Ferrari tests 2.4 V8

So why have they chosen Massa as their number 2 then? ...

Come on Todt think of the Tifosi, not just your son ... We need a MS replacement, please.

But v8 test (if real v8) is good news.
Pete

 

There is a MS replacment, haven't you been reading the Rossi thread?

 

I really don't think that is ever going to happen ... Rossi is just plain too slow, and it would be a bad decision to put him in the seat just because he is an interesting personality.

There are plenty of talented young drivers coming up through the ranks, if Rossi wants to play car racer ... do the same (just as he did on bikes).

Pete

 

First of all....both MS and Todt picked FM over all the other candidates to test in 2002-2003. During the first months of his testing appointment, Massa was under close scrutiny by Schumacher. Finally, Todt (advised by Schumacher) decided that Massa would be a long term Ferrari investment. So voila...FM is driving for the red team next year. But apparently...Raikkonen is #1 on Jean Todt's wish list. Todt wanted him in 2002 but Ron Dennis came with soo much money and rigid contract clauses. I heard Todt and Kimi's management are in close talks, and both the management of KR and KR himself are interested in driving for Ferrari.
Also I heard that Ferrari is keeping a very interested eye on a couple of young very talented drivers who are not in F1 yet, but that Ferrari plans to send to Minardi or Red Bull in the next 2 years.
Another thing.....Ferrari / Vitantonio Liuzzi = contacts

 

I think Rossi will never race in Formula 1.

Don't know if this is true....
Both Jean Todt and Luca Di are strongly against an italian driver at Ferrari, for political reasons mainly.
But if they are really looking for an italian driver to drive in 2007....you can forget GF and JT. And between Liuzzi and Rossi, I would take Liuzzi.

Liuzzi:
2001: FIA-CIK Karting World Champion (conducted over five events)
2nd place German Formula Renault Championship – first car season
2002: 9th place German Formula 3 Championship
Victory San Marino International Formula 3 race
Three pole positions
Test Formula 3000 – Coloni Motorsport
Tested Formula 1 - BMW Williams F1 Team
2003: FIA F3000 International Championship – Coloni Motorsport
Second place in fifth F3000 International race
Qualifying:- Pole in Hungary by 0.47 seconds, Hockenheim - 2nd, six other times in top five
Finished 4th in Championship, highest placed rookie
2004: FIA F3000 International Champion – Arden International
Seven wins from ten races - all time F3000 record
Nine pole positions
2005: Formula 1 World Championship
Third driver with Red Bull Racing

 

The fastest time at Fiorano is in the 55+ sec. range. I think it is the F2004 which did that. Still a sub 1-minute lap on the small V-8's first time out is mighty impressive. I'm sure Schumi in an optimized chassis will lower that time significantly.

 

webber might be a good choice (((not)))

 

Marc Gene concluded a two-day test of Ferrari’s new-generation 2.4-litre V8 engine at Fiorano on Wednesday.

The Spaniard completed 58 laps (seven of which were on the short Fiorano layout) in a 2004 chassis fitted with the new power unit, and improved his best lap time from 59.996s on Tuesday to 59.305s.

Over the two days, the engine logged over 160 miles with no reported problems.

Gene told Autosport-Atlas that he was impressed with the driveability of the V8 at low revs, adding that “the indications we got in these tests are certainly very interesting”.

Gene is staying on at Fiorano today to shake down the F2005s that Ferrari will take to next weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.

 

could this engine be a prelim to the new 2007 ferrari california/dino?

 

Rossi is now within a second and a half of Shumacher's lap record on Shumacher's test rack. He now also has an F1 Super Liscence.

Ferrari has given him an open invitation to drive the car whenver he wants.

At what point will you agree that he is fast enough to drive the car?

 

No, it is not streetable.

 

After he has won a F3 series. Nobody should just step into a F1 car ... they should learn the ropes first. Bike racing is very different.

Pete

 

put him on a full grid at race pace and see what happens. you cannot pass on a car like you can on a bike.

setting a fast lap is one thing, but that is without other drivers, and they tend to make people act differently under circumstances.

 

Hi Pete,
That's OK, but don't say it to John Surtees.

Bill

http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/drv-surjoh.html

"A racer who would be equally at home in the Halls of Fame of both motorcycle and car racing, 'Big John' rarely won the accolades his success deserved, for he was a man who kept his own counsel and ploughed his own furrow. His critics suggested that was his biggest problem, but he himself simply says: 'I suffered perhaps from an excess of enthusiasm, of always wanting to get deeply involved with any project on which I was working.'

Surtees' prowess on motorcycles won him universal respect, and soon after trying out cars for Vanwall and Aston Martin in 1959, he switched full-time to cars in 1960. A victory in Formula 500 for Ken Tyrrell at Goodwood confirmed the wisdom of the move, and he made his F1 debut for Lotus in Monte Carlo. One race later, he finished second at Silverstone in the British GP, before taking pole position in Portugal.

Despite the prodigious speed he showed, this was the point at which Colin Chapman was forging his deep alliance with Jim Clark, and Surtees elected to move to pastures new just as the British team really began to establish itself. After winning the World Championship for Ferrari in a dramatic Mexican Grand Prix in 1964, Surtees quit the Prancing Horse in the middle of the 1966 season after internal pressure became intolerable, and thus left Jack Brabham a clear run to the title. After a dismal 1969 season he left BRM to set up his own team, Surtees Racing Organisation, for 1970, just as BRM started winning again."

 

Thus as I said Rossi MUST try out car racing first, not just a few laps. Thanks for posting that Surtees did indeed follow a sensible transition from motorcycles to cars. I'm sure that 1960 season was NOT just the one race in the Formula 500 ...

Pete

 

Pete,
I would not regard F500 as a comprehensive schooling for F1, even in that day. I am sure that Rossi has driven modern cars in a sporting fashion before, which would probably be even more instructive than F500 was back then.

Regards,
Bill

 

I'll have to read up on Surtees 1960 season BUT many (if not most) drivers from that period started their single seater career in F500 ... notably Stirling Moss.

It is NOT about driving modern cars, it is about learning race craft ... motorcycles have MILES of track to use to pass, cars do NOT and require completely different race craft.

If he does not learn this he will be as useless as RB ... ie. fast enough when just lapping, but unable to race with the best of them.
Pete

 

Morning Pete,
I am not rejecting the notion of any driver's performance being enhanced by experience. That would be more than a bit foolish, but some prospects are a bit more of a natural than others. We both know that if a team was going to employ the services of Mr. Rossi, they would give him plenty of seat time before planning a season with him as a entrant.

Regards,
Bill

 

Heard it screaming today! A different sound then the V10. More raw.

 

Yes I agree ... but from where I sit this whole Rossi looking at switching to cars is being handled (by Ferrari or by Rossi, his manager, I do not know?) wrong.

If Rossi passionately wants to race cars ... he should be talking to F3 or F3000 teams, not playing on Ferrari's private test track. That smacks of somebody just w@nking around with the notion and thus not really committed.

Switching to racing cars should not be just another 'game' for Rossi, it should be taken with the same commitment and passion that he approached bike racing.

Pete