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Bahrain GP – Another ninth place for Alonso as race takes priority over grid position. Massa fourteenth and out in Q2

April 22nd, 2012

FerrariOwnersClub

One car on the fifth row and the other on the seventh: that is where the two Ferrari F2012s will line up on the starting grid for the Bahrain Grand Prix, which takes place tomorrow afternoon at 15h00 local time. Fernando Alonso posted the ninth fastest time in Q3 after having been fifteenth in Q1 and fifth in Q2. The Spaniard used three sets of Pirelli Soft tyres during the session. Felipe Massa got into Q2 with the seventh fastest time and ended up fourteenth. The Brazilian used two sets of Soft and one of Medium.

Stefano Domenicali: “In all honesty, this result matches our expectations going into the session. Certainly we can’t be happy about these positions, quite the contrary in fact: we are the first to be disappointed, but our potential today is what it is and now we must try and get the most out of it. Looking to a race in which tyre degradation will be a decisive factor, we came up with a programme aimed at saving as many new sets as possible, trying at the same time to get as far forward on the grid as we could. If and how well this choice will pay off, is something we will only find out tomorrow afternoon. The aim for this Grand Prix is damage limitation, which means bringing both cars home in the points. I expect it will be a very hard race, for the cars, the drivers and the teams: whoever manages to avoid making any mistakes will already have a fair chance of getting a good result.”

Fernando Alonso: “Today, we were worth a place somewhere between eighth and twelfth, so ninth on the grid fits in with our current level. Honestly, given the characteristics of this track, which are definitely not suited to our current car, so far the weekend has not in fact gone that badly. To be in with a chance of making it to Q3, we had to use all three sets of Soft tyres available, so we didn’t have any left for the final part of the session. Doing a time on used tyres would have made no sense and would have forced us to start with a set of tyres that already had a few laps on them. Now we are free to choose either the Medium or the Soft for the start of a race that looks like being very hard, especially on tyres. To date, we have always gone a bit better on Sunday than Saturday: let’s hope it’s the same situation in Bahrain. Tomorrow, we must try and manage the tyres as well as possible, making the most of having three sets of new Mediums. The start will also be important, because it would be useful to make up some places right away, given that, for us, overtaking is certainly not straightforward. The aim? To finish in the points, around sixth or seventh place. I know, it’s not brilliant, but that’s what we can do with the car we have today.”

Felipe Massa: “Not exactly a brilliant position, but at least I have a new set of Softs for the race. It’s true that the track was improving with every passing minute, but I can’t say if using two sets of Softs in Q2 would have seen me get through into Q3. It would have been very difficult and we had decided to sacrifice something today in favour of tomorrow’s race, given that here it is very important to be able to use new tyres. That can make the difference when the track and the weather make for a high degradation level. We will try and get a good start and to use our strategy to make up positions. We know from our recent experience in Shanghai that, for us, overtaking is more complicated than for others. Here we suffer especially with a lack of traction coming out of the slower corners and that’s why I expect we will be fighting on the defensive in the race.”

Pat Fry: “Aware of our potential and the fact that tyre degradation can be expected to be very high over a long run, based on what we saw in yesterday’s free practice, we ran this qualifying session in different ways for each driver, thinking more about the race than the result at the end of this afternoon. For Fernando, our priority was to save sets of new Medium tyres, sending him straight out on track on the Soft in Q1. It was a bit risky, but it worked. Fernando managed to get through to Q3, but had to also use the last set of Softs available, because the track was improving significantly with each passing minute. In the final part of the session, we chose not to do a timed lap, hoping to induce any of our rivals who might have been following the same strategy to do a time, which would at least have obliged them to then start the race with a set of used tyres. With Felipe on the other hand, we went for a more conventional strategy, while still letting him save a set of new Softs for tomorrow, when tyre management will be important. If one can manage to do as many laps as possible with a clear track ahead, it could allow you to make up some places: let’s hope we can get both drivers in the top ten.”

Bahrain GP – Fifth and seventh rows for the Ferraris of Alonso and Massa

April 22nd, 2012

FerrariOwnersClub

Sakhir, 21 April – Sebastian Vettel took pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix, fourth round of the world championship, which takes place tomorrow. The Red Bull man set a time of 1.32.422 ahead of Lewis Hamilton (1.32.520) in the McLaren and the other Red Bull of Mark Webber (1.32.637.) Fernando starts from the fifth row, having gone ninth quickest in 1.33.403, while in the other F2012, Felipe Massa went out at the end of Q2 and will start from fourteenth place with a time of 1.33.912.

Just something that happens

March 19th, 2012

FerrariOwnersClub

Felipe Massa says his coming together with Bruno Senna that put him out of the Australian GP was just “something that can happen” during a grand prix

Massa, who is in need of some good results this season as his Ferrari job hanging on the line, retired from Sunday’s race on lap 47 with a broken suspension.

His F2012 was damaged when he clashed with Williams driver Senna as the duo were fighting with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo for 13th place.

But rather than hit out at Senna, Massa has opted for the more mature approach.

“I did the corner in front, but Bruno had a good turn in because I was fighting with the other car, and he was able to take the line because there was a car on my side,” said the Ferrari driver.

“Then we both did the corner to the left, and he was on the outside and I was completely on the inside.

“”I turned, even a little bit early because I didn’t know if he was trying to pass me from the outside. Then he turned in a little bit too much and we touched each other.

“For me it was something that can happen in a race.

“From my side, there was nothing wrong because I was on the inside. From his side, it was the end of the race and he was trying to fight for the position, so you cannot say he did something completely wrong.”

As for his Australian GP up until that point, Massa, who started P16 after a dismal qualifying performance, revealed that severe tyre issues cost him dearly.

“I was very positive for the race, but then after five laps the rear tyres were completely going. I had no tyres, I was just sliding around at every corner and none of the other cars were losing tyres, just me.

“I was failing completely with the balance of the car, not just talking about the race, but every day, the whole weekend. We need to understand why.”

Domenicali: Lessons were learnt

March 19th, 2012

FerrariOwnersClub

While on the surface Australia was not good for Ferrari, Stefano Domenicali says it at least gave them the chance to understand the issues with their F2012.

Ferrari faltered in Saturday’s first qualifying of the season as, pushing too hard, Fernando Alonso beached his car in the gravel while Felipe Massa sorely lacked pace. The duo qualified P12 and P16 respectively.

Sunday’s 58-lap grand prix, though, was better for the Italian stable with Alonso finishing in fifth place. A crash late in the grand prix put Massa into retirement.

And although ten points is not a great start to the season for a team wanting to fight for the titles, Domenicali says Ferrari at least have a better understanding of where their problems lie.

“I think we learned for sure a couple of things,” said the team boss.

“Above all, the performance of the first two stints of the race was not too bad, considering really the situation. Then after the safety car something happened so we need to understand what was the real problem, because we saw a different race pace if you compare the first two and the last one. So this is the analysis that we have to do.

“I think on that respect the race of Fernando was very, very good. Considering as I said the level of performance, to be fifth is something important.

“Considering the situation of the Championship that I am expecting to see this year that it is vital that when we have so many problems to score these points.

“I would say that is a step forward, but we don’t have to hide behind that, because we are not happy about the performance of the car. What I’m asking to my engineers is to really as much as possible to try to fix the things that in their view are now much clearer.”

He added: “We have understood the problems of the car. This is clear. What I really need to say that after the understanding we need to make sure that we fix it, and not only fix it, but to fix it as soon as possible.

“In terms of the chassis there’s nothing going ahead. In terms of developments, yes, there are a lot of things that have to be improved, because I think there are two fundamental issues, one is the speed and the other thing is really the traction.

“Those are the two fundamental things that we really need to solve, and we really need hard to fix as soon as possible these major issues.

FDA – Marciello continues his apprenticeship in New Zealand

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Maranello, 24 January – Raffaele Marciello is continuing to gain experience in New Zealand’s Toyota Racing Series, racing last weekend in the second of five races, this time at the Timaru circuit. In terms of results, the weekend did not live up to expectations for Raffaele, but the experience gained on track will come in useful in the remaining races. “We didn’t come away from Timaru with much,” admitted the 17 year old from the Ferrari Driver Academy. “But in terms of the work we did, the weekend was gratifying. We had a lot of set-up problems at first and in qualifying I could do no better than ninth.”

Set-up problems continued to affect the first of three races over the weekend, with Raffaele finishing where he started in ninth. “It was a boring race,” he said. “Only 10 laps and on a track where my set-up problems meant overtaking was impossible. The engineers then decided to make a drastic change to the settings and in the opening laps of Race 2, it was immediately clear it was the right choice. Unfortunately I was hit by another driver (later penalized) and spun which dropped me down to 20th. I managed to get going again and got as high as tenth. But my race pace was good, so I felt optimistic again.”

Progress continued in the third and final race held on a dry track, after morning rain. “I started from ninth and managed to keep a good pace and finished fifth, also setting the race fastest lap. It was a good achievement which I hope is a good sign for next weekend starting with the first race. So far we have always started by having to catch up with the others and I hope that at Taupo I can immediately be a front runner.”

Round 3 of the Toyota Racing Series is next weekend at Taupo, which at 3.3km is the longest of the series: as usual, the event starts with free practice is on Thursday and goes through to the second and third races on Sunday.

Gené explores Qatar A visit to Pearl GTL at Ras Laffan

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Doha, 22 January –Marc Gené’s trip around Qatar continued today with a visit to the industrial city of Ras Laffan, home to the biggest GTL extraction plant in the world, run by Shell along with Qatar Petroleum. The Ras Laffan plant, known as Pearl GTL, is 80 kilometres to the north of Doha and covers an area of around 250 hectares; the same size as Hyde Park in London.

The facility is home to all the offshore extraction processes and onshore treatment used in the production of hydrocarbons from the single biggest natural gas field in the world, which stretches from the coast of Qatar to the Persian Gulf. When at full capacity, the plant, built by the partnership of Shell and Qatar Petroleum, will have a production capacity of 140,000 barrels per day of GTL products (from gas to liquid,) these being diesel oil, nafta, kerosene, paraffin and base products for lubricants, as well as 120,000 barrels per day of natural liquid gas and ethane.

This was definitely an unusual experience for Marc: “It’s impressive: over 13,000 kilometres of piping used to deliver products that are the basis of so many things we use in our daily lives,” said the Spanish driver. “It was very informative for me to get the chance to visit this facility to try and get an idea of how much technology goes into the products that Shell provides us with, both in every day life for our road cars and for racing.”

Yesterday, the driver, who works for Scuderia Ferrari on racing and promotional activities drove in the first ever Formula 1 demonstration run in the Gulf states, following on from a parade of over twenty five road-going Ferraris, which shows how popular the Maranello built cars are in this part of the world: in fact a Ferrari California opened the course before Marc did his show run. For over a decade, Ferrari has been represented in Qatar by the Al Fardan Group, a major company operating in the luxury goods market. Qatar is one of the most dynamic areas in the Middle East: in 2011 Ferrari witnessed a 15% growth in business here and that trend is due to continue in a market with the highest personalisation rate in the region.

Gené rockets down the Doha sea front Twenty thousand witness Ferrari’s first appearance in Qatar

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Doha, 21 January –A crowd of 20,000 watched Marc Gené do a demonstration run in an F2008 on the Doha corniche this afternoon. The event, organised by Shell in collaboration with the Qatar Motor Show, which gets underway for the second time on Monday, was a thrilling spectacle: seeing a Formula 1 car rocket at over 300 km/h down a three kilometre course set up as a temporary venue along the Qatar capital’s sea front drew an enthusiastic response from the spectators, as did the pit stops, run by Scuderia Ferrari’s F1 Clienti department.

“It was a very interesting day: demonstrating a Formula 1 car in such a beautiful setting was really enjoyable for me,” commented Marc after the show. “I’ve done quite a few events of this type, but I have never managed to go as quickly as I did today. Towards the end, I was pressing on the accelerator, because I could feel the enthusiasm of the crowd: it was down to the track and, in the shape of the F2008, an amazing car.”

The Spaniard stressed the important of events like this when it comes to increasing the popularity of Formula 1. “It’s great to bring our sport so close to the people, especially in a country that has never seen any F1 action and I am particularly grateful to the organisers of the event, for ensuring all the necessary safety precautions were in place as well as allowing the spectators to experience the spectacle in such an intense way. I like Qatar: I was here back in 2004 for the first running of the MotoGP and I have found the country has changed, grown in what one could say is a controlled manner. We got a very warm welcome, showing the passion the people have for Ferrari and motoring in general.”

With only a few weeks to go to the start of the season, inevitably Marc was asked about the Scuderia’s prospects for 2012. “Back in Maranello, everyone is doing their utmost to be as well prepared as possible for the season,” said Marc. “We are pleased with the work we are doing, but we are well aware that we don’t race alone and the others are also doing their best. We will only begin to get a true picture at the first Grand Prix in Melbourne. Clearly, Ferrari has just one objective, which is part of our DNA, namely victory and we have proved many times before that we know how to achieve it: it’s not by chance that we are the most successful team in this sport. However, we are equally aware that winning is never easy, especially in a sport as competitive as Formula 1.”

Ferrari 599XX evolves

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Maranello’s extreme track car gets evolutionary tweaks to make it faster and cleverer

Ferrari has today revealed an evolution version of its fantastically hardcore 599XX.
Introduced at the Bologna motor show today, the tweaks for the ‘extreme, non-homologated sports berlinetta’ (that’s Ferrari-speak for ‘racing car that isn’t a racing car but that you also can’t use on the road’) will be available to ‘owners’ of the car (which is essentially a research and development programme) for the 2012-2013 season.

Original car was hardly subtle…For its package of revisions, the 599XX gets an active aerodynamic package integrated with the vehicle’s electronic control systems, new Pirelli tyres, an extra 20hp (bringing the total to 750hp), and a 35kg weight-loss programme.
The key to the new aero trickery is something called ‘opening gap’ technology. This uses two flaps, which rotate electronically to adjust the downforce between the front and rear axles in relation to vehicle speed and the manoeuvre being effected. This active rear wing is governed by various physical parameters, measured by the car’s various electronic control functions (ESP, ABS, SCM and F1-Trac).

Clever. Other less exciting changes include a new front splitter and a new rear diffuser. Total downforce at 125mph is boosted to 330kg when the flaps are open and 440kg in the closed configuration.

And that extra engine power? It comes courtesy of new side-exit exhausts.

Combined with a final gear ratio that’s slightly shorter, all this amounts to a Fiorano lap time of 1min 15secs – a second faster than an FXX.

Ferrari plans ‘superclub’ for dedicated owners

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Members – those lucky enough to own five Ferraris or more – will get first pick of limited-edition models

Ferrari is planning to create a super-exclusive ‘collector’s club’ for its most dedicated and fanatical customers, with the intention of giving its most ardent fans (or at least the ones with sufficient money) a better opportunity to get hold of its limited-edition offerings.
“I don’t want our faithful collectors to miss the opportunity to buy one of our special series,” Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo told Automotive News Europe in an interview.

By faithful collectors, di Montezemolo means those who own at least five Ferraris – of which Maranello reckons there are about 300 (and by that we don’t mean those with a couple of 308 GT4s, a Mondial, a Magnum PI special and a ropey 412). If the club should come to fruition, the plan would be to give first dibs on any limited-edition models that Ferrari produces.

The idea would be to avoid a repeat of the embarrassment caused over the Ferrari SA Aperta – the open-roofed version of the 599 – as some of Ferrari’s more committed customers were apparently rather miffed at not being able to get hold of the 80-example, 400,000-euro special edition.

“The people who are building their collection – these are the people we want to look after,” a UK Ferrari spokesman told PH. Reading between the lines, we presume this to mean that Ferrari wants to avoid (or at least limit the amount of) cash-happy speculators getting hold of their cars, and to keep its products firmly in the hands enthusiasts.

In addition, Ferrari is planning a ‘cavalcade’, an annual driving tour that Maranello hopes will give its customers a deeper knowledge of both the cars and the country they come from. The plan is to hold it in a different region of Italy every year, with additional trips to Fiorano and Mugello, and to open it up to 120 owners a time.

700hp+ Confirmed For Next Ferrari 599

January 28th, 2012

dave787

Ferrari boss makes snippets about new 599 and Enzo – ‘official’

We’ve been speculating for ages that the 2012 Ferrari 599 replacement would crack 700hp from its updated V12, and make greater use of aluminium in the quest to save weight. Now we’re feeling like proper smarty-pants, because Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa has just confirmed ‘on the record’ to US magazine Car & Driver that it’s all true.
Felisa also talked briefly to C&D about the Enzo replacement due to be launched next year, as per the corporate product strategy revealed to investors recently. Unsurprisingly perhaps, Felisa says this car will feature carbonfibre-heavy (light, surely…) construction, and hybrid technology to back up its mid-mounted V12 configuration.

The other snippet C&D feels is interesting enough to share concerns Ferrari’s plans to filter the new Enzo’s hybrid technology onto more mainstream models.

Don’t expect a simple F1 KERS-type system, says the Ferrari Grand Fromage, because the production technology ‘would have to provide efficiency gains and not just extra performance.’