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[vlad]

Yep, and Seb can cruise in the last stage of the race, thanks to his lead. He did it again, flawless!

[spankyham]

Ferrari returning to Vairano.

Ferrari returning to Vairano for Barcelona 150 Italia Formula 1 upgrade
Thursday, 12 May 2011 09:22

Ferrari is preparing to return to the long straight of the Vairano circuit to test the latest upgrades for the team's improving 2011 Formula One car.

After a disappointing start to the season, Fernando Alonso secured the 150 Italia car's first podium in Turkey and more upgrades will be brought to the Circuit de Catalunya in a week.

Before the Spanish Grand Prix, test driver Jules Bianchi will run up and down the Vairano straight in one of the team's allocation of aerodynamic test days.

"We hope that as early as Barcelona we will have new parts that allow us to take an important step forward in qualifying as well," said Alonso after Turkey.

Frenchman Bianchi had run the Istanbul package at Vairano before Turkey, and it was scheduled that Italian Davide Rigon, a member of Ferrari's development team and a regular in the Maranello simulator, would get his chance this time.

But Rigon is instead recovering from surgery to have more than 20 pins inserted into his badly broken leg after a GP2 crash in Turkey.

"He was doing precious work for us in the simulator," said Alonso. "I'm very sorry for him and we hope that he recovers soon."

[spankyham]

Felipe's pre-race preparation.

Felipe Massa has revealed a racy detail of his preparation for a grand prix.

The Ferrari driver told Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport: "On the Saturday night before the race I always have umpalumpa."

30-year-old Massa, who has not won a race since his championship challenge in 2008, is married to 33-year-old Raffaela, with whom he has a 1-year-old son Felipe Jr (Felipinho).

The Brazilian said he enjoys his qualifying night ritual "even though I know it doesn’t make me faster!"

He had another disappointing outing in Turkey last weekend but Massa said he is buoyed by the aerodynamic upgrades introduced at Istanbul Park.

"They definitely increased our performance level," he said.

Well there's his problem! What he ought to be doing is shagging Seb's girlfriend!

[vaptin]

Seems the updates are still coming then, if their using a test day, thats good news.

[spankyham]

Alonso 'convinced' of title challenge

Fernando Alonso has said that he is "convinced" that Ferrari will supply him with a car to fight for the driver's title this season after picking up his first podium in Turkey.

Following a disappointing start to the season which saw Ferrari off the pace of Red Bull and McLaren, it has started to close the gap over the last two races in China and Turkey. Alonso's third place was his first podium since Brazil last year, and he said that the ability to challenge at the front had been a long time coming.

"It was about time because we'd missed out on finishing a race in the top three for too long," Alonso told the Ferrari website. "But what was especially important was to fight for the top places until the end. That already happened in China with Felipe and in the two previous races we were also close to the podium: finally we have now achieved what we were capable of."

Alonso warned Ferrari not to be satisfied with its achievement, saying that it needed to improve the car in qualifying trim to be able to fight for race victories.

"Third place was also important for the morale of the team. We were all unhappy with a start to the season that did not live up to expectations and we know how much good it does to see that the efforts expended every day are paying off.

But we certainly can't be happy with a third place and what matters most is that we must be much more competitive in qualifying. If we always start from the third row or lower it's a struggle to fight for the podium. We have a lot of irons in the fire and we hope that as early as next week in Barcelona we will have new parts that allow us to take an important step forward in qualifying as well."

Alonso also said he had renewed confidence in his ability to challenge from the title having compared his performance in the same four races last season.

"You know I like playing with numbers - and as I travelled backwards and forwards between home, Maranello and Turkey, I made a comparison between my first four races of last year and those of this year in the corresponding grands prix. What came out of this little game was that compared to 2010 I'm eight points short (49 versus 41) but in the same four races, this year I've brought home 13 more points compared to last year (41 versus 28)."

He also admitted that the gap to the leader was a lot bigger than it was at the same point last year, but that he had been a similar amount adrift after Silverstone and still managed to go in to the season finale as favourite.

"It's true that my current gap to the top of the drivers championship is much greater (52 points) compared to what I had after Shanghai 2010 (11 points) but I well recall that after Silverstone we were 47 points away and we only had eight races left. Today we still have 15 grands prix to come.

This shows that you can look at the same thing in two different, even completely opposite ways. What matters are results and we've started to make the podium: we must do that regularly and if so I'm convinced that we will again be able to fight for the title."

[What's Burning?]

^^ Fernando has had a lot of time to think of late since he's not out partying celebrating race victories. We know how dangerous those post race celebrations can be.

Better he spend his time playing with numbers on the flights back and forth. I hope he's right, it would be a looooog boring season if there's no one able to put a damper on the Red Bull party.

[Hammer278]

I spent a minute playing with the numbers earlier, just realized last year after four races, Jenson was the WDC leader with 60 points. This year is...anything but open.

[F1er]

Fernando is doing Arithmetic?

[darwin dali]

Spanky, are you Ferrari's PR manager? Do you get a kickback from them?
Just curious

[spankyham]

Spanky, are you Ferrari's PR manager? Do you get a kickback from them?
Just curious

Io sono un tifoso

[darwin dali]

Spanky, are you Ferrari's PR manager? Do you get a kickback from them?
Just curious

Io sono un tifoso

Certamente

[What's Burning?]

Spanky, are you Ferrari's PR manager? Do you get a kickback from them?
Just curious

Io sono un tifoso

No, no, no... eres un tifoson!

[spankyham]

SF Racing News #11 is out. This episode has a great interview with Felipe and Rob, you will love Felipe telling Rob something he hasn't before

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Heads at Ferrari set to roll?

Ferrari likely to fire staff for 2011 F1 failings

[spankyham]

Interesting there were no pictures or reports from Ferrari's straight line testing this week.

The team might just pull another improvement like Turkey. Might well be a good weekend for the Tifosi.