Ferrari's Canada upgrades

[AfterLife]

As usual James Allen's article sums it up nice and properly, what happened with upgrades. Very good one
I've highlighted some of the interesting parts of the article.

Disappointment for Ferrari – behind Red Bull and Williams despite updates

They thought they might have cracked it this time, but Ferrari were left disappointed after qualifying in seventh and 10th places for the Canadian Grand Prix, after a promising build up to the session with updates to the car.

Fernando Alonso was three tenths of a second slower than the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel and the Williams pair, who set almost identical times, within 3/100ths of each other.

Ferrari president Luca Montezemolo had built up the Canada update package as a major moment for the team in its fightback. In recent years the team has suffered from updates coming to the car and not improving lap time.

Improvements to the wind tunnel in Maranello have been aimed at ending that trend.

Here the team had a new engine cover, new front and rear wings and sidepods among a raft of aerodynamic updates, this will have been 10-12 weeks work in the wind tunnel.

On Friday they found a good gain from the package including the engine cover, which is much lower and tighter than the old one and from the sidepods. Alonso used them in the morning session (above) and said that the car was better balanced and had more rear end downforce.

But, according to leading F1 technical journalist Giorgio Piola here in Montreal, they were not able to run the full update package today; they decided not to risk using the engine cover and side pods for qualifying and the race because of concerns about cooling.

In contrast, Red Bull have gone for it with their radical new engine cover, which looks quite marginal on cooling.

On the power unit side Ferrari have a new turbo and a new MGU-H (the heat regeneration unit, connected to the turbo, on which development is free), plus more aggressive engine maps.

The Ferrari was 12th through the speed trap at 328.4 km/h, compared to 337.7 km/h for Force India and Williams and 334km/h for Mercedes.

Kimi Raikkonen did just one lap in qualifying, having used his supersoft tyres earlier in the session. The Finn had looked more confident in the car under braking and in the corners during practice but it didn’t translate into lap time when it counted,

“It wasn’t a very good lap in the end, but obviously I only had one chance,” Raikkonen said. “We could have improved the speed a bit if I could have another go, but then that doesn’t change an awful lot our position.

“It’s sliding around and it’s very difficult to make one good lap. If you hit a little bit of kerb in a different way then it changes. It’s right on the edge.”

Source: http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/0...spite-updates/

[AfterLife]

I believe all of the upgrades in Canada could bring 0.4 of a second advantage according to Canada practices.

[Sanomas]

Well, things didn't go so well on the qualifying and yes, it's a bit disappointing...but we needed have it a go and go up a bit!

[impactX]

Brought all updates and decided not to use it... what was the point of bringing them?

[AfterLife]

Brought all updates and decided not to use it... what was the point of bringing them?

I guess Some of the updates just need modifying to solve temperature increase issues. So we will see modified updates on our car soon.
After all we need to score points to be the 2nd best team. We can't blow our chances for the sake of just installing updates that make the car faster while causing DNFs.

[Kristof_F40]

Isn't it possible that teams have a different package for different temps? Perhaps it sounds stupid, but, with the high cooling demands, isn't it possible that teams adapt to the temp, or circumstances of the track (Canada seems to be hard on cooling because of constant accelerating and braking for the electronics). So we have developed a package that is very tight and gives us time, but we don't use it here because we don't whant parts to become to hot and fail. Using an extra pu is 10 place grid penalty so.. I know, it would have been much better if we were able to use it here but yeah...

[Alonso14]

Brought all updates and decided not to use it... what was the point of bringing them?

Higher temps with new parts -> PU overheating -> (parts of) PU blowing up -> grid penalties until the end of time. Or at least end of 2014.

[Dino]

What James Allen did not mention is the floor [which is still on the car] and the new rear suspension to aid traction.
Also new and still on the car are the flow diverters at the side pod front.

[Kristof_F40]

It think qualy result is not just due to the fact we aren't using new parts, to me it seemed like we couldn't get the tyres working properly, due to track conditions, so perhaps, we could have gone faster.. RBR on the other hand was going very good in these conditions.. The hing is, they don't have top speed, and they are the heavy fuel users.. So perhaps there's a possibility, Williams on the other hand has good top speed and lowest fuel usage, so I think they are out of reach..

[AfterLife]

I think we will be quicker than RedBull and Williams.

Why am i so optimistic?

[AfterLife]

What James Allen did not mention is the floor [which is still on the car] and the new rear suspension to aid traction.
Also new and still on the car are the flow diverters at the side pod front.

Actually i thought that too Plus there are still some unknown if Ferrari new turbo and MGU-H were installed??

[shamim179]

In contrast, Red Bull have gone for it with their radical new engine cover, which looks quite marginal on cooling.

So, Red Bull went ahead with their engine cover despite potential cooling problems? They are fighting to stay ahead and doing everything within their ability. Extremely aggressive if you ask me but that's how you win championships. I do think Mattiacci and Haas have been contributory factors and possibly Luca too. At least if we tried we could have verified if our predictions for overheating were indeed correct or not. Maybe those predictions were slightly pessimistic and the situation in reality would have been marginally better? We will of course never know because we didn't try. I would have been much more satisfied if we tried rather than not try. If we're going to keep working like this it is better we don't develop and save money.

[AfterLife]

In contrast, Red Bull have gone for it with their radical new engine cover, which looks quite marginal on cooling.

I don't know it really means they are really struggling with temperature. Again RedBull have nothing to lose. They are on their fourth power unit. It is different story than Ferrari.

[SinanOzerS]

I am not even suprised that these things are happening. Classic Ferrari mechanic's stupidity and awkwardness.

[PadGeT]

I am not even suprised that these things are happening. Classic Ferrari mechanic's stupidity and awkwardness.

Do you ever get tired of bashing Ferrari ?!

So, Red Bull went ahead with their engine cover despite potential cooling problems? They are fighting to stay ahead and doing everything within their ability. Extremely aggressive if you ask me but that's how you win championships. I do think Mattiacci and Haas have been contributory factors and possibly Luca too. At least if we tried we could have verified if our predictions for overheating were indeed correct or not. Maybe those predictions were slightly pessimistic and the situation in reality would have been marginally better? We will of course never know because we didn't try. I would have been much more satisfied if we tried rather than not try. If we're going to keep working like this it is better we don't develop and save money.

Don't you think we can use simulation in dyno to make these decisions.
"Save money" - to do what??

[SinanOzerS]

Do you ever get tired of bashing Ferrari ?!

I am NOT bashing Ferrari, i just bashing his mechanics.

[Suzie]

I am not even suprised that these things are happening. Classic Ferrari mechanic's stupidity and awkwardness.

That's really unfair to the people who work at Ferrari and do their utmost.

[Kingdom Hearts]

I am NOT bashing Ferrari, i just bashing his mechanics.

Why do you blame the mechanics?, they don't design the upgrades as far as I know, the mechanics are top guys in our team.

[SinanOzerS]

Why do you blame the mechanics?, they don't design the upgrades as far as I know, the mechanics are top guys in our team.

So, if the mechanics not the ones that designing the upgrades, who is the ones ? Me, or you ?

[Rosso Corsa]

So, Red Bull went ahead with their engine cover despite potential cooling problems? They are fighting to stay ahead and doing everything within their ability. Extremely aggressive if you ask me but that's how you win championships. I do think Mattiacci and Haas have been contributory factors and possibly Luca too. At least if we tried we could have verified if our predictions for overheating were indeed correct or not. Maybe those predictions were slightly pessimistic and the situation in reality would have been marginally better? We will of course never know because we didn't try. I would have been much more satisfied if we tried rather than not try. If we're going to keep working like this it is better we don't develop and save money.

Your whole argument is based on 'maybe'. Have you considered the data showed "definitely"?

[rodri12001]

So, if the mechanics not the ones that designing the upgrades, who is the ones ? Me, or you ?

Engineers at Maranello.

[Kristof_F40]

So, if the mechanics not the ones that designing the upgrades, who is the ones ? Me, or you ?

What about the designers and engineers? I think we can't blame or mechanics, when did we have a DNF because of technical problems? Remember qualy in Malaysia (?) with Fer's suspension half broken, pit stops are Always good...

[zike]

Where is Luca now, to give us some speech......... I like his speeches

[Rob]

I am NOT bashing Ferrari, i just bashing his mechanics.

yet again, you running down and insulting the team. The mechanics/engineers are the team.

[shamim179]

Do you ever get tired of bashing Ferrari ?!



Don't you think we can use simulation in dyno to make these decisions.
"Save money" - to do what??

We can use dyno simulations but they are never as accurate as real life testing scenarios. We could have used one of our cars as a test bed. We need to try as our forte is obviously not in designing our car to match that of real life data. If we did we wouldn't have had this cooling issue.

Save money by allocating resources on works that are more productive. Works that actually lead to something beneficial. We could have used this extra money and hired an independent consultant to oversee our operations and identify problem areas. Someone who is good at interfacing and judging things - and most of all independent so they don't have any bias.

[PadGeT]

We can use dyno simulations but they are never as accurate as real life testing scenarios. We could have used one of our cars as a test bed. We need to try as our forte is obviously not in designing our car to match that of real life data. If we did we wouldn't have had this cooling issue.

Didn't they use it on FP3? Why take the chance in Quali, when it can ruin the rest of weekend.
Personally, I am a bit sad not to see the updated F14 T against RB, Mercs in race condition here, but the bigger picture is if the updates did work, its better cause the team will get confidence to bring more updates at every races after to chase down RB, Mercs in terms of raw speed.
My wish is to just see Ferrari being on top in Japan, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, cause that would mean a brighter future for F15 T.

Save money by allocating resources on works that are more productive. Works that actually lead to something beneficial. We could have used this extra money and hired an independent consultant to oversee our operations and identify problem areas. Someone who is good at interfacing and judging things - and most of all independent so they don't have any bias.

I am sure we have plenty of consultants or spies in that regard, and they are independent too.

[shamim179]

Your whole argument is based on 'maybe'. Have you considered the data showed "definitely"?

They do not know for sure. It is only based on the interpretation of data when the conditions were cooler and adjusting it to predict how the car behavior will be like when it is hotter. My point is maybe the predictive modelling is a tiny bit off? We need to know where our absolute limit is not where our somewhat theoretical limit is. It's like we're terrified of a DNF. We seem to have an obsession with reliability. There are no prizes for reliability in this championship.

[shamim179]

Didn't they use it on FP3? Why take the chance in Quali, when it can ruin the rest of weekend.
Personally, I am a bit sad not to see the updated F14 T against RB, Mercs in race condition here, but the bigger picture is if the updates did work, its better cause the team will get confidence to bring more updates at every races after to chase down RB, Mercs in terms of raw speed.
My wish is to just see Ferrari being on top in Japan, Abu Dhabi and Brazil, cause that would mean a brighter future for F15 T.

I disagree. The updates didn't work. You have to factor in temperatures - you cannot exclude that. You cannot say with confidence that the updates work when they have a narrow window of operating - it could be that they only work in a few races. If it's been designed to work in only a few races it isn't a good design is it and you can't say it works. It's just PR talk that is coming out of Ferrari. They won't admit that it doesn't work.

[steelstallions]

Make the whole damn car in wire mesh, that will cool the flaming thing!! YES I AM FRUSTRATED!

[PadGeT]

I disagree. The updates didn't work. You have to factor in temperatures - you cannot exclude that. You cannot say with confidence that the updates work when they have a narrow window of operating - it could be that they only work in a few races. If it's been designed to work in only a few races it isn't a good design is it and you can't say it works. It's just PR talk that is coming out of Ferrari. They won't admit that it doesn't work.

Wow, they must give good money to Kimi and Fernando for that.