Ferrari F2012 Development News Thread

[Jola]

If this is true, and these updates brought work, then that might just put Ferrari level with RedBull.

PS, welcome, great first post

Thank you!!! I just hope it's true

[Tifoso84]

A little bird just chirped in my ear, that Felipe also had a suspension update on his car in Korea, and that's why he managed to keep his tyres in better condition than Nando.
Dunno if it's true or not, ask the bird

[Hermann]

A little bird just chirped in my ear, that Felipe also had a suspension update on his car in Korea, and that's why he managed to keep his tyres in better condition than Nando.
Dunno if it's true or not, ask the bird

Probably the same bird that was the 'source' of that articles translated from spanish? Since he seems to be up to create controversies, must be a Macca spy. Better don't listen to him...

[Red passion]

A little bird just chirped in my ear, that Felipe also had a suspension update on his car in Korea, and that's why he managed to keep his tyres in better condition than Nando.
Dunno if it's true or not, ask the bird

Everyone knows that the Bird is the word

[Tifoso84]

Probably the same bird that was the 'source' of that articles translated from spanish? Since he seems to be up to create controversies, must be a Macca spy. Better don't listen to him...

Well he did have a little Ferrari shirt on and he said he was from Maranello. So I don't think he was a Macca spy

[Greig]

seems everyone has inside info these days

[khizerk]

A little bird just chirped in my ear, that Felipe also had a suspension update on his car in Korea, and that's why he managed to keep his tyres in better condition than Nando.
Dunno if it's true or not, ask the bird

I'm not exactly sure if Felipe was even faster. I believe Fernando was looking after his tyres much more, considering the fact all teams were experiencing unexpectedly high degrees of tyre wear and Vettel got close to overdoing it. Felipe finished 6 seconds behind FA...so it is possible that he experienced a bigger drop in performance than FA for this very reason.

[Tifoso84]

I'm not exactly sure if Felipe was even faster. I believe Fernando was looking after his tyres much more, considering the fact all teams were experiencing unexpectedly high degrees of tyre wear and Vettel got close to overdoing it. Felipe finished 6 seconds behind FA...so it is possible that he experienced a bigger drop in performance than FA for this very reason.

At one point in the race, Felipe was clearly faster than Nando. He was lapping like 1,3 seconds faster than Nando. As much as I respect and love Felipe, there's no way he could be so much faster than Nando only because of a better set-up on the car. There had to be something new and different on Felipe's car compared to Nando's car.

[Greig]

Or Alonso was fuel and tyre saving at that point knowing fine well that Massa would not be overtaking him. If new parts made Felipe's car over 1 second faster than Alonso's then that is pretty special by Ferrari, we should lap the field in India.

[PURE PASSION]

Or Alonso was fuel and tyre saving at that point knowing fine well that Massa would not be overtaking him. If new parts made Felipe's car over 1 second faster than Alonso's then that is pretty special by Ferrari, we should lap the field in India.

I'm dreaming this moment!!!!!!

[FerrariF60]

Or Alonso was fuel and tyre saving at that point knowing fine well that Massa would not be overtaking him. If new parts made Felipe's car over 1 second faster than Alonso's then that is pretty special by Ferrari, we should lap the field in India.

....and if that was the case (Massa's car being faster due to whatever uptades), then how come we didn't qualified better then 4th and 6th??? if massa was faster then he should have qualified better then not only Nando, but the bulls too..

i too think that Nando was in either fuel saving mode or just protecting and nursing the tires

all in all i hope we have LARGE updates for india, they ALL work and puts us in contention for POLE position and whip some red bull behind.

[hamid soltani]

Massa would have been different exhaust Alonso Yeongam!

During the Korean Grand Prix last week, and after the Spanish newspaper 20 Minutos, Felipe Massa would have run with a new exhaust system, Red Bull style.

Explain this new rhythm among other impressive pilotre Brazilian in the race on Yeongam track when he was forced to stay behind Fernando Alonso for several laps. The Spaniard, still in

contention for the title of world champion, should now adopt this system when entering the next Grand Prix in India.

He also said that Ferrari is working hard to Blower Toyota in Cologne on the famous Double DRS, which could be decisive on the Indian route.

http://www.f1-direct.com/formule1-fe...?info-f1=13329

[dmkevin]

There was no new exhaust system on felipe's car, especially not a red bull style... could have been a modified version of the current one but i doubt. Reason that FM was faster than FA was simply because of 2 different set up. I believe ferrari did it on purpose... FA had a quali-biased set up rather than a race one, whilst FM had a setup that tended more towards the race than quali... Track position for FA whilst FM was only there to hold anyone behind him to keep FA in front... Thats my assessment of it, nothing i read or seen anywhere but seems logical to me. I am still not convinced about SF bringing major upgrades to india, will have to wait until FP3 to know what we have been able to get out of cologne wind tunnel, which still believe wont be different to what we were getting b4. What if the upgrades dont work, will ferrari admit it, or will they just say that we made good progress but the others were better than us... too many promises not kept this year. dont trust any rumour until the car is faster than the others!!!!

[gjoko-mkd]

There are no doubt that Masa was faster then Alonso in Korea.Question is why?If the car with number 6 was different than the car with number 5,then this is exellent news.That mean the upgreats are working well, and we are in good position to win this year,and this mean that Masa was experimental mouse at the Ferari tim.

Another good news is that in the lap when Masa was closed to Alonso in 1 sec,and then after radio mesage he was moving away at 2.5 sec,in next lap he again catch up Alonso in only one lap.That speed are amazing

[amouzouris]

I have gone through a lot of photos..and i can say quite confidently that there was no new suspension on Massa's car..maybe a different approach to setup, which IF they understand will benefit them in India...however if they are baffled by Massa's pace in Korea then there is a lot of work to be done... I hope that they do understand it though..and the big upgrade package will finally come to the surface in India

[Tifoso84]

Or Alonso was fuel and tyre saving at that point knowing fine well that Massa would not be overtaking him. If new parts made Felipe's car over 1 second faster than Alonso's then that is pretty special by Ferrari, we should lap the field in India.

And even if Nando was on tyre and fuel saving mode, then that still doesn't explain the 1,3 - 1,5 second gap to Felipe in lap times. I could understand if the difference in lap times had been around 0,6 - 0,8 seconds then the explanation could've been that Nando was simply saving tyres and fuel. But a lap time difference of more than a second seems just too much for it to have been just some tyre saving mode by Nando.
And I don't believe that there could've been that big of a difference in car set-up either to explain a 1,5 second difference in lap times.
In my opinion the only logical explanation is that Ferrari was indeed testing some new parts on Felipe's car.

[Greig]

And even if Nando was on tyre and fuel saving mode, then that still doesn't explain the 1,3 - 1,5 second gap to Felipe in lap times. I could understand if the difference in lap times had been around 0,6 - 0,8 seconds then the explanation could've been that Nando was simply saving tyres and fuel. But a lap time difference of more than a second seems just too much for it to have been just some tyre saving mode by Nando.
And I don't believe that there could've been that big of a difference in car set-up either to explain a 1,5 second difference in lap times.
In my opinion the only logical explanation is that Ferrari was indeed testing some new parts on Felipe's car.

So we brought updates that give over 1 second, maybe even 2 seconds a lap considering Alonso is normally faster than Massa, yet decided to run them on Massa's car?

Yeah just sounds very realistic

[F1NAC]

i'm still worried about Abu dhabi young test because we had a chance in France and we didn't take it and now Red Bull will have a chance two races to go to test more updates

[Tifoso84]

So we brought updates that give over 1 second, maybe even 2 seconds a lap considering Alonso is normally faster than Massa, yet decided to run them on Massa's car?

Yeah just sounds very realistic

Ferrari has always experimented with new parts on the second driver.
Ok, you explain that 1,5 second difference in lap times then. Does it really seem normal to you that Nando was so slow (even if he was on tyre saving mode) compared to Felipe throughout the whole race? If you know exactly why there was a 1,5 second difference then by all means, please do share your knowledge with us.

[Greig]

Ferrari has always experimented with new parts on the second driver.
Ok, you explain that 1,5 second difference in lap times then. Does it really seem normal to you that Nando was so slow (even if he was on tyre saving mode) compared to Felipe throughout the whole race? If you know exactly why there was a 1,5 second difference then by all means, please do share your knowledge with us.

I have no idea, maybe Alonso had a different setup, more problems with the tyres, I mean when Alonso was so much faster than Massa early in the season it was not because Alonso had a better car now was it. Maybe just maybe Massa done a better job than Alonso in Korea, not that hard to accept really, even the greatest drivers have off days.

If we had updates that gave that much of a laptime gain then they would be on Alonso's car suggesting otherwise is just being silly. Massa is not really the 2nd driver either, they both test new parts in practice and have done so regularly this season.

[Tifoso84]

I have no idea, maybe Alonso had a different setup, more problems with the tyres, I mean when Alonso was so much faster than Massa early in the season it was not because Alonso had a better car now was it. Maybe just maybe Massa done a better job than Alonso in Korea, not that hard to accept really, even the greatest drivers have off days.

If we had updates that gave that much of a laptime gain then they would be on Alonso's car suggesting otherwise is just being silly. Massa is not really the 2nd driver either, they both test new parts in practice and have done so regularly this season.

I'm not questioning Felipe's ability to do a great job, but did he really do that much of a better job to suddenly be 1,5 seconds faster than Nando...hmmm Seems a little weird don't you think?
And yes, Massa is currently the 2nd driver. He's behind Alonso in the points standings and has no chance to win the WDC. So he is the 2nd driver at the moment, sad but true.

[Tifoso84]

If only someone here on the forum would be working at Ferrari, then we could have all the answers to our questions right now. And we wouldn't have to burst our heads here while trying to figure out stuff.

[Greig]

I'm not questioning Felipe's ability to do a great job, but did he really do that much of a better job to suddenly be 1,5 seconds faster than Nando...hmmm Seems a little weird don't you think?
And yes, Massa is currently the 2nd driver. He's behind Alonso in the points standings and has no chance to win the WDC. So he is the 2nd driver at the moment, sad but true.

Does not make him the test donkey to sacrifice his own weekend, as said they both test new parts. He was not 1.5 seconds quicker all weekend or all race. Why did these new parts not make him 1 second quicker than Alonso in qual?

[Tifoso84]

Does not make him the test donkey to sacrifice his own weekend, as said they both test new parts. He was not 1.5 seconds quicker all weekend or all race. Why did these new parts not make him 1 second quicker than Alonso in qual?

No, of course Felipe ain't no "test donkey", but there have been a few instances in Ferrari's history where they tested new parts only on one of their drivers.
And I didn't say that Felipe was 1,5 seconds faster than Alonso during the whole weekend. All I said that he was 1,3 - 1,5 seconds faster at one point during the race. Now, isn't it possible that Felipe's car had some new part on it that made it possible for him to preserve his tyres better than Nando who didn't have that part? Maybe Ferrari thought that it was just too big of a gamble to risk trying it on Alonso's car. Perhaps Felipe even wanted to test that new part himself during the race and Fernando didn't want to take the risk to use an untested part. Maybe the risk just paid off for Felipe.

[Greig]

Or Alonso was just saving fuel and tyres at that point, maybe

[Tifoso84]

Or Alonso was just saving fuel and tyres at that point, maybe

If Alonso himself told you that then fine, I agree

[GrndLkNatv]

Don't forget that Felipe likes a car with a little more steering feel, that is one where you can feel the inputs of the car more whereas Fernando tends to not need this kind of feedback as much. That's why in the last few seasons Felipe has struggled whilst Nando has not. Perhaps now the car setup is at a point where Felipe has this feel and his trust of the car is now better and he can now perform better. In all honesty, given equal cars, Fernando is the better driver, but not by much when Felipe is comfortable in the car. IMHO, something was different between the cars this last weekend, not something we can see from the outside, but something was different. As was stated earlier, something like a second a lap could explain Fernando saving fuel and tires or setup differences, but more than that almost definitely means something of an upgrade, especially this year when the difference between Pole and 10th place can be less than 2/10's of a second. According to a club letter we received from M. Rivola this morning, they are looking to pull about another few 10's a lap out of the current car and figure they can win the championship if this is the case. Of course they are busting butt to get this done!

[Tifoso84]

IMHO, something was different between the cars this last weekend, not something we can see from the outside, but something was different. As was stated earlier, something like a second a lap could explain Fernando saving fuel and tires or setup differences, but more than that almost definitely means something of an upgrade, especially this year when the difference between Pole and 10th place can be less than 2/10's of a second.

So as it turns out I'm not the only one who has this opinion after all.

[kiwifella]

Hey guys, lets hope we're not all getting ourselves into a stew over it...........I'm imagining the Red Cows going to India thinking, lets go do some more Ferrari bashing!!

Dont know what to make of these supposed updates, lets just hope they work.

Forza Ferrari

[Greig]

If Alonso himself told you that then fine, I agree

That's what he did say after the race though. So I guess that's you agreeing then

And that when he pushed he pulled away from Felipe despite his new parts apparently. If you actually think we have improved the car by over 1 second without a single visual change then I will have some of what you are drinking