Метка: Ferrari

Aston Martin requests right of review for Alonso’s China F1 penalty

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Alonso had been given a 10-second time penalty in the sprint and three penalty points on his licence after he collided with Carlos Sainz in the Saturday race.

The Spaniards were fighting over third position when they clashed at Turn 9, which gave the two-time world champion a puncture and led to his retirement from the race. Sergio Perez took advantage of the incident to score a top-three finish.

The stewards decided to take action against Alonso «as per the guidelines on driving standards», but the Aston Martin driver was not convinced he was at fault.

“Turn 7, I think we were evenly matched, then in turn 8 I tried to go to the outside,” he said after the sprint. “But he opened the line to not leave me room, so in turn 9 I did the same thing he did in turn 8.

“I tried to go to the inside to not leave him room on the line, but in turn 8 I opened up so we didn’t touch, and in turn 9 he didn’t open up. So we touched.”

The team will now need to provide fresh evidence to the stewards for them to consider amending their ruling. A first hearing will be held on 3 May with Aston Martin’s and Ferrari’s team managers to determine whether the evidence put forward by the British outfit does warrant the stewards’ consideration.

«It should be noted that this hearing will be held in two parts,» the stewards wrote in their statement. «The first part will be to hear evidence as to whether there is a ‘significant and relevant new element which was unavailable to the party seeking the Review at the time of the decision concerned.’

«Should the Stewards determine, in accordance with Article 14.3 of the FIA International Sporting Code, that such an element exists, a second part of the hearing will be convened at a time to be advised. Any other ‘concerned party’ may seek the permission of the Stewards to be present for the second part of the hearing, should one be convened.»



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Ferrari «made too many mistakes» for podium fight at F1 Chinese GP

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Ferrari has been the 2024 season’s second-best team so far, but didn’t live up to those expectations at last weekend’s Shanghai event.

Having had at least one driver on the podium across the first four races, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz only qualified sixth and seventh respectively, six-tenths off Max Verstappen.

The pair managed to move ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Aston Martin man Fernando Alonso to finish fourth and fifth, but still fell well short of challenging McLaren’s Lando Norris, who convincingly grabbed second.

Team principal Vasseur said his team «made too many mistakes» trying to optimise its package for the tricky Shanghai circuit and its unusual tarmac coating, which led to being behind the curve in qualifying.

«I think it’s really a matter of putting everything together,» Vasseur explained. «We didn’t have a clean weekend on our side, but we made collectively too many mistakes.

«In this group, if you don’t do the perfect job you won’t be in front. We have a pack with six or seven cars in one-tenth in qualifying. That means that due to details you can move from hero to zero.»

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari

Frederic Vasseur, Team Principal and General Manager, Scuderia Ferrari

Photo by: Ferrari

Both Ferraris initially lost positions to Russell — and briefly Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg — at the start as they struggled for grip, which made their recovery harder than it needed to be.

A mid-race safety car further complicated matters for Sainz as he had already made his one pitstop for hard tyres, giving him a tyre-life disadvantage against the cars around him.

But Vasseur pointed out both Ferraris struggled more on the hard compound than on the mediums they had started the race on, which is an area to investigate.

«I think if we lost something, it’s more on the last stint. Carlos was a bit unlucky with the timing of the pitstop, because he pitted three or four laps before the safety car,» the Frenchman said.

«He was a bit scared to do a very long stint with the last set of hard and he was a bit conservative at the beginning, but he did very well to manage the long stint.

«We were a bit less performant on the hard than on the medium. We were in a good position at the end of the stint of medium, but we lost ground on the hard.»

Shanghai’s tricky surface condition, paired with the sprint format’s limited practice time, may have tripped Ferrari up, but Vasseur didn’t want to call in excuses.

«It’s more a matter of extracting the best of what we have, and we didn’t do the job on this,» he admitted.

«It was very difficult to understand the tarmac, also due to the format. This can make a difference in the end because we are speaking about one-tenth, we are not speaking about half a second.

«But this cannot be an excuse. It’s the same for everybody and some teams managed it better than others. We have to understand if we can do a better job with the preparation.»



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Ferrari announces Miami F1 livery change to mark US anniversary

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Scuderia is set to unveil a one-off look for the Miami Grand Prix which will make reference to the heritage of the manufacturer in a contemporary manner, with two shades of blue being brought back from the pages of history — Azzurro La Plata and Azzurro Dino.

The change will be made to honour Ferrari’s historical place in the US motorsport environment, marking the manufacturer’s 70th anniversary in the American marketplace.

In 1964, this breakthrough was marked with a special US white and blue livery, which featured in the final two races of that season. The cars ran in the North American Racing Team colours as part of a protest, by order of Enzo Ferrari.

The former colour, Azzurro La Plata, is a light shade of blue and is the national racing colour of Argentina. It is also a similar shade to that worn by two-time champion Alberto Ascari, with the Italian often wearing a jersey in the colour as well as a matching helmet.

Further Ferrari connections to this colour comes through the racing overalls of the 1960s, with the likes of John Surtees and Chris Amon racing in blue, as did Niki Lauda in his maiden season with the team.

Azzurro Dino is a darker shade, which was worn last in 1974, most recently by Clay Regazzoni before the iconic red colouring became the norm for race suits.

Photo by: Ferrari

It has so far been confirmed that the special livery will be revealed directly in Florida. Although a date has not been confirmed for this launch, there is an extensive array of events celebrating the Prancing Horse starting on 28 April which will come to a climax at the Miami Grand Prix, with a pair of blue 296 GTSs set to lead a parade of Ferrari machinery around the track.

Last year, Ferrari ran a special livery for the Italian Grand Prix, featuring yellow, with the design paying tribute to the Le Mans 24 Hours winning 499P. The team also ran a burgundy look to celebrate its 1000th race at the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.



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Leclerc start battle cost Ferrari in F1 China GP

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Leclerc and Sainz lined up sixth and seventh respectively, but both lost positions to Mercedes driver George Russell and Haas man Nico Hulkenberg as they crossed paths in Shanghai’s first corner complex.

Sainz was pushed wide in Turn 2 by an understeering Leclerc, who visibly struggled to get his tyres up to temperature, further illustrated by a huge moment for the Monegasque in the second sector.

While Hulkenberg was easy prey for both, Russell proved a tougher nut to crack. Leclerc finally passed him on lap 9, while Sainz had to wait for the Briton to pit before being released into clear air until the mid-race safety car.

«It was a bit of a crazy race. What we did at the start cost both Charles and I one or two positions and that cost us a lot in the race,» Sainz said about the intra-team battle to Spanish broadcaster DAZN.

«Then we tried to follow the Mercedes, we tried to overtake him but he stopped and then we stopped, we put the hard tyres on very early.

«In the last stint, I had to go very long, but we still managed to hang on for fifth, which I think was the maximum we could do.»

Ferrari was tipped to do well in Shanghai, but that didn’t prove to be the case as it struggled for pace on the harder Pirelli compound.

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

«Honestly, we weren’t very fast this weekend, when you qualify sixth and seventh there’s not a lot of pace in the car,» said Sainz.

«In the race, we expected to be better but we weren’t, so clearly this is the circuit where we suffered the most.

«We need to check if we’ve done everything we could with the set-up and if not, it’s time to work on the car because this type of circuit didn’t go well for us.»

«I just focused on getting to the end and making sure Russell didn’t pass me on new tyres, and we managed to do that.»

Earlier in the weekend Leclerc felt Sainz «went a bit over the limit» defending his position to his team-mate in the sprint race, before declaring the matter was cleared up internally.

Sainz is F1’s highest-profile free agent on the 2025 driver market, as he is set to leave Ferrari at the end of the season following the Scuderia’s signing of Lewis Hamilton.



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Fuoco explains secret behind «special» WEC Imola pole lap

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


The Italian explained how completing two warmup laps in the decisive Hyperpole session in his factory #50 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar allowed him to set two laps good enough to earn his first pole position since last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. 
He improved on his 1m29.735s lap time with a 1m29.466s that put him 0.419s clear of the field and 0.635s faster than the best non-Ferrari, the factory Penske Porsche Motorsport-run Porsche 963 LMDh that Kevin Estre qualified fourth.

«I think today this made a bit of a difference compared to the other competitors because we saw that the Porsche was pushing earlier than us and maybe stressed a bit more tyres,» said Fuoco. 

«This was our strategy from FP3 that we tried earlier. It was working quite well and we did it again in the quali, and it was okay. So I think today we understand a bit more than the others on how to manage the tyres.»

Fuoco explained that Ferrari had «already planned this morning» that it would do two warmup laps «to bring the tyres into the temperature quite easily» and avoid overstressing the tyres.

WEC rookie Robert Shwartzman in the customer AF Corse-run 499P adopted an identical approach to secure second, while Alessandro Pier Guidi completed a Ferrari lockout of the top three in the second factory machine.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo

Explaining his lap, which followed setting the fastest time in final practice on Saturday morning, Fuoco said: «The feeling was already good from this morning in FP3, so I just tried to keep the concentration high, tried to put everything together. 

«It’s always tricky when you go on qualifying with the traffic and everything, but I think the gap was really good and I just put a really good lap together. 

«It was quite a special lap as always, but I think today in front of our Tifosi, our home race, I have an extra boost and I just push 100% from the beginning until the end of the quali.»

He added: «The feeling was good already from inside the car, it was a good lap already the first one, but then I found some small details on the second push and I gained another two-tenths.» 

Shwartzman was competing in Hyperpole for the first time after fellow Ferrari factory driver Yifei Ye took on qualifying duties in the WEC’s Qatar season-opener.

He told Autosport that he was pleased to make the front row given his inexperience.

«Really only the last lap was a decent one, but it was not good enough for pole,» said Shwartzman. «For my first quali, I think the front row is quite good. 

«Antonio did a really good clean lap, but i didn’t manage to do that. That is the difference between P1 and P2. 

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

«He has the experience of how this car behaves on new tyres after doing all the qualifying last year, so he has quite a big advantage in that sense. 

«So for him, it was much easier, but I believe I can improve that.»

Pier Guidi said he had «struggled a bit» on the push lap but reckons «in race pace, we are still strong, we are stronger I think». 

«I am confident for tomorrow, P3 is a good starting place,» he added.

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Fuoco completes Ferrari’s practice sweep in red-flagged FP3

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Having also set the fastest time in Friday’s second practice, Fuoco’s factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar carried on where it left off on Saturday morning with a lap of 1m31.272s that was not surpassed before Paul di Resta beached the #94 Peugeot 9X8 LMH in the gravel at the Rivazza left-hander in the final minutes of the hour-long session.

Fuoco’s time proved 0.034s quicker than Vanthoor’s WRT-run #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh, with Rene Rast following his BMW stablemate in third, three tenths further back aboard the #20 example.

Robert Shwartzman in the customer AF Corse-run #83 Ferrari that topped the times in opening practice in Yifei Ye’s hands took fourth, underlining the Prancing Horse’s strong start to its home WEC round.

The yellow 499P outpaced the best of the Porsche 963 LMDhs driven by Matt Campbell, who was 0.433s behind Fuoco’s benchmark time aboard the #5 Penske Porsche Motorsport machine.

A scrappy session for Alessandro Pier Guidi aboard the factory #51 Ferrari yielded sixth position, the Italian surviving a spin at the Villeneuve chicane and a trip into the gravel at Rivazza to post a best time of 1m31.715s.

That put him ahead of the leading Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH of Brendon Hartley, Callum Ilott’s Jota Porsche 963 and Kamui Kobayashi in the second Toyota.

Kevin Estre’s #6 PPM Porsche completed the top 10, leading the two heavily-revised Peugeots that are competing in 2024-spec for the first time this weekend and the two Alpine A424 LMDhs.

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Aston Martin broke the Corvette stranglehold on the GT3 times as Marco Sorensen headed the way in his D’Station Racing Vantage.

The Dane’s 1m42.474s was enough to put him 0.518s ahead of Alex Riberas in the similar Heart of Racing machine.

Augusto Farfus moved up to third in the best of the WRT-run BMW M4s shortly before the red flag to fall 0.036s shy of snatching second spot, while Alexander Malykhin beat Marino Sato’s United Autosports McLaren 720S Evo into fourth aboard his Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 RSR.

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WEC Imola 6 Hours — FP3 results



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How Ferrari has kept itself in the F1 hunt despite no major upgrades

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


What is perhaps most interesting about Ferrari’s performance, however, is that it has come without it bringing any significant upgrades to its car.

While work is under way on what is understood to be a pretty major development step for the start of the European season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, changes have so far been only minor touches.

It was a small tweak to the rear suspension’s upper wishbone fairing that received some attention in Japan, as the team modified the chord length of the rear leg (highlighted in yellow, inset).

Ferrari, like several other teams, has opted for what appears, at least externally, to be a multi-link arrangement with its upper wishbone.

However, the assembly does converge where it meets the upright, which is out of sight behind the brake duct fence.

The design offers some flexibility from an aerodynamic perspective, while also allowing the brake duct outlet to be resized according to its requirements and permitting the cluster of winglets behind to work more effectively.

Ferrari SF-24 rear wing
Ferrari SF-24 Beam Wing Comparison

One fascinating aspect of Ferrari’s start to the campaign is that it has not changed its rear wing specification across the four events so far, even though the venues at play have all had different downforce/drag requirements.

The only rear wing changes we have seen, according to the FIA submission documents, are the Maranello squad bringing various old options in case they were needed for the Saudi Arabian and Japanese Grands Prix.

In both these instances, it was noted that these were carryover items from 2023, rather than fully developed solutions specific for 2024.

Both were more or less fallbacks that could be run should the conditions require — but ultimately were not needed.

Instead, Ferrari was able to adapt its car to the requirements of each race weekend through trimming its beam wing arrangement.

For the high downforce tracks, it had its bi-plane style layout employed in both Bahrain (top left) and Japan (bottom right), while just a single element was fitted in Saudi Arabia and Australia, albeit with additional pylon winglets added for Albert Park.

All eyes are now on how big a step it will bring for Imola.



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No guarantee that Ferrari F1 tyre issues are resolved

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO


Last year tyre management over race stints was a major weakness for Ferrari, with a lack of consistency across stints and from set to set.

The SF-24 has been competitive over long runs at the first four events of the season, with Carlos Sainz winning in Australia and the team making the podium in the other three races.

However, Vasseur still wants to see how the car performs at other venues and in cooler conditions after hot weather dominated the early events of the season.

“I think from the beginning of the season we are much better on the tyre management,” he said after the Suzuka race. 

“And degradation – I think we were able to do the fastest lap in Jeddah and Melbourne on the last lap. It was almost the case today for one-tenth, I think.

“We did a very good step forward on this one, we worked a lot on the weaknesses, and we improved massively on the tyre management, drivers, strategy, and the team.

“And yeah, now we have some other weaknesses, and we have to improve somewhere else if we want to do a better job.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“But I think this one is very well under control now. But what is true one day, it’s not true the other day, on the tyre management and we don’t have to consider that this is done.

“Next week in China will have another tarmac, different weather conditions, and it will be a new challenge.

Asked if cooler conditions might help Ferrari in its chase of Red Bull Vasseur said: «In China, we will have the opportunity to test in colder conditions. But I don’t know, because also we did only FP3 [in Japan] in colder conditions.

“I’m not sure that we are in a better shape, you never know about the engine settings, level of fuel. The deg was under control for us on Saturday, but also for them. And it was almost the same today.”

Vasseur noted that the outcome of the Suzuka race, which saw Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc finish third and fourth, was as good as it could have been.

“I think that everything went very well on Sunday,” he said. “The strategy was the good one for both cars, the defending of the position on track, tyre management was under control, the pitstops went well, the pace was okay.

“I’m very convinced that we need a good Sunday and if we have to change something, it’s more the Saturday that we have to improve, rather than the Sunday. But it was a good job, and a good teamwork.”

Watch: F1 2024 Japanese Grand Prix Review – Normal Service Resumed



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Ferrari still in hunt for more F1 wins despite Red Bull’s Suzuka dominance, says Sainz

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The Spaniard arrived at Suzuka in a buoyant mood after leading team-mate Charles Leclerc to a 1-2 finish at the Australian GP, and hopes had been high of a strong showing in qualifying after some promising long-run form in practice.

However, Ferrari endured a more challenging time in the fight for grid positions, as Sainz ended up fourth on the grid – 0.485 seconds adrift of pole position man Max Verstappen. Leclerc qualified eighth.

And while that gap to the front has highlighted just how much more progress Ferrari needs to make before it can consider itself a proper challenger to Red Bull, he thinks that it is a track-specific phenomenon that has been exposed here.

Asked by Autosport if the weekend had been a reality check for where Ferrari really stood against Red Bull, Sainz said: “Yeah. But we will fight for wins in other tracks.

“We will maybe go to the Monzas or the Singapores, and Miami maybe, and we’re still in the mix, you know, for [the victory]. But there’s other tracks where the Red Bull is just simply a much better package.

“As I said in the press conference [on Thursday], until we develop this car for this kind of track, they will be three-tenths to half a second ahead. So it’s time to put our heads down and try to bring a good package to help at this sort of track.”

Sainz explained that he never expected Ferrari to shine at Suzuka, with the circuits’s high-speed swoops putting a premium on the kind of aero performance that Red Bull’s RB20 is so strong at.

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“That’s why yesterday I was trying to bring everyone down a bit — because I knew that being one second away last year [was not going to be wiped away this year],” he explained.

“I know that we didn’t improve one second the car from last year to this year in a place like Suzuka, so it was going to be always tricky.

“But I’m very happy with how the car feels this year. It’s a step better. We just need to do another step in this sort of track. Anyway, I did some very clean, good laps today, that put me P4, which is a good position to fight tomorrow.”

But as well as Red Bull being clearly in front, Sainz reckoned that Suzuka had shown that McLaren too had an edge at high-speed venues.

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“It’s clear that in the sort of long high-speed corners, the Red Bull and McLaren are still a step ahead of us,” he added. “A clear step ahead of us.

“But hopefully tomorrow we can fight for the podium. I think in the race, Red Bull are still out of reach. But with the McLaren hopefully, we can be a bit closer in the race.”



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