Ferrari 'understands' hard tyre issue
Ferrari technical director Pat Fry is confident that the Maranello outfit is on course to cure the problems it has had in using Pirelli's hard tyres this year
Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa have both struggled for speed at circuits where the hard compound has been available - and the issues were highlighted at Barcelona when Alonso led in the early stages on the soft before losing a lap when he switched to the hards.
Ferrari has been working on the matter, and Fry told the team's official website that he believes progress has been made in the area.
"I think you need to look at the nature of the tracks and the tyres that are there," he said in a video interview. "Barcelona is a very challenging track: downforce is key there along with car balance, and you need to generate good tyre temperature.
"Trying to makes the hard tyres work is quite difficult and, if you look at some of the smaller teams, they could not get the hard tyre working at all, so you have quite a large spread of the speed of various cars and that grows as the tyres get harder.
"We had a few issues that we were working on last week and we now understand. They were giving us particular issues that exaggerated the problems that people have on the hard tyre, and hopefully we have an understanding of it now, and we have been working on fixing it."
Ferrari is set to bring a few developments to its car for this weekend's Canadian GP, which Fry hopes will deliver a further step forward in form.
"It is a normal constant stream of updates, and there are a few different parts coming through - a few little bits on the diffuser and a few bits on the rear wing," he said. "A reasonable performance step hopefully, if everything goes to plan.
"Hopefully we are still closing the gap to the other teams. There has not been a lot of time between Monaco and Canada, but the nature of the tracks are relatively different in terms of what you need for aero, so we have specific rear wings for those circuits and it is the normal push to get downforce on the car."
Although tyres are again expected to be a dominant factor in Montreal, Fry believes that this weekend's race will not prove as difficult for teams as last year's was.
"I think it is certainly going to be a challenging race," he said. "It is a bit like Monaco I suppose, where it is all about traction and braking. The braking is always a challenge there compared to Monaco. The traction and how cars uses tyres at corner exit will be key for how the rear tyres wear out.
"It is the same two compounds as it has been in the past but, if anything, I think it will be slightly less trouble than last year because the compounds are a bit harder."
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