is our tyre degradation much better than Red Bull and Lotus, but we are much quicker in the first stint (although I'm not sure how much we can read into that because we started on different tyres). Our second stint vs Grosjean's is a good comparison because both were on hard tyres but Grosjean started the stint nine laps heavier than us, so you have to take 0.9 away from Grosjean's average time:

Alonso's average time (11 laps) was a 1:29.717
Taking the fuel effect into account, Grosjean's average time (12 laps) was a 1:30.109 (+0.392)
We can't compare ourselves directly to Red Bull, but Lotus were almost equal to Red Bull in the race simulation.

Just be cautious though. Since the first Barcelona test we have added a new exhaust, new front brake ducts, a new diffuser and a new front wing, and with the exception of the front wing, we ran all the new parts in the race simulation - which is probably why our race simulation is quicker. I expect things to be very close in Melbourne. FORZA FERRARI!

**scuderiafan** · 1st March 2013, 19:36

If Ferrari can be second fastest I'd be over the moon. I hope we can be around lotus, or even better. Mac has some setup issues (they'll get that sorted quickly) RBR and Lotus look good, and Mercedes seem to be rated pretty well.

But we are an unknown apart from the fact that it is a lot better than last year.

**Massimo** · 1st March 2013, 20:02

Originally Posted by Katu

having Sutil and di Resta there would explain it all, i guess

I wouldn't be to sure about that, on page 4 post#92 i answered your comment about Jules and what i think is going on at Force India (although you can forget the Bianchi part in that answer)

**Katu** · 1st March 2013, 20:36

Originally Posted by Massimo

I wouldn't be to sure about that, on page 4 post#92 i answered your comment about Jules and what i think is going on at Force India (although you can forget the Bianchi part in that answer)

oh i read that. we'll we can only guess what will happen next

**Jas** · 1st March 2013, 21:04

Ferrari: Worked through a packed programme

1 March, 2013

Fernando Alonso

With three days of testing remaining, Fernando Alonso took to the track for Scuderia Ferrari at the Catalunya Circuit. Because of bad weather, the track stayed damp and slippery all day, with the exception of a couple of hours in the early afternoon, when the lack of rain meant the teams were able to run on a dry track.

In the morning, Fernando worked through a packed programme, consisting of aerodynamic tests and assessing some mechanical components, running up to the lunch break on intermediate tyres.

After the break, the team completed its aerodynamic testing and then continued with a second race simulation, using both dry and rain tyres. In the end, Fernando had to come back to the garage and halt the simulation because of a red flag.

Testing continues at this circuit tomorrow, when Felipe Massa will be back behind the wheel for the final time before the start of the 2013 Championship.

hmmmm...bit in bold, any new mechanical components...interesting!!

**Aberracus** · 1st March 2013, 21:37

Ok Red Bull got this afternoon, their new parts, looks like an entire car is in there.... B Spec Red Bull ?

flkqd3.png

**Jas** · 1st March 2013, 23:07

Originally Posted by Aberracus

Ok Red Bull got this afternoon, their new parts, looks like an entire car is in there.... B Spec Red Bull ?

flkqd3.png

Ohhhh god, what has newey got now! that is definitley an entire chassis, hence the wheels!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

**hudson77** · 1st March 2013, 23:56

Showed this on sky, apparantly its just the second chassis of the original, in order to shake down both cars before melbourne. Would think most teams have these turning up soon.

**tifosi1993** · 2nd March 2013, 04:02

(click to enlarge)

**Massimo** · 2nd March 2013, 08:19

Finally an Italian driver on track, it seems Kimi has food poisoning, Davide Valsecchi will drive today, Forza Davide!!

**wisepie** · 2nd March 2013, 08:37

Buona fortuna Davide, we need some more Italian flair out there, maybe Kimi has a hangover? Poor boy. And wishing Felipe a good day with some better conditions. Vai Felipe!

**mirafiori** · 2nd March 2013, 08:51

Originally Posted by wisepie

Buona fortuna Davide, we need some more Italian flair out there, maybe Kimi has a hangover? Poor boy. And wishing Felipe a good day with some better conditions. Vai Felipe!

Yesterday watching sky, iam sure Martin Brundle said when he was a driver in f1, at one point there was 13 italian drivers on the grid.

**SinanOzerS** · 2nd March 2013, 08:52

There's no big grey clouds,very sunny and hot compared to the last 2 days,so it's been a very busy day for our and all of the other teams.Hope we'll see some new parts.