2012 Canadian Grand Prix - Friday and Saturday practice thread

[Ste]

Alonso's lap on tyres that had already done 2 hot laps as well. Pace seems good.

[rochas]

Let's all have our hope UP. Let's be optemistic even when races don't go our way.

[sav_pap]

We have pitted perhaps for our final attack. Let's wait to smile at the end...

[wacc]

Ferrari are concentrating on one lap pace today more than at previous weekends.

[Naeem]

the difference between our times and hamilton's is that we've been doing them lap after lap. consistency!

[Grillo]

Gene: Alonso and Massa have been working on Q3 sims, now they'll work on longer stints with more fuel.

[medeni73]

I think now they will make some long runs, so it is also very important to see how long will they keep rear tires alive with new exhaust burning them down :)

[sav_pap]

Gene: Alonso and Massa have been working on Q3 sims, now they'll work on longer stints with more fuel.

No smiles then for now. We keep them for tomorrow Q3.

[Hornet]

Well it looks promising here.

But I'm still concern about the temps. Its a cold track today. If its sunny tomorrow, the temps will be much higher and we can expect changes with some cars faster and some less so.

We've seen this in Monaco.

[goferrarigo]

Massa's high fuel runs seem very promising and are faster than Alonso's on the last lap his lap was about 5 tenths faster

[Greig]

Well a good Friday indeed great to see both cars right up the front!

[Suzie]

Really positive. I hope qualifying goes well and it's a clean race... although when is Canada a clean race?!

[M.K]

Massa's high fuel runs seem very promising and are faster than Alonso's on the last lap his lap was about 5 tenths faster

To be honest he looked faster last year as well...

Anyway we show some good pace here, might not be good for pole, but for second row for sure.

[wacc]

I guess some of the teams did not show their hand. However it is looking a bit better than on the start of the season.

Horner on the beggining of FP2 said that McLaren, Mercedes and one more team looked strong. He did not mention Ferrari.

[zeus2]

i guess i underestimated Ferrari and Fernando and spoke TOO SOON...sorry mates

Thats what Mclaren said in 2007 . Ferrari's doing an awesome job of recovering from a bad start, so, credit where its due. We're not looking too bad for this weekend.

[Stormsearcher]

Not trying to be antagonistic, but, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

haha.. yeah. + 100

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

We saw something similar in Monaco where we were strong in Practice but not as strong in Qualifying, so I'll be keeping my expectations in check. Hopefully a second row start for both our drivers, but I'll obviously be hoping for better.
the most important thing this weekend is to verify if the new exhaust is not heating up the rear tyres too much. Because without this exhaust Ferrari had pretty good tyre management.

[Stormsearcher]

We are looking pretty good. Lewis is definitely faster. He is going to get pole. I wonder if the Mercs will pull something out of the bag come qualifying. But its looking decent. BOTH cars showing competitive times.

[wacc]

FP2
canada_FP2.jpg

[medeni73]

We shouldnt have too big expectations especially for Qualifying. Aside Hamilton all other teams made their best times with softs so expect Mercs and RB to be faster than today so it could be again 3rd row for us. But in the race its different story and generally I think we made good progress, dont forget Canada is one of those tracks that doesnt suit F2012 at all and still we are up there with top teams...

[Icon]

It's quite a big gap between Fernando and Felipe top speeds.

9 6 Felipe Massa 14:11:22 320.0
20 5 Fernando Alonso 15:06:59 314.7

[Sianellen]

I'm feeling positive about this weekend and very much enjoying this season so far. Feels like we have a good chance.

[Grillo]

Looks good. I think the pole is Hamilton's but in Canada P1 isn't that important.

We'll see tomorrow.

[ClaudiuCojo]

I we come under 0.4s from pole time then we already made another good step ... realistically row 2 would be a fantastic result, I don't think we can fight for row 1 yet.

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

It's quite a big gap between Fernando and Felipe top speeds.

9 6 Felipe Massa 14:11:22 320.0
20 5 Fernando Alonso 15:06:59 314.7

Massa was probably following someone on the straight very closely.

[scuderiafan]

I will wait until Merc shows what it has got until making predictions, but I can't deny it looks good.

Crisis? What crisis?

[Rob]

Now watching FFP1, but reading posts looking good for us. Hope can keep it going into Sunday. Very positive.

Forza Ferrari

Think either Mercs will (may) get pole

[Rob]

I will wait until Merc shows what it has got until making predictions, but I can't deny it looks good.

Crisis? What crisis?

yeah, they write us off to early. We will have the last laugh

Forza Ferrari

[Rob]

Canadian GP - Montreal gets off on the right foot6.8.2012

A very busy Friday for Scuderia Ferrari, making the most of every single one of the 180 minutes, available over the two free practice sessions to complete the work programme defined prior to the race weekend. Among the main items on the Maranello squad’s technical menu, an evaluation of two different types of exhaust, a comparison between different aerodynamic downforce levels and of course, checking the behaviour of the two compounds brought here by Pirelli, the Soft and the Supersoft. Between them, the two Ferrari men completed 126 laps; 70 with Alonso and 56 with Massa.

Fernando Alonso: “I am rather pleased with the way things went this Montreal Friday. This morning, we concentrated mainly on evaluating some new updates, while in the afternoon, we worked principally on a comparison of the two types of tyre, looking for performance over a single lap and also to check the behaviour of the car with a lot of fuel on board. The first indications seem to be positive, but it is much too soon to draw any conclusions as Friday times should never be taken at face value. Now we must concentrate on analysing the data and prepare as well as possible for the rest of the weekend. The circuit named after Gilles Villeneuve is very similar to a street circuit, with the walls very close to what are normal roads. It therefore becomes very important to find the right reference points, especially in terms of braking points and how far one is from the walls, in order to put together both a quick lap and to drive smoothly over a long distance.”

Felipe Massa: “It was a very positive Friday for us. We managed to do a lot of laps and, above all, test everything we had on our programme. Fortunately, the rain, and boy did it rain, arrived just after the second session had ended, so we managed to do everything properly. I think we can be happy with the fact that the updates we have brought here worked, even if it’s hard to give an instant assessment of how much of an improvement they have produced. In any case, the intention is to keep the car in this new configuration. The car seems to be well balanced and it seemed to me to be pretty consistent in terms of performance, even if, obviously, the track is not yet providing much grip, this being the first day of the race weekend. To sum up, this has been the best Friday of 2012: let’s hope that can continue through Saturday and Sunday as well!”

Pat Fry: “We had a lot of work to get through today and we were worried the rain might come, which could certainly have made life complicated. Fortunately, the expected storm hit immediately after the end of the second practice session, so that we were able to get through everything we had set ourselves to do. We brought two different exhaust configurations here: one was the one used in the last two races, the other represents our latest interpretation of the concept that was part of the car when it made its debut in Jerez. From what we could see today, the latter configuration seems to be positive in terms of performance even if, obviously, we need to analyse the data very carefully to make the right choices for the race. This track requires a rather different downforce level to those we have visited so far, so we also worked a lot on this front and, in this case also, we need to study the data we have acquired before making a judgement one way or the other. Finally, we had to check the behaviour of the tyres, especially the Supersoft, over a long run: we did not manage to do that many laps and, also linked to this aspect is the unknown factor relating to temperature. In fact, the weather forecast for Sunday suggests an increase in track temperature of around ten degrees, which could completely change the situation compared to what we have seen today. Therefore there is a lot of work to do over the rest of the weekend, but at least we have got off on the right foot.”

http://www.ferrari.com/english/formu...ight-foot.aspx

[sav_pap]

row 2 would be fantastic considering the heavy fuel behaviour of the F2012. It would be quite easy to pass in front in the first laps.