Ferrari think Spa problems are fixed (Video)

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Ferrari believe they have got on top of the problems with their new aerodynamics package which troubled them at Spa.

Head of race engineers Chirs Dyer said the team had learned a lot from their straight-line test at Vairano last week:

First indications are that everything is positive so we have no particular concerns over the aero package introduced in Spa.

We did find, after the race in Spa, a reasonable amount of damage to some of the aero components of the car. We re-tested those components in Vairano and confirmed that there was some performance loss due to the damaged components.

So we have a little bit of work to do to make those parts of the car a little bit more robust so we don’t suffer from that problem in the future.
Chris Dyer

He also thinks the high-speed, low-downforce Monza track will suit the F10:

Monza should be a reasonable circuit for us. We know one of the strengths of the car compared to the competition is its braking performance. And as everyone knows Monza is a very critical track for braking performance. So that’s definitely one of the strong points of our car.

In slow-speed chicanes the car’s been reasonably good this year and the couple of medium-speed corners in Monza should suit us reasonably well so we’re expecting a reasonable result at Monza. We’re expecting to be competitive.

Having said that there’s always a surprise at Monza because it’s a unique aerodynamic package. We use a level of downforce in Monza that we don’t use anywhere else. All the teams are developing a specific aero package that’s only used at Monza. So there’s always the chance that somebody might come up with a bit of a surprise in Monza because they’ve done a particularly good or bad job of their low-downforce aero package.
Chris Dyer

Engine and electronics director Luca Marmorini said that despite the team’s engine problems at the start of the year they are still in a position to use a new V8 at the most punishing race of the year for engines:

For engine people Monza is still the most challenging race. I would say Monza and Spa are the two races where the engine performance plays a big role. So, even though the possibility of modifying the engine is limited by the regulations, it’s still very important to have reliability and maximum performance because there we can make the biggest contribution to our team.

Unfortunately we started the season with some reliability problems. You know that we can use eight engines through the season so we plan our development and our reliability improvement to be sure we don’t use a ninth engine. We think we have done a good job on this but we can judge how good our job was at the end of the season.

So for Ferrari and our customer teams we are trying our best to avoid using a ninth engine. The usage of the engine at this moment of the year is part of the strategy of the team this means that we are not obliged to use an engine until the end We could use a fresh engine in Spa and maybe we can use a fresh engine in Monza. The most important thing is we extend the life of the engines until the end of the season.
Luca Marmorini

Marmorini added he expects the team will show in Monza that it did not take a step backward with the development package introduced at Spa:

I think the team has done an impressive development programme during the season. We have seen five steps. And of course no-one of us was happy with the result in Spa. The result in Spa was much below our expectations. We think the car was better than the performance showed in Spa.

So, apart from the fact that Monza is an important race for us because it’s the Italian Grand Prix, it’s very important also for us to prove that what we introduced on the car was a step forward and we are confident that the performance we show there will be better than what we showed in Spa.
Luca Marmorini

See more from Dyer and Marmorini in the video above.

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    18 comments on “Ferrari think Spa problems are fixed (Video)”

    1. The only reason the aero package was damaged after spa was because alonso stuffed most of it in the wall

      1. So does that mean that Massa did not do a good job in quali afteral, but Alonso just couldn’t do a good job because of a single damaged component? A bit strange as an explanation, they both seemed to be a lot less fast on Saturday than they were on Friday, relatively to the rest of the field.

        I guess “damaged” could just be code for something similar to the EBD overheating of Mercedes, I suppose, especially as the biggest new thing was that big “A3-sized” louvered, blown diffuser they had been announcing for a while.

        In which case “just have to make it more robust” might sound easier than it proves to be, judging by the problems others had with those parts. Dyer does sound rather confident about it though.

        1. He can only be talking about Massa, as there was no real way to judge Alonso from the erratic nature of his race. I never saw Massa incur any damage in the race; I suspect he damaged the undertray in his fabulous off in Q3, and which the team did not notice and did not petition to have fixed in parc ferme. I don’t think it should comfort the tifosi’s consciences to hear this explanation from Dyer.

        2. You seemed to miss Rubens flying right into the back of Alonso on the first lap. I was surprised Alonso didn’t have to retire on the spot after that, as it looked like a bigger accident than the Vettle/Button incident.

          1. The fact that Alonso could continue is incredible… Some one quoted DC about Ferrari having to build their cars stronger because Schumacher kept hitting people! Wahaha!

    2. If I am not mistaken, Alonso is in the 7th engine of the 8 allotted for the season, before penalties apply.

      With 6 races to go, they are in trouble and they know it.

      1. That’s why they say they can probably use a new engine in Monza. Run a new one in Monza and make the rest of them last another one or two races to make it to the end of the season.
        They did not use every engine to its full milage yet.

    3. Does anyone know where I can find a list of the number of engines used by each driver?

        1. Except that that’s last year’s figures. Here’s this year’s: http://www.vivaf1.com/reliability.php

          1. thanks, (whoops you must of put that up as I was posting)

          2. By those numbers it looks like Alonso and Vettel could both have trouble with their championship attempts in the final races. Webber, Hamilton, and Button are all on the level with each other.

            Looks like the Renaults have done the best of all this year at conserving engines. You’d think that would put RBR in a similar spot. I wonder if their special Q3 engine mapping has really made that big a difference to engine wear.

            1. Thanks.

              Well, it’s only one engine’s difference between Ferrari and the rest. Also, isn’t Ferrari free to used a previously-used engine if they run out of new ones, including ones used only in practice? So the crisis may not be so acute for them.

              However, the advantage of being able to unwrap a brand new engine for Brazil and/or Abu Dhabi, ones that does not need to make two more races and are thus more on the edge, could be meaningful. And I’m thinking that the Spa and/or Monza engines will not be candidates to make a return at Abu Dhabi or Brazil, where maximum torque will matter also, having already sat on the limiter on for way too long.

          3. Great site, I’ve bookmarked that.

            Does that mean De La Rosa has no “new” engines, and that to avoid another penalty he must use used ones for 6 whole races??

          4. Cheers for that.

            It looks like Hamilton and Button can afford to use a new engine for Monza, then use engine 6 and 7 over the following two races, engine 8 for the next two and engine 1 for the final one (I presume most teams will have kept engine 1 as a back-up for the end of the season?)

    4. that is last year, am I missing something?

    5. This is the last chance for Ferrari. They need some serious good result in this race in order to stay in the championship hunt.

    6. The explanation does sound a bit strange. I suppose it’s part damage in Q3 with Massa and a bit of heat damage they did not anticipate to the EBD floor.

      Not sure about those engines. The working ones have done 3 races, only engine 6 did 2 races and nr. 7 did belgium. So they can use nr. 8 for Monza +2races, then use nr. 7 for another 2 races and have 6 for another race. Seems a bit tight to me.

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