Korean GP - Qualifying Thread

[EL NANO]

Well done Felipe!

Agreed, the perfect storm is brewing for 2012, MAS is getting a lot more confidence and ALO is hungry for victory... it will be a wild season I believe..

[hogo]

Now we lost to mccheaters by over 1s... God damn it, this is even worse than losing to RB by such margin :/

[Hornet]

Mostly I feel bad for the team that work sooo hard all year and also for our drivers that deserve better... I believe the hopes for 2012 are HUGE for everyone. my feeling is that Ferrari will not get it this wrong again and 2012 onwards will be the golden years for Alonso in Ferrari!!!

Me too. I can see that we're finally breaking out of our comfort zone in terms of design. Finally we're changing our suspension system (if its true), and Scarb mentioned that our new front wing design here is a first major change since 2009.

[Kyss4k]

What did he say? I thought this lemon has nothing to do with next years car? we are building a totally different and more agressive car...

"We need just small improvements..."

[Jose Lorca]

It's very disappointed to see that Mercedes are closer to us than we are to McLaren.

[impactX]

Are we testing 2012 parts on the F150 already?

[epiclyaddicted]

Whoa, Vettel under investigation by the stewards for cutting a corner!

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/...investigation/

[Hermann]

So with the 'new frontwing' Fernando is slower than Massa with the old one. How promising.

[Greig]

So with the 'new frontwing' Fernando is slower than Massa with the old one. How promising.

Maybe they should give Massa the new wing then

[NanoTheQuickest]

We have to remember this wing is not Made to suit the F150 but the "663". Who cares about race results we need Datas

[Hermann]

Maybe they should give Massa the new wing then

And then listen to the rants of certain people how Massa is 'the stepchild' and neglected by his own team? No thanks.

It doesn't matter which driver had the new wing, its just about the result.

[Hornet]

Whoa, Vettel under investigation by the stewards for cutting a corner!

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/...investigation/

I saw on TV a Red Bull car doing that, I believe it was his slowing down lap, not a timed lap.

We have to remember this wing is not Made to suit the F150 but the "663". Who cares about race results we need Datas

Exactly, its part of how the air flow over the entire car. Whatever changes on the car requires changes to the front wing to direct the air flow appropriately to the other parts of the car.

And then listen to the rants of certain people how Massa is 'the stepchild' and neglected by his own team? No thanks.

It doesn't matter which driver had the new wing, its just about the result.

LOL, yeah I agree. I'm tired of all the rant about how Ferrari is treating Massa. Massa is free to leave if he ever felt Ferrari was mistreating him, so he knows better than any armchair expert if he decides to stay with Ferrari or not

[Greig]

And then listen to the rants of certain people how Massa is 'the stepchild' and neglected by his own team? No thanks.

It doesn't matter which driver had the new wing, its just about the result.

That does not make any sense

[Hermann]

Fernando was already slower than Massa in FP3 with the 'new wing'. So i wonder why he kept it for the race. They surely need data, but it seems what they got so far is not too promising.

[F1NAC]

how about our long runs ?

[Greig]

Stefano Domenicali: “The entire team is very sad, because one of ours, Pasquale Danza, passed away today. He worked at Ferrari for a very long time with great passion and dedication. On behalf of everyone at the Scuderia I offer our sympathies to his family; all our thoughts are with them and him at this moment. You can therefore understand that it’s difficult right now to comment on qualifying…We definitely cannot be surprised at the outcome, because we are well aware of the potential we have at our disposal. However, that does not mean we are resigned to it, quite the contrary in fact. Only eight days ago we were in an almost identical situation and then, 24 hours later we came very close to winning. Therefore, let’s wait and see how things go tomorrow and then we can add up the figures from this weekend.”

Fernando Alonso: “I can’t be happy with sixth, but the position reflects our current situation: McLaren and Red Bull are stronger than us so it just leaves us to fight between ourselves for fifth and sixth places. That’s how Saturday goes, but maybe tomorrow will end up like Sunday in Suzuka and we will find ourselves again fighting for the win. When tyre degradation is very high, usually we are in good shape, but here the situation is not very clear, as the behaviour of the Supersofts over a long run and on full tanks is still an unknown quantity. We had considered using this tyre right from Q1 but then we decided not to take too many risks. Today, we were losing too much time in the first sector, where we lacked top speed. On my last run, I immediately lost a few tenths at the first corner and after that, I could not make up the time, so I decided not to complete the lap. Unfortunately, I start from the dirty side of the grid, which should be a major disadvantage here, so I hope I don’t lose a place to Rosberg. We will have to keep an eye on what happens ahead of us and exploit the strategy in our favour. The new front wing? I don’t like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that’s a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team.”

Felipe Massa: “I am happy with my performance today. I think I got a good lap on my final run, after the first one in Q3, when I used the same set of Supersofts I had already run in Q2. My impression is that we are now also improving our Saturday performance, but there are still four cars in front of us and so the grid position stays more or less the same. Going into this Grand Prix there was a lot of concern about tyre degradation but, at least from what we have seen today, it seems to be less severe than expected. Let’s see how things go tomorrow. I am confident: if nothing strange happens to me, as has been the case in the last few races, then I think I can do a good job. It was actually here, a year ago, that I stood on the podium for the last time: maybe tonight I’ll watch the race again, even if the weather then was very different to what we can expect tomorrow. Finally, I want to offer my condolences for two people who have left us this very day: Maria Martins Bassi, my wife Raffaela’s grandmother and Pasquale Danza, whom I first met ten years ago when I came to Ferrari and with whom I shared so many good times, both at the track and at Maranello.”

Pat Fry: “Once again this qualifying result is more or less what we could have expected. Getting a place on the front two rows depends more on others making mistakes than on our actual technical potential and today nothing differed from that. We brought a new front wing here, which will serve as the basis for the development of next year’s car: yesterday we tried it in the wet and today we decided to continue with our learning phase, running it in qualifying, which means also using it in the race. I’ve been saying it for a few races now, we must exploit this last part of the season by trying to learn something useful for next year and the decision to run this wing was taken with that in mind. Tomorrow there will be one more unknown factor than usual, because we were not able to do the usual Friday job of evaluating tyre degradation with a high fuel load, however, from what we could see this morning, the situation seems better than expected.”

[epiclyaddicted]

Stewards taking no further action for Vettel.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95410

[Tifosi]

And then listen to the rants of certain people how Massa is 'the stepchild' and neglected by his own team? No thanks.

It doesn't matter which driver had the new wing, its just about the result.

Indeed. It's not Team Fernando it's Team Ferrari

[Hermann]

Stewards taking no further action for Vettel.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/95410

No penalty because Vettel did not gain an advantage? Ok, but why then did he cut the chicane, if it didn't give him any advantage? Being bored already or what...

It’s a decision that sets an interesting precedent as in effect it means that drivers are free to cut corners in similar circumstances in the future.

On tracks with long laps teams have very little time to changes tyres and refuel between qualifying runs in the short Q3 session.

http://adamcooperf1.com/2011/10/15/v...r-q3-shortcut/

[Nathan]

I'm actually happy that Massa outqualified Alonso in the past two races. I hope it gives him the confidence boost he desperately needs as we all know he can do great things.

As for Alonso, he's already well and truly proved himself and with the remainder of the season already being a write off, why not?

[Alonsomaniac]

Fernando :"The new front wing? I don’t like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that’s a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team.”

Simplified: "I don't like it........"

[Alonsomaniac]

Okay, qualy was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Now the race: I hope we will be in better shape and gain some places and I also hope Felipe will have a troublefree race. Maybe a nice fight between two Ferrari's? Why not.

[Hornet]

I'm actually happy that Massa outqualified Alonso in the past two races. I hope it gives him the confidence boost he desperately needs as we all know he can do great things.

As for Alonso, he's already well and truly proved himself and with the remainder of the season already being a write off, why not?

While I'll always welcome a great result for Massa or any Ferrari driver, I don't think his confident is dented. From his recent talk about his run in with Lewis, he sounds pretty confident that he could have done better.

All F1 drivers needs to have that confidence or "arrogance" to believe that they can do well. The day they lose that confident, they would retire.

[Alessandra]

Three quotes that cheered me up.... a bit...a very little bit....

1. Alonso:The new front wing? I don’t like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that’s a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team.”

I think Ferrari has a tendency, at least over the past year or so, to be just a bit too open about its developments and intentions. You don't catch Red Bull doing that.


2. Pat Fry: “ We brought a new front wing here, which will serve as the basis for the development of next year’s car: yesterday we tried it in the wet and today we decided to continue with our learning phase, running it in qualifying, which means also using it in the race. I’ve been saying it for a few races now, we must exploit this last part of the season by trying to learn something useful for next year and the decision to run this wing was taken with that in mind.

So the rest of this season is testing so far as we're concerned. Painful to watch as races but probably sensible - and hopefully fruitful!!.

3. NanoTheQuickest @40:" We have to remember this wing is not Made to suit the F150 but the "663". Who cares about race results we need Datas"

+1. Mantra for the rest of this year whilst watching quali & races - "We need data, We need data."

[impactX]

I am sure Mclaren is getting lots of data for next year as well while they are running at the front.

[Nova]

Sorry to hear about P Danza of Ferrari.
I am not to thrilled w/our Q. I dont understand why they would use a wing that will be on an altogether different car, but
they must have their reasons. I surely would love another win this year......and stop calling me surely.

[Stormsearcher]

Okay, qualy was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.
Now the race: I hope we will be in better shape and gain some places and I also hope Felipe will have a troublefree race. Maybe a nice fight between two Ferrari's? Why not.

Errrr... i rather we dont have that, unless u want one of them retiring. God forbid, both of them.

[Stormsearcher]

Fernando :"The new front wing? I don’t like talking about individual components; on the one hand I think that’s a job for the engineers, on the other, I prefer to share my opinions about it only with the team.”

Simplified: "I don't like it........"

Lol.. exactly my first reaction too.

[Stormsearcher]

And then listen to the rants of certain people how Massa is 'the stepchild' and neglected by his own team? No thanks.

It doesn't matter which driver had the new wing, its just about the result.

I agree. If massa was running the wing and nando was ahead of him in qualifying, the usual stories of how Massa is nandos doormat would surface. In anycase, we are no longer trying for any spectacular results (or so it seems) so it doesnt matter which driver gets the wing.

[Stormsearcher]

"We need just small improvements..."

That is a worrying line i say.