Technical director Pat Fry has become the 3rd man within the Scuderia Ferrari who openly admits that they have problems with the 2012 challenger. While testing the car in Jerez the technical team has identified numerous problems in cornering and overall performance as well.
“I’m not happy with where we are at the moment, there’s a lot of space for us to improve from where we are. Reliability wise it’s good, performance wise we’re OK. We can play around with the performance and improve some corners and some particular parts of the corner, but I wouldn’t say I’m happy yet until we get the whole thing working.” he said.
Ferrari has low on testing days now because there are only three tests before the season began unlike last year when there were four tests prior to the season. Fry admitted that the lower number of testing days is going to pose more problems for the team as everything is compressed.
Ferrari came this year with a more aggressive approach in the design of the new single-seater, they brought many new elements to the car in a desperate try to improve the team poor performances from the last years, one of the major changer is the front suspension were they incorporate a pull-rod system similar with what it is used on the rear, and even that this kind of a system was not used in Formula1 since the ‘90 Fry insists that this choice has nothing to do with the poor results from the testing days.
“Front suspension is not that important, it caries a small aerodynamic advantage and also helps lowering the gravity center of the car.” he added.
We have to remember that last year, Ferrari’s preparations were set back when they discovered that results they were getting in the wind tunnel were not being matched on the track. Ferrari had insisted last season that this correlation problem had been solved, but Fry admitted there was still a small concern in that area.
Image: © Ferrari
