Australian GP 2013 - Friday and Saturday free practice

[MSForever]

more positive

I am at the GP (suck it) and i have noticed the Ferrari has a very distinctive off throttle rumble, much deeper and prolonged than the other cars.
This leads me to believe that Ferrari have something tricky going on. When compared to the field, Red bull and Ferrari certainly stand out in terms of traction and stability off the apex. (Martin Brundle)

[Kristof_F40]

Thanks for the onboards Forzi

It seems like Fernando is the only one who goes through 11 and 12 in 6th gear, the others choose 5th, however, don't notice a lot of speed difference

[medeni73]

Waiting for further tweaking and upgrades in China and until then I will be satisfied with P4-P6 in qualy cos I dont think we can match RB and Mercs yet...On a long run its different story cos we are traditionaly better in that area and I dont think Mercs and Lotus can be faster than us in that area...So podiums are well within reach...

[Fiondella]

Best wishes for the team this year. We're in better shape than last year. Forza

[Massimo]

Waiting for further tweaking and upgrades in China and until then I will be satisfied with P4-P6 in qualy cos I dont think we can match RB and Mercs yet...On a long run its different story cos we are traditionaly better in that area and I dont think Mercs and Lotus can be faster than us in that area...So podiums are well within reach...

". Il primo steep evolutivo per la F138 è atteso per la gara di Cina in qui gli aerodinamici Ferrari si aspettano un guadagno di circa 3-4 decimi dal nuovo pacchetto aerodinamico che è già stato provato durante i test in rettilineo ad Idiada"

"The first big update is expected in China, where the Ferrari aerodynamicists expect that the new aero package will bring them about 0.3-0.4 sec., this new package was already tested at the long straight in Idiada.

Source:Cristiano Sponton- F1AnalisiTecnica

[MSForever]

Ferrari: Looked fundamentally planted. I'd say the car was visually the most stable of the field through 11/12 in FP1 and matched by the Redbull, Lotus and Mercedes in FP2 through turns 13 and 14 . Lots of cars (noticably the Williams, Marrussia, Torro Rosso and to a lesser extent the McLaren and Sauber) had very loose rear ends at the exit of 12, plenty of twitching and oversteer correction.

Both Fernando and Filipe seemed to be taking slightly wider lines than others through corners 12 and 14. The Ferrari and the Mercedes were the only cars I witnessed bottoming out. Both Filipe and Nico were leaving parts of the plank at turn 12 during FP1.

Aurally, the Ferrari was very distinctive on corner entry, with a big dirty bark of noise as it breaks. The engine overrun noise on downshift is distinctive enough that I could pick the Ferrari out from all the other cars with my eyes closed.

[Gerhard Berger]

Ferrari: Looked fundamentally planted. I'd say the car was visually the most stable of the field through 11/12 in FP1 and matched by the Redbull, Lotus and Mercedes in FP2 through turns 13 and 14 . Lots of cars (noticably the Williams, Marrussia, Torro Rosso and to a lesser extent the McLaren and Sauber) had very loose rear ends at the exit of 12, plenty of twitching and oversteer correction.

Both Fernando and Filipe seemed to be taking slightly wider lines than others through corners 12 and 14. The Ferrari and the Mercedes were the only cars I witnessed bottoming out. Both Filipe and Nico were leaving parts of the plank at turn 12 during FP1.

Aurally, the Ferrari was very distinctive on corner entry, with a big dirty bark of noise as it breaks. The engine overrun noise on downshift is distinctive enough that I could pick the Ferrari out from all the other cars with my eyes closed.

Rivola says he expects us to qualify on the 2nd row (pretty good) while he said Massa is doing well but Alonso is struggling. Strange since Alonso has beaten Massa quite easily at this track for the last 3 years.

[Forzi]

From the chat with Rivola (copied from another forum)
From the chat, didn't get all the stuff, sorry.

-We can fight for podium.
-Race pace is ok.
-Qualy pace we are behind but not by alot.
-Target: podium with both drivers, Felipe looks very strong and fast.
-Vettel favourite for this race.
-SS tyre destroyed in 3 laps.
-Expect 2nd row tomorrow for both drivers.
-They want to be honest, with the way RB ended the year, the result is expect (talking FP2).
-Alonso struggling, Massa in very good shape.

[SoumyaBanerjee]

We here in South Africa, uses Sky Sports link. They showed us very little images of our ferrari boys. This happens every year and the commentary is anti ferrari. Im gettin tired of this now.

Sadly,the Sky chaps are jingoists....even we Indians are getting the rubbish Sky Sports commentary this year,i ll probably have to try and ignore their bias...

[tifosi1993]

-Race pace is reasonable, podium is realistic goal.
-Not fastest in qualy, but the gap is not big.
-both drivers can get 2nd row tomorrow.
-Alonso struggling with the balance, Massa is very happy.
-SS only good for 1-2 lap.
-Expects Medium to last 20-22 laps.
-Correlation between track and wind tunnel is very good.

[SoumyaBanerjee]

Looks like we're behind RBR as expected but looking good. The question is, where is everyone else?

We're probably a bit behind Mercedes and possibly Lotus as well with respect to 1 lap pace,though our race pace looks very good. We're certainly looking a lot better than McLaren at this stage...

[Forzi]

Just gonna point out one thing

I know that we should look at ourselves, respect our rivals and so on, but gosh, i'm happy to see McLaren in the pack with FI, Sauber and Williams

As Williams they screwed up a top 2012 car, actually, the best of 2012 in their case

[Infi24r]

Where do you guys think Mercedes is really?

I still don't think they're on the level of RBR/Ferrari.

[tifosi1993]

Some onboards:

Looking at the steering inputs compared to last year,really is 200 times better.

[Rob]

Where do you guys think Mercedes is really?

I still don't think they're on the level of RBR/Ferrari.

Its really hard to say after today. They will be up there, but where. Merc, has shown (past couple years) that 1 lap pace blinding then drops off in race.

[Senna4Ever]

while he said Massa is doing well but Alonso is struggling. Strange since Alonso has beaten Massa quite easily at this track for the last 3 years.

this morning I had this 'strange' feeling that this might be the year for Massa. Somehow I felt like Fernando will have to push very hard to get along with Felipe. I don't now why but it seems last autumn was just the beginning of spring for Felipe as he was head to head with Alonso during the last races. And Felipe did much for the team as also for Fernando. So if the car is that smooth as everybody is talking about than I would not be surprised that it will be Felipe who rises to the top!

but the most important thing: it will be Ferrari back again ...

[Forzi]

Rivola says he expects us to qualify on the 2nd row (pretty good) while he said Massa is doing well but Alonso is struggling. Strange since Alonso has beaten Massa quite easily at this track for the last 3 years.

Felipe did better in FP1 and would have most likely been ahead in FP2 if he would have had KERS on his best lap. Also the longer stints were better on Felipe's side. Honestly, I'm happy for the lad. Who knows what will happen in quali/race.

Felipe's lap on the mediums:

[Infi24r]

Its really hard to say after today. They will be up there, but where. Merc, has shown (past couple years) that 1 lap pace blinding then drops off in race.

I just find it difficult to have faith in their reliability and race pace. I dunno, they've looked damn good overall, but its just a perception thing that they have never really been there.

I think having Hamilton could be a enormous benefit to them.

Not calling Schumacher not a top driver in his younger years, he is obviously one of, if not the greatest, but I think over the past few years they have really lacked a top driver and in many ways it has held them back.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to see Rosberg qualifying in the typical Mercedes position of around 5th-7th while Hamilton gets a few tenths more netting 2nd-4th. The driver in itself pushing the car above perceptions.

[Ferrari_Fanatic]

You can see on Vettels lap around 54 seconds he runs right off the track again...that guy is always cutting corners to gain tenths in the lap. I hope the stewards are harder on that this year.

yeah you can clearly see that all 4 wheels are off the track in 53 sec

[EL_NANDO]

yeah you can clearly see that all 4 wheels are off the track in 53 sec

Do you have a link to the video?

[Giambattista]

http://en.mclarenf-1.com/index.php?p...nando%20Alonso

cheers

[Ferrari_Fanatic]

Do you have a link to the video?

towards the bottom on page 12

watched Alonso on board and he takes the corner correctly...

[ferrari1.8t]

Do you have a link to the video?

53-54 Seconds in....

[ferrari1.8t]

For those who don't feel like watching the video...a screen shot

[EL_NANDO]

For those who don't feel like watching the video...a screen shot

Difficult to police as in some corners running all 4 wheels off the track is an advantage, at other tracks it's a disadvantage, and it's not always clear which is which.

If you added a rule like "at any track if you go all 4 wheels off the track your lap doesn't count", it could be a farce if you slid wide, ran onto the grass, lost a couple of seconds, but still did enough to get into Q2, only to have your lap invalidated because of this rule. Also what do you do for the race? Think rules like this would open up a massive can of worms.

I tend to think we should just make sure we are pushing the limits as much as Vettel/Red Bull. Let's face it this might gain him 0.1 seconds over a lap, but we at some tracks have been losing 1+ second because of our aero.

[Nova]

Hi everybody!

In my opinion, nothing much to be worried about yet.

First of all, let’s remember that red bull has always been strong on this track for the past 4 years, it is the kind of track (just as Valencia, Monaco, Singapore etc…) that shows the efficiency of the bulls. Even if they didn’t win here in the recent past, I remember them being mighty quick…Secondly, let’s also remember that last year button and Hamilton both dominated the grand prix and what happened next?? We all know the story…

As for our team, I think things are going pretty well, we’ve seen times relatively close in FP1 even if it doesn’t matter that much, and duringFP2, times were looking good as well, except for that last sector, where we’re losing time, which I can not explain…but basically this last sector is not much different from S1, it’s only 3 high speed corners and 2 hard braking zones so, if we’re fast in S1, I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be able to improve our times in S3. Plus as many of you mentioned, they barely improved their times in this sector when they switched to super soft, which is rather weird…

Anyways, the most important will be the reactions of our drivers, and of course Sunday’s race!

Oh and I just read that the pace of Mercedes could e explained by the fact they are using, possibly, a legal version of active suspension…If it turns out to be true, then I think it will become the next main development that teams will be looking at, for sure.

A legal version of active suspension? If AS is banned, how could this be?

[Gerhard Berger]

Difficult to police as in some corners running all 4 wheels off the track is an advantage, at other tracks it's a disadvantage, and it's not always clear which is which.

If you added a rule like "at any track if you go all 4 wheels off the track your lap doesn't count", it could be a farce if you slid wide, ran onto the grass, lost a couple of seconds, but still did enough to get into Q2, only to have your lap invalidated because of this rule. Also what do you do for the race? Think rules like this would open up a massive can of worms.

I tend to think we should just make sure we are pushing the limits as much as Vettel/Red Bull. Let's face it this might gain him 0.1 seconds over a lap, but we at some tracks have been losing 1+ second because of our aero.

This case is quite clear though - he is shortening the track. It's really no different from Hamilton cutting the chicane in Monaco 2011 (and Hamilton did get penalised for that).

[SinanOzerS]

A legal version of active suspension? If AS is banned, how could this be?

Electronical active suspension was banned.But hydraulic AS was not.

[Forzi]

A legal version of active suspension? If AS is banned, how could this be?

They had it since 2011. It's legal, but really hasn't given em anything so far.

http://scarbsf1.com/blog1/2011/10/17...ar-suspension/

[S1000RR]

They had it since 2011. It's legal, but really hasn't given em anything so far.

http://scarbsf1.com/blog1/2011/10/17...ar-suspension/

Until now, reading info of 0.5 faster in S2 Barcelona duo to this system?