Second Barcelona Test 1st-4th Mar 2012 - news and pics

[Stormsearcher]

I would be OK with being pleasantly surprised in AUS.

Wish granted! At least thats what i feel will happen.

[scuderiafan]

Seems we are still struggling with wind tunnel/cfd data and it not working on track, that is the big worry for me as the longer it takes us to find that then we are falling behind.

Anyway RB exhaust - http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2012/0/938.html

i hope not, but seems like it. at least they don't seem as bad as they did last year. i hope they can get up to speed, i still think they are improving massively, and i hope these parts for saturday will work for gods sake.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Also new on the new floor & diffuser, see slots ahead of rear tyre.

[NanoTheQuickest]

There is one thing I don't get, why are they all working so hard trying to get aero gain with the exhaust when the blowing is out of the game? I know any small gain is very important in F1 but compare to last year it is far from being a 0.5s per lap kind of deal! When the guys are off throttle braking or in slow corners, there are no gases blowing anything (well it's minimal compare to last year anyway) and in straight line the last thing you want is your exhaust gases to be creating drag!!! Could someone enlighten me on that please, it might be me tho, I am a bit sleep depraved by my 3 months old baby son!!!

Edit: I know it will help in the corner exist domain when throttle in!!

[Crucial_Xtreme]

@InsideFerrari: It's going to be a long night of work in our garage ....

[Agasthya]

@InsideFerrari: It's going to be a long night of work in our garage ....

Interesting. I wonder if they are bolting on the Melbourne spec.

[FerrariF60]

Interesting. I wonder if they are bolting on the Melbourne spec.

maybe, maybe not, JUST yet
we may indeed see the Melbourne spec updates for sure on saturday and sunday

[Sempre_Ferrari]

In the La Stampa article, there is no reference to anything out of the ordinary (whatever fireballs and 'RED' are meant to be), but only the fact that on Saturday, the team will introduce the package to be used at Melbourne. Which is also not a novelty in itself, because most teams will be doing just that.

At the same time, considering that the team wanted to delay testing by a day in order to have more parts ready to use, one can only assume that there will be new things coming in the next days. I am curious as to why have they decided to alternate Felipe and Fernando during this testing session.

"Le Rosse" meaning "The Reds" is just an affectionate name for the team and "La Rossa" an affectionate name for the car "The Red"..Italo speak . All that article really says is that on Saturday they will be testing the race package to be used in Melbourne. They also say that Ferrari and Red Bull wanted to move the test by a day to give them time to produce the new parts but that the FIA has reinterpreted the rules and disallowed with the journalist saying

(cominciamo bene...)

meaning, very sarcastically, "we are starting off well" in terms of FIA decisions.

[ntukza]

Does anyone know a good MercedesF1 forum? I would like to keep an eye on there as well.

[NJB13]

"good MercedesF1" - nice oxymoron ntukza. I'm sure Raz, our resident schudas could come up with something for you

[anupa2k]

"I know that some people are saying we start with a disadvantage compared to Red Bull, McLaren or Mercedes, but we will only really see in Melbourne." - Fernando Alonso.

[medeni73]

Because of the fog the start of test has been delayed...

[Nisko]

diffuser from yesterday

[anakin]

"will make a fireball" , "aerodynamic package, called 'RED'." Dunno if it's google translate making everything sound cool, but jeez it sounds like Ferrari has got something big

lets hope for the best.

ferrari back on top

no more finger!!!!!

[medeni73]

some not so good reading...:(
Heikki Kulta is usually well informed and trusted source...

Red Headache

1.3.2012 Heikki Kulta

If the season started now, how would Ferrari do? This question rose into my mind after the first test day in Barcelona, when Felipe Massa again drove over one hundred laps but was only eight in the result list. During the day I followed the facial expressions of the Italian journalists, and because they looked what they looked, I made the question to three experienced writers.

Alberto Antonini, Auto Sprint:
"You ask about hypothetical grid order? Probably this Ferrari should be around ninth place or lower, at best maybe fifth row."
"Why? Because they have wasted these test weeks. They are again back to square one trying to understand their car."
"When I watch the other Italian team, Toro Rosso, practising their pit stops now, Thursday, they are clearly ready for the first race. Ferrari is still way back behind them."
"It's not nice to say this, but I'm afraid that Ferrari will have a season as bad as in 2009, maybe even worse."
How about the patience of the tifosi in Italy?
"I believe it is as far streched to the limit as in Ferrari's pit box. It's starting to get to the nerves - and it's clearly visible. It's the same with us journalists."
Any light at the end of the tunnel?
"You mean wind tunnel...? Maybe there, but nowhere else. First races where you can expect anything better are at the earliest when the European season begins."

Marco Evangelisti, Corriere dello Sport:
"If we were in Australia just now, the season would start very badly for Ferrari. The truth is that til this day, the team has not understood their car. The car is completely different than any car they have made in Maranello before. It now represents English school. The details are designed in a different way and everything depends on aerodynamical solutions."
"The organisation of the team has changed as much as the construction ideology of the car. Now Maranello is like little Woking. Small units work together, whereas Ferrari has all its experience from operating as a pyramid organisation."
"This brings great difficulties to understand how to make this organisation to work efficiently and how to understand quickly the car it has built."
Evangelisti reminds that the car still has no new aero package, that will be ready only for the last two test days.
"Time is running out. It's impossible to say how fast Ferrari is or how fast it will be. They actually really started to test it only at the last afternoon of the previous test period. It's impossible to say whether it will be at all ready for the first race."
"Now, Thursday, they were working with different set ups. That's something they should have done already in the first test in Jerez."
"Where is Ferrari now? At least they are behind Red Bull, McLaren, maybe Mercedes. I'm not quite sure about Lotus because they have had their problems too."
"Our patience in Italy is really tested. No one is denying that. The tifosi have been very patient for long, but this year the patience is starting to run out. Everybody is starting to be rather sceptical. In the team everybody is clearly very nervous."

Paolo Ianieri, La Gazzetta dello Sport:
"Ferrari has spent the tests learning, learning and learning. At the moment Ferrari is behind at least Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, probably Lotus, even Force India. It is really bad for Ferrari that the testing is so limited."
"In Italy the mood swings with how Ferrari is doing. In the beginning it was really difficult, but when the team said they were starting to understand the car, people were a bit relieved. The tifosi are waiting. Let's wait and see, like Kimi taught them."
"If the changes help, that's good. But who knows."

[anialonso]

some not so good reading...:(
Heikki Kulta is usually well informed and trusted source...

Red Headache

1.3.2012 Heikki Kulta

If the season started now, how would Ferrari do? This question rose into my mind after the first test day in Barcelona, when Felipe Massa again drove over one hundred laps but was only eight in the result list. During the day I followed the facial expressions of the Italian journalists, and because they looked what they looked, I made the question to three experienced writers.

Alberto Antonini, Auto Sprint:
"You ask about hypothetical grid order? Probably this Ferrari should be around ninth place or lower, at best maybe fifth row."
"Why? Because they have wasted these test weeks. They are again back to square one trying to understand their car."
"When I watch the other Italian team, Toro Rosso, practising their pit stops now, Thursday, they are clearly ready for the first race. Ferrari is still way back behind them."
"It's not nice to say this, but I'm afraid that Ferrari will have a season as bad as in 2009, maybe even worse."
How about the patience of the tifosi in Italy?
"I believe it is as far streched to the limit as in Ferrari's pit box. It's starting to get to the nerves - and it's clearly visible. It's the same with us journalists."
Any light at the end of the tunnel?
"You mean wind tunnel...? Maybe there, but nowhere else. First races where you can expect anything better are at the earliest when the European season begins."

Marco Evangelisti, Corriere dello Sport:
"If we were in Australia just now, the season would start very badly for Ferrari. The truth is that til this day, the team has not understood their car. The car is completely different than any car they have made in Maranello before. It now represents English school. The details are designed in a different way and everything depends on aerodynamical solutions."
"The organisation of the team has changed as much as the construction ideology of the car. Now Maranello is like little Woking. Small units work together, whereas Ferrari has all its experience from operating as a pyramid organisation."
"This brings great difficulties to understand how to make this organisation to work efficiently and how to understand quickly the car it has built."
Evangelisti reminds that the car still has no new aero package, that will be ready only for the last two test days.
"Time is running out. It's impossible to say how fast Ferrari is or how fast it will be. They actually really started to test it only at the last afternoon of the previous test period. It's impossible to say whether it will be at all ready for the first race."
"Now, Thursday, they were working with different set ups. That's something they should have done already in the first test in Jerez."
"Where is Ferrari now? At least they are behind Red Bull, McLaren, maybe Mercedes. I'm not quite sure about Lotus because they have had their problems too."
"Our patience in Italy is really tested. No one is denying that. The tifosi have been very patient for long, but this year the patience is starting to run out. Everybody is starting to be rather sceptical. In the team everybody is clearly very nervous."

Paolo Ianieri, La Gazzetta dello Sport:
"Ferrari has spent the tests learning, learning and learning. At the moment Ferrari is behind at least Red Bull, McLaren, Mercedes, probably Lotus, even Force India. It is really bad for Ferrari that the testing is so limited."
"In Italy the mood swings with how Ferrari is doing. In the beginning it was really difficult, but when the team said they were starting to understand the car, people were a bit relieved. The tifosi are waiting. Let's wait and see, like Kimi taught them."
"If the changes help, that's good. But who knows."

I would say we all have to trust our team..
Since our car is quite new the development scope for this car is going to be huge as compared to redbull,mclaren..
above all we must remember that they are FERRARI!!!!!and they have ALONSO>>>>
so lets see how the remaining days turn out...

[anialonso]

Alonso completed the installation lap...
any news on whether the updates named RED are fitted onto the car???

[Klutch]

Gary Anderson, Heikki Kulta, Martin Brundle... they saying we are in trouble. It is cannot be true!
However, I'm still optimistic.

[anialonso]

Hope We surprise and do a complete sweep in aus!!!!

[ntukza]

"good MercedesF1" - nice oxymoron ntukza.

Hahaha that was unintended

[Rosso Corsa]

I'm confident that we're much better placed than those reports suggest. The data we're collecting now is for both short term and long term purposes. Why wouldn't we spend so long collecting data on such a new car?

[EDIN MIKHAEL]

even if SF has a bad season, we're tifosi , right

[EDIN MIKHAEL]

Nando set 1.23s in 6 Lap, on soft compund, maybe a glory run again???

[Kyss4k]

Nando set 1.23s in 6 Lap, on soft compund, maybe a glory run again???

No. If it was a glory run, we would be massively slow. Even Grosjean on HARDS was quicker. So no glory run from us.

[anialonso]

even if SF has a bad season, we're tifosi , right

[Hermann]

Still slower than Lotus.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

The new Ferrari pieces arrive



pic via IvanF1

[medeni73]

[EL NANO]

Here we go the media again throwing the baby out with the bath water!! Geez give the Ferrari guys a chance... As they mention it's a new Ferrari and thus maybe doing things a little different this year.. The car is good I believe and reliable now.. Let's not forget how the media dismissed other teams in testing and went hard in Melbourne ...

[Schumyboy83]

Schumacher stopped on the track