Second Barcelona Test 1st-4th Mar 2012 - news and pics

[Grillo]

Jose Luis says they made some progress in that area with the floor.

@joseluisf1 They (Ferrari) might use a conventional floor as it seems they don't 'understand' this one very well with unexpected performance changes [50 min. ago]

Can't see much progress at all TBH. I just hope everything works fine in Melbourne but my hopes are not based on what I really think from these testing sessions.

[bladeswing]

@joseluisf1 They (Ferrari) might use a conventional floor as it seems they don't 'understand' this one very well with unexpected performance changes

Can't see much progress at all TBH. I just hope everything works fine in Melbourne but my hopes are not based on what I really think from these testing sessions.

so we went from conservative to radical... and now seem to be going backwards again?.. something they can more understand? sigh... i dont want to, but cant help feeling a bit frustrated.

[Matt Pratola]

The original exhaust on the Red Bull was clearly temporary, and never planned to be the raced version. Just look at all the insulation they had on the wishbones due to the original exhaust position. Newey would never design something with such a 'hack'. RB was hiding the true configuration to delay any teams duplicating their approach. Yes Sauber and Mercedes are similar, but the Red Bull looks to be a more advanced implementation.

Now we see the RB8 as it was intended from the start, and this points to the real advantage Red Bull has over Ferrari at the moment. Ferrari launched with its intended 'radical' exhaust, only to find it didn't work properly. They spent the first 2 tests trying different designs, running constant speed aero tests one after the other. Why? Because Ferrari is still lacking the ability to properly model (CFD) and test (wind tunnel) exhaust blown aerodynamics. They don't have good correlation between the design/test environments and the real world. Red Bull on the other hand is so sure they have it right, they don't even bother testing their true package on the track until the last two days of the test. They are that sure it will work. Until Ferrari reaches a similar level of analytical precision they will always be at a major disadvantage. With the very limited testing of modern F1, the team with the best data models will win.

Indeed. 4 years after the rule changes and still the same problems is quite surprising though, don't you think?

[RedRebel40]

Guys I have 1 question, everyone is speaking about the radical Ferrari. But except for the front suspension I don't see anything radical about it?

[Hombre B]

:D

[Hornet]

Guys I have 1 question, everyone is speaking about the radical Ferrari. But except for the front suspension I don't see anything radical about it?

I think its radical in relative to Ferrari's past design.

The transition to pull rod alter a lot of things. Although in terms of suspension performance they are similar, they do have many other effects such as the center of gravity, aero and so on. Other teams already had many years to learn and master pull rod suspension, and we're only starting now.

We're late in adopting pull rod, and unfortunately there's no magical way to suddenly be good at it.

I am excited to see new changes in Ferrari design just like everyone else, but Ferrari will have to slowly find their way around these new ideas. 3 weeks of testing is not enough. 10 years ago, I'd bet Ferrari will be running 4 cars right about now testing the hell out, and then more! Too bad we can't do that now, we can't push our learning process faster due to limited testing.

[Curbs]

Where is FrankAlfa when you need him? His comments give "balance to the force" ;)

[FerrariF60]

Where is FrankAlfa when you need him? His comments give "balance to the force" ;)

i think he's finally realizing himself that we're indeed DOOMED and has bailed ship; possibly on a red bull web site....LOL

[NJB13]

Guys I have 1 question, everyone is speaking about the radical Ferrari. But except for the front suspension I don't see anything radical about it?

Well, bearing in mind that there are so many parts of the car that are prescribed and/or can't change, I think the car is very radical - especially compared to it's immediate predecessors.

Pull-rod rear is radical for us, pull-rod front is radical for all F1 (been 10 years since that was seen). Also, if you look at our front pull-rod especially it is very flat, this is also different.

Look at our version of the nose - in height/width/thickness we are the the most extreme.

Driver positioning, is very changed for us.

The Acer tubes

There's 4 things off the bat that I think are pretty different

[theforce]

I don't think much has changed since the first day of testing this year. Ferrari were and still are trying to understand the car first and then adding more test parts to see how they behave, which shouldn't come as a surprise anymore. Now I see that RedBull brought a new car with some holes and bit all over the rear-end and everyone is thinking of a 2011 season repeat; this makes me laugh

There is a long way to go and I don't think any team will be sleeping soundly. I have full faith in Ferrari and 'Trulli' believe they won't disappoint this year.

[FER]

Do not forget many parts will be shown in Australia.

[Nova]

From F1 Technical.net:

Apart from the changed exhaust position, the Red Bull RB8 now features something that no other team has thought of yet. Not only did the team create a nice slope on the upper side of the sidepods to get the exhaust down onto the top of the diffuser, it also has a duct underneath.

The duct simple pulls air towards the inside of the car, just like is usually the case with a narrowing sidepod. The airflow in the central part of the diffuser is particularly interesting, as teams are allowed there to have a small opening into the diffuser so that the starter can be fitted when the car stalled in the pitlane.

It is crucial that as much air as possible is fed into this, albeit small, opening, as it basically provides the same effect as a double diffuser. As this central airflow would potentially be lost by the change of sidepod shape, a ducted sidepod like this both retains central airflow and allows for a downwash on the exhaust gases, gaining diffuser efficiency both on the central part as well as on the outer extremities because of the powerful exhaust flow.
By Tomba on 03-03-2012 | Aerodynamics

[OSS EL BOSS]

the new front wing ferrari tried yesterday was not used in the race simulation and also not today, it seems i doesnt work, and thats another bad sign as it means the windtunnel date is still diffrent from track data.

[FER]

Have you guys ever followed pre-season testing? Or you just cannot recall it. In Australia we will see unseen solutions in every single top team, so final conclusions have to be made not earlier than Sunday after race.

Do not forget for 1-2 years we were unbeatable in pre-season and were so sure in our good pace Alonso had to praise the car that it was the best one he has ever driven. Only few weeks after we were 1,5 sec. behind Red Bull. Why is it that difficult to realize pre-season is meaning N O T H I N G. Only thing you can read out is when a team is doing less laps, like Mclaren did today. And in this case teams often admit they have had this and that problem, because its obviously.

[Hombre B]

New things (?):

twitpic.com/8ribgy

http://twitpic.com/8ribs1

http://twitpic.com/8ric27

http://twitpic.com/8rican

[f300v10]

the new front wing ferrari tried yesterday was not used in the race simulation and also not today, it seems i doesnt work, and thats another bad sign as it means the windtunnel date is still diffrent from track data.

Not a good sign, but it doesn't mean the new wing didn't work. With reports that the F2012 lacks rear downforce the new front wing may worsen the balance of the car by creating more downforce, causing more oversteer. So while the part may work as intended, overal it may make the car slower until they can add downforce to the rear.

[Curbs]

New things (?):

twitpic.com/8ribgy

http://twitpic.com/8ribs1

http://twitpic.com/8ric27

http://twitpic.com/8rican

YES!!! I hope we get rid of the Acertube and try make the sidepods slim on top...

[M.K]

we have some serious problems with leaks...

[hogo]

New things (?):

twitpic.com/8ribgy

http://twitpic.com/8ribs1

http://twitpic.com/8ric27

http://twitpic.com/8rican

darn spies everywhere :(

[Kyss4k]

It looks bad guys. Admit it finally... The updates we are bringing seem to not working as expected; we are still not sure about our exhoust possition (and scraping the "radical" one); canceling press conferences; we still do not understand the car and why it looses balance and grip (last few seasons we still can't understand something... it's annoying); while McLaren and RedBull are bringing new updates we are going back to the old design, because upgrades are not as good as we were hoping; and the most radical thing on our car is front suspension which no one cares about at it seams (what RedBull showed today, that's an agressive design)

I am sad

[SilverSpeed]

we have some serious problems with leaks...

Yeah it's normal when you get older most elder guys have that kinda problem with uncontrolled leaks.

[Curbs]

It looks bad guys. Admit it finally... The updates we are bringing seem to not working as expected; we are still not sure about our exhoust possition (and scraping the "radical" one); canceling press conferences; we still do not understand the car and why it looses balance and grip (last few seasons we still can't understand something... it's annoying); while McLaren and RedBull are bringing new updates we are going back to the old design, because upgrades are not as good as we were hoping; and the most radical thing on our car is front suspension which no one cares about at it seams (what RedBull showed today, that's an agressive design)

I am sad

At least give the guys tomorrow as well before crying....

[Greig]

Yeah looks bad for us at the moment, we are not where we should be and the others are getting a head start, but things can change, see McLaren last season, poor all winter and turned it around in Australia by taking a step backwards.

[FER]

I bet you have no idea what should be RB agressive design good for, how the solution from today is working and last but not least - is it wokring at all.

[Fer12]

http://s1-04.twitpicproxy.com/photos...jpg?key=900900

The car we are testing looks like its been made pieces of scrap metal..
and with the media thing today,just pray we wont be humiliated again..

[FerrariF60]

Yeah it's normal when you get older most elder guys have that kinda problem with uncontrolled leaks.

LOL....

but joking aside, we don't look too good out there
i'm still trying to be as optimistic as i can, but it's really hard to do so when new things they're trying on dont' seem to work and we have to revert back to more convenctional floor, wing, etc...

i guess we'll have to wait and see once we get to Melbourne where we are in comparison to others, but something tells me "we haven't got a clue where we are" and by we i mean the Ferrari team

[SilverSpeed]

Ok, if it's really that bad as we think then I don't get it. Since when was it? 2009 Whe haven't recovered and season after season has gone FUBAR.

How comes? Well we were to conservative and now we are to agressive and look where that got uss. Still nowhere... I'm getting a bith frustrated here by Ferrari's incapability to cope with the rules and situation here.

But on the other hand remember last year when whe where testing champions, that brought us nowhere at all. Now this year things are completely opposite from last year so maybe we might actually kick ass in Melbourne.

[Kyss4k]

Yeah looks bad for us at the moment, we are not where we should be and the others are getting a head start, but things can change, see McLaren last season, poor all winter and turned it around in Australia by taking a step backwards.

Well, they were competitive in Aus mainly because they succesfully copied RedBull's exhausts. Now, should we be saving ourselfs by copying once again? Damn I was so possitive... and now it looks that we will have 2011 part 2. Damn I wish I was wrong.

[FER]

We havent see final rear, front wing, exhaust and floor of our car so far. That will happen in Australia. Do you have a cristal ball or how do you know how good/bad is Ferrari?

[Greig]

We havent see final rear, front wing, exhaust and floor of our car so far. That will happen in Australia. Do you have a cristal ball or how do you know how good/bad is Ferrari?

No certainly do not have a crystal ball, but so far what we see on track is not good, pulling our drivers from media interviews seems strange also.