08/07/2011
NEWS STORY
This is a special Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari, as it was actually here at Silverstone that it took the first of its 215 wins to date in Formula 1: on 14 July 1951, Jose Froilan Gonzalez, took the victory in the second ever running of this race as a counter towards the Formula 1 World Championship.
Stefano Domenicali: Sixty years have gone by and Ferrari is the only team that can say it has taken part in every edition of this the highest level of motorsport. Many other wins followed that one and with them came 31 world championship titles - 16 Constructors' and 15 Drivers' - all contributing to making this team truly unique in the world. Now we have a very strong desire to add to that list of wins as soon as possible. That is the target for all the men and women who work at Maranello and it is what all our fans expect of us.
Felipe Massa: The weather meant it was a difficult day, with rain affecting both the first and second sessions. However, it seems to me that the car handles pretty well in the wet, which is positive in terms of the rest of the weekend, given there's a chance of more rain. That is also the reason why I only used one set of intermediate tyres: I had a bit of graining on the fronts, especially at the start of the second session, but towards the end, the situation improved and the performance of the tyre got better all the time. Therefore, it is difficult to say where we are compared to the others, as the track conditions were changing continuously and it's not even easy to give an in-depth evaluation of the new components we brought here.
Fernando Alonso: It's always nice to come to Silverstone, an historic track for Formula 1 and for Ferrari, which took its first championship race win here sixty years ago. I like the new paddock: the only strange thing is the final part of the pit lane, which is lower than the track, which means the spectators cannot see the pit stops from the grandstands. The rain definitely did not help on a day that was meant to allow us mainly to test the new aerodynamic components we have here. We tried to do what we could, using just one set of intermediate tyres, both because we wanted to save the others for tomorrow and Sunday and because that way, we have at least one stable parameter with which to evaluate the aerodynamic findings. Only at the end of the first session did I risk trying a set of slicks to see if the conditions were acceptable, but the track was still too wet. From what a driver can learn at the wheel, it's difficult to say if the new aerodynamic parts have helped us make progress, but at least they seem to work well. In the wet, the car was not bad, as we had seen in fact in Canada: it's positive, because it could be like this again, especially tomorrow. Support Webber for the championship? No, I'm supporting Ferrari!
Pat Fry: Today was affected by the weather, with the track never drying out completely. Our main task was to try and run our daily programme, especially an evaluation of the new aerodynamic components that we have brought to this circuit, in weather that was definitely neither favourable nor stable. Within what was possible, we managed it and from what we saw, initial analysis suggests the data has matched our expectations. Both our drivers, like many others in fact, used just one set of intermediate tyres. I'd imagine that the spectators would have preferred to see more cars on track for longer, especially this afternoon, but we have to contend with the limited number of tyres available for the entire race weekend. If, as seems likely, tomorrow's weather should be similar to today's, having new rain tyres available will be very important. Clearly, it's very difficult to draw any conclusions in terms of where everyone stands compared to one another at the end of a day like this: we know what we can do, but we don't know where the others are.
To check out our Silverstone practice gallery, click here.