United States GP - Qualifying Thread

[Nova]

All this nonsense talk about who supports the Ferrari Team and who does not is getting very old now and serves no purpose to enable them to start winning. Ferrari is a team that is close to the front but are clearly behind both Red Bull and McLaren. No warm words of hope and faith change that. Ferrari needs an Engineering person as its principle and that person is not Stefano Domenicali! New and better tools plus stronger management that actually can give Engineering direction to the Engineers. People want to say that this is just the team rebuilding after the "Dream Team" disbanded. I say that is nonsense! Get me a good, strong leader that knows what it takes to lead the team and make everyone accountable for what each person is doing! Enough of the lines repeated by Domenicali and Fry! Enough with the, "Lets Stay Calm"! There should be anger in what they are doing! There should be conviction and drive to do MUCH more! To have the resources that Ferrari Have and to only produce the 3rd best car for the past few years is Criminal!!!!

At the end of this season, I hope Luca Di Montezemolo has the conviction to make the moves he must to get this team back on track!

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

I understand where youre coming from Frank, I do. I think people react because they love their team..
no one is really getting mushy and all warm inside..and its ok to be passionate...
With some of the remarks though..Id say it has nothing to do with passion whatsoever.
Does your passion border on hate? Anger? Wannasackeveryoneidous? If so, take 2 of these and call me in the morning...
well, dont call me, call your doctor. If it makes you that upset, mabey you should just not watch it..for your health of course.

Warning: If you experience acute anger, shortness of breath, heart attack, blindness, your arms falling off, tingly sensations in your nose,
depression, or protruding eyebrows...cease watching races immediately. If you experience a race lasting more than 4 hours, call your doctor.

[justjesper]

since we all r so keen on getting flavio...

I must have been away for to long :)
Who is interested in that cheater ? ? ? Must be some who don't know that there is rules and regulations

[fadyferrari]

I must have been away for to long :)
Who is interested in that cheater ? ? ? Must be some who don't know that there is rules and regulations

well seems a lotta people.....but i guess just cuz he is aggressive n the only 1 who is available.....i did say before that its highly unlikely that ferrari would hire someone with a "tarnished"image....

[albert]

There should be conviction and drive to do MUCH more! To have the resources that Ferrari Have and to only produce the 3rd best car for the past few years is Criminal!!!!

At the end of this season, I hope Luca Di Montezemolo has the conviction to make the moves he must to get this team back on track!

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

Its actually been the 4th best car, Lotus has been clearly better overall, but their drivers do not compare to Alonso obviously. We have been about equal to sauber. Alonso's average qualifying this year is as bad as Alesi's in the 1992 Ferrari, so just consider that.

[Rosso Corsa]

maybe....but i personally feel it didnt give it our best shot when it came to the development race....if we would have,u surely would have seen radical changes to the f2012s rear end quite a few times since the spanish gp...

I don't think there was anything radical we could do. The chassis was fixed, our cooling and exhausts built around the acer tube concept. The best we could do appeared to be wings, floor and diffuser, but our wind tunnel problems damaged us on that one.

Are we all turning out to support our team tomorrow or what? All of them, designers, managers, pit crew, drivers. They're out there doing this thing for us. Lets get behind them and see what's possible.

[fadyferrari]

I understand where youre coming from Frank, I do. I think people react because they love their team..
no one is really getting mushy and all warm inside..and its ok to be passionate...
With some of the remarks though..Id say it has nothing to do with passion whatsoever.
Does your passion border on hate? Anger? Wannasackeveryoneidous? If so, take 2 of these and call me in the morning...
well, dont call me, call your doctor. If it makes you that upset, mabey you should just not watch it..for your health of course.

Warning: If you experience acute anger, shortness of breath, heart attack, blindness, your arms falling off, tingly sensations in your nose,
depression, or protruding eyebrows...cease watching races immediately. If you experience a race lasting more than 4 hours, call your doctor.

my passion does get outta hand sometimes to be honest....just a bit emotional....guess i really need to see a doctor...oh,wait,I AM 1!

[fadyferrari]

I don't think there was anything radical we could do. The chassis was fixed, our cooling and exhausts built around the acer tube concept. The best we could do appeared to be wings, floor and diffuser, but our wind tunnel problems damaged us on that one.

Are we all turning out to support our team tomorrow or what? All of them, designers, managers, pit crew, drivers. They're out there doing this thing for us. Lets get behind them and see what's possible.

dont worry buddy...its just how it goes... will hue and cry for a while just to vent off......but will surely be on sidelines supporting our boys tomorrow!

[Rob]

for the first time...I am actually going to say...we need flavio, a bullish man who knows what he wants (but my god, i hate him)....BTW FERRARI USED SCRUBBED TYRES IN Q3!!!

Did put in post earlier, but no on erally intersting in the truth of why we didnt go quicker and get into th etop 5. The plan was that may of been quicker to heat those tyres up.

[mark p]

I must have been away for to long :)
Who is interested in that cheater ? ? ? Must be some who don't know that there is rules and regulations

Cheater to beat cheats? Fight fire with fire? I don't think so I will support Domenicalli. If forums eere in such prevelence in 93, 94,95,96,97,98,99 then Todt would have been for the chop according to us fans. Ferrari will win again sooner or later hopefully sooner.

[Rob]

Cheater to beat cheats? Fight fire with fire? I don't think so I will support Domenicalli. If forums eere in such prevelence in 93, 94,95,96,97,98,99 then Todt would have been for the chop according to us fans. Ferrari will win again sooner or later hopefully sooner.

Spot on. We have had hard times before, came close to WDC WCC before, so what . We can do it again and we will if this years slip by us. No need to sack anyone, as again something i have said earlier, sacking people now when the team have gone through changes and got new ways of working, they all need time to gel and work as 1 machine.

[Tifoso84]

Can't sleep, too nervous about today's race...

Any news on Webber and our grid positions?

[Jas]

webbers been let off with a repromand....ohhh god.....
Massa prepared for start penalty

ESPN Staff
November 17, 2012 « Schumacher exceeds Mercedes' expectations | Alonso has a 'feeling' he will finish ahead of Vettel »

Felipe Massa outqualified team-mate Fernando Alonso for only the second time this season © Sutton Images

Felipe Massa believes the left hand side of the grid will see a "massive" difference compared to the right hand side at the start of the United States Grand Prix.

After Romain Grosjean's gearbox penalty, Massa starts from sixth on the grid and on the left hand side which is concerning drivers to such an extent that Lewis Hamilton said he would ask the FIA to clean it ahead of the race.

The new Circuit of the Americas has been low on grip all weekend, but lap times have been improving as the weekend goes on as a clear racing line has rubbered in. While the right hand side of the grid is on the racing line, the left is untouched and Massa said that a practice start in FP3 confirmed to him that there will be a big disparity between grid slots.

"I think it will be the biggest difference you ever saw in our starts," Massa said. "I think it will be, I don't know, it will be massive. This morning I did a start on the left and I was slower than in the wet, so..."

With Red Bull set to wrap up the constructors' championship, Massa denied that his primary role would be to help Fernando Alonso in the race with his team-mate starting behind him in eighth place.

"We are fighting with McLaren for the second place in the championship, which is very important for us. The target for tomorrow is to do the best we can to score maximum points for the constructors' championship. For sure Fernando is not starting in a great position and if I can help him for sure I will do all I can to help both."

[Tifoso84]

So Webber got off the hook with just a reprimand... Not a surprise at all. LOL

FIA stewards to Webber: "Just don't do it again, okay, you naughty boy?"

Webber: "Whateva! I drive for Red Bull, I do whatever I want!"

[Hornet]

Ferrari used same tyres from Q2 for Q3...

Autosprint @ Autosprint
Domenicali: We shot with used because we hoped to be able to bring them up to temperature more easily

Dear me. Another lesson learned I guess.

Still, these whole tire warming thing is really worrying. We haven't been able to solve it for some time now despite building a different car with different suspension system and all. I mean, surely there has to be something wrong in our design method if we see the same problem in different car design we have.

[FrankAlfa]

@ Nova,

LOL, I have come in from the edge and my heart rate has returned to normal. Great disappointment can not help be felt when one looks back on this season. Those responsible need to take the burden of blame for this season's results. Alonso drove like a Champion but he was not given the car to succeed. Such a pity to have wasted another year with a misguided effort. Luca Di Montezemolo had better respond to what has happened and he had better understand how this will affect the comany in the longer term if it is permited to continue.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[SoumyaBanerjee]

Maybe 5 more or maybe 25 more seasons, whatever amount of time it takes. It's all about supporting Ferrari for me, in good times and in bad times. Of course it's absolutely super great if we win championships, but that's not the most important thing for me. The most important thing is that Ferrari exists and that it's in Formula 1 and that I can be a fan of this great team. Ferrari is the 2nd most important thing in my life, behind only my family. And I will love Ferrari forever and always! My faith in Ferrari is unyielding.


FORZA FERRARI!!!

I wish there were some more people like you.

[Muhammad Ansib]

it was painful to watch fernando in p9.Sebestian bieber:misses apexes and goes fastest of all...
But all isnt lost,As Fernando Alonso says "ANYTHING CAN STILL HAPPEN" so i pray Alonso wins tomorrow(vettel gets hit or his car suffers a problem or gets a penalty)
FORZA FERRARI FORZA FERNANDO ALONSO

[varun]

Why does Ferrari do such Epic errors like using same tyres in Q2 And Q3??

they would have improved atleast a little with new tyres had they ran it all 10 mins in Q3 and got them to temp.!!

btw now we have 1 set of new Options right?? but how do we use them?

[SoumyaBanerjee]

'coz with each lap, the tires were becoming better and producing faster times......even fingerboy and lewis used Q2 tires....

SV and LH used fresh sets in Q3....

[SoumyaBanerjee]

Why does Ferrari do such Epic errors like using same tyres in Q2 And Q3??

they would have improved atleast a little with new tyres had they ran it all 10 mins in Q3 and got them to temp.!!

btw now we have 1 set of new Options right?? but how do we use them?

Maybe they are expecting most drivers to pit more than once??? That is highly unlikely to happen as deg levels are very low this weekend......

[vcs316]

Its gonna be a one stop strategy, tyre degradation is minimal on this track...

[Nova]

my passion does get outta hand sometimes to be honest....just a bit emotional....guess i really need to see a doctor...oh,wait,I AM 1!

Then 2 of these little white pills and call..........wait for it.................yourself in the morning...

[Hornet]

Its gonna be a one stop strategy, tyre degradation is minimal on this track...

Problem is we still have to pit earlier now as our tires have done additional laps in Q2 already, and I fear this may put us in traffic, especially those outside top 10 may op to use the hard tires and really push all the way as far as they can go before pitting.

I think it wasn't a sacrifice worth doing considering that we knew our qualifying pace was never going to be good, so we should have focus more on the race rather than start the race with a worn out tires.

[FFFerrari]

If they knew they would end up in P6 and P8 they would have not ran at all in Q3 and fitted hards for the start and gained a lot when switching to medium at the end of the race. I think they really expected to get a bit higher on the grid than they ended up. It's going to be hard to watch the race.

[anuragiyer8989]

Today's P8 start is gonna be one Fernando's biggest challenges in his career!
If he comes out of Turn 1, unscathed, then we can watch a genius at work!
Felipe has to make up places and hold back some people for Fernando to catch up!
Go Fernando & Felipe!

[varun]

Problem is we still have to pit earlier now as our tires have done additional laps in Q2 already, and I fear this may put us in traffic, especially those outside top 10 may op to use the hard tires and really push all the way as far as they can go before pitting.

I think it wasn't a sacrifice worth doing considering that we knew our qualifying pace was never going to be good, so we should have focus more on the race rather than start the race with a worn out tires.

I dont think we have the race pace either to make a 2 stopper work like what Hamilton did in Canada!

[diesel08]

Forza Ferrari, Forza Fernando!

[fxx]

Without newey the results would have been better but the performance of the car would be the same, which is generally midfield and flattered by Alonso. I am so sick of hearing all the rubbish over the year about how the car has improved or going to be improved when it was rubbish. The car has never improved since Spain, and just been up and down since then depending on tracks. The design team is completely incompetent, and its pathetic to see Alonso bashed for getting out qualified by Massa for the first time in 20 races, like he has let the team down, when they have served him up rubbish for the last 2 seasons. Another title thrown away by incompetence.

Yep...it is incredible that in the most important race of the year face the worst qualifying Alonso and Felipe even starts the front .... it is inconceivable ... sorry but this is what I think ... in Ferrari can no longer hide behind pathetic excuses , I believe 1000% in Fernando but not in the capacity of the technical team of this Ferrari!

[wisepie]

Guys, all this moaning about Domenicali and the team's failings are frankly unnecessary just now, we know the problem is not being able to warm the tyres in quali, so starting positions are not in our favour. The biggest question for today is how F&F get away from the grid, avoid contact at the first corner and then hope a back-marker causes an SC. I also think DRS should not be available for the whole of quali, I reckon this is where RB get a significant advantage with their complicated/barely legal blown exhaust. Assuming the boys manage to get through the first couple of laps and Vettel is not allowed to scamper away (go, Lewis!), I have every confidence that we can get a result worth having. Whatever, we're all praying for the same thing.

[Hornet]

I dont think we have the race pace either to make a 2 stopper work like what Hamilton did in Canada!

I don't think we need 2 stop, the hard tires should be able to last all the way to the end regardless of when we stop. The only concern is if we stopped too early, we may end up behind slower drivers who have yet to make their stop, and we lose time in traffic.