With heavy snow thwarting their plans to run some promotional laps at Fiorano last week, Ferrari’s F2012 finally made its track debut Tuesday at Jerez.

Ferrari were joined by 10 teams at the circuit (with only the Marussia team not present) and Felipe Massa was on duty behind the wheel with the day’s programme calling solely for data acquisition regarding the new cars handling. By the end of the day the Brazilian had logged 69 laps with his fastest lap being a 1.22.815 compared to returnee Kimi Raikkonen in the Lotus who continued to shake off his F1 rust by completing 75 laps setting the fastest lap of the day with a 1.19.670. 

Winter testing times, especially on the first day, are generally considered to be irrelevant of course. Perusing the team quotes at the end of the day I found it interesting to note that of all the drivers that took to the track and later spoke of their days work, the only driver that didn’t give his first day thoughts regarding his new car was Massa.

Drivers will typically tell you their first laps with a new car will often confirm if it has been "born well" and give them a vital insight as to whether they have a car that can be competitive or not. Ferrari have openly committed to an “aggressive design” with the F2012 and Massa been told in no uncertain terms that he needs to impress this season if he wants to remain at Maranello beyond this year.

So, does Massa’s silence mean Ferrari could be in for a tough year? Of course not, the team may simply want to play their cards close to their chest and we should hear Massa's thoughts soon enough. Still, I found the teams decision not to release Massa’s quotes intriguing all the same.

So, instead of Massa’s first day impressions, Ferrari chose to leave the talking to Chief Designer Nikolas Tombazis who agreed that seeing his new car take to the track for the first time is still a special experience. “It’s true that you always experience a special feeling when the car goes out on track for the first time and you cannot deny it, and today was no different to many others I have been through just like it.”

The F2012 also made for a different first day’s work compared to Ferrari’s of recent years explained Tombazis. “This car represents a clear break with the one that preceded it and it features concepts that are very different for us and that require much more fine tuning. That’s why today we absolutely did not have an eye on the stopwatch, preferring to concentrate on gathering as much data as possible in order to get as good an understanding as possible of the behavior of the car. We have much to do, but all in all, there are reasons to be pleased with the three hundred kilometers that we put together with Felipe at the wheel. We had to experiment with different solutions and that will be the case for the next few days as well: it’s obvious that some delivered what was expected while others did not, but that’s the purpose of testing, getting to understand how a car behaves and how best to develop it.”

Tombazis agreed with the Scuderia’s decision to push the design limits with the new car, “We decided that the only way to make a step forward was to be much more aggressive in our approach to the design of the car. It’s true that the arrival of Pat (Fry) in the role of Technical Director made a significant contribution to this change, but it was a direction our group had already initiated. It is obviously too early to say if this year we will be able to win or not, but no one will be able to accuse us of having been timid in the design of this car.”  

See my new article, Felipe Massa discusses the new F2012... and how it looks! http://www.girlracer.co.uk/live-blogs/entry/scuderia-ferraris-felipe-massa-discusses-the-new-f2012-and-how-it-looks.html