Ferrari’s technical director James Allison says he expects the current cars to be much quicker at the opening race in Australia than people fear they will.
Whilst Jenson Button likened them to GP2 pace, the teams are currently focusing on reliability over performance and have therefore run basic packages in Jerez – prompting some fans to expect times around six seconds slower in Melbourne compared to the 2013 cars.
It’s expected however that come the next test in Bahrain, the speed of the cars will begin to become clear, and whilst they won’t be right on last years pace, they won’t be far off according to Allison who admitted they’re finding downforce rapidly.
“Just look at the size of the rear wings – they are more or less Canada-type rear wings,” he said. “That is roughly where the downforce of the [2014] car is.
“But new rules offer new opportunities, so the rate of finding downforce is quite steep,” he added.
“You never know when [development] it is going to slacken off, but it is showing no signs of that at the moment.”
Button meanwhile played down his GP2 comments, believing the cars “won’t be far off 2013 by the end of the season”.
“When we go to the first race everyone is going to be much faster,” said the McLaren driver.
“And by the end of the year we might not be that far off, a couple of seconds.”
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