The Ferrari 430 Scuderia is already one of the hottest-performing supercars on the market, but some people just don't know how to leave well enough alone. Some of those people work at Ferrari, who've worked tirelessly on the 458 Italia to supplant the 430's already legendary performance. And some of those people work for Novitec Rosso, who've come back yet again with another mod job for the Italian stallion.
Called the Edizione 747, the custom Scuderia may not be as big as a jumbo jet, but it packs nearly as much thrust. Strapping a pair of superchargers to that high-revving 4.3-liter V8, along with a few more tweaks here and there, brings output up from an impressive 510 horses to a bonkers 747 horsepower. Intercoolers and revised aerodynamic cooling keep the engine running cool. Twenty-inch NF3 rims wear Michelin Pilot Sport Cup rubber mounted to sport springs that drop the ride height by a further 30 milimeters, available with an adjustable front end that can lift 40 mm to clear curbs and speed bumps at the touch of a button. Novitec's also decked out this particular example with a two-tone yellow and matte black paint scheme, and given the interior a few mods to complete the package.
Novitec says the 747 is capable of reaching 218 MPH, about 20 more than stock, and hitting 62 MPH in 3.4 seconds – only a touch quicker than stock, which just goes to show there's a limit to what even steamroller rear tires can handle. Novitec will only be making three examples, which just may be enough to keep a few moneyed speed freaks busy until the new 458 Italia comes around, and then it starts all over again.
From his brief tenure at McLaren, we know that Fernando Alonso has a bit of trouble getting along with his teammates. Especially when he doesn't get the clear preferential treatment as the team's #1 driver. After all, as has often been said, a driver's teammate is his chief rival. So after Ferrari confirmed that Alonso and Felipe Massa would be put on equal footing, we smelled some trouble a-brewin'. But we didn't expect it to start at least until the beginning of next season. Turns out, that was a bit premature, as some cracks in the relationship between the two teammates-to-be have already started to show.
Speaking with a group of journalists in his native Brazil where the F1 circus is preparing for this weekend's grand prix, Felipe Massa said with "absolute certainty" that Alonso knew about the plan to have wingman Nelson Piquet crash to hand him the controversial victory. That's a pretty hefty charge levied by his future teammate, and Ferrari naturally scrambled to issue a clarification (which you can read after the jump) but you can't take back what's already been said.
Massa was suitably – and vocally – upset when the Crashgate story broke, because without Alonso's ill-earned victory, Massa would have won the championship last year, instead of losing to Lewis Hamilton by one point at the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the season. Better luck next year, gents.
If you checked out the images we posted of Felipe Massa's return to Maranello, you may have spotted the returning Brazilian driver chatting with one Jean Alesi and wondered what he was doing there.
The French driver raced for the Scuderia from 1991 through 1995, scoring a handful of podiums and a solitary grand prix victory in Montreal. Along with longtime team-mate Gerhard Berger, Alesi switched places with Michael Schumacher to Benetton-Renault in 1996, then bounced between a few other teams before retiring from Formula One at the end of 2001. Since then he's been competing in DTM and then headlined the new Speedcar Series.
With the ill-fated Asian stock car series now deceased, however, the racing world has been wondering what the retired F1 driver would try his hand at next, and on Tuesday they got their hint when Alesi showed up at Fiorano to test the Ferrari F430 GT2. Alesi's slated to race for AF Corse, the team run by Amato Ferrari, who shares strong ties with both Maranello and Maserati but no direct familial relation despite the common name.
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The new Ferrari 458 Italia isn't even out on the street yet, but already the automotive rumormill is churning out speculation over a potential Scuderia version. When outlining the roll-out of upcoming Ferrari models for the near future, Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa dismissed any such speculation as premature, but that's not going to stop some. Hence the rendering you see above, courtesy of user DJ at Teamspeed.com.
Since this can of worms has already been opened, the first thing we can say is that, while Maranello will in all likelihood produce a lightweight, slightly more powerful version of the new 458, it's probably several years away. The Italia is already expected to eclipse any previous benchmarks set by previous "volume" Ferrari road cars. And when it does, it almost certainly will not be called Scuderia – based on the 360 Challenge Stradale and the 430 Scuderia, it appears Maranello's keen on changing up the naming scheme with each new model. One board member suggested 458 Tifoso in tribute to Prancing Horse's dedicated legions of fans, but whatever name Ferrari decides on, and whenever it makes its way into the limelight, expect the supercar to drop a little weight, gain a little power and wipe the smirk off of any competitor's mug.
First thing this morning, no one knew who'd be replacing Luca Badoer in the second Ferrari alongside Kimi Raikkonen – in addition to Williams test driver Nico Hulkenberg and former Toro Rosso driver Sebastien Bourdais, the likes of current BMW driver Robert Kubica had been mentioned. Force India driver Giancarlo Fisichella's name has also been persistently mooted, but the scuttlebutt was consistently shot down by team principal Vijay Mallya.
Ah, Formula One. No sooner had Mallya quashed the rumor again that he then turned around and announced that Fisichella was indeed let go to Ferrari. This gives Fisi the race seat for the rest of the year and, according to Mallya, "will secure Giancarlo's long-term future with Ferrari." We have no idea what that could mean for 2010, since Ferrari already has Raikkonen and Massa, and supposedly Alonso to deal with currently.
Financial terms weren't announced, but it is suspected that in return for letting Fisichella go Ferrari forgave Force India's €4 million bill owed the Scuderia for the engine contract that the Indian team terminated last year. While Fisi gets five races to prove his worth in one of the best cars on the grid, now we get to wonder who will be Adrian Sutil's new teammate.
When Felipe Massa was taken out of commission at the Hungarian Grand Prix last month, the questions on everyone's mind was who would replace him and when he'd be back. With regards to the former, Ferrari is one of the few teams on the grid that doesn't have a junior driver development program in place. The team doesn't usually have a problem getting the best drivers, but when disaster (literally) struck, the Scuderia was left without options.
Michael Schumacher prepared to come out of retirement to fill his prodigy's seat, but his own lingering physical issues prevented that, leaving Ferrari with little choice than to promote one of its aging test drivers – finally opting for Luca Badoer after his ten-year hiatus from active racing instead of its other test driver, recent Le Mans winner Marc Gene – with less than satisfactory results. After finishing just about dead last in both of the races he's contested so far, Ferrari has admitted that it's looking at other options for the rest of the season. Giancarlo Fisichella is said to be one possible Ferrari driver and could stay on in the long term to replace Badoer as test driver as well. Robert Kubica is being touted as another, while still more reports suggest that Fernando Alonso could bolt from Renault a bit early and take up residence with Ferrari.
If these rumors seemed at first a little odd with Massa first rumored to return by the upcoming Italian Grand Prix and then readjusted to the subsequent Brazilian Grand Prix – the home races for the team and driver respectively – it now looks like Felipe won't be back this season at all. After undergoing tests at the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Massa is scheduled to undergo plastic surgery to repair a fractured section of skull resulting from the incident in Hungary. Tellingly, Ferrari says they're looking forward to Massa's return for the start of next season.
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Ferrari has had plenty of time to get its hands on Giancarlo Fisichella. The Italian driver has been on the grid since 1995 when he started as a test driver for Minardi, and later driving for Jordan, Benetton, Sauber, Renault and now Force India. But the Scuderia wasn't interested. Not until its fortunes were down, and Fisico's were up.
The 36-year-old driver pulled off a shocking command performance at this past weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, grabbing pole position and a relentless second place behind Ferrari's own Kimi Raikkonen. All the while, Ferrari itself has been struggling with its veteran test driver Luca Badoer, who has been suffering from a difficult time readjusting to the competition. The team's test driver, promoted to the race seat after ten years of developmental duties when Felipe Massa and Michael Schumacher were both knocked out of commission by head-eye injuries (as has now been revealed), has finished the two races he started so far in 17th and 14th positions. Ferrari is plainly disappointed and embarrassed, but with no junior driver in place for a rainy day, Maranello has been left with little choice.
For his part, Ferrari's outspoken former triple world champion Niki Lauda has called on the team to poach Fisichella from Force India, which is experiencing financial troubles and would surely take the money and run. One way or another, Fisichella's in for a hero's welcome at his home race at Monza into two weeks. And Ferrari will have an experienced Italian driver behind the wheel for the Italian Grand Prix. Exactly which one that will be, however, remains to be seen.
It's anything but business as usual this year in Formula One, and this past week has been no exception, with one team scrambling to secure its future, another receiving the go-ahead to continue racing, and others re-submitting applications in the hope of joining the grid for next year.
First up is BMW, which announced it would be withdrawing its support from the Sauber team at the end of this year. After the team's eponymous founder failed to put the cash together to buy his team back from the Bavarians, the outfit is going ahead with its program to launch successive updates to its current car for Valencia this coming weekend and Singapore later this season in to demonstrate its capabilities in the hope of finding a new buyer before the season's out.
The FIA isn't holding its breath, however, and has informed seven outfits that submitted so-far unsuccessful bids to participate in F1 next season that there'll be another spot opening up on the grid for next year. In addition to BMW Sauber, reports suggest that Epsilon Euskadi and Prodrive are vying for the spot.
Luca Badoer is gearing up for his first grand prix in ten years. The veteran Ferrari test driver (who got the nod to fill in for the injured Felipe Massa after plans for Michael Schumacher's temporary return were put on hold) will get to test the Ferrari F60 which he helped develop before the upcoming European Grand Prix in Valencia after all, as Ferrari gets permission to run some "demonstration laps" around its own Fiorano circuit. But according to the latest reports, Badoer shouldn't get too comfortable in that cramped cockpit as Massa may be back sooner than expected.
Team principal Stefano Domenicali visited the downed Brazilian pilot and was encouraged by his progress, prompting reports in the Italian press that Massa could make a sensational return in time for the upcoming Italian Grand Prix at Monza at the beginning of September. Massa would need to pass a medical exam at the FIA headquarters in Paris before getting the green light to race again, and may need to wear extra protective gear. In the meantime, Domenicali insists that everyone be patient while Massa recovers.
The rules of text messaging seem to keep on sliding to the point where what was once unacceptable is now common practice - but there's got to be a line drawn somewhere. Take Sebastien Bourdais, for example, who claims that he was fired via SMS.
The French racer, who dominated the Champ Car series in its final four years, didn't have as much luck in Formula One and was recently canned by Toro Rosso after failing to perform over the last two years. Bourdais sued Toro Rosso for breach of contract and reportedly settled out of court for remaining salary plus $2 million in damages, but he's not done lashing out at the team for how they handled his termination. According to Bourdais, he received the official kiss-off by a simple text message. Call us old-fashioned if you like, but we think that being fired warrants a face-to-face, or at least a phone call.
