In the News

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Ferrari have made a second major reshuffle of their technical team in the space of five months, with Aldo Costa stepping down as technical director to take on an unspecified role in the company.

The Italian outfit have record just a single podium finish from the season’s opening five races and are already a long way adrift of Red Bull in the championship.

Despite showing an improvement in Turkey – where Fernando Alonso finished third – the team struggled badly for race pace last weekend at Barcelona and their lead Spanish driver was lapped by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and McLaren counterpart Leiws Hamilton.

Now just two days before on-track action begins at the next round in Monaco, Ferrari outfit have announced that technical boss Costa has “relinquished” the role he has held since 2007 “to take on “new responsibilities” at Maranello.

Costa’s exit has resulted in the team’s technical structure being altered, headlined by the Italian’s assistant Pat Fry stepping up to the new role of director of the chassis department.

“Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro announces that, as from today, Aldo Costa relinquishes his current position as technical director to take on new responsibilities within the company,” Ferrari said in a statement.

“At the same time, the technical activity has been restructured in three areas: director for the chassis side is Pat Fry, production is in the hands of Corrado Lanzone, while engine and electronics continues with Luca Marmorini.

“All three report directly to the team principal, Stefano Domenicali.”

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Pirelli have warned teams that working out the best strategy for the use of its super-soft tyres will be key to their chances of enjoying a strong Monaco Grand Prix, with the Italian manufacturer predicting the compound will last for less than 10 laps.

This weekend’s Monte Carlo street race represents the first time this season that Pirelli's new red-stripped super soft tyre – the most extreme option in its range – will be used at a grand prix, with the soft to be the ‘prime’ choice.

Pirelli says while the super-soft can’t quite be considered as an old-fashioned qualifying tyre, “one of its characteristics is the remarkably short warm-up time” while its predicted life range is expected to be even shorter at the start of the race when cars are on full tanks of fuel.

Paul Hembery, the firm’s motorsport director, admits the company is looking forward to seeing how the super-soft performs around the famous circuit given they haven’t been used on a street venue before.

“We’re very excited to see our PZero Red super-soft tyres making their debut around the twisty streets this weekend, although this type of circuit will obviously be a completely new experience as we’ve only tested on permanent tracks,” he said.

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McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh has admitted that even though his squad seem to have excellent race pace, they have to stop Red Bull running away with qualifying sessions.

Red Bull have taken every pole position so far this season, with Sebastian Vettel stringing together a dominant Saturday afternoon run until his team-mate Mark Webber got ahead in Spain last weekend.

The DRS wings and Pirelli tyres of Formula 1's 2011 rules package have revolutionised the racing and ended the days of processional grands prix - but still Whitmarsh thinks qualifying cannot be underestimated and McLaren must start knocking Red Bull off the front of the grid.

"Red Bull do a number of things to set up their car for qualifying that make it very quick, and we're working on some of those areas and different characteristics," he said.

"We work quite hard to make sure we've got a good race pace and ultimately you have to have that, but we need slightly better track position."