Ferrari F2012 Development News Thread

[Gould]

But Nando's tyres were only like 5 laps old....on a car with almost empty tanks?

[sav_pap]

I thnk it was Stefano who said that F2012 had some problems in Silverstone with the management of the softer tyres.

[Hornet]

Yeah, I think definitely the car have some problem with the soft tires. There's no reason why the tires should go off that quickly

[robin]

I dont think they expected to have problems with the softer tyres as Massa did pretty good stints on the softs before his first pitstop and he was matching webber on race pace. So I guess alonso's car was setup for a harder compound tyre, as they were expecting rain towards the end of the race or am sure they would have kept out alonso longer on those harder compounds .

[scuderiafan]

I dont think they expected to have problems with the softer tyres as Massa did pretty good stints on the softs before his first pitstop and he was matching webber on race pace. So I guess alonso's car was setup for a harder compound tyre, as they were expecting rain towards the end of the race or am sure they would have kept out alonso longer on those harder compounds .

I don't think it was a problem with the F2012, but just Alonso's setup maybe, or just bad luck?

[PURE PASSION]

Scuderiafan did you watch the flyinglap of peter windsor?If you did can you give me a sum-up!!!

[scuderiafan]

Scuderiafan did you watch the flyinglap of peter windsor?If you did can you give me a sum-up!!!

No, I missed it. But it should be up soon here.

http://smibs.tv/the-flying-lap

[PURE PASSION]

thanks man!!!!

[Hornet]

I dont think they expected to have problems with the softer tyres as Massa did pretty good stints on the softs before his first pitstop and he was matching webber on race pace. So I guess alonso's car was setup for a harder compound tyre, as they were expecting rain towards the end of the race or am sure they would have kept out alonso longer on those harder compounds .

Ferrari knew beforehand that the tire degradation was bad, which was why they took different approached. Alonso have said that the plan was to open up a gap to the rivals as much as they can before the final stint which they knew the tires would suffer.

Unfortunately our car just wasn't fast enough that day.

Massa's tire may have last longer due to our car's characteristic of having better performance when its heavy. Remember that we're losing grip as the car gets lighter? This has been a peculiar issue since the first race.

When you do not have enough grip, you tend to slide more than you should and that's what kills the tires.

[scuderiafan]

This may not be what the fans want to hear, but its a reality we have to face.

The F2012 still needs fixing, developing, improvement, call it whatever you want. At least I hope that's the case, and we've not hit its potential wall.

We still need to increase its performance significantly, and I hope the next upgrade will do just that

This is a post from another thread, but I thought it would go better here, because I have been thinking about this.

From Canada onwards, (actually even Spain onwards) the car has been fighting for the win, but the main change to the car has been the exhausts. They are now working fully as expected when the car rolled out in January.

So in a way, maybe development in season can now fully begin as the fixes to the car were supplemented by wing changes eg Silverstone. But now that the car is up to speed, the proper fully planned upgrades can begin to wholly come.

I guess what I am trying to say is, maybe the development that was planned by the engineers at the start of the season and when the car was penned, to an extent was compromised but the fact that the exhausts and acer ducts (a main thing on the car) were not working properly, and now they are, it can begin with earnest.

Especially now they have a development plan they understand, so updates can come at a fast pace.

Just a theory though.

[Grillo]

Top speed and soft tyres management are key for the championship. I didn't see Massa matching Webber lap times on the softer compound. That's why the strategy is so difficult for Ferrari to make it work. Soft and medium are the most used compounds during the season.

[Hornet]

I guess what I am trying to say is, maybe the development that was planned by the engineers at the start of the season and when the car was penned, to an extent was compromised but the fact that the exhausts and acer ducts (a main thing on the car) were not working properly, and now they are, it can begin with earnest.

Especially now they have a development plan they understand, so updates can come at a fast pace.

Just a theory though.

Yeah, I certainly hope that's the case. You're right, we seems to have settle the exhaust design, perhaps now they can start fine tuning everything and extract the best performance.

[eugene22n]

The whole smibs.tv thing is annoying. Wish they would just livecast on YouTube or on one of many other professional sites. They would get way more views and make more money.

[Brad-Ferrari]

The whole smibs.tv thing is annoying. Wish they would just livecast on YouTube or on one of many other professional sites. They would get way more views and make more money.

YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ3W5...ature=youtu.be

[wacc]

Top speed and soft tyres management are key for the championship. I didn't see Massa matching Webber lap times on the softer compound. That's why the strategy is so difficult for Ferrari to make it work. Soft and medium are the most used compounds during the season.

Felipe was stucked behind MSC for almost the whole first stint on soft tyres. As soon as he overtook him, he could match WEB in the 2 remaining laps. Difficult to say, how fast he could have been.
And during the second stint on hard tyres Felipe lost just 1.5s in about 15 laps. Ferrari's pace looked promising.
Head to head lap times

[sav_pap]

Adding to previous posts IMO tyre management and behaviour in general also can be different from track to track so teams also to discover which one suits their car better.
But always depending on the car charasteristics.
Soft tyre can punish a team more than another or the opposite.
It's really a gamble... What a headache...

[scuderiafan]

YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZ3W5...ature=youtu.be

Thanks!

Looks like Ferrari could do what RedBull are doing with that flap, later in the future.

[Brad-Ferrari]

Thanks!

Looks like Ferrari could do what RedBull are doing with that flap, later in the future.

What flap are you referring to?

[scuderiafan]

What flap are you referring to?

The one scarbs was referring to, when talking about Ferraris diffuser. It was right above the diffuser.

[Brad-Ferrari]

The one scarbs was referring to, when talking about Ferraris diffuser. It was right above the diffuser.

Oh, you mean the gurney flap on the trailing edge of the diffuser.

[scuderiafan]

Oh, you mean the gurney flap on the trailing edge of the diffuser.

Yep.

[Jas]

racing news 11 http://www.ferrari.com/english/formu...-news-n11.aspx

[Jas]

bit irrelevant, but WILLIAMS can not have a double DRS before us can they?!?!?! still npot sure why many other teams didnt use this young driver test as an opportunity to test new future parts hmmm?!

[Jas]

bit irrelevant, but WILLIAMS can not have a double DRS before us can they?!?!?! still npot sure why many other teams didnt use this young driver test as an opportunity to test new future parts hmmm?!

http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/g...nt-wing-detail

[Hornet]

bit irrelevant, but WILLIAMS can not have a double DRS before us can they?!?!?! still npot sure why many other teams didnt use this young driver test as an opportunity to test new future parts hmmm?!

http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/g...nt-wing-detail

Those tubes looks to be way too small to channel air. More like a wire, probably for some extra sensors.

[Kyss4k]

bit irrelevant, but WILLIAMS can not have a double DRS before us can they?!?!?! still npot sure why many other teams didnt use this young driver test as an opportunity to test new future parts hmmm?!

Because it's either this test, or the one after the last race, where you have I guess one more day of testing and you want to use it to try parts of next year's car. You can't have both.

[Alessandra]

For Gary Anderson devotees, re. GB GP tactics etc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/18763819

[wacc]

So according to Tombazis in the Flying Lap, there are 2 or 3 teams who have stronger efect of DRS and so that teams have qualifing advantage. Ferrari has been working to better understand the rear wing. There will be upgrades in this area in the next few races.

[Kiwi Nick]

Anderson over looks one very important factor in the degradation of Alonso's tires vs. Massa's. Despite the fact that Massa got 12 good laps out of his soft tires Alonso complained of loss of front grip after only a few laps. But, Massa and Alonso have different driving styles. In fact, Alonso has a style that is different form most of the rest of the drivers on the grid. He turns in much harder than most drivers, inducing understeer at the entry to a corner and putting a big load on the front tires. That caused his front tires to degrade more quickly than the team had seen in Massa's soft tire run.

[Dino]

Anderson over looks one very important factor in the degradation of Alonso's tires vs. Massa's. Despite the fact that Massa got 12 good laps out of his soft tires Alonso complained of loss of front grip after only a few laps. But, Massa and Alonso have different driving styles. In fact, Alonso has a style that is different form most of the rest of the drivers on the grid. He turns in much harder than most drivers, inducing understeer at the entry to a corner and putting a big load on the front tires. That caused his front tires to degrade more quickly than the team had seen in Massa's soft tire run.

Very true,always have been this way = more aggressive in corner entry.