Fernando Alonso has conceded that Ferrari may not be heading into the new season with the quickest car - but he still thinks it is too early to judge where the F2012 stands in the pecking order right now.

While its main title rivals are already at the stage in their testing programmes where they are conducting race simulation runs, Ferrari is still compiling aerodynamic data and running with a variety of sensors.

Alonso is not being too downbeat about the situation though - and thinks it more important that Ferrari keeps trying to get a better understanding of where it can improve the F2012.

"It is true that we keep getting information about the car, information that sometimes we should already have in our pocket, but the car seems quite complex to understand and we need to keep understanding better what is the behaviour," said Alonso, who has now completed his two days of running for Ferrari at Barcelona.

"I remember last year in the first tests we did a race distance on the final day and we were 1.5 seconds behind Red Bull in Australia. So a race distance is always welcome, but I prefer to have a performing car and to find reliability, than to have a strong car that is slow."

When asked by AUTOSPORT if he felt there was potential in the car for it to be fighting for victory in Australia, Alonso said: "We [will] see. I think it is too early to say.

"Definitely our targets are very ambitious. It is normal for Ferrari; you always try to win straight away the first race of the championship if you want to be a contender, so that was the target over the winter.

"At the moment we don't know exactly where we are. I think maybe we are not the fastest but definitely we are not the slowest – so we need to wait and see, especially in the final test. With hotter temperatures in Australia etc we will see how the cars work and in Q3 there is the time to see where you in Melbourne.

"Red Bull seems competitive. That is not a surprise, as they have continuity in the last two or three years with that car, so it is difficult to get it wrong completely.

"They will be always there, so McLaren/Ferrari they need to invent something and be a bit more creative to beat Red Bull, and that is what both teams did. McLaren and Ferrari, they chose different solutions, different philosophies maybe and maybe more complex, but the result we will see in Melbourne and more importantly in November."

Alonso also played down trackside observations that the new Ferrari did not appear as well-balanced on the Barcelona turns as other cars – although admitted it was lacking in the way it exited from corners.

"From the driver point of view, it always feels loose the car, you always want more and more grip. I don't know [about] the others, but when you drive the car you think the others are having the same problem.

"If you say the others don't have the same problems then that will be a problem, but it is difficult in a test to understand what the others are doing and watching the others it is always difficult.

"Sometimes we put a very old set of tyres on and do constant speeds, and in the corners you are extremely slow. At the same time another car is running with new tyres and a short run of fuel and they fly in the corners. So from the outside it is difficult to see. But it is one area we need to improve: [the] exit of corners is one area where we are struggling, yes."

Nico Hulkenberg's morning efforts were enough to ensure Force India topped the second day of pre-season testing.

With the sun at its zenith in the afternoon, teams opted to pursue long-run programmes rather than chase outright times, and there was therefore little change to the morning's order.

Fernando Alonso in the F2012 was one of the rare movers, as a late 1m23.180s - set in the final 30 minutes - moved Ferrari up to fourth, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso.

The Australian was not able to register a lap until the final minutes of the afternoon, when he banged in two mid-1m25s.

Valtteri Bottas and Charles Pic were the only other drivers to ostensibly improve – the Finn registering a 1m25.738s and the Frenchman a 1m27.343s. Neither improved in the order however, staying eighth and tenth respectively.

There was still plenty to be learned though, not least from the fact that Red Bull and McLaren were both able to complete almost full race simulations runs - a useful indicator that they are fairly comfortable with their 2012 challengers.

Red Bull's performance was in stark contrast to the morning, where it managed just 31 laps, the least of any team. In the afternoon it completed a 67-lap run broken only by pitstops, with Vettel switching between tyre compounds throughout.

His run coincided with Hamilton's, with the pair at one point the only two on track and separated by less than a second – Vettel eventually working his way past after spending several laps tucked up behind the MP4-27.

Hamilton ended the day with 121 laps completed, one of five drivers – Vettel, Nico Hulkenberg, Bottas and Pic the other four – to break into triple figures.

It was Hulkenberg who ended the day on top however courtesy of a late lap in the morning session, set on Pirelli's super soft compounds.

Sergio Perez, who finished just four hundredths of a second down the road, and Ricciardo also set their best times on the red-painted rubber.

Vettel's afternoon runs married with strong pace in the morning, with the German setting the pace until Hulkenberg and Perez's late runs.

He ended the day third fastest, ahead of Alonso, Ricciardo and Hamilton.

Nico Rosberg was the last driver to get within two seconds of Hulkenberg as he got to grips with Mercedes W03 for the first time in public.

Bottas, Petrov and Pic rounded out the day's order, with Lotus deciding to abandon the test after discovering chassis problems on the opening day.

Today's times:

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hulkenberg Force India 1m22.608s 112
2. Perez Sauber 1m22.648s +0.040 85
3. Vettel Red Bull 1m22.891s +0.283 104
4. Alonso Ferrari 1m23.180s +0.572 87
5. Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m23.639s +1.031 48
6. Hamilton McLaren 1m23.806s +1.198 121
7. Rosberg Mercedes 1m24.555s +1.947 82
8. Bottas Williams 1m25.738s +3.130 117
9. Petrov Caterham 1m26.605s +3.997 69
10. Pic Marussia 1m27.343s +4.735 108

Sebastian Vettel put Red Bull on top of the first day of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

The German had risen to the top of the timesheets shortly before lunch, displacing compatriot and Force India pilot Nico Hulkenberg.

With warmer track conditions not as conducive to chasing times, many teams opted for longer run programmes, but Vettel was able to slightly better his time to end the day with a 1m23.265s.

That effort, set on Pirelli's hard compound - rather than the medium on which he set his morning best - put him 0.175s clear of the field as the chequered flag brought the first day of testing to a close.

Vettel's improvement proved the exception rather than the rule, with second through to seventh position not changing in the afternoon.

That meant Nico Hulkenberg ended the day second fastest for Force India, having set the pace for much of the morning until Vettel's late lap.

The German managed nearly 50 laps in the afternoon, but did not get within a second of his previous benchmark.

The same was true of Lewis Hamilton, who completed several long-lap simulations in the second half of the day. The Briton trialled a variety of compounds, and was consistently in the mid to high 1m28s.

Daniel Ricciardo likewise set his best time in the morning, less than three hundredths of a second down on Hamilton. The Australian was the last man to break the 1m24s barrier.

Fernando Alonso ended the day fifth fastest in the Ferrari F2012, having also completed an 18-lap run with an average of 1m26.208s in the final hour.

The Spaniard ended just five hundredths clear of Michael Schumacher, who managed 51 laps in what was the first day of testing for Mercedes' new W03.

Sergio Perez was the last driver to get within a second of Vettel, although the Mexican's afternoon programme was disrupted by an issue with the rear anti-roll bar.

Heikki Kovalainen too suffered a truncated day, as a broken track rod left him stranded sideways at the final turn after just nine laps of running.

The team was able to fix the issue and he returned in the afternoon, eventually getting down to a 1m26.035s – enough for ninth, just behind Bruno Senna in the Williams FW34.

There were issues too for Lotus, with Romain Grosjean reporting a strange sensation from the team's second chassis.

As a consequence the Frenchman completed just seven laps before the team decided to halt operations.

With HRT opting not to run, Marussia's Charles Pic rounded out the day's runners, 4.7s down on Vettel. The Frenchman racked up 121 laps – the most of any driver - on his first day in the car.

Today's times

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Vettel Red Bull 1m23.265s 79
2. Hulkenberg Force India 1m23.440s +0.175 97
3. Hamilton McLaren 1m23.590s +0.325 114
4. Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m23.618s +0.353 76
5. Alonso Ferrari 1m24.100s +0.835 75
6. Schumacher Mercedes 1m24.150s +0.885 51
7. Perez Sauber 1m24.219s +0.954 66
8. Senna Williams 1m25.711s +2.446 97
9. Kovalainen Caterham 1m26.035s +2.770 31
10. Grosjean Lotus 1m26.809s +3.544 7
11. Pic Marussia 1m28.026s +4.761 121

The countdown to F1 2012 continues this week, with the second pre-season test at Barcelona getting underway on Tuesday, February 21.

All the teams, except HRT will be at the Spanish circuit, with ten, including Mercedes, which will unveil its 2012 challenger at the track, running with their new cars. Marussia will be in action, but will use its old car.

The full planned line-up is as follows:


Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel - February 21st-22nd
Mark Webber - February 23rd-24th

McLaren

Lewis Hamilton – February 21st-22nd
Jenson Button – February 23rd-24th

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – February 21st-22nd
Felipe Massa – February 23rd-24th

Mercedes

Michael Schumacher – February 21st and 23rd
Nico Rosberg – February 22nd and 24th

Lotus

Romain Grosjean - February 21st-22nd
Kimi Raikkonen - February 23rd-24th

Force India

Nico Hulkenberg - February 21st-22nd
Paul di Resta - February 23rd-24th

Sauber

Sergio Perez - February 21st-22nd
Kamui Kobayashi – February 23rd-24th

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – February 21st-22nd
Daniel Ricciardo - February 23rd-24th

Williams

Bruno Senna - February 21st
Valtteri Bottas - February 22nd
Pastor Maldonado - February 23rd-24th

Caterham F1

TBC

HRT

Won't run

Marussia

Charles Pic - February 21st-22nd and 24th
Timo Glock - February 23rd


Test line-up subject to change

Great anticipation surrounds the start of pre-season Formula 1 testing. With teams working from a blank canvas over the winter, there is no form book or established order. Instead there is unpredictability and expectation, great assets in any sport.

Everything must, of course, be measured against the well-beaten truism that testing can be misleading at best, and impossible to decipher at worst. Here's how the four days at Jerez panned out...

Day One

Raikkonen quickly won over his new colleaguesAs a number of teams officially unveiled their 2012 challengers, it was a returning champion who proved the revelation on day one. Kimi Raikkonen, fresh from a two-year spell in the World Rally Championship, was in good form away from the track and looked even better on it. Four fast stints in the morning put him top and he was never displaced, his 1m19.670s lap the early benchmark at Jerez.

Paul di Resta was the only man able to join Raikkonen in the sub 1m20s bracket in his Force India, although Nico Rosberg - in the 2011-spec Mercedes, blown diffuser and all – came close.

After a morning spent waiting for parts - the plane they were being transported on couldn't land at Jerez due to fog - Mark Webber enjoyed a more fruitful afternoon, putting the new RB8 fourth fastest ahead of his fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso. McLaren and Ferrari meanwhile made low-key starts – Jenson Button finishing eighth and Felipe Massa ninth. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham), Pastor Maldonado (Williams) and Pedro de la Rosa in the 2011 HRT rounded out the running order.

Day Two

Michael Schumacher set the outright pace for Mercedes on the second day, but the more significant performance came from Mark Webber, whose Red Bull was the fastest of the 2012 machines. Webber also managed 97 laps on what was a promising day for the squad. Ricciardo, on his second day for Toro Rosso, was the only driver to get within a second of Webber's benchmark.

Force India reserve driver Jules Bianchi - driving in the morning only - wound up fourth fastest ahead of day one pace-setter Raikkonen – the Finn losing much of the morning after running through the gravel at Curva Dry Sac. Di Resta then took the reins of the VJM05 and ended the day sixth ahead of Massa and Button. Sergio Perez took over Sauber duties from Kamui Kobayashi and was ninth, ahead of Maldonado. Kovalainen meanwhile got to use KERS on the Caterham for the first time, ending 11th ahead of de la Rosa.

Day Three

The third day was as notable for driver changes as it was for on-track action, with Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso among those getting their first taste of the 2012 machines. Nico Rosberg kept Mercedes on top, meaning that - for once - second place was of more significance. The spot was claimed in emphatic fashion by Romain Grosjean, who lapped in 1m18.419s on his first day in the Lotus. The time would stand as the fastest any 2012 car achieved across the four days.

Vettel was the only driver to get within a second of Grosjean, with Hamilton's MP4-27 less than 0.2s down the road in fourth. Jean-Eric Vergne - another newcomer - was fifth for Toro Rosso ahead of Perez's Sauber, which was afflicted by an oil transmission issue. A partisan crowd watched as Alonso continued Ferrari's low-key start by ending up seventh, ahead of the day's final newcomers Bruno Senna (Williams) and (reserve) Caterham driver Giedo van der Garde. Bitter morning conditions meanwhile proved the undoing of Force India: Bianchi's gravelly excursion at Curva Sito Pons bringing the team's day to a premature and frustrating end.

Day Four

Alonso turned the tables on a difficult start to pre-season testing for Ferrari by topping the timesheets on the fourth and final day at Jerez. The Spaniard set the second fastest time by a 2012 car early in the morning, and while his running was disrupted in the afternoon he was never displaced.

His 0.7s advantage was all the more impressive given the condensed order behind him. Vergne hung on to second despite pressure from Vettel, who responded to electrical issues in the morning with a 1m19.606s in afternoon conditions less conducive to quick times.Hamilton, Grosjean and Kobayashi all got within a second of Alonso, with the Sauber a culprit of one of several short red flag periods when it sprang a hydraulic leak. Nico Hulkenberg was seventh fastest on his first day in the Force India, with Senna and Jarno Trulli completing the order as the sun set on the first pre-season test.

COMBINED JEREZ TIMES

Pos Driver Team Best time Total laps
1. Rosberg Mercedes 1m17.613s 174
2. Grosjean Lotus 1m18.419s +0.806 212
3. Schumacher Mercedes 1m18.561s +0.948 174
4. Alonso Ferrari 1m18.877s +1.264 106
5. Webber Red Bull 1m19.184s +1.571 151
6. Vettel Red Bull 1m19.297s +1.684 146
7. Hamilton McLaren 1m19.464s +1.851 166
8. Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1m19.587s +1.974 157
9. Vergne Toro Rosso 1m19.597s +1.984 159
10. Raikkonen Lotus 1m19.670s +2.057 192
11. Perez Sauber 1m19.770s +2.157 116
12. Di Resta Force India 1m19.772s +2.159 170
13. Kobayashi Sauber 1m19.834s +2.221 182
14. Hulkenberg Force India 1m19.977s +2.364 90
15. Senna Williams 1m20.132s +2.519 250
16. Bianchi Force India 1m20.221s +2.608 46
17. Massa Ferrari 1m20.454s +2.841 164
18. Button McLaren 1m20.688s +3.075 147
19. Maldonado Williams 1m21.197s +3.584 122
20. Kovalainen Caterham 1m21.518s +3.905 167
21. De la Rosa HRT 1m22.128s +4.515 108
22. Trulli Caterham 1m22.198s +4.585 117
23. Van der Garde Caterham 1m23.324s +5.711 74

Jerez de la Frontera, 10 February –Seen from the outside, this Jerez test for Scuderia Ferrari might seem a bit schizophrenic: always a long way back on the time sheet for the first three days, about two or three seconds off the pace and then suddenly, Fernando Alonso is fastest on the fourth day, almost a second ahead of the rest.

In fact nothing had changed: the team continued to work on its own programme, centred almost exclusively at gathering data to understand the handling of the F2012. The 1.18.877 set by Fernando this morning means little, as the Spanish driver stressed when he met the press at the end of the test.

“This time is worth nothing as is the one I set yesterday and those of the previous days,” said Fernando. “Yesterday, we worked mainly with the hard tyres and the others ran the softs and we were seventh. Today, we fitted the Softs and maybe the others did not and we are first. That’s all it is.

“We got on with our job, even if today and yesterday we had some reliability problems we could have done without which prevented us from doing everything we would have wanted,” continued the Ferrari man. “For me, it was good to be back in the car after two and a half months and feel once again all the emotions that come with driving a Formula 1 car. I think that, from the start of the test up to today, we have improved a great deal, it’s like night and day, but there is still much to do, especially on the aerodynamics and on reliability. Then, we will see if it is really a sign of great strength to have immediately done so many kilometres: last year, on the first day we did a lot of laps and then we know how things turned out, so maybe there was too big a margin…”

As did Felipe, Fernando also stressed that the car has a big margin for improvement. “Everything about this car is new, with very few parts carried over from last year’s and there are many innovations, which have come out of a different philosophy to the one adopted in the past. For example, the power steering: it’s new and we worked a lot these past days on sorting it out and today we began to see the benefits for the first time. As I said earlier, there is much to do, but that doesn’t scare us.

“These past few days we have done a great deal of laps, just to gather data, without being able to do much work in any depth on the set-up, therefore I think that, when we will be able to do that, we will also improve the performance. Already, here at Jerez, the moment we did make some changes, we got the response we were expecting, even if it’s true that the fact the car is more complex from a mechanical and aerodynamic point of view definitely makes the tasks more complex. Today we saw a good example of that: we have only done around forty laps partly because it took so much time to carry out the changes we needed to make on the car to complete our programme. I think that in Barcelona, when we will be back on track, the situation will be different and we will be much better prepared compared to this test, where above all we had to learn how to get to grips with this car. Even we the drivers have more to do, because with so many new things on the car it’s even more vital we give the right feedback to the engineers.”

Fernando obviously did not want to launch into predictions about the championship. “We will see, as there are still several weeks to go to Melbourne. Here, day after day, we have progressed, getting ever more confident in the car: we must continue in this direction and improve, but it is much too early to draw any conclusions.” The Lotus in the running for the title? I don’t know as even for them it’s a bit early and I would rather just say I am very happy to see Kimi back: he’s a great driver and a great person.”

Finally, Fernando also wanted to reply to those who wanted to bring up the subject of stories and gossip doing the rounds in the media and on the internet these last few weeks. “I was on holiday in Rome and in Asia with some friends and anyway it’s easy to do cut and paste with photos,” said Fernando. “What is certain is the day that I have a girlfriend, my true friends and my family will definitely not be posting photos on the internet. A word is enough to the wise…”

Source: Ferrari

Felipe Massa may have claimed that he saw potential in Ferrari's F2012 after two days of testing at Jerez, but the Scuderia's continued restraint when it comes to chasing lap times suggests otherwise.

Fernando Alonso took over from Massa on day three of the opening group test, but the F2012 remained mired in seventh spot on the timesheets as Ferrari steadfastly focused on understanding the handling of the car.

Denied the chance to give the car a shakedown at Fiorano immediately after its launch last week, the Prancing Horse began the four-day session in southern Spain slowly and deliberately, but the pace has yet to pick up significantly, with Alonso's best lap only matching Massa's 1min 20.4secs.

Technical director Pat Fry echoed Massa's admission that there was 'room for improvement', and pointed the finger of blame at the Scuderia's troublesome windtunnel.

"There's reasonable correlation," he explained to the BBC, "[but] I certainly wouldn't say it was perfect. There is still room for improvement. I don't think I could ever sit here and say it's perfect. We have found some more issues since we have been here."

Fry insisted that the team's decision to include pull-rod suspension at the front of the car as well as the rear was not a factor in its problems, despite the need to rethink the entire machine giving it more work to do in the limited amount of pre-season testing available.

"The basic platform is okay," Fry maintained, "We are looking at the various characteristics of some of the bits we have to test. We can play around with the three corner characteristics, so we can do different things at corner entry, mid-corner to exit, and it is really trying to find the right balance of those things.

"On each run, we are trying almost a different configuration. There is a lot of analysis here and then back at the factory. We are using the simulation and the simulator to make sure everything ties in, so we can put the right package together.

"With only twelve days of testing before the first race, we have to make the most of all the time we have got. [For that reason], we are not concentrating on taking the fuel out and trying to set a lap time."

Source: Crash.net

Taken from Autosport

Fernando Alonso said all of the right things. But, of course, he always does.

Yesterday, this blog concluded by suggesting that if Ferrari ended the final day of the Jerez test with an attention-grabbing number at the top of the timesheets, it would tell us a lot about the situation that the prancing horse finds itself in. So it was to no-one's great surprise that Alonso ended up fastest and emerged from the four-day test with the second quickest 2012-specification car time overall.

Few doubted that it was a glory run designed to ease both the glare of the media spotlight in Italy and Luca di Montezemolo's blood pressure.

As the Spaniard faced the press 15 minutes after the chequered flag fell, it was inevitable that there were plenty of questions about the struggles Ferrari has had getting on top of the new car and whether it will be able to use what it has learned to get a firm grip on it.

The F2012 had already betrayed Alonso by being struck down with a hydraulics problem in the morning not long after he had set his fastest time. In total, he completed only 36 laps on a day where the team needed 100 or more.

"It is very early at days at the moment," he said. "[There is] still a lot of work to do. We need to keep understanding the car; maybe we understand 20 per cent of what we need. In the next days, we will try to get the rest."

While no-one would claim that Alonso is damning the car, that 20 per cent figure leaves you in no doubt that there is going to be a huge amount of work going on at Maranello between now and the next test at Barcelona. The pressure was already on pre-season but now things are doubly intense with that 80 per cent still to be found. Once that understanding is there, Ferrari should be able to close any deficit rapidly.

Of course, none of this means that the new car should be condemned or that Ferrari is going to be running around in the midfield this year. With expectations sky-high, anything other than a serious run at the championship would be regarded as a failure.

Right now, there's no way to be sure if Ferrari is trying to understand a very different car and has the data to hit the ground running in Barcelona, if there is one major weakness that it is battling to fix or if there is a multitude of problems to be solved. Frankly, the precise cause of the troubles might not even be clear to Ferrari just yet, even if the symptoms of its ailments are very obvious.

"Day one in Barcelona will be a much better starting point," said Alonso...

Trouble is, some of the others have already planted firm foundations at their starting point. Throughout the test, things ran smoother at Red Bull and despite losing track time with electrical gremlins today, the RB8 continues to look like the most poised car on track. That will come as no surprise to anyone, but the fact that the Lotus E20 made a positive impression has led to plenty of paddock chatter to the effect that the ex-Renault team is back in the game after a dismal second half of last year.

Romain Grosjean couldn't stop grinning after today's running. Couldn't yesterday either. That, in itself, wasn't much to write home about as he seems to have been smiling almost continuously since getting back into an F1 car last year. But while Ferrari was fielding questions about its troubles, Lotus was having to bat away suggestions that it had got off to a flying start.

"It looks good so far, but it's too early to say anything," said Grosjean, proving once again that those who have got off to a decent start play things down and those that haven't have to accentuate the positives.

Also very upbeat was Jarno Trulli, against all expectations back in the saddle at Caterham today. He had come very close to being displaced by a monied driver over the winter, and you can see that he is determined to extend his grand prix career. He even got on with the power steering, something that he blames for the poor 2011 season that came close to leaving him out of F1.

"We are very close," he said of his Achhiles heal through last year. "It's 90 per cent of the way there, so it is fine. It shouldn't be a problem, to be honest."

If Trulli's still precarious situation can help Caterham to get the best out of him, then the team will have a fantastic driver on their hands. Appropriate really, given that pre-season testing is all about potential.

It won't be until Melbourne that we get a clear picture of the competitive order, but already the stories of the season are taking shape. It seems that Red Bull will be as formidable as ever, but the identity of the team, or teams, that will take the fight to it remains uncertain.

By Alonso's own admission, the story of day one at Barcelona might prove to be Ferrari. If, at the end of that four-day test, Ferrari is still struggling to master its machinery, even he might struggle to talk the team up. If it's on the money, it's game on for the red corner.

Fernando Alonso has promised that Ferrari will arrive at the next Barcelona test in much better shape than it has been in Jerez, following a week of mixed fortunes during the first pre-season running.

Although Alonso topped the times on the final day of testing on Friday after some short runs in the quicker morning conditions, Ferrari technical director Pat Fry admitted earlier in the week that he was not happy with the progress the outfit had made.

But while there remain question marks about the Ferrari - with Alonso admitting that reliability is one of his chief concerns – he is sure the team will spend the next week getting itself sorted for the second pre-season test at Barcelona later this month.

"I still think there is a long way to go until Australia, in terms of how many days and how many tests we can do," he said, when asked by AUTOSPORT about his feelings on the state Ferrari was in at the end of the test.

"The progress in these four days has been quite big for us. Maybe not in performance or times or whatever, as I don't know what the times were like in the first two days or what were the track conditions in the first two days compared to now, but definitely all the tests we did and all the understanding of the car has been positive for us.

"We will arrive to Barcelona much more prepared than how we arrived in Jerez. That is what Pat also tried to say yesterday: we arrived in Jerez thinking about one idea of the car, and maybe it was not exactly like that.

"But we have worked around it and found the performance there, and found the happiness and level of confidence of driving this car now in day three or day four. So day one in Barcelona will be a much better starting point."

Despite his faith that Ferrari will have a better time in Barcelona, he also thinks it vital the team's testing programme is not blighted by the reliability issues that limited running for both Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso over the four days.

"I think it is very early days at the moment, and there is still a lot of work to do," he explained. "At the moment we need to keep understanding the car a lot, as maybe we understand 20% of what we need. And in the next days we will try to get the rest.

"Still, there is a lot of work to do in the set-up, because we concentrated here mainly on the aerodynamics and the constant speed, and some different tests, but there is a lot more to come from the set-up.

"There are only two more tests unfortunately because we are one test less than last year. So at Barcelona, we need to maximise the time on the track as perhaps it is the only negative thing of today, that in eight hours available of track time we only did 39 laps. So in Barcelona, we need to do more than 100 laps because all that information in those laps will be valuable."

One area that Alonso feels the team has sorted is the tyre warm-up issue that Ferrari suffered last year.

"The strong point of the car from what I've seen so far is the tyre warm-up," he said. "It seems we can extract the maximum on the opening lap, something we couldn't do last year. As for things to improve, the aerodynamics and reliability, because between yesterday and today we have done few laps."

Fernando Alonso set the fastest time of the day - and the second best by a 2012 car across all four days - as Ferrari ended the pre-season test at Jerez on a positive note.

The Scuderia had struggled to get on top of the radical F2012 during the first three days but, with Alonso at the helm, it rose to the top of the timesheets early on in day four and was never displaced.

Alonso ended with a best of 1m18.877s, set at the start of a six-lap run which also included laps in the 1m19s and 1m20s. It was enough to put him seven tenths clear of the day four field, with only Romain Grosjean on the previous day able to go faster in this year's new breed of cars.

Alonso was, however, only able to set two timed laps after 11.00 CET as Ferrari grappled with a hydraulic issue that restricted its afternoon programme.

Jean-Eric Vergne hung on to second despite a late rally from Sebastian Vettel in the RB8, which had been beset by electrical issues in the morning.

Vergne finished his second day for Toro Rosso with a 1m19.597s, nine thousandths quicker than Vettel's benchmark, set in the afternoon when conditions were not at their prime.

Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, just 34 thousandths of a second down the road in McLaren's MP4-27.

Romain Grosjean did not get down to his day three benchmark, but did enough to end the day in fifth with a 1m19.729s.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, taking over from Sergio Perez for the final day, sealed sixth with a 1m19.834s. A hydraulic leak on the C31 brought about one of several short red flag periods, although the team was able to repair the car and return to the track before the day's end.

Nico Hulkenberg, Bruno Senna and Jarno Trulli rounded out the day's running order.

Hulkenberg, getting his first taste of the new Force India after a planned run on Thursday afternoon was scuppered by Jules Bianchi's crash, completed 90 laps and was the last driver to break the 1m20s barrier.

Senna managed an impressive 124 laps on his way to eighth fastest. The Brazilian's day included 25 and 37-lap stints, and also featured a stoppage on track from which he and the car were quickly recovered.

Trulli, the day's other newcomer over at Caterham, completed 117 laps and finished with a best of 1m22.198s, just over three seconds down on Alonso.

TODAY'S TIMES

Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Alonso Ferrari 1m18.877s 39
2. Vergne Toro Rosso 1m19.597s +0.720 80
3. Vettel Red Bull 1m19.606s +0.729 50
4. Hamilton McLaren 1m19.640s +0.763 86
5. Grosjean Lotus 1m19.729s +0.852 95
6. Kobayashi Sauber 1m19.834s +0.957 76
7. Hulkenberg Force India 1m19.977s +1.100 90
8. Senna Williams 1m20.132s +1.255 125
9. Trulli Caterham 1m22.198s +3.321 117