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

[meh123]

Beautiful again...the engine exhasuts did not deform...but are shaped that way... :)

[FrankAlfa]

Funny, that's what I said yesterday. Someone went crazy saying that the bodywork deformed and how terrible the condition is and on and on. I scratch head for a moment and thought maybe that person was a McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Lotus fan and was just trying to make us Ferrari Fans feel badly??? Sometimes you have to take a step back and wonder why people write what they do??? Sometimes people just like to push buttons.

Today was a very good day and Massa seemed pleased with the progress taking place, which is a very good thing. Ferrari have several more test days to work through and they are making progress! The overall Ferrari design is extreme and if Ferrari get it to work correctly then they will win races. Your damn right Red Bull are afraid, as they should be! All of the other teams should fear Ferrari as well. Ferrari may have indeed produced a superior race car to the "carry over" race cars by many of the top teams. Rory Bryne, Nikolas Tombazis and the rest of the 300+ Engineers at Ferrari are certainly willing to work as they have always worked and maintain their record to be the winningest Team in Formula One history!!!!

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[Tony]

Seems like its Thursday to Sunday officially, and Ferrari and Red Bull decided to skip Thursday and extend their test to Monday.

Thanks for the info bud

[Atrani]

Yes, today was a good day overall. Ferrari seems to be chipping away at finding the sweet spot. I find it so hard to understand why the powers to be in F1 have this stupid testing ban? If anything, it hurts the smallers teams from making any gains in performance. Formula 1 have been ill served by the current leadership, and their obsession with incorporating "green" technology. This is F1! I want 3 liter v12 engines back

[anakin]

I think red bull is worried about Ferrari despite many people writing ferrari off. Because they already know about mclaren and mercedes because they did similar programms to their own with qualifying and race simulation and want to know more about Ferrari.

i agree with you!!! ferrari now are not bullish nor downbeat about their car what always comes from their statement is that program still the same, aero data gathering, testing new components and understanding the behavior of the car and no plans to run on low fuel stints.

[impactX]

Yes, today was a good day overall. Ferrari seems to be chipping away at finding the sweet spot. I find it so hard to understand why the powers to be in F1 have this stupid testing ban? If anything, it hurts the smallers teams from making any gains in performance. Formula 1 have been ill served by the current leadership, and their obsession with incorporating "green" technology. This is F1! I want 3 liter v12 engines back

Look up sustainbility, oil crisis, and energy crisis.

Other than looking at fast cars, F1 drives the technology forward and benefit us the in roadcar segment. People, who share the same view as you, are in the minority.

[The Hajj]

Look up sustainbility, oil crisis, and energy crisis.

Other than looking at fast cars, F1 drives the technology forward and benefit us the in roadcar segment. People, who share the same view as you, are in the minority.

I tried looking up the "concerns" you listed, but all I found was a bunch of street bums living in tents outside Wall Street begging for handouts. Oil crisis? Where? Anyone can buy as much fuel as they wish at anytime. Energy crisis? Only if you can't pay the bill. But, I'm sure you expect someone else, probably the evil rich folks, to pay for your fuel, electricity, food, health care, etc.

People who share your view should be weaving sandals. You don't need to worry about F1, the highest form of motor racing in the world, it will survive much longer than your "green movement"

[Marino]

Yes, today was a good day overall. Ferrari seems to be chipping away at finding the sweet spot. I find it so hard to understand why the powers to be in F1 have this stupid testing ban? If anything, it hurts the smallers teams from making any gains in performance. Formula 1 have been ill served by the current leadership, and their obsession with incorporating "green" technology. This is F1! I want 3 liter v12 engines back

I think the testing ban is about saving MONEY, not the earth. Testing is very expensive when you consider the number of people it takes. Less expensive if you own your own tracks though.
The testing ban has pretty much guaranteed that the team that starts with the best car wins the championship.

[Marino]

I tried looking up the "concerns" you listed, but all I found was a bunch of street bums living in tents outside Wall Street begging for handouts. Oil crisis? Where? Anyone can buy as much fuel as they wish at anytime. Energy crisis? Only if you can't pay the bill. But, I'm sure you expect someone else, probably the evil rich folks, to pay for your fuel, electricity, food, health care, etc.

People who share your view should be weaving sandals. You don't need to worry about F1, the highest form of motor racing in the world, it will survive much longer than your "green movement"

Your world view doesn't make you superior but it does seem to have made you angry and Rude.

[The Hajj]

Your world view doesn't make you superior but it does seem to have made you angry and Rude.

How am I rude, but not the post taunting people to look up things and claim anyone not sharing their view to be part of the minority? Why call me a supremacist? I didn't claim supremacy over anybody. I simply stated my opinion as pointedly as the original post.

Now, who is really being rude?

[Agasthya]

The off-throttle exhaust blow of red bull:

That is a much, much, much more muted sound than compared to last year (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmGgvHflXgc). Even if they were using it there is probably a minimal impact on rear downforce.

[impactX]

I tried looking up the "concerns" you listed, but all I found was a bunch of street bums living in tents outside Wall Street begging for handouts. Oil crisis? Where? Anyone can buy as much fuel as they wish at anytime. Energy crisis? Only if you can't pay the bill. But, I'm sure you expect someone else, probably the evil rich folks, to pay for your fuel, electricity, food, health care, etc.

People who share your view should be weaving sandals. You don't need to worry about F1, the highest form of motor racing in the world, it will survive much longer than your "green movement"

Living in a town in America with only around 200,000 in population, I don't expect you to understand how a lot of things work in this world.

First of all, those were not concerns, did you not notice how I did not talk about climate change or any "green movement"? I am talking about sustainability, that includes sustainaiblity of Formula 1 when a lot of manufacturers left F1 (for economical and sustainability reasons) and FIA imposed testing ban as part of the plan to indirectly cap the budget and save the sport. FIA even noted that the sport was not sustainable unless it adapted. The oil crisis referred to the problem YOUR country faced in the 1970s and the energy crisis referred to the problem the world faced in 2000, try to look that one up.

Contrary to the popular American belief that "bigger is better", try living in densely populated cities where you have to pay a premium on "licensed fees" based on the engine displacement and paying around USD8.5 per gallon of fuel. With that said, I still drive a gas guzzler and ride a sport bike because I crave the extra power when driving/riding and can afford to do that in an Alpha+ city where my home internet speed is maxed out at 1 gigabit per second; but that doesn't mean it's the norm. While the sound of bigger F1 engine is appreciated, there are reasons why a lot of European road car manufacturers are going for a combination of smaller engine displacement and forced induction and F1 has to reflect such change in mentality.

Also, not sure why anyone would knock free stuff such as health care. It's free, so stop whining.

[Atrani]

Oil and energy crisis, sustanability? I want real racing back in F1 with real engines! Luca D'Montezemolo is in my minority!

[Jacquesvw]

I tried looking up the "concerns" you listed, but all I found was a bunch of street bums living in tents outside Wall Street begging for handouts. Oil crisis? Where? Anyone can buy as much fuel as they wish at anytime. Energy crisis? Only if you can't pay the bill. But, I'm sure you expect someone else, probably the evil rich folks, to pay for your fuel, electricity, food, health care, etc.

People who share your view should be weaving sandals. You don't need to worry about F1, the highest form of motor racing in the world, it will survive much longer than your "green movement"

That is a very childish reply.

[Jacquesvw]

Living in a town in America with only around 200,000 in population, I don't expect you to understand how a lot of things work in this world.

First of all, those were not concerns, did you not notice how I did not talk about climate change or any "green movement"? I am talking about sustainability, that includes sustainaiblity of Formula 1 when a lot of manufacturers left F1 (for economical and sustainability reasons) and FIA imposed testing ban as part of the plan to indirectly cap the budget and save the sport. FIA even noted that the sport was not sustainable unless it adapted. The oil crisis referred to the problem YOUR country faced in the 1970s and the energy crisis referred to the problem the world faced in 2000, try to look that one up.

Contrary to the popular American belief that "bigger is better", try living in densely populated cities where you have to pay a premium on "licensed fees" based on the engine displacement and paying around USD8.5 per gallon of fuel. With that said, I still drive a gas guzzler and ride a sport bike because I crave the extra power when driving/riding and can afford to do that in an Alpha+ city where my home internet speed is maxed out at 1 gigabit per second; but that doesn't mean it's the norm. While the sound of bigger F1 engine is appreciated, there are reasons why a lot of European road car manufacturers are going for a combination of smaller engine displacement and forced induction and F1 has to reflect such change in mentality.

Also, not sure why anyone would knock free stuff such as health care. It's free, so stop whining.

I'm with you. I think it's good that F1 is looking at producing smaller and more efficient engines. Not everyone needs an inefficient big block American V8 that use 50L per kilometer when you can have a 1.6L engine that does the same thing.

[Nisko]

interesting article
http://www.yallaf1.com/2012/02/21/ho...in-the-detail/

[Hombre B]

Launch Analysis: Ferrari F2012:

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2012/0...ferrari-f2012/

[Scuderia85]

here we go!!!!

[Rob]

[dfunk257]

Theres some awesome footage in this video here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=I9mJodj8utw#!

The Ferrari doesnt look too bad at all in the exit of the chicane. I love the footage of Fernando coming in the pits, its amazing how fast these guys go. And of course while your watching this, crank the speakers up it sounds awesome!

[Hornet]

These testing days have become somewhat boring for me

Can't wait for the actual race to begin. At least during free practice, teams do carry out qualifying simulation.

[medeni73]

@f1zone
Massa still doing aero-tests, going slowly down the straight. Not good.

@GregoryHainesF1
Not looking good for Ferrari...Massa still doing aero testing, running down main straight in cruise mode as everybody else on setups

[Scuderia85]

we are going to win :)

1 Massa Ferrari 1m25.176s 13
2 Vergne Toro Rosso 1m26.551s +1.375 11
3 Kobayashi Sauber 1m26.955s +1.779 13
4 Kovalainen Caterham 1m27.047s +1.871 16
5 Di Resta Force India 1m27.684s +2.508 18
6 Maldonado Williams 1m30.407s +5.231 18

[medeni73]

wing flexing?

[Sempre_Ferrari]

good to see them putting good laps in early, first time since testing began...

[Sempre_Ferrari]

wing flexing?

Could be track gradient as well

[Avantifer12]

wing flexing?[/QUOTE]

Could be track gradient as well

It could also be the forces in that corner causing the car to roll which could trick your eye into thinking that the wing is flexing

[stefa]

what is with everyone when it comes to this wing flexing story?!

[stefa]

It's like this is some awesome secret magic... We had it last year in couple of races. Remember how flexy was it we Ferrari made it ?

[medeni73]

interesting tweet from Ferrari:

"Luca Carcassi ‏ @LucaCarcassi
@InsideFerrari utilizzerete anche oggi il "pinnone" per la raccolta dei dati?? --> will you use even today pitot tube for the collection of data?

@LucaCarcassi Sì, è curioso vedere quanta attenzione susciti... Non è nulla di diverso da quello che usiamo da tanti anni ormai... --> @ LucaCarcassi Yes, it is curious to see how much attention it causes ... There is nothing different from what we use for many years now ...