Monday, January 31, 2011

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Shakedown F150

A few News :
- to save his budget and especially to avoid building a second wind tunnel, Ferrari has used the Toyota one to develop its F150.
- Aldo Costa has told that the aero of the F150 will be redrafted by Bahrain and the car will evolve very much by the first race.
- Ferrari team thinks there are too many buttons on the steering wheel of an F1 car today and it removes the drivers for his driving:
"We have reached an unacceptable level"said Aldo Costa, Technical Director Ferrari, according to comments reported by Autosport. The Italian has revealed that the technical working group of the F1 is already addressing the issue. "We conduct simulator evaluations. We want to determine if the pilot can physically manage all these elements. The situation is somewhat extreme ."
"There is so much to do on the wheel, but we still drive the car" , Massa noticed a few weeks ago.
Alonso noted that the complexity of flying affects the reaction time in the cockpit. And in rainy conditions "when visibility is poor the tasks become more difficult."
- Friday afternoon, Fernando Alonso gave the first laps at Fiorano to the F150 for the filming of an ad and Saturday it was the turn of Felipe Massa. On this occasion, Ferrari has invited more than 15,000 people club members meet for Ferrari drivers and attend the shakedown.

Ferrari F150 launch

Fernando Alonso's thoughts about the F150 :
"I'm much more into the team and this feeling that has built throughout the year 2010 has contributed to the creation of the new car. I think I will adapt easily to the new car and I hope it will be as competitive as it is beautiful to watch. I'm really motivated, excited . 2010 has been an incredible year for me and I found an incredible team, they are passionate for me. 2011 will be a new challenge with new technical regulations and the pilot will have to adapt to new changes, such as the SREC.
The new car we see here is the result of months of work. Now we must devote ourselves entirely to win and we are ready to meet this challenge."
Massa's thoughts about the F150:
"i'm not that old for now, I have some years left in me. It's very important for us and I am very motivated and enthusiastic.
I followed the development of the car and I'm really ready to begin this new year" Massa said at the launch of the Ferrari.
"There are many things to learn and understand as quickly as possible, new rules to take account. I am pleased to begin testing this year and I hope that this new car will grow as quickly as possible.
Massa added that despite the short time between the end of the 2010 season and the launch of the F150, Ferrari had had time to produce a car capable of fighting for victory at the first Grand Prix.
"It seems that since the end of last year there was a lot of time, but time passes quickly. Working on a car is not something simple. I think that through our work, we have a car competitive from the first race."

The new Ferrari F150

Here are some views of the Ferrari F150, which was unveiled last Friday in Maranello.
Here are the technical details:
* Chassis: Carbon fiber honeycomb composite structure
* Gearbox: Ferrari longitudinal
* Differential: limited slip
* Control box: Semi-automatic sequential electronically controlled, "quick shift"
* 7 reports + Reverse
* Brakes: Brembo disc carbon fiber vented
* Independent suspension torsion bar activated by push front and rear
* Weight with water, lubricant and driver: 640 kg *BBS wheels 13''
* Engine
* Type : 056
* Cylinders: 8
* aluminum cylinder block cast in sand.
(source: espnf1.fr)

Thursday, January 27, 2011

The Ferrari drivers helmets for 2011

Here are the Ferrari drivers helmets for the 2011 season.
what do you think of ?

The news of Thursday January 27th

* Pirelli will differentiate its tires with a different color. Registration P-ZERO will be red for the tires super-soft, white for the tender , blue for the midrange and yellow for the hard ones .the rain tires will also have a color: yellow for the extreme ones and red for the intermediaries.
* The former manager of Michael Schumacher, Wili Weber, would handle the career of Sebastian Vettel who still has no manager.
* Marlboro is about to extend its partnership with Ferrari until 2014. The cigarette manufacturer should do the same with Ducati.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

The news of Tuesday January 18th

* Fernando Alonso this season will have a personal assistant, Roberta Vallorosi , who will follow him in all his business trips.
* The Virgin Marussia team spent the first FIA crash tests successfully ! a small victory for this team once again designed his car only by computer, without blower.
* Good news for all those who have a HD TV as this season the tv channels will rebroadcast the GP in HD! small flat board cameras will also be in HD as well as the TV cameras.

The gossips of the week

* Bernie Ecclestone has bought a house to each of his two daughters for a total sum of 131.2 million euros ! Tamara has a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens (one of the most posh neighborhood of London) and Petra has a house in Chelsea.
* Michael Schumacher has sold his home near Lausanne in Switzerland for 13 million of euros !
* Virgin pilots gathered in the mountains to St. Moritz, at the initiative of the main sponsor of the team Marussia. Program: relaxation, skiing, and a rock concert with Eddie Jordan on drums!

Monday, January 17, 2011

Wroom last day

Friday was the last day for wroom on which occasion Luca di Montezemolo has come to join in saluting his troops and also Valentino Rossi. Friday was also the day set aside for fencing competitions to end these meetings. the afternoon there was a slalom competition with victory for Giancarlo Fisichella and the evening there were two races : one on ice in a kart and one in a Fiat Panda, both won by Fernando Alonso ! Shortly before those two races, Luca Badoer said goodbye to Formula 1 driving a F60 with Pirelli snow tires on ice.
* a few news :
- Fernando Alonso has launched a new helmet (as you can see in the last picture) where the blue is present.
- Saturday morning Fernando went to Maranello for molding his seat. he was able to see for the first time the new Ferrari and has also attended a small meeting with engineers Aldo Costa , Nikola Tombazis and his race engineer Andrea Stella . Felipe Massa has done the same today .

Wroom day 4

On Thursday January 13th , Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa gave a press conference and then were able to taste the joys of skiing. The day ended with a meeting with 4000 fans who could get autographs and have also been able, for some, a chance to ask some questions to the pilots. This meeting ended with a beautiful fireworks. Ferrari drivers have finally finished the evening around a campfire.

Summary of Fernando Alonso's last week press conference

Last week , Fernando Alonso gave a press conference. He made particular reference to the 2010 season and the failure of Abu Dhabi:
"In the second part of the year, we have made an extraordinary return and, at the last race, we did not win the title. Certainly, after the race, you can say that the decision was wrong and we should have acted differently. But when we decided to pit, it seemed to be the right choice for us . Now we can be here and say that the degradation of soft tires evolved in a surprising manner and we could have stayed on track until the thirtieth round, but it's easy to say it now . The truth is that, as I have always said, even if it seems predictable, you win and lose together. While we learn more during the defeats than victory, it is also true that 2010 was a success for me. There is no more time for thinking in Abu Dhabi, one more minute spent in it is one minute less to work on this year."
Now up to 2011 where Fernando will do everything to be perfect throughout the season: "At the end of each season, you make an assessment, we know that there are areas where we need to improve while striving to maintain our forces. We lost so many points in the first part of the year and we know we will be perfect from March to November to win. We've made some changes within the team and I am sure this will help improve the things we do in all areas, not just sport. I know that Pat Fry is very good, having worked with him at McLaren, and I think he can be a great help for us."
Finally, Fernando said he would like to challenge Valentino Rossi at the end of the season on two or four wheels !

Thursday, January 13, 2011

A point on the 2011 teams and drivers

Here is a little summary of where the drivers will race for this 2011 season
* Ferrari : Alonso-Massa
* Red Bull : Vettel-Webber
* Mclaren : Hamilton-Button
* Mercedes GP : Schumacher-Rosberg
* Lotus-renault : Kubica-Petrov
* Force India : Sutil-(Liuzzi ?)
* williams : Maldonado-Barrichello
* Sauber : Perez-Kobayashi
* Toro Rosso : Buemi-Alguersuari
* HRT : Karthikeyan-??
* Marussia(ex Virgin) : Glock-D'Ambrosio
* Team Lotus : Trulli-Kovalainen

Summary of Domenicali's press conference

Yesterday Stefano Domenicali gave a press conference during which he returned on several topics: * First, he insisted that the priority for Ferrari this season is to win the two titles and have the best car of the grid .
* Then he thinks that Ferrari will have an advantage for the use of KERS, at least early in the season, thanks to their experience in 2009.
* Secondly, stefano doubts the effectiveness of the removable rear wing in place this year to facilitate overtaking because as a new technology it will have time to be mastered to perfection. Furthermore he wonders how tv viewers will know that a driver uses this system as it will only be active on certain portions of the circuit and that it is only through a slot on the wheel of the driver the pilot will know when to use this system.
* Domenicali also returned to the instructions issued in Germany and that he not regretted having taken this decision because the rest of the season gave him reason, for , without this error strategy , Alonso would surely have been world champion . More the case had contributed to abolish the regulation for 2011.
* Finally, to the question of whether Massa would remain after 2011, Stefano has not responded directly preferring simply to emphasize that he hoped that Massa would be better this year alongside Fernando Alonso.

Wroom days 2 and 3

Wroom continues and the days of Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to relaxation and skiing for the drivers except for Fernando Alonso who has not raced due to a small injury in the leg. nothing serious but he must remain at rest for 1 week. Meanwhile Fernando posed for giving us some nice pictures. Felipe Massa and his brother Dudu skied with some friends.
we also learned that the Ferrari will be presented Jan. 28 at Maranello.

Wroom day 1 : some pics

Here are some pics of the first day of the wroom meeting where the Ferrari(Fernando Alonso , Felipe Massa , Giancarlo Fisichella , Marc Gené and Jules Bianchi)and Ducati(Valentino Rossi and Nicky Haiden)drivers are actually meeting .

Sunday, January 9, 2011

What's new in Maranello ?

* Fernando Alonso will inaugurate the new Ferrari with chassis number 288, during initial testing at Valencia on 1 and 2 February before leaving his place to Felipe Massa.
* Luca di Montezemolo thinks that in summer, especially in July and August, it would be good to delay the races start until 17h to enable viewers to have their afternoons free and enjoy their holiday. In reality this is not really a problem since in Europe the summer sun sets to 20h.
* Ferrari has completely redesigned its aero department including a blower updated. This to counter Red Bull which , last year, had excelled in this field.

The news of Saturday January 8th

* the Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan will be an HRT driver for the 2011 season. So it's the big return for the driver who had not raced in F1 since 2006.
* The first Grand Prix of Rome could be held on August 25, 2013 despite the strong opposition from residents and Ferrari do not see a very good eye the arrival of this GP which could threaten the GP of Monza. In addition to that date is normally held by the Belgian GP. Would he been threatened too?
* Karun Chandhok could rebound as a test driver in the team lotus with insurance to have a seat in 2012.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

La gazzetta de Ferrari

* Ferrari has made major changes in his team since Chris Dyer, the former strategist, was replaced by Pat Fry, who arrived last summer, which will continue in his position as assistant technical director. More Ferrari debauched engineer from Red Bull, Neil Martin, who served as strategist in the Austrian team, which will now be in a new service in Ferrari called Operational Research (a service that will aim to strategies before and during the weekend of GP).
* Stefano Domenicali said recently that he thought about resigning after the disaster of Abu Dhabi but waived them saying it was clinging to succeed in 2011. * the Ferrari F11 will be presented in the last week of January maybe the 25th , as indicated on the Spanish site f1aldia.com

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

The gossips of the week

* Nicole Schwerzinger recently said she was seriously considering marrying Lewis Hamilton and have 2 children! we do not yet know the opinion of the principal concerned...
* Heikki Kovalainen and his girlfriend Catherine Hyde have been unpleasantly surprised, upon returning from the weekend, their sauna that had not been extinguished was set to 127 degrees ! Fortunately they arrived in time before it causes a fire.
* Fernando Alonso is currently on vacation with his wife Raquel del Rosario on the Portuguese island of Porto Santo off the coast of Madeira and had the "surprise" to be greeted by paparazzi when he got off plane . A video circulating on the web in which we see say this: "In the first cameraman or photographer that I see in the coming days, I'll go away the next day, claiming that Porto Santo is a disaster. Okay, then , please let us quiet".
these words were not uttered in a nasty tone but they didn't necessarily please with the island's population. It must be remembered that since Fernando is known he's harassed in Spain and elsewhere by the gutter press so we can understand his lack of composure that day.