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Well, someone's got to start this!
Good morning all, I only caught the last minutes of FP1, but Kimi & Seb were P3 & P4 behind the Mercs, trailing Nico's lead by about 1.1 sec.
Would be great for our morale if Ferrari can put up a serious challenge to Merc this weekend (and yes, I am an optimist!)
Forza Ferrari !
"You need great passion, because everything you do with great pleasure, you do well." - Juan Manuel Fangio
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Thank God Magnussen is fireproof !!! What a scare!
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Kimi's race simulation on Mediums was impressive, despite he was not happy with behaviour of the car.
Last edited by Black Adder; 30th September 2016 at 10:14.
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wow, 2 FPs and only 3 posts :D nice
Banned
just showing how we are tired of second and third placesOriginally Posted by F1NAC
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Just sick and tired of the continuous Merc 1-2, they must be using something questionable in their power unit to stay so far ahead and be able to turn up the wick as soon as anyone dares to get closer.
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Not bad..we'll look better tomorrow...
\m/HEAVY METAL\m/
In terms of...?
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Compared to red bull
Now.. Imagine Kmag's fire if he had a 'halo' attached.. it might have been a very different and horrible story indeed.
Naughty Word Mod
Just sick and tired of the continuous Merc 1-2, they must be using something questionable in their power unit to stay so far ahead and be able to turn up the wick as soon as anyone dares to get closer.Has Mercedes broken the 1000bhp barrier?
Formula 1's turbo hybrid engines have been on the receiving end of criticism since they arrived back in 2014 over their lack of sound and fuel efficiency characteristics.
But one area where they do not fall short is in the power stakes, with them pumping out much more horsepower than the V8 power units that they replaced.
They easily charged past the 900bhp figure, and there are now indications that the benchmark engine produced by Mercedes is giving out as much as 1000bhp during qualifying laps.
Of course, the figure will not be confirmed, with the technicians led by Andy Cowell at Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains obviously keeping details about its state-of-the-art engine a secret.
However, sources with good knowledge of the situation suggest that the latest specification Mercedes engine that was introduced at the Belgian Grand Prix is producing 980bhp.
But a manufacturer not currently involved in F1 conducted a data-gathering exercise at the Singapore Grand Prix to check on the progress on the current power units.
Using sound analysis to compare the performance of the engines – allied to calculations of the electrical energy boost – an interesting aspect came to light.
The results of the sound testing, which have been supplied to Motorsport.com, suggest that at peak power the Mercedes is able to reach an impressive peak of 1000bhp
This is during the final qualifying efforts, when its drivers are able to make use of a special setting to get a power boost for 50 seconds to aid their qualifying performances.
The magic button
Estimates suggest that this 'magic button' boost for qualifying – which changes the mapping of the engine – is worth around 80bhp.
We know from the Belgian Grand Prix that Mercedes customer Williams was left three-tenths of a second down when neither Felipe Massa nor Valtteri Bottas could use this qualifying setting on Saturday afternoon.
Even using the 980bhp figure, which includes the 160bhp that comes from energy recovery from the MGU-H and MGU-K, it means the internal combustion engine is producing around 820 bhp.
That in itself is hugely impressive considering it is just a 1.6-litre engine and has strict limits in terms of a fuel flow rate of 100 kg per hour at 10,500rpm, plus a number of exotic materials that could help improve performance are banned.
If you take away the 80bhp boost that Mercedes is estimated to have for qualifying, it means that in the races, the Mercedes is producing 750bhp from its engine – a figure that is not much greater than Ferrari's 061/1 – while Renault and Honda are a little further away.
What seems to make a big difference to the Mercedes performance is that it has more peak power available when it is needed in qualifying and certain race situations.
At the restart at the Singapore Grand Prix on lap three, Nico Rosberg was instantly able to open up a lead over Daniel Ricciardo to get himself out of the DRS zone – before the engine was wound back down to allow him to maintain the gap.
Ferrari's form this season appears to show that it is in a position to match Mercedes in race settings – but falls back when it comes to deliver a qualifying boost.
It is an area that the engineers at Maranello have been working exceptionally hard at trying to address to allow Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen to challenge the pace-setting Mercedes.
Reliability concerns
It will be a tremendous achievement by Andy Cowell if Mercedes is now pushing on past the 1000bhp barrier, for it is something that Ferrari has not been able to achieve because of reliability concerns.
Mercedes' reliability has been pretty strong over the second half of the campaign – despite early issues this season for Lewis Hamilton which resulted in him needing to take extra power unit components at Spa.
Ferrari still has much work to do to be able to unlock a qualifying boost, with a clever system last year of storing fuel past the fuel flow meter to deliver an extra boost when needed having been clamped down on by the FIA.
There have also been rumours that gains can be had by using trick chemicals in the oil to boost power in the fuel chamber, but whether this is truth or fantasy is unclear.
What we do know, however, is that Mercedes is the class of the field in power stakes right now, as F1's engines return to the peak levels of power that were last witnessed in the mid-1980s.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/an...arrier-829341/
CAVALLINO RAMPANTE PER SEMPRE
Naughty Word Mod
Kimi Raikkonen: ”It was not a very smooth day. I did not have a good feeling with the car through the sessions and I’m surprised that the lap time was not too bad, considering the fact that my feelings were far from what I wanted. The new tarmac feels pretty similar, but it’s smoother and there’s a bit more grip. I haven’t seen what the others have done, I was concentrating on our program. Now we need to sit down and go through all things. There’s work to be done, but I’m sure we can improve for tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel: ”I think we had a decent day. We were testing quite a few things, and our pace didn’t look too bad, at least from what I was told inside the car. Mercedes looked again very strong today on long and short runs: as for ourselves, we are pretty happy with the shortruns, but I haven’t seen much yet of what the other people did for their long runs. I think we can improve, especially to get the car a little bit more together. I am confident that we can find a bit here and there for tomorrow. Our target is to win and nothing less. At the same time, you need to be awake and realize that we are not strong enough to come here and say we will win: but if there is a chance, by any circumstances, then we need to be right there and take it. The new asphalt seems to be a step forward, the last corner is a bit trickier but, all in all, it is a step forward. I haven’t used the Hard tires in P2, the Soft is the preferred one; now we have to see what strategy we might choose for Sunday.”
Naughty Word Mod
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Everything..Never give up.
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Right so, but today we are struggling again, over 2 sec slower than Mercs.
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Improving, though, 0,7-0,8sec behind
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I think a podium position is a realistic target this weekend
Other than that, Merc is too far ahead (is there any track where they aren't anyway)
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Redbull seems to be a bit faster.I think a podium position is a realistic target this weekend
Other than that, Merc is too far ahead (is there any track where they aren't anyway
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q1... the reason Ferrari are so mediocre this season...
WHY did they decide to do the second run on softs when the times they'd set on mediums were enough!!!!!!!
Alsways second guessing, always going the "safe" route... and the result... one less set of new tyres for the race...
right now I'm angry.... so apologies for venting!
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1 sets of mediums gone..clever
#PrayforMH370 #KeepFightingSchumi
Banned
I hope we will have this fast car next year to f.... idiots, I'm starting to hate this team full of idiots and retarded engineers
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p5 p6..good job
#PrayforMH370 #KeepFightingSchumi
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Good qualy only a tenth behind Red Bull.
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zike, that are some strong words from you, if you have some hate for Ferrari than there is no reason to be here in the first place.
Just get used to being 3rd best just as today. Thats been a normal result recently.
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Within 2 tenths of the Bulls..Hope we can give them a good battle tomorrow!
Forza Ferrari
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Honestly didn't expect to be behind red bull today. Now let's see what we can do in the race.
Banned
Mate there are 2 teams I love with all my heart, Juventus and Scuderia Ferrari, and it pains me to see SF be this bad.What can I do, I'm an Ultras
Full Member
I expected us to at least split RBR, oh well, nothing is lost, the race is tomorrow. Pains me to see we are 3rd fastest.Seb and Kimi were very close to one another during the whole weekend which is good. Hoping for a podium as RBR will have trouble in those 2 long straights at the end and at the start of the lap
Full Member
Here is an updated graph of the relative gap to Merc
+ an 8 Qualy moving average of the gap for RBR and Ferrari (Singapore 15 and Austria 16 results removed).
Naughty Word Mod
Kimi Raikkonen: “It was a pretty smooth running until the last try: then I had some traffic on the out lap and struggled with the tires to make them work in the first two corners, so I ran a bit wide. It was a decent qualifying session but it’s painful when you have such a bad last try. The handling of the car has been pretty ok and I was hoping for a bit more, but tomorrow we’ll try to do better. We don’t know what will happen and obviously we are not in the ideal starting position. The tarmac is new so it’s hard to say where it’s going to go and which tire will be the best, it will be a lot down to the conditions. We have to do our own best and see what that brings in the race.”
Sebastian Vettel: “We expected it to be tight, but we thought that we could have the upper hand in the end. So I am disappointed to see both Red Bulls in front of us, but they were just a bit quicker. There was not a lot missing, but just enough, just over a tenth. We need to have a look into our data and see if we can pick it up later… In the end, we were hoping to be one row higher up, so in second, right behind the Mercedes. But for the race, nervertheless, we should have a good speed: the strategy will also be important tomorrow. There is a bit of room for manoeuvre, as everybody has to use the harder tire, which might make it interesting. And then there is also the fact that we are in Malaysia, so there might be some rain, or just the heat as a factor.”
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