Felipe Massa yesterday shook the new Ferrari F60 down at the Italian team’s Mugello test track. He seemed pleased with the two laps he did, and expressed surprise at the car’s size.

He said: “I expected it to be big, but it’s small like a Formula Three car. I expected it to (have) huge (front) wings like they were 10 years ago.

“The new F60 seems tiny, very compact and cute. I feel emotional but I’m also happy to take it out on track for the first time.”

Speculation was rife, however, that the Ferrari machine that comes to the grid at the first race in Australia will differ hugely from today’s version. The car will have at least two major updates and will be constantly reviewed before it is raced.

The designer of the car, Nikolas Tombazis, emphasised that the speed at which Ferrari can develop the car will be key for the season ahead.

‘Many rules, as far as the aerodynamics are concerned, are completely new. The speed of development will be the main issue. Whoever knows how to develop faster will be better than the others. We can work on the development in the Fridays at every GP. Before the season there’s still some good margin. And if we’re ahead at the first race, it means that we can keep our cool,’ he told the official F1 website.

It is still unknown whether Ferrari will run its KERS facility. Like other teams, the Maranello concern will be weighing up the pros and cons of the untried system, which may provide performance advantage, but is likely to be unreliable.

Tombazis hinted that Ferrari would be prepared to run KERS in Melbourne, saying that the design team had worked extensively around the system. ‘Obviously the KERS ‘nuisance’ is remarkable. We’re talking about more than 30 kg of weight. We’ve done a lot of developmental work to insert the system and compensate for it.’

By Hugh Podmore on Tuesday, January 13, 2009