F1 testing in Spain

[jens]

Regarding Ferrari v Lotus. Yea, Alonso will outscore Kimi over a full season. Also considering Kimi's comments about steering issues as the car may not be to his liking/he is still re-adapting to F1, etc. So getting top performance out of himself may take time. But it must be added that beating over a full season doesn't mean Lotus couldn't be able to beat Ferrari early in the season. Flashback to 2011. From the first two races Renault got two podiums, Ferrari zero. Going by the points accumulated by the end of the year one wouldn't have expected such start!

But beating Lotus over a full season is not Ferrari's priority, WDC is. However, this is where they are most likely going to fall short, even more so than in 2011 if testing is anything to go by.

I know qualifying pace is not the focus but if it was then this is worth noting, putting all 7 days at Barcelona together, we have 18 cars separated by less than 1 and a half seconds and less than 6 tenths separating the top 12

................

I think especially Red Bull and McLaren are most probably capable of doing times in the 1:20's, so top teams shall have a fair amount in reserve. But I have to say Caterham's 1:22.6 was an impressive effort and they may not be as far behind midfield as they initially seemed.

[mstillhere]

According to an article published on the Italian press, Fry seems confident Ferrari is not ready to win yet. That's due to a failure of one of their main projects: having their diffusers blowing outward.

After determining during testing the that this solution was not working the way the thought they decided to go "a la RB", (sorry for accent mark missing on the "a" : ) with their diffusers blowing inword.

Such a change should not represent a major set back, however for the team. In fact Fry still feels that Ferrari would be upthere with the other teams.

He also says that the project is not being abandoned and that their engineers would be continuing working on the devollopement of this project and introduce it in the due time, convinced of the fact once applied it would give the car a decive boost.

[wedge]

Major revision for RBR

I doubt the Ferrari will be a "dog" but I also see them struggling for wins early in the season. They will however wipe the floor with Lotus-Renault-Genii-Lada-Cuthbert-Dibble-Grub, Kimi notwithstanding.

Well its enough for a cause for concern that Scuderia have cancelled their driver's conference and instilled Pat Fry to answer the difficult questions.

[Tazio]

Vettel Owns up to going off and damaging the new front wing. Where's Webber's front wing when you need it? mokin:

[wedge]

Basically the trend this year is still blowing the diffuser but also the rear suspension.

However the rules say that the exhaust exit angle should be at least 10°. To get round this the rear of the sidepods are aggressivelly sloped to meet the floor of the chassis and thus creating a channel of air and exhaust air to feed into the rear of the car.

RBR have a novel system: they have a duct at the bottom of the sidepods. Air from the side/bottom profile of the sidepods is fed into this duct and exits at the floor/sidepod transition and thus more air to play with

[jas123f1]

My prediction is that the Lotus car regulary will top both Ferraris, one MacLaren and perhaops even one RedBull. And, that Kimi will be above Alonso in the standings when the season is over.

I think that .. sure, Lotus and Kimi looks fast ... but it is not possible know how good the teams are until after the race in Australia ... however ..if one are listening to the drivers .. it gets a feeling that it will be tighter than last year. It's also great that Kimi is back in F1 and I hope the car Lotus can give him is good enough that he can give the other a good fight ...

[CavallinoRampante]

I disagree with the pessimistic view (that so many of you share) of the Ferraris' performance.
I know for a fact that they are working at this very moment, on a B chassis, which is identical to the A chassis at the front, and has minor mods at the back and sidepod area to accomodate new sidepods' shape. This will allow a better placement of the exhaust tubes that will allow to channel the air towards the inside. This will give 25% more downforce, fixing most of the balance problems.
Another thing to consider is practice times, with alonso being the fastest in Barcelona (fastest average), and the team admitting that the Ferrari is fast on a single lap, I would not be surprised to see Alonso qualify in the top 3 spots, and actually I would cont on it.
The major problem, and the biggest unknown is tyre wear. The car has shown to be hard on tyres, but OZ is a different track and you can't really be sure of anything when it comes to tyre wear.

When we look at the comments of Pat Fry etc, we have to consider that they had set a much higher goal this year, to be well ahead of the competition from the word go.
This hasn't happened and to see other cars that are roughly at the same level, is viewed as a failure.

Expect the ferraris to be doing much better than you think they will...
Mark my words for it.

[CavallinoRampante]

Looks like Horner thinks the same as I do:

Horner: Beware of Ferrari | Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com

[N4D13]

Looks like Horner thinks the same as I do:

Horner: Beware of Ferrari | Planet-F1 News from planet-f1.com

Well, you can never know whether he actually believes that Ferrari will be strong or he's just trying to divert attention from his own team being considered the fastest. Anyway, if you read the article, it's not like he's saying much, is he?

[gloomyDAY]

I know for a fact that they are working at this very moment, on a B chassis, which is identical to the A chassis at the front, and has minor mods at the back and sidepod area to accomodate new sidepods' shape.

How exactly do you know that your statement is a fact? If Ferrari are actually doing a B car, then I doubt that Ferrari are in good shape for the beginning of the season. If we have learned anything from last year is that a team needs to be at the front and winning immediately.

This will allow a better placement of the exhaust tubes that will allow to channel the air towards the inside. This will give 25% more downforce, fixing most of the balance problems.

Now I know you're making stuff up! That is a ridiculous amount of downforce for a car to gain from the beginning of testing to the season opener.