German GP – Ferrari: De la Rosa, “No one wants to throw in the towel”

The first race of the season, in Melbourne, does not seem so far away and instead with this weekend, in Germany, the Formula 1 Circus is preparing to face two consecutive races which will take the championship beyond the halfway point of its journey, as well as the break four-week summer.

The first of the two races will take place on the Hockenheim circuit which alternates on the calendar with the Nurburgring every two years. After the last Grand Prix, at Silverstone, Scuderia Ferrari and the other ten teams taking part in the world championship remained on the English track for a test session. Following Kimi Raikkonen's accident, from which the Finn has fully recovered, the Scuderia decided on the first of two days of testing to entrust the F14 T to test driver Pedro de la Rosa. In the team since January 2013, the Spaniard spends most of his working hours on the simulator and for this reason a day on the track was something decidedly different from usual for him. “It was fantastic to be back driving the car, a real thrill” – said Pedro – “For me it was an important opportunity, because I was able to drive the real car on the track and evaluate the correlation with the work that we perform on the simulator, realizing that we are going in the right direction. The handling of the car, the power delivery, many things have changed since I was racing: this is why it is so important to be able to count on test days for test drivers like me who are usually busy mainly in the simulator. We learned a lot at Silverstone, continuing our ongoing development programme. Race after race we are improving, no one wants to throw in the towel on this season, even if it is clear that we have already started thinking about 2015 too."

Hockenheim arrives in mid-July and is usually one of the hottest races, which therefore places the car facing a demanding reliability test. In addition, there is also the aggressive choice of Pirelli, which decided to bring Soft and Supersoft tires to have more exciting races, forcing the teams to pay great attention to tire management. “Hockenheim is a very complete track, on which the car must have a bit of everything” – stated De la Rosa – “There is a need for power, the right front and rear balance and also aerodynamic load because, despite It's not a particularly long track, it offers all types of corners. For example, in the first sector, you need a very precise front otherwise you risk having a bit of understeer which doesn't allow the power to be released correctly and reduces the exit speed from the corner. Good traction is essential in turns 2 and 5 as they are followed by the track's two main straights. The hairpin, at turn 6, offers the best overtaking opportunities. Finally, in the last sector, cars that have high aerodynamic load and good mechanical grip can be highlighted."