Felipe Massa

Ferrari has announced that it has added Mirko Bortolotti, Daniel Zampieri and Raffaele Marciello to its Ferrari Driver Academy project, alongside first recruit Jules Bianchi.

Bortolotti and Zampieri have already tested for Ferrari as their prize for winning the Italian Formula 3 title in 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Having raced in Formula 2 last year, Bortolotti is set for a GP3 seat with Addax in 2010, while Zampieri will drive for Pons in Formula Renault 3.5.

Marciello, a 15-year-old karting graduate, will be placed in Italian single-seater category Formula Abarth (formerly Formula Azzurra) this year.

Ferrari has also revealed that the champion in new Brazilian series Formula Future Fiat will automatically become part of its Academy programme next year.

Matt Beer – Autosport

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali is confident his Italian outfit is in the top group that will be fighting at the front of Formula 1 this season – but he has drawn short of saying his team is out in front.

With Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa both upbeat about the progress of the F10 in pre-season testing, Domenicali believes the defining factor this season will be in how quickly teams can bring updates to their cars.

“What we could see, and considering all the unknown factors in the testing, I think that we’ve shown that we can be competitive and are part of the top group in terms of pure performance and also on the long run,” Domenicali told the official Ferrari website.

“This is an important result considering how we Read the rest of this entry »

Fernando Alonso will kick off Ferrari’s testing on his home ground at Jerez in Spain this week, driving for the first two days before handing the car over to Felipe Massa.

The Spaniard was fastest of all in last week’s first pre-season test at Valencia, with the early indications suggesting that Ferrari has an early edge in its preparations for the 2010 season.

The F10 will feature a few mechanical updates for this week’s run, with the team not intending to bring any aerodynamic improvements until the next Jerez test – when the team is expected to use its second chassis for the first time.

The Jerez test is set to feature 10 teams – with Force India, Virgin Racing and Red Bull Racing joining the seven current outfits who tested at Valencia.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo says he will not get carried away with his team’s results in the first pre-season test – which saw Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso top the times comfortably on all three days at Valencia this week.

After the test Ferrari’s technical personnel were keen to underline that it was too soon to make definitive judgements about form, and di Montezemolo says he shares their caution.

“I’m happy to see that our car looks like it was born well,” he was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport. “But this pre-season testing is like football in August. I think that the only positive aspect is the feeling that the car was born well.

“We have many problems to solve and Read the rest of this entry »

Ferrari says it does not have a clue how quick its new F10 is compared to the opposition – and thinks it may take a few more tests to fully find out.

Despite Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso leading the way in this week’s first pre-season F1 test in Valencia, Ferrari is remaining cautious about what the early indications are of the 2010 cars.

And with the team vowing to wait for one more further test before adding aerodynamic improvements to its car, the clear picture of form may not become clear for a while.

Technical director Aldo Costa told the official Ferrari website: “We see that we are fast but we don’t know how much we are fast compared to the others.

“The good thing is that…all the calculations and Read the rest of this entry »

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali says he is not getting carried away by his team’s strong start to pre-season testing this week.

Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso dominated proceedings at Valencia in Spain with both drivers the only men to lap under the 1m12s barrier. Alonso ended up quickest of all with a best time of 1m11.470s.

But despite that performance, Domenicali is still wary of the team’s opposition – and thinks the characteristics of Valencia, allied to hugely varying fuel loads, mean the picture from testing is still not clear.

“There are no miracles in Formula 1: if you want to be fast you have to work hard for months and months and then you’ll meet your competitors, who have as much capacities and are as motivated as you,” he told the official Ferrari website.

“We can’t take anything for granted and Read the rest of this entry »