Domenicali reveals changes at Maranello

21/12/2012

Determined to have a title contender straight out of the box, Ferrari team boss Stefano Domenicali has announced a number of changes at Maranello. Light at the end of the (wind) tunnel, so to speak.

"For a few months now, we have been working on a programme of reorganization along with the introduction of new methodologies, especially concerning the wind tunnel," the Italian told the media. "As you know, we are rebuilding the Maranello facility which will be closed until August. Until then, we will use the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. We have also adopted a better method of splitting up the work between those who run the wind tunnel and those who should concentrate more on the creative side of the job.

"This year, we saw that when we do too many things at the same time, maybe we are not efficient enough," he continued. "As regards the design, we have decided, particularly in light of the unusual demands we will face in 2013, when we will have a completely new project to work on for the future, to have two coordinators: Simone Resta, an engineer who has developed his career in Maranello and is very effective, will work on the 2013 car and Fabio Montecchi, will deal with the one for the following year. Nikolas Tombazis continues as Chief Designer. We must also apply in other areas what we have done at the track, for example in production: as was confirmed by some new arrivals from outside the company, in our "time to market," by which is meant the time from conception to producing the parts and in our long term research.

"We are well aware that we must start off with a more competitive car, as our President has demanded," he continued. "Clearly we have only been concentrating all our efforts on the new one from a few weeks before the final race, given we pushed right to the end on this year's. The 2013 car will be launched at the very end of January or the early days of February: as usual, the first one will be just a launch version, while the complete one will be seen in the final days of testing or in Australia, so as to make the most of all the time available.

"We will need to try and push the technical regulations to the very limit, while maintaining our strong points from this year, or improving them still further, because the others will not be twiddling their thumbs, but not by almost brushing against illegality, as happened in 2009 with the double diffuser. However we need to adopt a different, more creative approach."