Ferrari’s below par show in 2011 Formula 1 season and their 2012 developments
Ferrari are no doubt one of the biggest teams in Formula 1, and it would not be farfetched to say that the sport would not be the same without the Scarlet team.
Ferrari in 2010 celebrated 60 years in the sport starting from 1950s’, which is a significant achievement as many teams included manufacturer-backed teams have come and gone but Ferrari have remained an integral part of the sport. They have celebrated so much success through the years in the history of the sport and no one can challenge their heritage within the game.
Luca di Montezemolo the president of Ferrari has recently celebrated 20 years in his post. He has always been very passionate about his work and the sport. The past 2011 season has been not the best for Ferrari even though they came in 3rd placed in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
Both their driver Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were not able to compete the way they would have liked to as the Ferrari car was nowhere near as competitive as it should have been relative to the grid leaders like Red Bull and McLaren.
While Felipe Massa had other issues on the grid to blame as the season saw his relations getting from bad to worse with McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso drove with a big heart and saved Ferrari the blushes of faring much better than they could have been. Although Alonso was only able to claim a single Grand Prix win at Silverstone his consistent performances during the season gave him a fourth place standing in the drivers’ championship.
Di Montezemolo was clearly disappointed at the results of the season and urged his drivers and the staff to perform much better in the upcoming 2012 season. Although he did mention that their performance had been hampered because of some bizarre decision making by the FIA over the issue of off-throttle blown diffuser.
He explained that Ferrari for the better of the sport did not want a political spat over the issue and sacrificed their pace and a better standing in the season, and agreed to the situation they were put up against. Ferrari and Sauber were the only teams against the lifting the ban put on the off-throttle gases that helped Red Bull and McLaren gain considerable advantage over other cars. After Alonso won the Silverstone GP Ferrari and Sauber agreed to reverse the ban until the end of 2011 season.
In the make up for the 2012 season di Montezemolo has very vocal and optimistic of the results in 2012. Alonso also seconded the feeling and said that the camp is feeling very confident ahead of 2012 and are gearing up for a much-improved fight for the titles.
Ferrari have been very busy developing their 2012 version of the car and have been giving positive vibes that it is going to be much more competitive than last year. Alonso admitted that they have been inspired by the dominance of Red Bull and are open to take more risks in order to develop a car that would be faster.
Ferrari will be testing their 2012 car edition in first pre-season testing in February 2012, which will give the fans and the team an idea of where they would stand on the grid in the season.
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