Alonso: Better to have problems here than in a race

Finally, the day when the Ferrari F150th Italia ran into problems has arrived. The development of the new car, apart from a small yet spectacular failure which caused a small fire during Felipe Massa’s first day of testing in Valencia, has proceeded almost without a hitch up until today, when it was delayed by a couple of glitches which befell Fernando Alonso during his second day of testing at the Catalunya Circuit near Barcelona. The first was electrical and did not cost too much in terms of time, even if the car had to stop out on track, while the second, a mechanical problem, took over a couple of hours to resolve. But that’s what testing is about, exposing potential problems: better here than at a race weekend. The Spanish driver was therefore unable to work through all the planned programme, however, the amount of data gathered, especially in terms of that relating to the behaviour of the new Pirelli tyres, is still substantial.

“One of the mechanics said to me that when things go well in Barcelona, we don’t win the championship, while if we have problems here, then it’s a different story: let’s hope that’s really the case!” was the philosophical comment from Fernando when talking to the media during a break in the session, as once testing finished, he left immediately for San Remo, where his wife Raquel is taking part in the finals of the “Festival of Italian Song.” "I still believe that, at the moment the Red Bull is the strongest car, but there are at least four other teams – us, McLaren, Mercedes and Renault – that are capable of fighting for the wins. It is always very difficult to assess the results from testing: it only takes ten kilos more or less fuel or for worn tyres to be used at any one point in the day, to make a difference that can amount to seconds."

Fernando is certain that tyres hold the key to the season: “Here again we saw degradation similar to what we had noticed both in Valencia and Jerez at the first two tests. If we had to race at the Catalunya Circuit tomorrow, we would need three or even four stops to finish the race, however it will not be just a case of changing the way we tackle the race, but also the entire weekend track time, from free practice through to qualifying. Tyre wear will definitely create the best overtaking opportunities: if you find yourself fighting against a driver on tyres that are at the start or the end of their stint, the performance difference could be very big, which would make for overtaking, even more definitely than using KERS and the moveable rear wing.”

Apart from technical matters, one obvious topic of discussion has been the situation in Bahrain and its impact on the start of the Formula 1 World Championship. Fernando’s response was inevitably cautious: “It is hard for us to state a clear cut position, because in the end we only know as much as you journalists, given we are following the situation through the media. We have to wait a few more days and then the powers that be will make a decision.”

With the Spanish driver having finished his stint, from tomorrow it is Felipe Massa who will continue development work on the Ferrari F150th Italia, with the Brazilian driving to the end of Monday.