Ferrari’s new full focus on the 2012 season was in evidence this weekend in Singapore.
The Spanish sports daily Marca reports that a clear sign that Fernando Alonso’s team has given up the fight this season was a 2012-spec front wing tested on the Italia 150 car in Friday practice.
The report said it and some other solutions run in Singapore are being closely guarded by the Italian team, who have admitted to designing an innovative single seater for next year’s campaign.
A team member by the name of Paolo Benedetto, who usually does not travel to the races, was seen in the pitlane on Friday taking photos of the 2012 parts after they were tested over short practice runs coated in flow paint.
"From now on we will be spending some time on Friday to start testing parts for next year," team boss Stefano Domenicali is quoted as confirming.
Toni Cuqeruella, an engineer with the Spanish team HRT, said he believed Ferrari’s 2012 wing seen in Singapore seemed to be designed for a Red Bull-style car.
"We are now devoting 100 per cent of our resources to the development of the car for next season," confirmed test driver Marc Gene to El Mundo newspaper.
"The fact that next year the blown exhaust diffusers are banned means all the engineers in all the teams need to be creative in their designs," he added.