23/07/2010
NEWS STORY
Stefano Domenicali: Rain was the main feature of this Friday in Hockenheim. The first session was run almost entirely on a wet track, while rain threatened for much of the second one, finally arriving a few minutes after the chequered flag. The two Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro drivers completed a total of 114 laps: 50 for Fernando Alonso, who set the fastest time of the day overall and 64 for Felipe Massa, second fastest this morning in the wet. It is always best to start a race weekend in this fashion, but we are perfectly aware that today's results are even less meaningful than usual.
Furthermore, at the last two races, we have seen our drivers in the top places on Friday afternoon and everyone knows how it ended up... But superstition apart, we wanted to get through our planned programme and we did so, despite the weather which was very changeable. Now we have to work towards qualifying, which I expect to be very closely contested and then the race. From what we have seen so far, the Red Bull is stll the quickest car, but we are competitive.
Fernando Alonso: We have seen before on Fridays that we are very competitive and then on Saturday, the Red Bulls are clearly quicker, so we have to take this result with a grain of salt: in order to be in front tomorrow, we will have to do something out of the ordinary. Today's changeable weather made for a different day to usual, making it even harder to get a true picture of the hierarchy among the teams: you only had to use the softs five minutes later to gain half a second. We concentrated on our work and now we have to analyse the data to be as well prepared as possible for qualifying and the race. In terms of set-up we are on the right road, although we need to improve the balance of the car. With these track conditions, combined with quite low temperatures, it is important to be very careful with the tyres, so as not to ruin them immediately, especially the softs, so as to be able to evaluate their degradation for the race. From what we could see, there are no particular surprises in store.
Felipe Massa: A good start to the weekend here in Hockenheim, but it is still much too soon to say where we are compared to our main opponents. The changing weather conditions will play an important role and we must be as well prepared as possible to tackle the various possible scenarios: for example if qualifying takes place in the wet and the race in the dry. It will be important to understand the behaviour of the tyres and from what we can gather in similar conditions, the softs are pretty good, while the hards are definitely too hard for this track. The latest updates introduced on the F10 also seem to be working well, confirming the progress made on the car. I would like to take this occasion to congratulate Sauber on its forty years in racing: I started my Formula 1 career with them and I really hope they stay in this sport for a long time.
Chris Dyer: It was quite a productive day. Despite the changing weather, which definitely didn't help, we nevertheless managed to work through practically all the planned programme. We have a few new technical updates on the F10, which seem to have given us something extra in terms of car performance. We managed to evaluate both types of dry tyre and our drivers felt relatively comfortable with both the hard and the soft, and equally pleased with the car. On a track like this, the gaps are shortened, so we can expect a very close fight tomorrow in qualifying. Furthermore, today's times have to be seen as less representative than usual given the rapid change in track conditions. Tomorrow's forecast is for rain in the morning, while for qualifying, at least according to the latest bulletin from the middle of this afternoon, should take place in the dry, as should Sunday's race.