1st Winter Testing 27th Feb - 2nd March 2017, Barcelona

[PURE PASSION]

The thing that makes me quite happy is not the quick laps ,not the good reliability BUT the statements of the Anderson's that our weapon is very stable almost everywhere and in breaking. I all the years before they use say that we had some troubles herw and therw while Mercs and RBRs where planed.Now they sound the opposite and thet say that we are "better"then both!!!!!!!!!

[From Treviso]

Last year's blunt weapon gobbled up 1000 man-years to produce, so I'm surprised they had the resources to get's this year's version up and running with no apparent fundamental issues of concern atm (touch wood). Anyway, can anyone can give me a video link to compare the Ferrari and MB though the corners, as there's too much out there to sift through. Finally, the Redbull topped the speed trap @330kph, followed by Vettel/328, Lewis 327, etc.

[GrndLkNatv]

Last year's blunt weapon gobbled up 1000 man-years to produce, so I'm surprised they had the resources to get's this year's version up and running with no apparent fundamental issues of concern atm (touch wood). Anyway, can anyone can give me a video link to compare the Ferrari and MB though the corners, as there's too much out there to sift through. Finally, the Redbull topped the speed trap @330kph, followed by Vettel/328, Lewis 327, etc.

Yes, but on the inside the guys have been doing 18 hour days, 7 days a week since the start of the new year in order to put together what they had designed. No surprises here, just the Arrivabene work ethic..

[Warp]

I'm glad with Ferrari keeping a low profile. Italian media no so much...

http://www.f1today.net/en/news/f1/22...medium=twitter

[ibanezz]

It's really interesting if we can see PP time under 1:19.500? Last year we had worse time in the race weekend (1:23.2) than the test's one (1:22.8). Mercedes had better, but only 0.8s better (1:22.0).
Mercedes was most of the time hidden, but not this time.
We have young blood in the factory. We don't have another conservative car. SF70-H looks really good on the track. The rules has changed.
I'm quite optimistic. The best time to beat Mercedes is now.

[gvera]

AUTOSPORT PLUS
False dawn or real hope for F1 testing's silent star?

Ferrari topped the times on day two of Formula 1's first pre-season test of 2017, raising hopes of the Scuderia legitimately challenging Mercedes this year. And the positive signs extend beyond the timing screens

By Ben Anderson

Coming into 2017, all the talk has been of whether Red Bull can build on the genuine momentum it gathered last season and utilise the aerodynamic potential offered by the new regulations to properly challenge Mercedes for the Formula 1 title.

Ferrari has not exactly been an afterthought - the grandest and richest team in F1 could never be that - but there hasn't exactly been a swell of expectation that the Prancing Horse is going to be the one galloping through Mercedes' prize orchard and snaffling its best apples.

That's understandable. Ferrari took a significant step backwards last season, after the promising mini-revival of 2015, when its much improved engine powered Sebastian Vettel to three opportunist race wins, unravelled.

Last year's SF16-H was meant to be the car that carried Ferrari back to the top. Company president Sergio Marchionne pretty well declared as much. Italy expected, but Ferrari didn't deliver. The car was inconsistent, results were too. Ferrari failed to make progress, seemed to crack under the pressure of expectation, made mistakes, threw away chances. Star technical director James Allison fell out with his bosses and left the team mid-season.

It very much looked as though Ferrari might descend into a recreation of a dark past, where chaos reigned and scapegoats lay strewn across the corridors of Maranello. Further darkening the mood, Ferrari has seemingly withdrawn into a skulking silence since - saying very little publicly at the launch of its new car last week; saying nothing publicly so far about the performance of that car in pre-season testing.

After the embarrassment of failing to deliver on last season's bold predictions, the message from on high this time around appears to follow the opposite approach - say nothing, keep schtum; don't talk a good game, play one instead.



The very early signs suggest Ferrari is reaping the benefits of that new focus. It appears to have begun the 2017 pre-season strongly - far from a team embroiled in crisis and shambles.

Sebastian Vettel lapped only 0.113 seconds shy of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes on day one of pre-season testing at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, despite running only medium compound Pirellis compared to Hamilton's softs, before team-mate Kimi Raikkonen managed to beat Hamilton to top spot on day two, trumping the Mercedes' 1m20.983s super-soft best with 0.023s using soft tyres.

Ferrari has been right on Mercedes' pace so far, despite using harder tyres than its rival. OK, it's only testing, only the first week of testing in fact, and those who are easily excited should remember that Ferrari has topped the timesheets on three of four days at each of the opening pre-season tests of the past two seasons, yet come nowhere near mounting a serious challenge to Mercedes' hegemony.

But some of those previous test-topping efforts, particularly last season, involved bolting on much softer tyres than Mercedes used. This time, Ferrari seems more methodical in its approach, and certainly doesn't seem interested in the false idol of morale boosting glory runs to appease senior management. What's more, the car looks genuinely impressive out on the circuit.

"You don't know the fuel loads everyone is running, and out on the track what gives you an indication of that is how the car accelerates off the corners, but it didn't look that lively so I don't think it was running on the sniff of an oily rag," reckons Autosport technical consultant Gary Anderson. "I would assume they were running 50-80kg of fuel in the car - that's where you would normally test at.

"For me the Ferrari looked consistent, it was doing the same thing all the time. Obviously the lap times show it was pretty quick, it was on the soft tyre and close to Hamilton's time. OK, Hamilton's time was on the super-soft, but it would have been pretty similar for him on the soft, because Hamilton screwed up the last section of the lap.



"Lewis tried to do a better lap time on the softs and the super-softs, and it didn't work out for him, so it's not as though Mercedes is sandbagging. On the super-softs he probably should have done a 1m20.2s or 1m20.3s lap, and on the softs he should have matched his 1m20.9s best.

"Hamilton may go out tomorrow and do a 1m18.9s, but Vettel might do an 18.8. Time will tell, but as we're going through the stages the Ferrari out on track looks quite good.

"The Mercedes on that long run Bottas did looked nothing special - it went away from him fairly quickly and he had a lot of understeer to start with, and some oversteer later. He really had to drive it.

"All you can do is compare like-for-like, and the Ferrari and Mercedes don't look miles apart. But the most important thing is the Ferrari didn't change lines, it was doing the same thing through a run, which is a very good baseline."

The general feeling is that Ferrari has produced a strong car out of the box, with particular attention paid to the design of its bargeboards, sidepods and floor. Early indications are that this focus has paid off, giving the SF70H a great deal of aerodynamic stability and decent downforce. The car has also looked particularly strong under braking, an area in which supplier Brembo has paid particular focus coming into this year.

Ferrari has also paid attention to details, beefing up a gearbox design that proved unreliable in 2016, while new technical director Mattia Binotto is hoping an organisational revamp within Maranello will improve Ferrari's pace and consistency of development during the expected arms race to come.



With the basic aero concept seemingly working well, attention should shift towards refining parts of the car that still resemble last year's design more closely - such as the nose and front wing.

"The way you develop a car is a bit of a strange way around," explains Anderson. "Basically, the rear of the car makes it work, and actually that flow structure makes the front wing work.

"You get the rear of the car into a basic condition that's reasonable, then start with the front wing, wash that through to the bargeboards, the leading edge of the sidepods, and floor.

"But you've got to be careful if you've got the bargeboard concept Ferrari has, because that's operating around an airflow regime that's coming off that front wing. So if they do anything dramatic to the front of the car they could easily screw up the part of the car is actually the most complicated but seems to be functioning correctly.

"If I was looking at the Ferrari and saying, 'What areas are developable?' - areas that won't affect the main focus I've had so far, which is that bargeboard area - I'd be going for the diffuser.

"It's relatively naive beside what Mercedes has. The diffuser is something you can get a pretty good run at with someone else's design, because the airflow coming off it you don't care about - you're leaving it behind, whereas the front wing your car has to deal with, so taking a Mercedes front wing and putting it on a Ferrari could cause you great grief.

"The Ferrari bargeboard package is built around a different front wing concept to Mercedes, but all you can do is look around Barcelona, which is a very aerodynamic track, and it seems to be functioning to a pretty good and consistent level. We've had a lot of wind today and it doesn't seem to be dramatically affected."



So could this be the start of something big for Ferrari - a genuine revival after a stuttering season of mixed results and internal recriminations? Or is this just more of the same - false hope; another false dawn for a team that has consistently flattered to deceive in pre-season testing in recent years?

"Ferrari spent a lot of time here on the medium tyre, which is a good tyre to get your car sorted out on," adds Anderson. "Last year it threw itself a lot, because it kept on firing on soft tyres and super-soft tyres and ultra-soft tyres, and at some point in time within the team people start to believe the lap times you're doing - and they're not really true.

"I think Ferrari as a team this year is doing a much more professional job than it's done in the past. It's not got frustrated with the car, it's stuck to a plan of focusing on the right tyre to get the car sorted out, which is the medium, and the Ferrari seems to respond quite well going from the medium to the soft.

"Before Ferrari always tried to be quick, but this test it isn't necessarily trying to be quick; it's just trying to do the job.

"I like what I see with the Ferrari, but is it game on? Who knows..."

If Ferrari can get itself properly back into the game this year, it will be great news for F1.

[The Architect]

Running so far has been decent. However, after the Kravitz interview with Newey who stressed the importance of understanding flow before potentially coming up with new appendages, I can't help but feel there are too many quixotic solutions on the car. We'll have to see in Australia.

[johncnet]

Being cautious here, but it has to be some kind of positive that the Ferrari is competitive on the medium compounds for what would be the first time since Adam was born. The harder tyres, along with the coolish weather, would normally have seen the Ferrari languishing in the middle pack, having nervous entries and twitchy exits and just plain old lack of grip through the insignificant heat build-up in the tyres. Ferrari would have regrouped and focused hard on its shortcomings heading into this season, and would have single-handedly highlighted getting temperature into the tyres as first priority. The Mercs, on the other hand, would not only get the tyres up to temp quick, but they were also kind enough to not destroy the tyres to the point of sometimes having longer stints than the opposition. Not sure if it's simply a matter of having superior downforce or a combination of that and great suspension geometry and superior damping systems. Whatever it is, I would hazard a guess that Ferrari have focused on getting the harder tyre to work under the cooler conditions.

My other query is this: what fuel levels would be the appropriate for the majority for testing? My guess would be to concentrate on levels inside of 3/4s and 1/4 full - if they can get the car working well within that window, then it should also be reasonable when both full and empty. Of course, they will also need to do full tank runs to ensure the brakes, suspension arms, etc don't fail under the heavier loads, along with ensuring no dangerous bottoming-out occurs as well.

Have gone into this season fearing the worst for Ferrari to avoid disappointment, and actually hated the 2017 Ferrari on first impressions from the stupid shark fin, to the ugly thumb nose, to the extremely different sidepods, which remind me of the 1992 and 1996 disasters. So, I'm ready to accept whatever outcome there is, even if I have not accepted the appearance of our new fighter. Hoping for good things to come :)

Finally - I will be there at Albert Park on the Friday for opening practice, as it's only about 45 minutes away from where I live. Lucky or what!

be there too....

[JPBD]

AUTOSPORT PLUS
False dawn or real hope for F1 testing's silent star?

Ferrari topped the times on day two of Formula 1's first pre-season test of 2017, raising hopes of the Scuderia legitimately challenging Mercedes this year. And the positive signs extend beyond the timing screens

By Ben Anderson

Coming into 2017, all the talk has been of whether Red Bull can build on the genuine momentum it gathered last season and utilise the aerodynamic potential offered by the new regulations to properly challenge Mercedes for the Formula 1 title.

Ferrari has not exactly been an afterthought - the grandest and richest team in F1 could never be that - but there hasn't exactly been a swell of expectation that the Prancing Horse is going to be the one galloping through Mercedes' prize orchard and snaffling its best apples.

That's understandable. Ferrari took a significant step backwards last season, after the promising mini-revival of 2015, when its much improved engine powered Sebastian Vettel to three opportunist race wins, unravelled.

Last year's SF16-H was meant to be the car that carried Ferrari back to the top. Company president Sergio Marchionne pretty well declared as much. Italy expected, but Ferrari didn't deliver. The car was inconsistent, results were too. Ferrari failed to make progress, seemed to crack under the pressure of expectation, made mistakes, threw away chances. Star technical director James Allison fell out with his bosses and left the team mid-season.

It very much looked as though Ferrari might descend into a recreation of a dark past, where chaos reigned and scapegoats lay strewn across the corridors of Maranello. Further darkening the mood, Ferrari has seemingly withdrawn into a skulking silence since - saying very little publicly at the launch of its new car last week; saying nothing publicly so far about the performance of that car in pre-season testing.

After the embarrassment of failing to deliver on last season's bold predictions, the message from on high this time around appears to follow the opposite approach - say nothing, keep schtum; don't talk a good game, play one instead.



The very early signs suggest Ferrari is reaping the benefits of that new focus. It appears to have begun the 2017 pre-season strongly - far from a team embroiled in crisis and shambles.

Sebastian Vettel lapped only 0.113 seconds shy of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes on day one of pre-season testing at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, despite running only medium compound Pirellis compared to Hamilton's softs, before team-mate Kimi Raikkonen managed to beat Hamilton to top spot on day two, trumping the Mercedes' 1m20.983s super-soft best with 0.023s using soft tyres.

Ferrari has been right on Mercedes' pace so far, despite using harder tyres than its rival. OK, it's only testing, only the first week of testing in fact, and those who are easily excited should remember that Ferrari has topped the timesheets on three of four days at each of the opening pre-season tests of the past two seasons, yet come nowhere near mounting a serious challenge to Mercedes' hegemony.

But some of those previous test-topping efforts, particularly last season, involved bolting on much softer tyres than Mercedes used. This time, Ferrari seems more methodical in its approach, and certainly doesn't seem interested in the false idol of morale boosting glory runs to appease senior management. What's more, the car looks genuinely impressive out on the circuit.

"You don't know the fuel loads everyone is running, and out on the track what gives you an indication of that is how the car accelerates off the corners, but it didn't look that lively so I don't think it was running on the sniff of an oily rag," reckons Autosport technical consultant Gary Anderson. "I would assume they were running 50-80kg of fuel in the car - that's where you would normally test at.

"For me the Ferrari looked consistent, it was doing the same thing all the time. Obviously the lap times show it was pretty quick, it was on the soft tyre and close to Hamilton's time. OK, Hamilton's time was on the super-soft, but it would have been pretty similar for him on the soft, because Hamilton screwed up the last section of the lap.



"Lewis tried to do a better lap time on the softs and the super-softs, and it didn't work out for him, so it's not as though Mercedes is sandbagging. On the super-softs he probably should have done a 1m20.2s or 1m20.3s lap, and on the softs he should have matched his 1m20.9s best.

"Hamilton may go out tomorrow and do a 1m18.9s, but Vettel might do an 18.8. Time will tell, but as we're going through the stages the Ferrari out on track looks quite good.

"The Mercedes on that long run Bottas did looked nothing special - it went away from him fairly quickly and he had a lot of understeer to start with, and some oversteer later. He really had to drive it.

"All you can do is compare like-for-like, and the Ferrari and Mercedes don't look miles apart. But the most important thing is the Ferrari didn't change lines, it was doing the same thing through a run, which is a very good baseline."

The general feeling is that Ferrari has produced a strong car out of the box, with particular attention paid to the design of its bargeboards, sidepods and floor. Early indications are that this focus has paid off, giving the SF70H a great deal of aerodynamic stability and decent downforce. The car has also looked particularly strong under braking, an area in which supplier Brembo has paid particular focus coming into this year.

Ferrari has also paid attention to details, beefing up a gearbox design that proved unreliable in 2016, while new technical director Mattia Binotto is hoping an organisational revamp within Maranello will improve Ferrari's pace and consistency of development during the expected arms race to come.



With the basic aero concept seemingly working well, attention should shift towards refining parts of the car that still resemble last year's design more closely - such as the nose and front wing.

"The way you develop a car is a bit of a strange way around," explains Anderson. "Basically, the rear of the car makes it work, and actually that flow structure makes the front wing work.

"You get the rear of the car into a basic condition that's reasonable, then start with the front wing, wash that through to the bargeboards, the leading edge of the sidepods, and floor.

"But you've got to be careful if you've got the bargeboard concept Ferrari has, because that's operating around an airflow regime that's coming off that front wing. So if they do anything dramatic to the front of the car they could easily screw up the part of the car is actually the most complicated but seems to be functioning correctly.

"If I was looking at the Ferrari and saying, 'What areas are developable?' - areas that won't affect the main focus I've had so far, which is that bargeboard area - I'd be going for the diffuser.

"It's relatively naive beside what Mercedes has. The diffuser is something you can get a pretty good run at with someone else's design, because the airflow coming off it you don't care about - you're leaving it behind, whereas the front wing your car has to deal with, so taking a Mercedes front wing and putting it on a Ferrari could cause you great grief.

"The Ferrari bargeboard package is built around a different front wing concept to Mercedes, but all you can do is look around Barcelona, which is a very aerodynamic track, and it seems to be functioning to a pretty good and consistent level. We've had a lot of wind today and it doesn't seem to be dramatically affected."



So could this be the start of something big for Ferrari - a genuine revival after a stuttering season of mixed results and internal recriminations? Or is this just more of the same - false hope; another false dawn for a team that has consistently flattered to deceive in pre-season testing in recent years?

"Ferrari spent a lot of time here on the medium tyre, which is a good tyre to get your car sorted out on," adds Anderson. "Last year it threw itself a lot, because it kept on firing on soft tyres and super-soft tyres and ultra-soft tyres, and at some point in time within the team people start to believe the lap times you're doing - and they're not really true.

"I think Ferrari as a team this year is doing a much more professional job than it's done in the past. It's not got frustrated with the car, it's stuck to a plan of focusing on the right tyre to get the car sorted out, which is the medium, and the Ferrari seems to respond quite well going from the medium to the soft.

"Before Ferrari always tried to be quick, but this test it isn't necessarily trying to be quick; it's just trying to do the job.

"I like what I see with the Ferrari, but is it game on? Who knows..."

If Ferrari can get itself properly back into the game this year, it will be great news for F1.

This article really demonstrates my earlier point - that the articles we read are from armchair critics just like us. They hear a negative report from an "insider" and it's all over. No hope. Then we are top 2 in testing so the design instantly works and is complex and amazing.

I say - let's wait and see! Reports like this damage Ferrari, because if we get to Australia and we're 3rd - everyone is going to lose the plot! Particular people on this forum especially.

I think we could be 3rd and I think that's initially positive. If it comes out of the wash that we're second - amazing! I'm still excited for the season. If we're the top team, it's a dream come true. The article even states that we've been fastest in the first 3 days of testing for the last 2 seasons and look how that turned out... so instead of letting history repeat - LETS WAIT AND SEE

[mizf1]

The bookies are starting to take us seriously, Vettel has dropped from 16/1 to 9/1 and Kimi 50/1 to 22/1 in the space of 2 days

[mizf1]

I Think Red Bull have a base package, they will slowly start adding bits and bobs after they understand their basic car. Most likely probably copy rival ideas

[JPBD]

The bookies are starting to take us seriously, Vettel has dropped from 16/1 to 9/1 and Kimi 50/1 to 22/1 in the space of 2 days

Glad I got my bets in on the better odds (December last year). Fingers crossed!

[IulianFerrari]

I think that Stroll kid will be a total flop. For his sake I hope I am wrong, but maybe Williams will see the value of a good driver and some rich guy's kid looking for a way to entertain his dad.

[Scuderia1967]

This article really demonstrates my earlier point - that the articles we read are from armchair critics just like us. They hear a negative report from an "insider" and it's all over. No hope. Then we are top 2 in testing so the design instantly works and is complex and amazing.

I say - let's wait and see! Reports like this damage Ferrari, because if we get to Australia and we're 3rd - everyone is going to lose the plot! Particular people on this forum especially.

I think we could be 3rd and I think that's initially positive. If it comes out of the wash that we're second - amazing! I'm still excited for the season. If we're the top team, it's a dream come true. The article even states that we've been fastest in the first 3 days of testing for the last 2 seasons and look how that turned out... so instead of letting history repeat - LETS WAIT AND SEE

Those lap times were achieved with the car running with softer tires than Merc. Which is not happening this year

[JPBD]

Those lap times were achieved with the car running with softer tires than Merc. Which is not happening this year

I'm not saying it's doom and gloom. I'm just saying, let's keep it real and wait and see. Of course it's encouraging! But we just don't know what's going on.

[Frank Dhont]

SF70-H: P1 again on mediums.
It is not doom and gloom, its vroooommmm ... vroooommm :)

[PURE PASSION]

1:21:609 on mediums!!!
Please let this dream keep going!!!!

[mizf1]

We can't ask for anything better as it stands, fastest lap on slower tyres compared to others and most laps done so far today, let's hope the pattern continues through the day.

[dfunk257]

God the media are dumb!

[jragona]

AutoSport:

Mario Andretti used to say that the ground effect Lotus 79 was painted to the ground. Well, exiting Turn 2 and into Turn 3, where I am watching, both the Mercedes and the Ferrari look like they are painted to the ground. But, to me, Ferrari has used a better undercoat. It really does look good and super consistent.
Gary Anderson

[PURE PASSION]

sky:

11:57
Soft tyres for Valtteri Bottas and he goes quickest with a new personal best of 1:21.099.

That's more like it...

it mast hurts them so much watcing us matching Merc times or even better them with a harder tire!!!!!

[jragona]

sky:

it mast hurts them so much watcing us matching Merc times or even better them with a herder tire!!!!!

[Super M]

I don't see that time of 1 : 21.099 on f1today.net ???

[mizf1]

Let's Remember 1 thing guys, this season will be determined by thein season developement arms race.

Last year Red Bull were not as strong as us at the start but they developed better, I believe Ferrari's technical boss has got a new process so we are getting parts out there much quicker then previous years.

However, if our car is fast and reliable straight out the box then that is a major plus already, the season is long and we need to be right up there month in month out with our developements.

[Super M]

Wait a sec.....its now Bottas Mercedes W08 1:20.107 44 ●

[PURE PASSION]

1:20:107 on softs for Bottas !!!!!!!!!!

[fronaldo]

Kimi set our best time 1:20.960 using soft right?

[ibanezz]

Medium

[Jax]

Medium

no it was softs as well

[SinanOzerS]

Kimi did 1.20.960 on mediums not softs.