Ferrari Gives Up on 2011 Championship to Prepare Next Year’s Car

Truth to be said, Scuderia Ferrari had a bad start in the F1 season this year. Nevertheless, changes to the personnel and, more importantly, to the Ferrari F1 car's aerodynamic package gradually improved its pace considerably, yielding a win in Great Britain and four podium finishes for Fernando Alonso.
But even with Felippe Massa saying that nothing's over and Luca di Montezemolo claiming that he expects more wins in 2011, team principal Stefano Domenicali revealed to the Telegraph that the Scuderia will stop developing this year’s car in September.
From this point on, Ferrari will concentrate all of its resources on next year’s car. And, given Red Bull’s huge points advantage, no one can really blame them.
“OK, if you have to do some fine tuning you can do it. But otherwise you will lose a lot of time on development of the new car. The more time we can spend on the wind tunnel the better” said Domenicali. “What I really want to avoid is another difficult winter like the last two years," he added.

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Ferrari's Montezemolo Expects More Wins this Season

Ferrari president, Luca di Montezemolo, has stated that he expects the Scuderia to win more races this season. And this despite the fact that in the 11 first races of the year they have won only once, with Fernando Alonso in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Alonso lies fourth at the Drivers’ championship and his teammate Fernando Massa sixth, trailing championship leader Sebastian Vettel by 89 and 164 points respectively with just eight races remaining. In the Constructors’ championship, Ferrari is in third position, with 215 points, trailing Red Bull (383) and McLaren (280).
Still, di Montezemolo came out with a positive mood after a meeting with team principal Stefano Domenicali, technical director Pat Fry and engine boss Luca Marmorini:
“I can see the right spirit in the team after a very difficult start to the season. Domenicali and his crew seem very determined, concentrating on their tasks for the second part of the year which I am sure will feature Ferrari in the role of a key player. I expect we will pick up wins to add to the historically very significant victory achieved at Silverstone”.
Ferrari’s boss does have a point since the 150 Italia seems to be much more competitive after recent aerodynamic changes, with Alonso being on the podium in the five of the last six races.
No one mentioned the championship, though. This, despite the fact that everything is still possible, seems to be going the way of Red Bull –unless McLaren and Lewis Hamilton can prove them wrong. But the Scuderia is satisfied with the progress after its worst start of the year in many seasons –and can surely play a big role in deciding the championships.

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