MELBOURNE (AUSTRALIA) (ITALPRESS) – And now it’s getting serious. After a winter of work and testing in Bahrain, Formula One takes to the track. Appointment in Melbourne, which, six years since the last time (2019), returns to host the first race of the season. On the Albert Park city track will begin the new season for Ferrari, which at the wheel of the SF-25 will line up Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton on the grid, line-up number 140 in the team’s history, the eighth to debut in Australia. At the same time, the seven-time world champion will become the 98th driver to compete in Formula 1 in a Ferrari, the 78th to do so as an official representative of the Scuderia.
“The wait is over and we are ready to hit the track for the first race of the season,” the words of Fred Vasseur, “In a way it feels like going back to the past, as it has been a few years since Australia last hosted the opening round. The Albert Park street circuit is not particularly representative of what awaits us in the rest of the championship, but we did well here last year and are confident about the weekend ahead as well.”
“Of course, there are many unknowns and we are looking forward to finding out what the hierarchy will be on the track, especially since the test results in Bahrain were very difficult to interpret,” adds the Cavallino team principal.
“During the winter we worked hard at the factory in Maranello, and so did Charles, who took special care in physical preparation, and Lewis, who did his best to integrate himself into the team as quickly as possible,” Vasseur continued, “I think we have everything we need to do well but, as always, first we will focus on ourselves, aware that this is only the beginning of a very long season. A week ago we received a wonderful welcome in Milan from a flood of our fans and now, in Melbourne, we want to give our all to give them all something to be proud of.”
Melbourne will also see the “debut” of Loic Serra, chassis technical director. The French engineer actually joined the Rossa last October but this will be his first real season. “Despite the unusually difficult weather conditions we faced in Bahrain, the test was very useful for us. We completed all the planned program, with the car showing a good degree of reliability,” the balance of the three days in Sakhir.
“The data from the track was in line with what we expected, and the SF-25 responded well to the set-up changes,” Serra further emphasizes. “We were happy to see that there was a good correlation between the data we collected on the Sakhir track and what we saw in the simulator, which is now an essential tool to be able to maximize the performance of the car race after race. Speaking instead of the immediate future, during testing in Bahrain it was particularly cold while in Melbourne the end of summer will give us much warmer weather. This will affect the behavior of the car, particularly with regard to the tires. By the end of the weekend we will have a clearer, but not yet definitive, picture of the hierarchy among the teams. We will continue to focus on ourselves and work to have a strong start to the season.”
But there is already a different air in Maranello. “The passion for Ferrari among fans and employees is admirable. This collective fervor is a true inspiration for all of us and one of the strongest driving forces I have ever experienced. Right now the mood in the team is very positive, and we are all confident that we can achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.”
-Photo Ipa/Agency-
(ITALPRESS).
