23/07/2014
NEWS STORY
With Hungary marking the mid-season point, Ferrari technical director James Allison admits that attention is now turning to 2015.
"This stage of the season always marks the transition point between the current racing car and the next season's, with resources in the factory transitioning from one to the other," he told the team's website. "So it's a time of much work on both projects, with plenty of effort still going into improving lap time on the 2014 car, while pushing ahead with the 2015 project."
However, the enforced two week break in August means that time, therefore, progress, will be limited.
"One week after the Hungarian Grand Prix, we are not allowed to do any work in the factory," says the Briton. "So we will be trying to fit quite a lot into that week, to be ready to be up and running again immediately after we return, to be prepared for the next Grand Prix in Belgium."
Reflecting on last weekend's race, which saw Fernando Alonso endure another hard fought struggle to a handful of points, Allison admitted that he enjoyed the race.
"Sunday's race was exciting for us because there were lots of close-fought battles, plenty of overtaking and as far as we were concerned, lots of little dramas for us to manage, arriving at the finish line having monitored fuel consumption and the ERS system, all while keeping an eye on the ever present threat of rain during the race.
"However, it was disappointing that we didn't manage to get Kimi into the points even if some of that was down to the damage sustained to his front wing earlier in the race."
Looking ahead to this weekend, he concluded: "It's usually very hot which is a challenge for the drivers but also for the cars and their cooling systems. The heat will most especially affect the Energy Recovery System, because it's a short lap with no real straights and there will be a fair amount of energy passing to and from the battery. The track itself is usually very dusty and dirty for the start of free practice, but then evolves very quickly as the rubber goes down."