Ferrari Sees Only One Way Forward - Attack!

In a season where everyone anticipated another complete dominance by Sebastian Vettel and Red BullRed BullAustria, 2004 > present12 models
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3 videos
, no one would have believed Ferrari'sFerrariItaly, 1947 > present233 models
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performance this year. Fernando Alonso is just six points behind Vettel in the World Drivers' Championship, and the team has a low but still possible chance of being World Constructors' Champion. There are still four races left in the season, and no teams have data for one of those tracks. Ferrari sees only one way forward, all out attack. 

Ferrari says that its car is still under development. The team has upgrades for the car planned for every remaining race.

Because we don’t currently enjoy an advantage, either in terms of performance or as far as the points situation is concerned, we cannot defend, we must attack and adopt an aggressive approach to car development for these four races, bringing updates to every one of them to close the gap and fight for the wins and hopefully bring home the titles," said the F2012'sFerrari F2012Italy, 2012 > 201214 photos
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chief designer Nick Tombazis.

Tombazis admits that the F2012 has gone to being a mid-pack car to the best car on the grid and sometimes back again this season. He says that the team's major problem this season is that what it has found in the wind tunnel has not proven true in real world situations. This is because in the rear world changing forces and crosswinds can affect the car's aerodynamics. In the wind tunnel, it is always a perfect situation. The tunnel also forces the team to show a scale model of the F2012 that at times does not show the full impact of changes. 

The way aerodynamics works on a modern F1 car is hyper-complicated, based on the interaction of various components and very small details, therefore it is easy to make a mistake. Correlation cannot be seen in black and white terms and you cannot expect a wind tunnel to deliver perfect results in all areas. We have had problems in some areas, but that does not mean that all our work in the wind tunnel has been worthless," said Tombazis.

Ferrari is building a new state-of-the-art wind tunnel for next season, but that comes with its own costs. The team will have to use an external wind tunnel while the new one is being built.

The biggest challenge facing the teams is the US Grand Prix on November 18. None of the teams have any data about the track and just a handful of laps have been turned on the circuit. It will be a challenge for everyone, but it might be Ferraris best chance to overtake Red Bull.