Friday: Ferrari still has work to do to be at the top

Ferrari worked on Friday to optimize its new parts introduced in Hungary. The F60 did not provide similar satisfaction to both Scuderia drivers, as Räikkönen expressed relative satisfaction with his performance, while Massa described the precarious balance of his car and the excessive tire wear.

The Maranello team also fears tomorrow’s qualifying session, seeing such small gaps between all the cars on the grid…

Felipe Massa – 8th and 18th:

I’m not happy with the way things went today. I had a lot of difficulties just trying to maintain a proper balance and found that the tires offered little grip, particularly the harder ones, to the point that I wasn’t able to do a really long run regardless of the type of tire fitted. And above all, at the end of the second session, I had a problem with the rear suspension after going off the track, which cost me precious time. Here, conditions change a lot from one day to the next, and I really hope that will be the case again this time.

Kimi Räikkönen – 7th and 11th:

«Today, the car wasn’t bad. There are still some small details we need to work on to be better, but overall, I’m quite satisfied. This year, the super-soft tires are always difficult to manage, but here it seems that the situation is simpler. We’ll see what we can achieve tomorrow, but it’s clearly a better Friday than those we experienced in the recent past. Considering how close the times are, we’ll have to try and do our best to have a good grid position. It seems to me that the performance levels of the different cars on this circuit are closer than elsewhere.»

Stefano Domenicali – Team Director:

«It was a slightly different Friday than usual. This is partly because we have started working again for next year, particularly in the morning. The rankings are very close, and clearly, with an analysis of that, we must take into account the usual unknowns: fuel loads and tire wear. We have continued to work to be as well-prepared as possible for tomorrow’s qualifications, which promise to be challenging. It won’t take much to either be on the front row or far behind.»