Fernando Alonso won’t drive Ferrari’s new F1 car at the first test session of the year, the team have confirmed.
Felipe Massa will give the new car its debut at Jerez on February 5th.
He will share the first test with the team’s new development driver Pedro de la Rosa, who will be making his debut for Ferrari.
Alonso will not drive the car until the second test at the Circuit de Catalunya. He will spend the first three days in the car from February 19th to 21st before Massa takes over for the final day.
At the final test from February 28th to March 3rd Alonso and Massa will do two days each.
Ferrari said Alonso will “intensify his physical training” while waiting for his first run in the car “in preparation for a first part of the season which, as usual will be very demanding, both because of the long distances involved between the various Grands Prix and because of the variety of weather conditions encountered from Melbourne to Sakhir, with Sepang and Shanghai in between”.
Ferrari testing rota
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jerez | Felipe Massa | Felipe Massa | Felipe Massa | Pedro de la Rosa |
| Catalunya 1 | Fernando Alonso | Fernando Alonso | Fernando Alonso | Felipe Massa |
| Catalunya 2 | Felipe Massa | Fernando Alonso | Felipe Massa | Fernando Alonso |
2013 F1 season
- Mercedes originally favoured Heidfeld for Hamilton’s seat
- Take F1 Fanatic’s new 2013 season quiz
- F1 Fanatic’s new year thanks and credits 2014
- The complete F1 Fanatic 2013 season review
- The drivers, teams and cars of 2013
Browse all 2013 F1 season articles
Image ?? Pirelli/LAT
Dev (@dev)
24th January 2013, 16:29
i think it’s good thing, Massa is prolly a better person to guild on technical aspects than Alonso… also pedro is well known for his feedback.
Nickpkr
25th January 2013, 6:25
Yes he understand the f2012 faster NOT
tmekt (@tmekt)
24th January 2013, 16:30
Maybe he’s going to Mercedes
Oople
24th January 2013, 16:35
OMG >_> Haha…
Nick.UK (@)
24th January 2013, 17:03
It’s so in style right now to go to Mercedes. I could definitely see a new ‘Going to Mercedes meme’ being created soon…
Spinmastermic (@spinmastermic)
24th January 2013, 19:30
I was going to Mercedes until I took an arrow to the knee…..
Nick.UK (@)
25th January 2013, 0:09
@spinmastermic Hahahaha! Excellent! :)
Cristian (@cristian)
25th January 2013, 9:11
great one:))
evolutionut (@evolutionut)
24th January 2013, 20:16
here you go
http://oi48.tinypic.com/igkchy.jpg
the_sigman (@sigman1998)
24th January 2013, 17:27
Spot on.
Brace (@brace)
24th January 2013, 20:19
Hahaha
Good one. :) Really made me laugh. I agree, we definitely need a meme for this. :)
JB (@)
24th January 2013, 17:17
I´m happy for Pedro! I hope he gives Alonso good feedback! They will definitely understand each other waaaay better!!!
JamieFranklinF1 (@jamiefranklinf1)
24th January 2013, 17:19
Pretty glad to see Ferrari choose to use De La Rosa. I was thinking that they should, to try and correlate between the track and the simulator. Definitely a smart move right there.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
24th January 2013, 17:41
Getting de la Rosa in the car for a day makes sense if he’s going to spend the rest of the year in the simulator. I remember McLaren doing that on occasions.
But it’s interesting that his day comes out of Alonso’s allocation instead of Massa’s. However Alonso gets more days at Catalunya, which is more representative of most F1 tracks than Jerez. And he’s doing the final day, which is when we often see the first bits of team’s definitive aero packages for the first race appear on the cars.
And there’s also the possibility that he traded off one day this year to get an extra one next year with the new engines.
Robbie (@robbie)
24th January 2013, 18:13
Your additional comments have helped me make a little more sense out of this, but still, I find it hard to wrap my head around FA getting only 5 out of 12 testing days. Seems odd given the lack of in-season testing. And what if there are some rainy days that take away from his 5 days? Why don’t they have two cars/drivers at every test day, again, given the lack of days in general, especially the in-season testing. Makes me think all the testing they had in the past, including the in-season testing, was a waste and was just an expensive make-work project, when I see that even the limited days they now have don’t seem to be used to their fullest.
Bruno (@brunes)
27th January 2013, 4:08
FA is doing the more “important” testing. Where the car will be closer to the one they will take to Melbourne.
The car Mass will drive in the first 3 days will be deeply changed by the time Alonso drives it. Massa will do the shakedown, and tyre understanding testing. The car will be more similar to the one from last year. That will give Ferrari some direction for the development. By the time they go to Catalunya the car will have MAJOR updates, then Alonso will play a major role in setting it up for 2013.
BasCB (@bascb)
24th January 2013, 18:49
Also that Massa will be driving the car in the first days where they do the things to make sure it actually runs, then get on with testing all the systems and putting a bit of stress on the chassis means that while he has more days, those will be less involved with the fine details.
petebaldwin (@)
24th January 2013, 20:17
The first test is basically a shake-down though isn’t it. The first 2 days anyway. Testing out the new tyres, getting basic data etc and there’s a high risk of technical problems.
If you consider how many new parts usually appear for the last 2 tests, Alonso gets a nice advantage having 5 of days to Massa’s 3….
Robbie (@robbie)
25th January 2013, 2:15
OK…fair enough!
infy (@infy)
24th January 2013, 20:34
Maybe Alonso’s taking an extended holiday.
Lauri (@f1lauri)
24th January 2013, 21:53
on 20th of January:
Fernando Alonso @alo_oficial
Tomorrow begins three weeks of intense physical training. Here in Italy the first part. I’ll keep inform …
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
25th January 2013, 1:35
Good to see that de la Rosa will be getting some running. A man with such huge experience as a test driver and a racer will surely add positively to Ferrari’s development of the new car. Still interesting that they gave time out of Alonso and not Massa. Is it possible that, despite his past performance issues Felipe is actually quite good at giving detailed feedback, hence giving Alonso’s running time instead?
Denis 68
25th January 2013, 5:50
Alonso was just complaining the other day about the lack of testing in F1 these days, and he’s not even going to turn up at the first test.
Colossal Squid (@colossal-squid)
25th January 2013, 14:42
That’s not his decision. The team decided to put de la Rosa and Massa in the car ahead of Alonso. Hardly fair to blame Fernando for that.
Nickpkr
25th January 2013, 6:53
So is number two driver launch parade so far, massa, rosberg, webber & Button
V. Chris (@vasschu)
25th January 2013, 7:41
Button is already decided to be number two driver? I don’t think so. And i know that a lot of people believe Hamilton will be higher tolerated than Rosberg, but this remains to be seen. I think that this is going to be the best internal battle in 2013.
Ibra
25th January 2013, 9:12
Agree with Hamilton-rosberg but i think Button have a hell of a work to do if he wants to beat Perez !
Todfod (@todfod)
25th January 2013, 14:57
I’m not a fan of Button… but I’d expect him to have the upper hand on Sergio initially. However, if Sergio is as highly rated as people think he is.. then he should be thrashing Jenson in quali and the race mid season onwards. It would be interesting to know who would win this teammate battle.
Between Hamilton and Rosberg… I would be shocked if Hamilton didn’t beat him regularly. But yes, in terms of pace, Rosberg will give a harder fight to Lewis than Jenson did.
JB (@)
26th January 2013, 6:11
@todfod
I´m not a huge fan of button either but seriously…. Perez will definitely set him straight… It´s all about the latinamerican temperament… We won´t be putting up with much bull… You just wait and see… We have already seen Perez do some quite good passes in a Sauber, something that seems to take Button to do.
HK (@me4me)
25th January 2013, 12:58
Didn’t Alonso say somewhere that 2012 had been hard on him, and he needed some rest? Maybe he hasn’t been training like usual throughout the winterbreak, and has instead actually taken some time of. That could mean he currently is slightly out of shape, which to be honest is nothing to be ashame about. Not even Alonso, the highest ranked driver on the grid can work non stop year in year out. He’s not superman. If this is the case, then his/Ferarri’s choise makes sense.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
27th January 2013, 10:57
…but what about Massa’s intense physical training? Is he going to turn into a flabby mess? :(