Fernando Alonso To Get Two Days Of Testing

With Ferrari’s Felipe Massa suffering a disastrous start to the 2012 season, scoring only two of Ferrari’s 45 points, you’d be forgiven for thinking the Italian outfit would focus on giving the Brazilian as much track time as possible at the Mugello test next week. However, Alonso will take to the track for two out of the three days instead.

Fernando Alonso miraculously won the Malaysian Grand Prix, as Ferrari struggled in the opening few races of the season. With Felipe Massa’s future at Ferrari coming under the spotlight on more than one occasion so far this season, the pressure is firmly on the Brazilian to improve.

However, with only one day scheduled for the Brazilian driver at next weeks Mugello test, it will be difficult for him to make any real leap forward in preparation for the start of the European season in Spain. With Massa recently stuck in a tight midfield battle with the likes of the Toro Rosso’s, Force India’s and Sauber’s, he’ll most certainly need to propel himself further up the order if he wishes to remain a Ferrari driver beyond 2012.

“The coming days will be very important, during which the primary objective will be to push as hard as possible on the development of the car,” explained Ferrari team principal, Stefano Domenicali. “Next week we have three days of testing at Mugello, but it’s not definite that all the updates planned for Barcelona will be seen then.”

With Fernando Alonso already a race winner in 2012, Felipe Massa has an uphill struggle for the remainder of the season to return to his competitive ways once again. The Brazilian driver hasn’t stepped onto the podium since the 2010 Korean Grand Prix, and last year became the first Ferrari driver since Ivan Capelli in 1992 to not step onto the podium. With only one day of testing next week, Massa could well find it difficult to make bring an end to his uncompetitive streak.

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