Towards the 7-th round of the World Championship, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro held fourth place in the Constructor`s Championship. Scuderia team arrived in Istanbul with a very good mood, thanks to the convincing results of the last two races in Monaco and Barcelona and thanks to the fact that it has a fantastic record at the Istanbul Park circuit.As for this race, the F60 driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa will benefit from further changes to the aerodynamic package, including an update of the dual diffuser. These changes are not as significant as those introduced for the Grand Prix of Spain, but represent a small step forward in terms of development. Even more important, while the significant changes introduced in Barcelona were mostly a response to the FIA regulations on the issue of dual diffuser, opening new perspectives in terms of aerodynamics, the ones presented in Istanbul represent a return to the program's development team, based on introduction of small updates to every race.
Current Ferrari drivers have won all four Grand Prix of Turkey up to date, Kimi Raikkonen won the inaugural race in 2005, when it was part of another team, when Ferrari wasn't been competitive because of the issue of tires. From that moment, Felipe has won the last three races, each time starting from pole position, while the other Ferrari driver on the podium were: Kimi finished third last year and second in 2007, and Michael Schumacher third in 2006.
Bridgestone in Turkey brings "soft" and "hard", the same used in Barcelona and the team will try to improve own performance on a hard compound, which was one of the weak spot. The fact that the front right is put under extreme pressure in this circuit is not an issue that should affect the F60, because the car does not consume tires to much due to its configuration.
Even on the slow and twisty streets of Monaco, the Kers has proved to be useful, not helping overtaking, but in terms of improving lap time, but in Istanbul its benefits should be the ones to encourage overtaking. The long straight road that goes from curve 9 to curve 10, passing through the first bend in the curve 11 ends with an abrupt braking to enter a narrow curve to the right (curve 12) where you can take advantage of better opportunities for pass. Even straight part after the first curve from start line is sufficiently long to allow the Kers producing a good advantage immediately after the shutdown of start lights.
As for the race strategy, the two stops are the most common, although Hamilton has shown last year in his McLaren, that even 3 stops are a viable option, because the pit lane is short and becouse drivers cut the last and most slow curve. All this, combined with the maximum speed of 100 km/h on the pit lane, makes extra stops quite convenient in terms of reduced fuel load to be distributed on the four fractions of the race.
Beyond the technical terms, the Ferrari has reduced much of the time of travel from the circuit and vice versa. After years of staying at a hotel on the European side of the city, now has gone to the Asian side: this means that the endless queues to pass the customs around the Bosphorus are in the past, giving thus an important addition to thirty minutes more than to sound the alarm!
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