Massa Fastest At Monza Test

A cool day at the Autodromo di Monza circuit, started off the first day of testing for Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro. Air temperature was 22/27°C, while the track temperature was 25/59°C. Today was a crisp, bright, sunny morning, which turned into overcast by the afternoon. The Monza circuit is a 5.793 km circuit, which 71% of it is taken at full throttle. The circuit is a bare minimum down-force circuit. Tire wear is very light as well as brake wear.

Ferrari drivers Fillipe Massa and Luca Badoer took to the track today, both completing a total of 152 laps; 70 of which were by Felipe, and 82 by Luca. It seems that race winner, Felipe Massa carried his most recent race success and mentality to today’s testing session. Felipe set the fastest time of all drivers today, at 1'22.359, where Badoer set a personal best today at 1'22.539. Both Ferrari drivers were faster than the rest of the field by three tenths. Felipe was five tenths faster than the next non-Ferrari driver.

Ferrari concentrated their work on tire testing, set-up testing, engine endurance testing, and a completely new areo package fitted to both cars that were running today.

Tomorrow, Michael Schumacher will pilot the 248 F1 alongside Felipe. The track record for Monza is a 1 ’21.046 set in 2004. In Turkey we saw on Friday's first practice, Michael Schumacher was 5 seconds slower than he was in his second session of qualifying. We may see yet again the 248 F1 break a fastest lap.

August 30, 2006