First Barcelona Test 21st-24th Feb 2012 - news and pics

[scuderiafan]

also, so much for Lotus challenging and beating Ferrari + McLaren.

Lotus Pull out Of Barcelona Test

[Fer12]

Looks like the test was carried out on a closed stretch of public road...

[Tifoso]

How did we do? (please)

[Kyss4k]

How did we do? (please)

1	Vettel	Red Bull	1m23.265s	79
2	Hulkenberg	Force India	1m23.440s +0.175	97
3	Hamilton	McLaren	1m23.590s +0.325	114
4	Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1m23.618s +0.353	76
5	Alonso	Ferrari	1m24.100s +0.835	75
6	Schumacher	Mercedes	1m24.150s +0.885	51
7	Perez	Sauber	1m24.219s +0.954	66
8	Senna	Williams	1m25.711s +2.446	97
9	Kovalainen	Caterham	1m26.035s +2.770	31
10	Grosjean	Lotus	1m26.809s +3.544	7
11	Pic	Marussia	1m28.026s +4.761	121

There was one tiny issue, that held us back, but nothing major.

[scuderiafan]

How did we do? (please)

when my family and friends asked me how i did in my exams when i was in high school, i said, 'i'll tell you when i get the results '

so, none of us really know until Q1 Australia. but if i am guessing, i would say, they making improvement.

[Tifoso]

1	Vettel	Red Bull	1m23.265s	79
2	Hulkenberg	Force India	1m23.440s +0.175	97
3	Hamilton	McLaren	1m23.590s +0.325	114
4	Ricciardo	Toro Rosso	1m23.618s +0.353	76
5	Alonso	Ferrari	1m24.100s +0.835	75
6	Schumacher	Mercedes	1m24.150s +0.885	51
7	Perez	Sauber	1m24.219s +0.954	66
8	Senna	Williams	1m25.711s +2.446	97
9	Kovalainen	Caterham	1m26.035s +2.770	31
10	Grosjean	Lotus	1m26.809s +3.544	7
11	Pic	Marussia	1m28.026s +4.761	121

There was one tiny issue, that held us back, but nothing major.

ANYBODY but Vettel and Ramilton ahead of us, dammit.

Thanks for the answer

[Hombre B]

The monster :):

[FrankAlfa]

In the not to long ago past, when Ferrari had a new race car Schumacher would pound the race track and put huge number of miles on the car. As it is, Ferrari are running about the same number of laps as Red Bull but far less than McLaren. Ferrari have an awful lot of work in front of them but the Ferrari Team has never been afraid of Hard Work! They are working out the issues with the race car and they will increase the pace when the time is right. No need to go qualifying just yet. Step by Step, they are learning the car and that is what counts.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[Hombre B]

Nothing new on the Spanish front

Montmelò, 21 February – From the Jerez de la Frontera circuit to the one at Montmelò is a distance of around 1100 kilometres, but in the case of the F2012, it has not meant much of a change. Scuderia Ferrari’s new Formula 1 car still needs plenty of running in to get at all its available potential and that is the absolute priority for the team over these next few days before heading off to Melbourne.

Therefore, once again today, Fernando Alonso did a lot of work aimed at data acquisition which is the lifeblood for the Prancing Horse engineers in helping them learn the F2012’s every last little nook and cranny when it comes to its behaviour on track: despite the precision and accuracy of computers and simulators, nothing really delivers results regarding the efficacy of components and the design as a whole like a track can. It was not until the afternoon that Fernando began to do runs with a reasonable number of laps, whereas in the morning, the work centred mainly on evaluating different aerodynamic configurations. In the end, there were 75 laps in the bag, equivalent to around 350 kilometres, the quickest in a time of 1.24.100. There was just one minor problem halfway through the morning, which cost around an hour, but the rest of the day went off without a hitch.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but isn’t that what we are here for?” said Fernando speaking to www.ferrarif1.com. “I don’t think we will see anything different over the coming days, because before we can see what this car is really capable of, we must piece together all the pieces in the jigsaw. I know there is much expectation from the outside, but we are totally focussed on ourselves, without giving a thought to what is going on around us. We will only start to properly understand the situation in Melbourne.”

Therefore the Reds won’t be singing off a different song sheet tomorrow: once again some aero testing, more comparisons of different configurations and so a lot to do for engineers and mechanics. Indeed, that is the very essence of Formula 1: the work of a hundred or so people at the track and in the factory, to give a driver what he needs to be fastest, but in the races, not the tests.

[FrankAlfa]

We can only hope Red Bull are like Ferrari LAST YEAR during testing. Lead the testing, but come up short in the race.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[Agasthya]

Sebastian Vettel's quotes today:

"Obviously I can judge for myself that the feeling [on my car] is fine but I don't know whether that is good enough or not. I think the McLaren looks quite competitive. I think they didn't go for one lap at all but they did long runs etcetera and they looked fairly competitive, so I think they will be strong straight from the beginning of the season."

"Ferrari is a bit of a secret at this stage and nobody knows whether they are really good or really bad..."

Pretty interesting perspective.

[FerrariF60]

Sebastian Vettel's quotes today:

"Obviously I can judge for myself that the feeling [on my car] is fine but I don't know whether that is good enough or not. I think the McLaren looks quite competitive. I think they didn't go for one lap at all but they did long runs etcetera and they looked fairly competitive, so I think they will be strong straight from the beginning of the season."

"Ferrari is a bit of a secret at this stage and nobody knows whether they are really good or really bad..."

Pretty interesting perspective.

hopefully it's the first option rather then latter....he,he..
i still think Ferrari know they are the "king of the jungle" from the numbers they've gathered so far, hence them laying low and not releasing any QUICK time laps, JUST YET!!!

i think they want to surprise them ALL come Melbourne...

[Jose Lorca]

Barcelona looks lovely in the late winter, and so it is that 2012 F1 cars gleam in the yellow sun, starbursts of florescent orange, or a deep aquatic blue suddenly catching the shaded eye. For all that, I actually found it quite difficult to see the cars in action on Tuesday, February 21. I headed straight for Turn Nine of course, because I love to watch F1 cars swallowing blind, fifth-gear corners, but I came away confused. Lewis Hamilton flew through first, in that chrome-and-orange -“No plans to change the nose at this stage” – McLaren – and he was impressive enough: he tore into the corner without a lift in fifth, then grabbed fourth two-thirds of the way through it, as the tyres scrubbed away speed. Astonishingly, though, Nico Hulkenberg , to my eye, looked every bit as good at this point of the circuit in the Sahara Force India – as did Fernando in the Ferrari. It was only when Bruno Senna appeared in the Williams FW34-Renault, car understeering pretty much from entry to exit, that I could see the first three in any kind of relief. On the plus side, they were all mind-blowingly quick – quick, neat and very, very tidy.

Finally, then, I found the right place to watch in Barcelona: it is on the outside of the track, on the section just before Turn Three. You see them exiting Two (a left-hander) in third gear before a very tricky direction change for Three. The more stable the platform for the car into Three, the better your chances of manipulating the forces through to the corner’s exit, and therefore to the longish straight that follows it before Four. Again, Lewis was peerless at this point, as I think the adjoining photographs show. Whilst Ferando Alonso darted almost back to the centre of the road before giving the Ferrari his signature flick into Three, Lewis kept the McLaren much straighter on exit, freeing the car of load, and was then much less ambitious with his turn-in territory. Given the radius that Fernando would proscribe, how did Lewis get the McLaren’s nose to tuck into Three? By superbly soft initial steering inputs and velvety use of the throttle. Fernando was on full power sooner than Lewis but I daresay Lewis was quicker, thanks to the load he wasn’t thrashing through the car, about 50m after the exit of Three. Seb Vettel was great to watch here, too: he chose road between Lewis and Fernando, with an aggressive flick to the left from the exit of Two, but then made a very gentle turn into Three. I suspect that the RBR8 already has a little more bite than the McLaren – thus Seb’s ability to jink the car almost at will. I should add, of course, that the Ferrari also has plenty of grip: there’s no way Fernando would be doing what he was doing into Three if he was driving a bus. Or a Ferrari 150th.

http://peterwindsor.com/2012/02/21/n...ona-testing-2/

[Grillo]

Hopefully we'll see a different testing schedule the last session before Melbourne. It seems the car is not easy to set up at the moment. Mechanically the car has a different suspension to all the competition but aerodynamically we can only guess what's going on.

The most important thing is a developing programme through out the season that can give us the upper hand once they return to Europe after the first few races. Realistically I don't expect the F2012 stronger than Red Bull in Melbourne. That said, we might even win there.

Keep pushing!

[OSS EL BOSS]

A spectator on the track tweeted that the car still looks like a beast to handle it, and that red bull and Mclaren look strong.
It seems that we should expect a difficult season start at least.
I expect Ferrari to be 5 tenth behind red bull at in melbourne, but we will improve during the season, just hope that we dont lose too much points in the first couple of races.

[Ferrari Man]

A spectator on the track tweeted that the car still looks like a beast to handle it, and that red bull and Mclaren look strong.
It seems that we should expect a difficult season start at least.
I expect Ferrari to be 5 tenth behind red bull at in melbourne, but we will improve during the season, just hope that we dont lose too much points in the first couple of races.

Dejavu ... A bit like our season start last year...

[OSS EL BOSS]

Dejavu ... A bit like our season start last year...

not so bad like last season, we will not be 1.5 seconds behind as there is nothing that could make so big difference like the blown diffuser did last year but 0.5-0.7 not more.
And lets hope that red bull is gonna get some reliability problems at the start of the season threw bringing their exhaust solution so late in the last test, that could help us not losing too much points till we fully understand the carand get it working at 100%.

[TheProdigalSon]

A spectator on the track tweeted that the car still looks like a beast to handle it, and that red bull and Mclaren look strong.
It seems that we should expect a difficult season start at least.
I expect Ferrari to be 5 tenth behind red bull at in melbourne, but we will improve during the season, just hope that we dont lose too much points in the first couple of races.

We can't afford to be playing catch up if we want to fight for the championship. We need to be in a position to win races straight away if we want to be in the fight for the championship instead of hoping for others to have problems to get back those vital points. Being 5 tenths off isn't just going to go away in a couple of races since everyone is constantly improving. I like that quote about engineers giving the drivers the fastest car at the races and not at the tests, test times are meaningless and will be completely forgotten, race wins will stay forever.

[FrankAlfa]

LOL, LOL, LOL. It is very funny that people are talking about 5 tenths behind for one team and another 3 tenths for another one and one leading the field. All just a bunch of hearsay and speculation. NO ONE is working on qualifying yet and everyone is just learning their respective new cars. Things like downforce, tire wear, temperature, fuel consumption, KERS & DRS function are all being explored and the best setup of the race car is established. Everyone must remember, no matter what people see on the race track, NO ONE is racing yet. Some teams are more advanced on establishing the best setup especially those that are running "Carry Over" race cars from the last few years. As for Ferrari, they are starting from "0" and their first task is to establish a "Baseline" to develop the new F2012 race car. They are certainly not going for super hot laps yet and the more important thing is to understand the car in relationship to the behavior of the new Pirelli tires. I see the Red Bull, the Mclaren & the Mercedes as "Carry Overs" from the last few years of race cars. Ferrari is no such thing at all. It is not a carry over at all the end of last year was spent developing the Front Wing for this year's race car.

So I laugh-out-loud at this time when I read comments from people that claim this or that about any team, especially the Ferrari Team. you know there quite a few people out there that just want to get other people worked up. Take it all with a grain of salt and wait for the first few races for the top teams to emerge.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[FerrariF60]

LOL, LOL, LOL. It is very funny that people are talking about 5 tenths behind for one team and another 3 tenths for another one and one leading the field. All just a bunch of hearsay and speculation. NO ONE is working on qualifying yet and everyone is just learning their respective new cars. Things like downforce, tire wear, temperature, fuel consumption, KERS & DRS function are all being explored and the best setup of the race car is established. Everyone must remember, no matter what people see on the race track, NO ONE is racing yet. Some teams are more advanced on establishing the best setup especially those that are running "Carry Over" race cars from the last few years. As for Ferrari, they are starting from "0" and their first task is to establish a "Baseline" to develop the new F2012 race car. They are certainly not going for super hot laps yet and the more important thing is to understand the car in relationship to the behavior of the new Pirelli tires. I see the Red Bull, the Mclaren & the Mercedes as "Carry Overs" from the last few years of race cars. Ferrari is no such thing at all. It is not a carry over at all the end of last year was spent developing the Front Wing for this year's race car.

So I laugh-out-loud at this time when I read comments from people that claim this or that about any team, especially the Ferrari Team. you know there quite a few people out there that just want to get other people worked up. Take it all with a grain of salt and wait for the first few races for the top teams to emerge.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

very well said; i could not have put it better myself
as Ferrari themselves said that they are NOT chasing lap times and glory lap runs, they are ironing the details and comparing different set up changes of a brand new single seater....

so yeah people, relax...we'll get there when it counts, Q3 in Albert Park, OZ

[NJB13]

LOL, LOL, LOL. It is very funny that people are talking about 5 tenths behind for one team and another 3 tenths for another one and one leading the field. All just a bunch of hearsay and speculation. NO ONE is working on qualifying yet and everyone is just learning their respective new cars. Things like downforce, tire wear, temperature, fuel consumption, KERS & DRS function are all being explored and the best setup of the race car is established. Everyone must remember, no matter what people see on the race track, NO ONE is racing yet. Some teams are more advanced on establishing the best setup especially those that are running "Carry Over" race cars from the last few years. As for Ferrari, they are starting from "0" and their first task is to establish a "Baseline" to develop the new F2012 race car. They are certainly not going for super hot laps yet and the more important thing is to understand the car in relationship to the behavior of the new Pirelli tires. I see the Red Bull, the Mclaren & the Mercedes as "Carry Overs" from the last few years of race cars. Ferrari is no such thing at all. It is not a carry over at all the end of last year was spent developing the Front Wing for this year's race car.

So I laugh-out-loud at this time when I read comments from people that claim this or that about any team, especially the Ferrari Team. you know there quite a few people out there that just want to get other people worked up. Take it all with a grain of salt and wait for the first few races for the top teams to emerge.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

What the heck do you think you're doing FrankAlfa?!? Bringing common sense and sanity to this thread. Trust me, it will never catch on

[anakin]

i am more optimistic about these these now compared to last season when ferrari battled with redbull with numbers of laps achieved and they two are always on top of the time sheets. what ferrari are doing now is calibrating, aero data gathering on limited speed, testing components(i believe they have a new clutch system which they tested in jerez and fine tuning it at barcelona), and sticking with their program( no intentions of running in low fuel runs to be on top of the time sheets) what ferrari did last year was run mostly on high fuel loads (race simulation, tyre evaluation) and eventually going for the top of the time sheets against redbull. that is my assessment from these test compared from last year...

[theforce]

Can people please stop trolling the thread with their predictions for the rest of the season based on our limited running. I think we've heard enough already. Need more F1 discussion and less psychics.

[Hombre B]

OFF, but Ferrari:

[anialonso]

Hey guys,
wanted to share a tribute video of alonso that i found on youtube..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHm4PEOH1ps

[anialonso]

Common guys..
stay calm..
remember what ferrari said..
this test is all about understanding the car..
the next test is where we start to extract the potential from the car..
so till then we should all just have in ferrari...

[meh123]

[Grillo]

If you want to tell one or two forum members to calm down then quote them and write what you please.

Stop telling the whole forum to calm down.

It gets on my nerves!!!

[anialonso]

If you want to tell one or two forum members to calm down then quote them and write what you please.

Stop telling the whole forum to calm down.

It gets on my nerves!!!

i was not telling the entire forum...
it was only for those who are startin to doubt ferrari's ability..

[Rob]

Nothing new on the Spanish front

Montmelò, 21 February – From the Jerez de la Frontera circuit to the one at Montmelò is a distance of around 1100 kilometres, but in the case of the F2012, it has not meant much of a change. Scuderia Ferrari’s new Formula 1 car still needs plenty of running in to get at all its available potential and that is the absolute priority for the team over these next few days before heading off to Melbourne.

Therefore, once again today, Fernando Alonso did a lot of work aimed at data acquisition which is the lifeblood for the Prancing Horse engineers in helping them learn the F2012’s every last little nook and cranny when it comes to its behaviour on track: despite the precision and accuracy of computers and simulators, nothing really delivers results regarding the efficacy of components and the design as a whole like a track can. It was not until the afternoon that Fernando began to do runs with a reasonable number of laps, whereas in the morning, the work centred mainly on evaluating different aerodynamic configurations. In the end, there were 75 laps in the bag, equivalent to around 350 kilometres, the quickest in a time of 1.24.100. There was just one minor problem halfway through the morning, which cost around an hour, but the rest of the day went off without a hitch.

“There’s still a lot of work to do, but isn’t that what we are here for?” said Fernando speaking to www.ferrarif1.com. “I don’t think we will see anything different over the coming days, because before we can see what this car is really capable of, we must piece together all the pieces in the jigsaw. I know there is much expectation from the outside, but we are totally focussed on ourselves, without giving a thought to what is going on around us. We will only start to properly understand the situation in Melbourne.”

Therefore the Reds won’t be singing off a different song sheet tomorrow: once again some aero testing, more comparisons of different configurations and so a lot to do for engineers and mechanics. Indeed, that is the very essence of Formula 1: the work of a hundred or so people at the track and in the factory, to give a driver what he needs to be fastest, but in the races, not the tests.

http://www.ferrari.com/English/Formu...ish-front.aspx