Alonso has his first taste of 2014

Fernando Alonso’s last weekend of the year in Maranello got underway with a first try-out of what lies in store for next season. The Spaniard arrived at the Scuderia’s headquarters yesterday morning and immediately got down to work with a busy simulator programme.

The purpose of the day was to get a first taste of all the new procedures in which the driver will be involved, in managing the 2014 car.

“I’m pleased with the way the day on the simulator went,” Fernando told ferrari.com. “We managed to get through everything on the programme that we had in the pipeline. It was nice to be driving again, even if only in a virtual way. We went through a lot of ideas with the engineers: we are only at the start of a learning process which is moving forward all the time and it’s nice to be able to contribute to it.”

At the end of the session, Fernando went to Rome by helicopter, where he met up with President Luca di Montezemolo. Both of them took part in a charity event with RAI Uno, aimed at raising funds for Telethon, the foundation, of which Montezemolo is president, for scientific research into curing rare genetic illnesses.

Scuderia Ferrari’s traditional lunch takes place today, when all the men and women who work on the Maranello marque’s racing activities, gather together to exchange Christmas wishes, along with the drivers as well as people from the team’s technical and commercial partners. It will also be the final time to get together with Felipe Massa as a Ferrari driver, even if the Brazilian will always consider the staff as a second racing family.

The afternoon and the following day is the Kids Christmas, an event organised for the children of all the employees, who tomorrow only will also be joined by their peers from some elementary classes from schools in Maranello and Medolla, one of the areas most severely affected by the earthquake that hit the Emilia region in June 2012.