Domenicali on 2008 qualification

[Ciro Pabón]

"Cambieranno ancora le qualifiche, il Q1 durerà 20 minuti anziché 15, il Q2 resta di 15', il Q3 diventa di 10' (da 15'). Rispetto all'anno scorso, si partirà già con la quantità di benzina scelta per il GP. Niente rifornimento, anche solo parziale, dopo le prove. In più non ci sarà il muletto ma solo le due vetture dei piloti".

Something like:

"They will change the qualifications, Q1 will last 20 minutes rather than 15, Q2 stays at 15 ', Q3 becomes 10 ' (from 15 '). in comparison to last year, you will start with the quantity of gasoline selected for the GP. No restocking, also only partial, after the tests. You will not use the third car but only the two cars of the pilots."

http://www.gazzetta.it/Motori/Formula1/ ... rari.shtml

Well, my italian is terrible, so maybe what it really says is that Alonso is going to race for them...

[FLC]

I don't think so, Ciro, this is what Luca Di Montezemolo had to say to the Gazzetta dello sport:

E i piloti? C'è spazio per Alonso?
"Direi di no. Siamo pienamente soddisfatti di Raikkonen e Massa. Poi la Ferrari negli ultimi anni ha dimostrato di non scegliere i piloti per una o due stagioni, ma pianifica i rapporti per un periodo decisamente più lungo. Massa ha fatto un lavoro straordinario e quando ha mancato il risultato è accaduto per colpa della macchina o della squadra. Raikkonen ha vinto il titolo al debutto con la Ferrari, cosa che era successa solo con Fangio nel 1956. Insomma l'ultimo problema della Ferrari sono i piloti".

My Italian isn't better than yours but it apparently translates to this:

...and the drivers? Is there any room for Alonso?
"I would say no. We are fully satisfied with Raikkonen and Massa. In recent years Ferrari has shown not to choose the drivers for one or two seasons, but for much longer periods. Massa has done an extraordinary job and when he failed the blame was on the car or team. Raikkonen has won the title in his debut season with Ferrari, something which only happened with Fangio in 1956".

I guess that's also some kind of answer for the rumors of the inside battles in Maranello, although you never know...

By the way, this is a little bit off topic but how come nobody commented on Aldo Costa's remarks about next years car? He said it will be a completely new car while in autosport.com they seem to not be convinced, they still claim it is going to be an evolution. A little bit of both?

[Ciro Pabón]

Actually, I was making a lame joke about my knowledge of italian, which is more or less zero. I did not read about Alonso in that article, I concentrated on the qualy format. However, as we say in Spanish: "To dream costs nothing..." ("Soñar no cuesta nada")

What I don't get is the point about refueling. What does it exactly mean? No refueling at all?

Do you have any link for Autosport's article on evolution/revolution for 2008?

[FLC]

From what I understand the cars will be refueled only at the beginning of the qualifying session.

Here are the links:

Costa: 2008 car will be 'completely new'

Ferrari confirm launch date for 2008 car

Notice how they mention in the second link that the car will be an evolution, could be just lack of attention.

[donskar]

I should think we'd trust the designer on this one. Costa did make specific references to the areas to be changed - front of monocoque, sidepods, electronics, transmission. Of course, with today's tight regs, we rarely SEE significant changes: look at all the posts in which we try to determine if a winglet has been modified or not! Costa also made reference to the restrictive regs (my word, not his) which make significant changes so rare.

Remember Tony Southgate (a pretty good designer - BRM and others - walking away from F1 because "in F1 you change a mounting bracket and call it a new car."

[FLC]

I wasn't aware of that quote, but it put in words exactly what I was thinking. Thanks.

[zac510]

I don't understand the no spare car rule. Surely the teams have enough parts there to make one, maybe two more cars, so what's one more monocoque?

The fans will get angry the first time a driver misses a race because the FIA won't let them have a third monocoque.

Of course it just has to happen first, before they will revoke the rule.

[Carlos]

Tony Southgate designs have spanned the ages Lola Le Mans GT > Audi's LeMans efforts with stopovers in F1,CANAM, Cart/Indy cars, sports prototypes for Lister Jaguar and Nissan and Audi R8. Tony - F1 needs some help; much more than a few brackets
http://www.grandprix.com/gpe/cref-souton.html