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BETWEEN them F1 ace drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have accumulated a staggering five wins at the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix Ö but still they have everything to prove.
Last year was considered a disaster for the Ferrari duo as they managed only one win and had to settle for third place in the constructors’ championship.
There was no racing last season in Bahrain following civil unrest so the pair will be hoping to secure a one-two this year as they did in 2010 with runner-up Brazilian Massa hoping to emulate Alonso’s record hat-trick of victories on the Sakhir circuit as his Spanish teammate aims to make it four.
Massa lost the 2008 world title to Lewis Hamilton on the last corner in Brazil and was then involved in a bad crash the following year from which he has struggled to fully recover.
After the disappointing campaign in 2011 he is under pressure to perform well this year and he believes the new Ferrari car to contest the 2012 season will make all the difference.
'Let me tell you that it looks very aggressive, it was something that was part of my dreams,' Massa said. 'It’s a very important year for me and the whole team of course; 2012, this is going to be the victory year. We are going to fight to get the championship back.
'I really feel focused on winning. There are positive things in my head and I want to finish the championship in a better way.'
Former world champion Alonso finished fourth in the drivers’ championship with Massa sixth.
'It looks very different actually from what we have seen the last two years,' Alonso added. 'I’m going to start with the same strength, force and determination. It’s going to be a challenging season.'
Ferrari officially describes the new car as being ‘fundamentally revised’ from last year’s model and capable of winning from the start. 'I am sure our car will be winning right from the beginning,' Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said. 'We have learned many lessons from the past and taken some difficult decisions. But I am sure all our efforts will be represented with this car.
'From a technical point of view, we have many novelties in terms of mechanics and also the shape of the car. We wanted continuity here, and hopefully we will reach the right performance.'
While the car adheres to new rules regarding the position of the exhaust pipes and engine mapping, the most striking feature of the F2012 is its ‘platypus’ nose, a design which caused a stir when Caterham revealed a similar concept.
Ferrari admitted in an official press release that the design was ‘not aesthetically pleasing’, but Domenicali insisted he was only concerned with the car’s performance following four disappointing years.
'Actually it’s not really so pretty from my personal perspective, but this is a value that doesn’t count in F1,' he said. 'These choices are from both technical regulation constraints and the choices to try to maximise the performance of the car. The fact that it’s ugly or very nice doesn’t count a lot, the most important thing is the car has to be performing.'
Although the fundamental design is unlikely to change between now and the first race of the season in Australia on March 18, Ferrari revealed that the car would ‘undergo a very intensive development programme over the first part of the season, especially on the aerodynamic front’.
Bahrain International Circuit will host the fourth race on April 20-22.
