115 laps for Alonso
Fourth and final day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro and ten other Formula 1 teams all working at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit in southern Spain. Once again today, Fernando Alonso was at the wheel of the F150th Italia.
The Spanish driver worked on a comparison of various set-up options to suit the Pirelli tyres. Today, as over the past days, the car was able to run pretty much constantly: once again there were over 100 laps completed (115 to be precise) with a best time of 1.21.074. It was not until the very last minutes of the day that a rain shower hit the track, which meant the wet weather tyres could be used for the very first time.
“The best thing about these first two test sessions is definitely the reliability,” said Alonso when he met the media at the end of the day. “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.”
The main task at this test was increasing understanding of the Pirelli tyres. “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,” said Fernando. “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.”
The topic of overtaking and the moveable rear wing aimed at making it easier is still an especially hot topic. “We were able to try the adjustable wing in race conditions, but it is still too early to understand clearly if overtaking will be easier,” explained Fernando. “We need to see if the 600 metre limit set by the FIA is not too restrictive, but we know this situation is still able to be revised. From the little we could see, I think it will still be very difficult to pass a car with similar performance to your own. The system works well on our car: we never had any problems, not even under braking.”
With this second test session over, preparations for the start of the 2011 World Championship resume on Friday 18 February at the Catalunya circuit, on the outskirts of Barcelona. The first to take to the track for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro will be Fernando Alonso, running on the opening two days, with Felipe Massa taking over for the final two.
