Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto has explained that one of the outfit's main tasks between the Barcelona and Bahrain pre-season tests centred around simulator and wind tunnel correlation. Ferrari were the most productive team at the opening test session, almost 50 laps clear of nearest rival Mercedes, while also featuring towards the top of the timesheets throughout the three days of running. As the Barcelona test drew to a close, Binotto revealed how the data gathered would be put to good use back at the Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello, where a new simulator recently went live .
Simulator and wind tunnel correlation for Ferrari
Speaking to media in Barcelona, Binotto said: "In terms of mileage, we did a lot of laps. Since day one, in the morning, we were collecting data, which I think is important because the cars are so different. "The objective of the session was to try to map the car in all the conditions, to try to understand the correlation with the wind tunnel and the simulator. The correlation will be an exercise back at Maranello, really trying to correlate all the data. "The car is behaving well, overall, so we're not expecting big issues in terms of correlation. But it's not a matter of finding issues, it's a matter of optimising the final performance."
Ferrari cautiously optimisic for the new F1 season
From the initial data gathered, Binotto feels that Ferrari are in a solid place for the start of the season, but would not get drawn into making any predictions. "We are happy as far as I think we have done a lot of laps; we have learned from the car, collecting data," he commented. "I think if you look at the performance [and] the lap times, it's too early days. We are not all running in the same conditions. I'm expecting other cars to be very fast. "More for us was to be consistently running, as I said, really trying to collect as much data as we could, because there are still a lot of issues to address and potential to extract."
Most read
