Alonso and Fry think that Ferrari will struggle at the beginning of the season

By completely starting from scratch to design its F2012, Scuderia Ferrari did not choose the easy path, and unfortunately for the tifosi, the winter tests have not left much hope for the chances the men from Maranello have to restore their laurels this season. Criticized for being overly conservative in 2011, did Ferrari take too many risks in 2012? One thing is certain, the F2012 is not ready to offer victory to Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa, and the team’s technical director, Pat Fry, is even more pessimistic.

Thus, when asked if he rules out the possibility of Ferrari drivers reaching the podium at the start of the season, he replies: « For the moment, I would say yes, but I suppose I am always slightly pessimistic. » A diagnosis shared by Fernando Alonso as well, who, despite avoiding journalists following the cancellation of the drivers’ press conference by Ferrari, spoke about the Scuderia’s chances on the Barca TV channel during the match played by the Catalans against Gijon on Sunday evening: « In the first races, we will suffer because we are not at 100%. »

If the F2012 gave the illusion of being fast over a single lap, during long runs the car seems to suffer from massive tire degradation, quickly putting the drivers in difficulty: « I am disappointed with our current level of performance » says Pat Fry. « I think we have a lot of work to do. The changes we made last week to the exhaust positions have put us in the right direction and we are trying to optimize that. We obviously still have a lot of work to do at the factory and we will have new things to test in Melbourne. »

If many in the paddock believe that the 2012 season could offer one of the tightest battles in recent years, all the teams more or less agree that they cannot position themselves relative to each other. Ferrari is no exception: « During testing, it is always difficult to assess where we stand. Previously, we knew what fuel level everyone had, so we had an idea of where we were, but if they have changed their way of operating from past years, I could either be depressed or more or less disappointed, I don’t know. »

After stepping back on the exhausts, the Scuderia could also review the rear bodywork of its car, Gary Anderson, technical consultant for the BBC, indicating that new bodywork elements were currently in production in Maranello.