Massa raced with Red Bull Style exhaust in Korea

Ferrari raced an all-new Red Bull-style exhaust on only Felipe Massa's car in Korea last weekend, according to the Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos.

The news would explain the Brazilian driver's better pace than teammate Fernando Alonso in the sister F2012, and also the Spaniard's confidence that he is still in the running to beat Sebastian Vettel to the title despite a new 6-point championship deficit and Red Bull's recent dominance.

Indeed, 20 Minutos claims Alonso will be running the Massa-specification on his own red car next weekend in India.

The report also said Ferrari is working hard in former F1 team Toyota's state of the art Cologne wind tunnel on a so-called 'double DRS' straightline speed-boosting system.

"Hopefully we make a little bit of a step in terms of performance and then we can fight for bigger things," Alonso, having finished third behind both Red Bulls, said before leaving Korea last Sunday.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali added: "It is clear that we must make a step forward in performance to respond to the one made by Red Bull. We are well aware of that and we are working day and night to succeed."

Source: motorsport.com


There's 2 issues im not sure about this
1) Fernando usually always get 1st update?
2) It's the Spanish media known for making rubbish up to protect Alonso

Can't believe they'd give the update to Massa first. If this is the reason why 'Massa is faster than you' (sorry coudn't resist) then surely this would have shown up in practice and they would have bolted it onto Alonsos car.

Anyway hope its true coz with Hami out of the picture I'm rooting for Alonso.

I think it's a load of rubbish. If it was true, then we'd have known that weekend. We always tend to know what's happening when cars are running new set-ups etc. and it's in a Spanish newspaper. If something appeared in the Sun it'd be taken with a pinch of salt and the same logic should apply here.

If this was the testing of a new update, which I could understand, then I can see why Alonso didn't have it, play cautious, get the 3rd place and be happy with that, incase it didn't work and he did something similar to Hamilton, finishing 10th.

Massa's performance at Korea was rather impressive and then to be told by Smedley to back off from Alonso just emphasises to me that there must have been something on his car in comparison to Alonso's.

Yes, the article maybe Spanish but I can see why Ferrari would give the update to Felipe, especially if they've had only limited testing. It's a new exhaust part and potentially a liability over a race distance, therefore they could not really risk it being on Alonso's car in case it resulted in a DNF.

Now the team know it works after Felipe's performance, it will certainly be on Alonso's car in India. Ferrari needed an upgrade to keep this title chance alive because it was heading towards a predictable and boring outcome. I think McLaren will be probably dropped by these two in the remaining races but I will wait and see what happens and whether McLaren, as a team, are still 100% motivated for the season finale.

Didn't seem to benefit either Ferrari that much in India.

Nando's impressive overtakes were apparently down to having a long 7th gear more than anything else...aided by Webbers' KERS issues.

Certainly didn't help him get anywhere near Vettel. Hope they have better luck in the remaining races.