F1: No Easy Fix For Ferrari, Says Fry

Formula 1

F1: No Easy Fix For Ferrari, Says Fry

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry says aerodynamics play a large role in the struggles of the F2012 car...

Adam Cooper | http://www.speedtv.com | Posted April 13, 2012 Shanghai (CHN)

Pat Fry doesn't want to elaborate too much on the problems of the Ferrari F2012. (Photo: Getty Images)

Ferrari technical director Pat Fry admits that the team has no easy way out of its current problems, but says that the Italian outfit knows what areas need to be addressed.

“I think we have a reasonable understanding of them and the areas we need to be working on,” said the Briton in China. “It’s like all these things, there’s never a golden bullet, it’s not a light switch you can turn on. You might have the idea of, ‘OK, that’s the problem’ but it’s hard work to try and fix it. And you’re not going to change it around in a week. Everyone is working very hard to fix all those issues and then get back on a sensible development curve.

“I think there’s a number of different issues that we’ve had; the most obvious one from the early testing was the exhaust system where we were struggling with what that was doing to the rear tires. I think we now understand that and are on top of that – though we haven’t run that style exhaust system since the first Barcelona test.

“The other areas have come to light where we knew we had the problems [but] we didn’t know where and we were really learning that through the last Barcelona test. And then to fix problems, it’s not the work of a minute. Here (in China) there are quite a few new parts on the car. There will be another set of updates, bigger updates, coming through for Barcelona. It’s a race of upgrading.”

Fry didn’t want to elaborate too much on the problems: “As I said, the exhaust is one of the more obvious changes that we’ve made, but that’s quite a small part of the problem that we’ve got. I don’t really want to go into where all the problems are – it’s not just a case of us trying to build a quicker car. We need to fundamentally be changing the methodologies that we use to select, design and manufacture so that we are competitive long term.

“There’s work on all fronts, not just work going into what we’re taking to Barcelona. There’s also a huge amount of work in just trying to change the fundamentals of what we do so we can actually take a step forward and be competing with everyone else.”

Asked about where Ferrari was losing out, Fry made it clear that as ever, aerodynamics was at the heart of the matter.

“The biggest performance differentiator – as people have mentioned earlier – is aerodynamics,” he said. “We’ve got some issues there that we’re trying to resolve. The areas you need to be working on is everything from the way you run the wind tunnel, the accuracy of your wind tunnel, the simulation that you use to decide what components to take forward, so we’re not leaving any stone unturned.

“We’re actually trying to review and revise our methodologies through the whole process, and that carries on into the design office for trying to get weight out of various parts, make other bits more durable, so there’s work going on absolutely everywhere within the company, on the basic fundamental methodology as well as just trying to upgrade the car.”

Adam Cooper notched up his 27th season as a racing journalist in 2011. He has written about F1 for SPEED.com since 2005. Follow him on Twitter.

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