Alonso: “Significant progress” for Ferrari

At the end of the Jerez tests, saying that the men from Maranello will be able to sleep soundly over the next ten days would be relatively optimistic. Indeed, although they set the fastest time on Friday with soft tires, which was the second-fastest lap of the whole week, Fernando Alonso and the Scuderia have not dispelled doubts about the behavior of the F2012, on which the team’s hopes for a comeback rest: “This time doesn’t mean anything, just like the one I set on Thursday and those set on previous days. On Thursday we mainly worked with hard tires, others were running on soft tires, and we were seventh. On Friday, we used the soft tires, which others probably did not, and we finished first: that’s all!” explains Fernando Alonso on the official Scuderia website.

Just like Mercedes, Ferrari approaches 2012 with the firm intention of making people forget a disappointing 2011 season: while the German team chose to wait before unveiling its new car and dedicated its Jerez tests to collecting data on the new tires with a car they know inside out, Ferrari, on the other hand, preferred to run its new car starting this week and focused on an intense program of aerodynamic evaluations. Therefore, the performances of the F2012 do not worry Fernando Alonso at the moment: “I continue to think that the road is still long before the Australian Grand Prix, in terms of the number of days and the number of tests we have left,” he told Autosport. “The progress during these four days has been quite significant for us, maybe not in performance or times, […] but definitely, all the tests we have done and all the work we have carried out to understand the car have been positive for us.”

Thursday, Pat Fry, Ferrari’s technical director, himself acknowledged that the verdict of the track had not necessarily been what was expected, at least until now, even though he expressed confidence for the continuation of the tests. A confidence that Fernando Alonso seems to share: « We will arrive in Barcelona much better prepared than we were in Jerez. That’s what Pat was trying to say: we arrived in Jerez with a certain idea of the car, and it wasn’t exactly that. But we worked on it and found performance, reasons to smile and be confident behind the wheel during the third and fourth days. The first day of testing in Barcelona will be a much better starting point. »

On the official Ferrari website, the Spaniard states: « For the moment, we must continue to understand the car as we might only understand it at 20%. We will try to do the rest in the coming days. Still, we have a lot of work left on the settings because we have mainly focused here on aerodynamics, constant speed testing, and different tests, but there is still much to exploit with the settings. »

But the Ferrari driver is well aware of the need to make the most of the limited testing time they have left, as the F2012 has not particularly shone in terms of reliability, unlike its rivals: « Unfortunately, there are only two weeks of testing left, because there’s one week less than last season, so in Barcelona, we need to make the most of the time spent on the track because, and perhaps this is the negative point to keep in mind, in eight hours of testing on Friday, we only did 39 laps. So, in Barcelona, we will need to do more than 100 laps because all the information that these laps will allow us to collect will be precious. »

The double Spanish world champion nonetheless praises the progress made by his team in warming up the tires, which was one of the weak points of the Prancing Horse in 2011: « The strong point of the car, from what I’ve seen so far, is its ability to bring the tires up to temperature. It seems capable of extracting the maximum in the first lap, which we couldn’t do last season. Regarding the areas for improvement, it’s about the aerodynamics and reliability, as we completed only a few laps between Thursday and Friday. »

But the Spaniard recalls that in 2011, the 150° Italia was the car that completed the most laps: « Last year, on the first day, we did a lot of laps and then saw how things turned out. […] Everything is new in this car, we have kept very few elements from last year’s car and there are many innovations, which have come from a different approach than we had in the past. For example, the steering is completely new and, in recent days, we’ve been working to make it function, and on Friday, we started to see the benefits for the first time. As I said, there’s still a lot to do, but it doesn’t scare us. »

Invited to comment on the form of his potential competitors, particularly Lotus, which has shown speed and consistency with both Kimi Räikkönen and Romain Grosjean, the Oviedo native remained true to his message, urging not to draw hasty conclusions: « I don’t know if, even for them, it’s not a bit too early to judge and I would simply say that I am happy to see Kimi back: he’s a great driver and a wonderful person. »

To form your own opinion, discover the review of the Jerez private tests, offered by the casinoenligne.uk.com editorial team.