Fresh from their victory at the Italian Grand Prix on Sunday, Ferrari was the first outfit to begin their preparations for the final three races of the season on Tuesday, when veteran test driver, Luca Badoer took to the track at Fiorano.
With the Scuderia now leading the constructors' championship and
Michael Schumacher just two points behind
Fernando Alonso in the race for the drivers' title, the work conducted over the next two weeks, prior to the Chinese Grand Prix on October 1, could prove absolutely critical.
As such, Badoer completed 86 laps on Tuesday at the Maranello-based team's private facility, notching up over 230 kilometres in perfectly dry and sunny conditions. His best time was a 57.579 seconds, the Italian working on testing new components for the events in China, Japan and Brazil, as well as tackling a programme focusing on
Bridgestone tyre development.
The Scuderia continues testing on Wednesday, when Schumacher will be on track at Le Castellet, as he bids to secure his eighth world title, before hanging up his helmet for good.
Ferrari's chief rivals,
Renault, meanwhile will also be testing. The
regie will run for three-days at
Jerez in Spain, with
Heikki Kovalainen and Jose Maria Lopez kicking off proceeding on Wednesday, before Alonso takes over from the latter on days two and three.
Honda and
Red Bull Racing will also be on track, the former with
Rubens Barrichello,
Anthony Davidson and James Rossiter, while the latter runs cars for Robert Doornbos, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Michael Ammermuller.
No other teams are currently scheduled to run this week, as originally, the Belgian Grand Prix was due to take place this weekend, however, most will be back out next week at
Silverstone, including McLaren-Mercedes and
Toyota.
