Massa's resurgent form will not affect Alonso - Ferrari

Recent upturn in form of Felipe Massa wont’s shake Ferrari‘s no.1 driver Fernando Alonso. These are the claims of Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali.

Over the past three years, Fernando Alonso has outpaced Felipe Massa easily, but last year after the summer break, Massa returned to his previous self and in the last seven races, he out-qualified and out-paced Alonso several times. This has created fresh rumours that the relationship between Massa and Alonso may deteriorate as it did when Alonso was paired up against Hamilton at Mclaren in 2007.

Here’s what Stefano Domenicali had to say about the issue at the 2013 annual Wroom Event:

“I consider it is a strength for us. If you look from another angle, last year, in the first half of the season, we were not able to maximise the points and that cost us a lot in the second half.

“The fact that Fernando and Felipe are coping with it very well is a strong point we have in the team. And if we compare this situation with other teams, it is the best situation we can have.

“To count on a Felipe that has finished the championship in such a way, I believe is a good motivation point for Fernando. At the end of the day, no one can sit on anything.

“It is important to push from the inside in a very constructive way; to have this kind of atmosphere in the team is a positive thing. You can count on transparency in the relationship, and that is something we have.”

“I believe that the most difficult moment of Felipe’s career is behind him,” said Domenicali. “He did the switch I would say in the summer break and the Felipe we saw in the second half of season was the driver we would want.”

Ferrari also confirmed that they will be launching their 2013 car on February 1st at their Maranello headquaters. Team principal Stefano Domenicali suggested that the car will be an evolution of their 2012 challenger, with special focus on the design of the Coanda exhausts.

It is clear that with continuity in the regulations, you cannot make any incredible changes from an aesthetic point of view,” he said.

“We will focus attention on trying to maximise the exhaust effect within the regulations, because that is where you can get some additional performance.”

Last year, Ferrari made a very poor start to the season with an uncompetitive F2012. This year, the team is sure that the problems they endured during the start of 2012 season are not going to be repeated in 2013. According to the team, major problem with the design of 2012 Ferrari was the faulty windtunnel at Maranello. The windtunnel results didn’t match with the data that the team collected on track during testing and this contradictory situation led to their poor start.

This year, Ferrari have done away with their own wind tunnel and will be using Toyota’s wind tunnel in Cologne. Here’s what Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali had to say:

“We have started the development of the 2013 car in the Toyota windtunnel and we will work on that tunnel this year with no need for a correlation check. This will allow us to be more efficient and effective – and not worried by the fact that we are not in Maranello. We have seen another competitor [McLaren] develop the car in the same facility and they have done a pretty good job.”