Ferrari to feature another diffuser step in Singapore

Ferrari will unveil yet another development of its blown diffuser layout on the streets of Singapore this weekend.

After encountering difficulties with the F10's latest developments at Spa recently, the Italian team finally got the layout working optimally at Monza, where Fernando Alonso won from pole position.

"We now have a package that should work on all types of circuits," the Spaniard is quoted by Auto Motor und Sport.

"We know Red Bull will be very strong at the next two circuits, but we should now be more consistent than we were before.

"Consistency is the key to this title," said Alonso.

The next step, to be seen for the first time in Singapore this weekend, is a further integration of the diffuser and the gearbox and how the exhaust gases are directed through the rear bodywork.

"This race will be important but not decisive," team boss Stefano Domenicali told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

"The championship looks to be open right until the end, and the new scoring system helps us," he added.

As for the new developments for Singapore, Domenicali is quoted by Tuttosport: "We need to avoid a repeat of what happened in Belgium, where our developments failed to give us what we expected because we weren't able to test them.

"It's impossible to predict what will happen because there are so many variables at play," added the Italian.

He confirmed that the F10's next developments are "aerodynamic" in nature, situated "at the bottom of the car".

Source: Motorsport.com

Ferrari boss's warning

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has issued a blunt warning to his staff to find themselves another job if they do not believe the Scuderia can win this year's Formula One world championship.

Domenicali was speaking on Thursday night following the monthly meeting of Ferrari's senior management as they seek t get their season back on track.

Ferrari have produced major upgrades for their F10 chassis at the last two races in Valencia and at Silverstone but drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have managed to score just four points between them.

Neither driver scored a point in the British Grand Prix - a first for Ferrari this season - but despite trailing home 14th, Alonso, who stands fifth in the drivers' championship 47 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton, defiantly insisted the title was still up for grabs.

Domenicali has now echoed the Spaniard's sentiments and told the team's official website: "Anyone who does not believe that we can win the world championship would do better looking for another job.

"No-one here is giving up. There are still nine races to go and anything can happen.

"We will have to do our job perfectly, that is to say the Ferrari way, and then the results will come."

Source: SkySports.com

New Ferrari to feature Red Bull-like exhausts

A feature of Ferrari's heavily upgraded F10 car in Valencia next weekend will reportedly be Red Bull-style exhausts.

Rival teams initially thought an illegal ride-height control system was the secret of the RB6's speed, but it is now believed that the layout of the rear of the car - including lowly-mounted exhausts - is the basis of the design.

Spain's AS newspaper reports that the updated F10 will be between three and four tenths per lap quicker than the basic specification raced in Turkey and Canada.

The report also said the change represents a fundamentally new aerodynamic direction for the car, opening up a new avenue for subsequent development.

"The most important improvement in Valencia is not what we achieve there, but the way it opens us developments to be stronger for the remainder of the season," Fernando Alonso is quoted as confirming.

As well as the lower exhausts, the 'B' car will feature modified rear suspension, AS continues to explain, in order to open a bigger channel of air "to double the downforce generated by the diffuser".

"For Valencia, the focus has been on other areas of the car apart from the (F-duct) rear wing," team boss Stefano Domenicali is quoted by Brazil's Globo.

Meanwhile, McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh has revealed that the championship-leading MP4-25 will feature a "reasonably big upgrade" at the British Grand Prix next month.

Source: Motorsport.com

Alonso's Blog: Even more united after a bittersweet weekend

Posted by Fernando Alonso

The Monaco Grand Prix was bittersweet for me. Clearly, in terms of the points I picked up, it was not good enough, especially as we were in the right shape to fight for the win. Following on from Barcelona, where we were not fast enough to win, on the Monaco track, where aerodynamics is less important, we were more competitive. When you have a car that is easy to drive, as is the case with the F10 - something which Felipe and I both realised immediately right from the first test in Valencia - it means you quickly feel confident with it. And that is vital on a track like this one.

Then, on Saturday morning, you all know what happened and sixth place on Sunday therefore had a very different flavour to it: this result should make the team proud of all they did in difficult circumstances. It’s never happened to me before, not to be able to take part in qualifying. It can happen that you go out in the early stages, because of a mistake or a technical problem, but to find yourself having to watch the screen right from the start, that was really cruel. But I think this incident brought us even closer together as a group: it’s at times like these that you get the measure of people and the entire team was amazing.

Sunday was very satisfying. We were aware that if we wanted to finish in the points, everything had to be perfect: the car, strategy, overtaking and tyres. And that was indeed the case. The first laps were very hectic, with six overtaking moves and then I had to try and make the most of the strategy, waiting for others to pit. From lap 28, I found myself sixth and, from that point onwards, my main aim was to manage the car and the tyres. We had only finished rebuilding the car a few hours earlier and to finish such a tough race without the slightest problem shows just how great the lads are. Then at the end came the incident with Michael: the pit wall had told me that, as the race was still under the Safety Car on the last lap, overtaking was not allowed and so I was calm and that was later confirmed by the Stewards, who put things right.

Now, we have to roll our sleeves up to push even more on the development of the car. We still have to make up some ground in terms of performance and as we are in the thick of the fight, we don’t want to leave anything to chance as we try and reach our goals.

Source: Alonso's Blog - Ferrari.com

Ferrari makes engine changes

Ferrari to make changes to the engine in the F10 following early season problems

Ferrari is to run with revised engines fitted to its F10 during the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend at Catalunya.

The team has suffered a number of issues so far this season, with Fernando Alonso suffering two failures during the opening four rounds of the year.

The Sauber team has also been beset by engine issues during the fly-away events in Bahrain, Australia, Malaysia and China which led to Ferrari making a request to the FIA to make changes to its engine on reliability grounds.

With the FIA having approved the changes, Ferrari will now run a revised engine for the opening race of the European season, although Pedro de la Rosa has doubted whether or not the changes will be ready in time for Sauber to make the most of them for the fifth round of the campaign.

“An element of the F10 package that has undergone close scrutiny in recent weeks is the engine,” a statement from Ferrari read. “A lot of work was carried out on the test bench, completing several long runs and this work produced some solutions which it is felt will solve the reliability problems experienced in Bahrain and Malaysia. The team therefore requested and received the authorisation of the FIA to make some changes within the framework of the current engine regulations and these modifications will be fitted to the engines to be used in Spain.

“While since China, everyone in the Gestione Sportiva has been working hard as always on their various areas of activity, it is fair to say that over the past weeks, the staff in the engine department really produced a major effort, working night and day to analyse, evaluate and solve issues that have affected engine performance in past races.”

As well as the revised engine, Ferrari will fit its own version of the F-Duct to the cars of Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa during free practice on Friday, when a decision will then be taken over whether or not to use the system during qualifying and in the race itself.

The system was trialed by test driver Giancarlo Fisichella during straight-line aerodynamic testing in Italy last weekend.

Source: Crash.net

Pleased and proud of this start to the season

It’s been an incredible start to the season. Both in Bahrain and then again in Australia this weekend just gone, we showed we are competitive at the highest level and we can only be pleased and proud of what we have done so far, not just at the track, but also back at the factory over the winter. The F10 has proved to be very good, even on a semi-street circuit like Albert Park. It’s an easy car to drive, something I was aware of right from the very first test in Valencia and it is reasonably easy to find a good set-up for any type of track. On top of that, it is very consistent, in that its handling doesn’t change much between qualifying and the race. That should be a very important factor over the course of the year, as there is a world of difference between trying to do a quick time with a minimum fuel load on Saturday afternoon and starting the race with a full tank on Sunday. Add in the factor that the car is not too hard on its tyres – yesterday, both Felipe and I did 50 laps on the same set of soft tyres – and that completes the package. I’m not too sure exactly where we are compared to the others, but one thing’s for sure, we’ve definitely got off on the right foot.

I definitely didn’t think I’d be leading the championship after two races and this situation is way more than I had expected. In Melbourne, we made the most of a situation which, after the first corner, seemed to be compromised. We managed to increase our lead over those we reckon to be our main competition in the fight for the title. But there’s no time to relax, because in a few days time we will once again be on track for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The race is held on what is definitely one of my very favourite circuits: there are all sorts of corners and it’s a real joy to drive a Formula 1 car in Sepang, because you can really push it to the limit. I can’t wait to be racing in Malaysia for the first time at the wheel of a Ferrari. Our target? That’s easy, to carry on doing what we have done in the first two races. It won’t be easy, but we must trust in our ability to get the job done.

Source: Fernando's blog - Ferrari.com

Ferrari engineer working on diffuser for 'B' car

Rumours that Ferrari is working on a 'B' version of its new F10 car have resurfaced.

We reported Italian media speculation in late January that a significant overhaul of the single seater, which finished second and third on its debut in Bahrain last weekend, is taking place.

Italy's weekly Autosprint magazine has now revealed more details, including that Giuseppe Azzollini - a CFD expert - was employed by the Maranello based team late last year following Toyota's withdrawal from the sport.

It is suggested he is now working on a considerable development of the F10's double diffuser that cannot be accommodated in the current layout of the chassis.

It is believed that Azzollini's diffuser concept would have featured on Toyota's TF110 design, which although taken over by Stefan GP is not destined to race this season.

A more immediate change to the 2010 Ferrari is better cooling, after both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa's engines had to be changed prior to the Bahrain race.

Massa, meanwhile, said in the post-race press conference that he was asked to conserve fuel for 30 laps, where in fact the reason for his tempered pace was overheating.

"The temperature of the engine is the result of the aerodynamics of the car, so we have to work on that in order to make sure that we don't have any more of these kinds of issues for the next hot races," said team boss Stefano Domenicali.

Source: Motorsport

Fernando Alonso in chat on Ferrari.com

The Spanish driver Fernando Alonso answered numerous from the fans posted on the official Ferrari website in a video chat session.

Only a couple of days after the chat with Massa, Alonso spoke about many topics regarding his career, his impressions of the F10 before the first Grand Prix in Bahrain, his personal life and the numerous curiosities Fernando’s fans had asked.

Alonso is an extremely motivated driver, for whom competition is essential to life, who is highly concentrated during the race weekends and during the meetings with the engineers, while he can’t wait to start racing. Many comments regarding the new rules, the new pit stops and the new point system. The fans asked numerous questions also about his childhood as well as his habits, the difficulties learning Italian and Italian cuisine.









Source: Ferrai.com - ferrariworld

Interview with Fernando Alonso from Shell

Source: ItaliaspeedTV

Alonso sets a blistering pace

Fernando Alonso set a blistering pace on Friday morning at Barcelona to lead the timesheets with a 1:20.637, 0.336s up on his closest rival.

With blue skies overhead and just the occasional cloud, the second day at Barcelona kicked off with Michael Schumacher the first to set a lap time. However, the Mercedes GP driver was quickly overhauled by Pedro de la Rosa who in turn lost out to Fernando Alonso.

In three runs of five laps, Alonso succeeded in lowering the benchmark time to a 1:20.637, a comfortable 0.850s quicker than the week's previous best, which was set by Mark Webber on Thursday.

In fact, Alonso's average time of those laps, a 1:21.122, was, at that stage, even quicker than his nearest rival's best, a 1:21.571 set by Jaime Alguersuari.

An hour and a half into the session, Lewis Hamilton finally joined the party after an undisclosed problem kept him in the pits.

The McLaren driver almost immediately moved up to fourth place behind Pedro de la Rosa while Sebastian Vettel took fifth. The German, though, was concentrating on long heavy fuelled runs.

Tonio Liuzzi entered the fray, taking third place and then second, just 0.419s off the pace. But he wasn't the only driver on the move.

Vettel climbed ahead of Hamilton and then leapfrogged de la Rosa as he got within a second of Alonso's P1 time. The Red Bull racer's four-lap run saw him average a 1:22.367, which was also some way off Alonso's short-run average.

Schumacher, who completed just 14 laps in the first two hours, returned to the track but after three laps and only a minor improvement to his time was back in the pits.

"Some more changes to the car and Michael is now out doing a sequence of runs with some practice pit stop activity," Mercedes GP reported on Twitter.

The final hour before midday saw de la Rosa work on qualifying runs, improving to second place, 0.336s off the pace, while Schumacher moved ahead of Hamilton into sixth place.

And although Jarno Trulli continued lapping, he remained at the bottom of the timesheets. "Jarno not happy with the balance so will do some tests to investigate," revealed Lotus tech boss Mike Gascoyne.

Meanwhile, it was another wasted morning for Virgin Racing, who only ventured out two-and-a-half hours in the session. The team's VR01 had been damaged when Lucas di Grassi crashed on Thursday - and the knock-off effect was felt by his team-mate Timo Glock.

"Last of the new bits to repair yesterdays crash arrived from uk 1 hour ago," Virgin reported two hours into testing. "The guys are busy completing the car rebuild after a long night at the track and Timo will be hitting the asphalt very soon...

He wasn't.

It took a further hour before Glock finally ventured out, with Virgin reporting: "Installation lap OK on rebuilt car - a new start procedure outside the garage highlighted a small heat shield issue which is being fixed."

But it wasn't until an hour before lunch that the German actually set a time. He went on to complete 16 laps with a best of 1:26.622.

Unofficial Times

1. F. Alonso Ferrari F10 1:20.637 60 laps
2. P. de la Rosa Sauber C29 1:20.973 +0.336 46 laps
3. V. Liuzzi Force India VJM-03 1:21.056 +0.419 23 laps
4. S. Vettel Red Bull Racing RB6 1:21.258 +0.621 55 laps
5. J. Alguersuari Toro Rosso STR5 1:21.571 +0.934 24 laps
6. M. Schumacher Mercedes GP W01 1:21.689 +1.052 45 laps
7. L. Hamilton McLaren MP4-25 1:22.696 +2.059 21 laps
8. N. Hulkenberg Williams FW32 1:23.513 +2.876 80 laps
9. R. Kubica Renault R30 1:24.912 +4.275 23 laps
10. T. Glock Virgin Racing VR-01 1:26.622 +5.985 16 laps
11. J. Trulli Lotus F1 T127 1:26.677 +6.040 37 laps

Source: Planet-F1

Last exam ahead

The Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro is setting up the last details regarding the preparation for the fourth and last test session with the 2010 F1 season ahead, starting tomorrow at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona. During the Scuderia’s test programme Fernando Alonso will sit behind the wheel tomorrow and on Friday, while Felipe Massa will take over as of Saturday.

The team will use a new chassis, with the number 283. The cars the Scuderia will have available at the start of the season will therefore be complete: chassis 281 debuted in Valencia, followed by number 282 during the second session in Jerez de la Frontera.

Lots of tension ahead of the last test session: maybe this will be the occasion when all the teams will be present on the track in their definite form for the first race and maybe we’ll get an idea about the real performance on the track, because this will also be the last occasion to test with little fuel loads on board with the new qualifyings in sight. Someone already did it last week, but now this is really the last exam.

Source: Ferrari.com

Alonso talks about his car and candidates to title

Source: YouTube

Alonso eyes both titles with F10 + more photos of the Ferrari launch

Today, the Marlboro Scuderia Ferrari unveiled its 2010 Formula One car, the F10, to the public. Fernando Alonso, who joined the outfit at the end of the 2009 season, is convinced that he and his team mate, Felipe Massa, can win both Championship titles with this car.

Alonso said: "This is the first time for me, to be at a presentation for Ferrari, and it's a big emotion for me. I want to thank the whole team because they've worked really hard over the last few months to create this dream, this new car, and I also want to thank the sponsors and partners as they have also worked hard and with a lot of passion."

"Felipe and I will be a very strong team and we hope that we'll make all the Ferrari supporters around the world very proud to see this car winning the championship."

Some photos from the event:

Source: F1 Technical