Teams still consider Ferrari to be competitive in the upcoming season – Formula 1 news
Formula 1 teams have refused to discount Ferrari despite their disastrous pre-season testing results.
Ferrari took an aggressive approach to their 2012 campaign, when mid-way through the 2011 season, the team’s president Luca di Montezemolo announced that they have started working on the 2012 car.
Fernando Alonso made a statement that the team is going to be looking for raw pace more than anything else, and mentioned Red Bull as an inspiration to be more risky in the quest to improve upon their dismal performances.
Before the pre-seasons started Ferrari was being tipped to be the leading car on the track, but it all went bad when on the first day of the test, Felipe Massa said that the car needs major work to be race ready.
Since Ferrari has had all sorts of trouble with the car, and has had to change the philosophy of its exhaust entirely which means they start the season without any proper track time to know how the car will perform during the season.
Lotus boss Eric Boullier though said that even though the Ferrari has had trouble with the new car, they cannot be discounted.
“I would be waiting for the development of the car, and it is not because of one race simulation where we were supposedly faster than them that we are going to beat them this season. We have to keep focused on our car and we have to do our best,” he said.
Red Bull’s principal Christian Horner also added that in the end Ferrari will make the changes and come up with a strong car to compete the top teams on the grid.
He said, “Ferrari, I think, are in better shape than people perceive. Mercedes look like they have made a bit of progress from last year, so I think it is going to be the usual protagonists up there.”
It is interesting to note that teams are not counting Ferrari out of the equation yet even though things do not look pretty at all for them. While Lotus, Force India and Sauber look strong, though only time will show how the Red Scarlet team fares in the
season.
Tags: