Shanghai track would suit Ferrari

By Jay
April 14 2010

The Ferrari team is looking forward to post good results in this weekend’s Chinese GP with their engine and electronics head, Luca Marmorini exuding confidence in the F10.

Ferrari were particularly worried about the situation with their engines, with Fernando Alonso already using 3 new engines up until the Malaysian GP.  

“One is broken, another (the one changed in Bahrain) I can use only in free practices, and the third one (Melbourne) I can use in more races,” Alonso said. 

This has been a cause of concern in the Ferrari camp, as 16 more races still remain in the calendar, while Alonso is left with only 5 new engines of the total allocation of 8 engines for the season. 

“As a precaution, we opted not to use the Bahrain race engines in Australia, but they will be used in China, having concluded that they are fit for purpose, despite what happened (the overheating) at the Sakhir circuit,” Marmorini said. 

On the positive side, the Italian feels the Shanghai track is not particularly hard on engines. “I would describe it as medium load,” confirmed Marmorini.

“It features a very long straight, but nothing that causes any particular concern for the power unit and also, the ambient temperature is not usually very high, which makes life easier on the engine front.” 

Bridgestone's Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, Hirohide Hamashima has however said the track would be quite severe on tyres, "Shanghai International Circuit is severe on tyres."

"There are very high lateral forces and we expect to see graining on the front left tyres, especially caused by the increasing radius, turn two and the banked turn thirteen.

We could also see graining on the rear tyres here too. We are a step harder in our allocation for this year compared to 2009 because of the heavier cars and the severity of this track." 

With the F10 being quite gentle on tyres compared to its closest rivals and the engine situation too seemingly under control, Ferrari can surely expect their drivers to mount a challenge to their closest rivals and favourites, Red Bulls, and eek out a possible 1-2 finish for the team. 

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