F1: Ferrari Still Unsure About Strength Of F138

Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest in the dry FP2 session in Australia...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted March 16, 2013 Melbourne (AUS)

The new Ferrari remains a work in progress. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Ferrari chief designer Nicholas Tombazis says the team is pleased with the way the F138 performed in Melbourne on Friday, but insists that it’s still too early to judge how good the car really is.

Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest in the FP2 session.

“I think Red Bull showed obviously to be very competitive,” said Tombazis. “To be honest, we never had any doubt about the fact that they were going to be competitive. We know that they are a very strong team and had a good performance also in testing. We don’t know exactly where the relative pecking order is between the top four teams, I would say. We concentrated primarily on the tire evaluation.

“On the race simulation stuff, we were looking reasonable. On the pure qualifying performance it was difficult to judge because of track fuel loads and exact times when people went out. I expect we’ll only know where we are in qualifying only in Malaysia because it’s probably going to be wet, so we won’t know where we are until next weekend.

“I think in terms of performance, we are approximately where we are expecting, compared to Barcelona. But, as I say, as in Barcelona and it also applies here in Friday practice, we’re still unable to comment on our relative pecking order compared to our competitors.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 28th season as a racing journalist in 2012. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.