- German GP - FP2
Removing FRIC not a big difference - Alonso
Fernando Alonso is confident Ferrari will adapt to running without FRIC [Front and Rear Interconnected] suspension and said he did not feel a huge difference during Friday practice for the German Grand Prix.
Ferrari was among the teams keen to keep FRIC until the end of the season, but without the agreement of the rest of the paddock it was effectively banned and removed from all cars. The system works by maintaining the car's ride height and offering an aerodynamic advantage, but Alonso said there was not a big difference from the cockpit.
"I don't think going away with FRIC changed much in terms of driving style and in order to have a clear picture you'd have to do a comparison with and without it, but running without it, we just have to adapt and be as well prepared as possible with what we have," he said. "Today, we concentrated on set-up to try and adapt to the temperatures, which are going to be extremely high all weekend. I had no problems with either the soft or super-soft compounds and we just need to understand how they will behave in the race and what the weather could be like on Sunday."
Technical director James Allison said it was likely teams would soon adapt to their cars without FRIC and any advantage to be gained would not last long.
"It tends to make everyone understeer a bit more because everyone's front ride height will be a bit higher than it otherwise might have been," he said. "I think it's too early to say whether it shakes things up or not and if it does my guess is that it will be fairly short-lived because people get used to it and figure out a way to get their cars set up without FRIC."
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