Over a thousand people
braved the cold and damp conditions on Saturday morning
to see the new Ferrari F150 make its shakedown runs at
Fiorano along with the Scuderia’s full complement of
drivers from Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa to
Bianchi, Fisichella, Bertolini and all the youngsters
from the Ferrari Driver Academy.
On this second day of
what Ferrari described as "acquiring footage of the
car's new livery for advertising purposes", a loophole
in the regulations that allows the F1 teams to
occasionally circumnavigate the draconian test ban, the
Fiorano track opened its gates to a section of the
fifteen thousand Scuderia Ferrari Club members.
“I would like to thank
all of you for having coming all the way here to give us
your passionate support,” said Stefano Domenicali as he
got the day underway by addressing the crowd. “Last
year, on the day we won at Monza, feeling this wave of
affection from all of you was a great motivating force
as we fought our way back and we hope to give you
something back this year with a championship title,
something that we missed out on in Abu Dhabi by the
smallest of margins.
"This car," continued
Domenicali, "is dedicated to
celebrations for the 150th anniversary of Italian
Unification because it is part of our makeup to feel
pride in representing our country all over the world.
Even if we have team-members who come from many
different countries, starting with a Spaniard like
Fernando and a Brazilian, albeit with Italian origins,
like Felipe, we have a strong desire to hold high the
national flag which is now seen in all its glory on our
car.”
The weather was definitely not at its best, with a bit
of sleet in the early hours of the morning making the
track damp and temperatures were even lower than Friday,
so that Felipe Massa only did just over sixty kilometres
at the wheel of the F150. The car was then loaded onto a
truck which headed off to Cheste, near Valencia, where
on Tuesday 1st February the development testing will get
underway. Giving the newborn car its first ever run up
against its rivals will be Fernando Alonso, who will
also drive on the following day. On Thursday February
3rd it will be Felipe Massa who will bring to a close
the first of the four scheduled pre-season test
sessions.
