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

[Kyss4k]

Well it is not like they have No Grip or No Downforce, it is just that they have a target of what they want to attain and they feel they have not hit that target as dead-on as they like. Everyone has to understand that there are many interacting factors involved with getting the most downforce from a particular design concept. You have to work on getting all of the factors right and then you're more able to hit your desired target. Rules change every year and everyone is forced to find their own best solution. Ferrari has a very good race car but is needs work to be the best and stay there. For all we know the Ferrari F2012 could be the fastest car out there when they finish reveiwing the data and applying the information. The Glass is ALWAYS Half Full! Ferrari are working hard and moving the bar forward!

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

I actually did believe in that too. Damn I need a time machine... I just can't handle this waiting anymore

[FerrariF60]

I fully agree with you!Tomorow we will see the RED one!

the RED what??? the final package called "RED" that we have been hearing about lately??

[Kyss4k]

the RED what??? the final package called "RED" that we have been hearing about lately??

I don't believe there is such thing. I think it was just a bad translation of the Reds -> our team.

[zeus2]

After 7 days of testing in Barcelona, the only definite conclusion is, the new batch of tifosi need to grow bigger balls.

[T van R]

I fully agree with you!Tomorow we will see the RED one!

Even if we didn't see any major differences with installing RED Package tomorrow, Again there is no need to worry, because tests are for the teams not for spectators.
We can't draw any conclusion from these tests.

[Tony]

I am not concerned with the lap times, the comments coming from Ferrari are mostly negative IMO, lot's of "lot's of work" statements which to me suggests we are simply not where we expected to be. And now our drivers not allowed to speak to the media, just seems very negative.

Ferrari don't bluff when it comes to this kind of stuff.... I don't remember (which is possible because of all the alcohol over the years lol) a time that Ferrari has made public statements that were intentionally deciptive regarding testing (they've been vague sure or made comments that testing is for testing parts and solutions, but they would never make comments like "We're not where we want to be" if they didn't mean it).... depending on what we hear tomorrow, I think I am also starting to become concerned a bit about this years car.... I never thought Ferrari would be capable of winning in the first 3 races since this car is quite complex, but if Ferrari show up to Australia and end up 30 seconds down, I will start to be worried....

[Silent Bob]

Well for the members that weren't predicting a Ferrari sweep simply becuase Ferrari has designed a 'radical' car this year, I think most level-headed people believed that Ferrari were in for a bit of a struggle in the beginning. The car has been a handful since day one... doesn't mean it isn't quick, but it seems like it's hard to drive. But with the limited testing and a totally new car... this was always going to be part of the equation. The trick will be seeing how quickly they can develop it to be competitive. Personally, I think we'll be reasonablly quick in qualy.. but struggle throughout the race.

[Grillo]

We can't draw any conclusion from these tests.

Believe it or not, we can.

[Hornet]

Well for the members that weren't predicting a Ferrari sweep simply becuase Ferrari has designed a 'radical' car this year, I think most level-headed people believed that Ferrari were in for a bit of a struggle in the beginning. The car has been a handful since day one... doesn't mean it isn't quick, but it seems like it's hard to drive. But with the limited testing and a totally new car... this was always going to be part of the equation. The trick will be seeing how quickly they can develop it to be competitive. Personally, I think we'll be reasonablly quick in qualy.. but struggle throughout the race.

I agree

There is no any magic wand Ferrari can wave to magically master all the new design or technical ideas we have right now. And it is a fact that 3 weeks of testing has proven to be NOT enough for the team to fully prepare. This is an unfortunately fact we have to accept. There's no way Ferrari can go to Melbourne saying this is our most optimize version of the car, we are fully prepared. No.

Come the first race, Ferrari will still have a lot of work trying to develop and find ways to make the best of this radical new car. Now its just a question of how fast will we be able to understand everything and master this new car.

[ferrari4life]

i will foolishly rely on the hope that after "looking good" comments from Ferrari last winter testing....we are being very conservative with our comments about the car this year.

..at this point who knows for sure where we stand.. all i can say is plan on the worst and hope for the best come AUS.. I am pretty sure that if we stink it up this year then we will probably see some big changes in Ferrari...

[MRRabbit]

Give the guys some slack, it took Schumi & Co 5 years to get a winning car, i'm sure they will figure it out and when they do it will all feel so much sweeter

[FANDO]

Mark Webber plays down Red Bull advantage as it introduces revised car
By Jonathan Noble and Matt Beer Saturday, March 3rd 2012, 16:55 GMT

Mark Webber, Red Bull, Catalunya testing 2012Mark Webber has played down the scale of the update package that Red Bull introduced for the final weekend of pre-season Formula 1 testing - and insists that the champion team faces huge competition at the front of the field.

Red Bull brought its latest chassis to Catalunya today, and the revised RB8 features extensive changes including a new exhaust layout and front wing.

But asked how different the car felt, Webber replied: "Not massively to be honest. A few changes but not massively different, and we got through our normal programme.

[Curbs]

Believe it or not, we can.

Like last year?

[Meiga]

After 7 days of testing in Barcelona, the only definite conclusion is, the new batch of tifosi need to grow bigger balls.

Hopefully you are excluding us ladies from that recommendation...

Hello all, haven't been around for a while (too much work). So give me a short summary of the pre-season , how is it looking?

[T van R]

We can't draw any conclusion from these tests.

Believe it or not, we can.

I don't know what is your point, but just to make it clear, "We" in my sentence refers to "Spectators"

Even teams can't draw a complete conclusion from these tests, because they don't know How much is the real potential of their rivals.

[Greig]

In general if you have a good car in testing it transfers to racedays, the teams off course have a very good idea of the rivals pace.

[Avantifer12]

Hello all, haven't been around for a while (too much work). So give me a short summary of the pre-season , how is it looking?[QUOTE]

I would say we are doing reasonable good we do not have the best car in some areas but we have one of the best. You have to remember that pre-season testing is just testing and you can't tell who is doing good based on the test. Scuderia Ferrari have a good base and that is maybe not what we want because we want a winning car from start but now we have a good base and that is what Scuderia Ferrari needs because we have the best mangement, engineers, drivers and the best men and women in the factory back home in maranello and they will work flat out until we have that winning car, they will never give up because we are Ferrari.
In the end of the day, testing is testing, all we can do is show our support and watch the best team in the world work as usual

[Kyss4k]

Hopefully you are excluding us ladies from that recommendation...

Hello all, haven't been around for a while (too much work). So give me a short summary of the pre-season , how is it looking?

Updates not working, unexpected looses of downforce on the exits of corners, hardly finished exhausts, but a lot of people here still believe we are in a good shape Hopefully they are right.

[FerrariF60]

i've seen these picture somewhere and wondered, is the man with the hose just topping off the tank for the pneumatic valves, or is he doing something clever like raising or lowering the ride height?

i thought we fixed that issue we had with our engines in 2010 when they kept on blowing up due to pneumatic valve issues; that's when we asked the FIA for permission to modify/improve the design so that we didn't have to use the air to top it up during the race since the pit stops are only 3 or so seconds nowadays becasue of NO refueling, hence NO time to top up the air bottle during a pit stop.

but i could be wrong, maybe it is something clever...us fans can only hope

Attachment 4617

[Meiga]

Thank you, Avantifer and Kyss - it sounds like the typical pre-season rollercoaster, one day good and one day bad. Well, let's remember how confident we felt during the 2011 pre-season, only to be disappointed later, and how shaky McLaren looked ony to come back spectacularly. Hopefully this time it will be all the way round!

[FER]

In general if you have a good car in testing it transfers to racedays, the teams off course have a very good idea of the rivals pace.

So Alonso just wanted to make himself look like an idiot in front of the whole world saying its the best car he has driven and staying 1,5 sec. behind RB later on. And same for the whole team which was so confident in the good job they have achieved in the pre-season.

[Kyss4k]

So Alonso just wanted to make himself look like an idiot in front of the whole world saying its the best car he has driven and staying 1,5 sec. behind RB later on. And same for the whole team which was so confident in the good job they have achieved in the pre-season.

Fernando said that about F10. Not F150.

[Rob]

[zeus2]

Hopefully you are excluding us ladies from that recommendation...

Hello all, haven't been around for a while (too much work). So give me a short summary of the pre-season , how is it looking?

Nope, includes everyone (wouldn't want to be sexist or anything) .

Pre-season summary

[FER]

Fernando said that about F10. Not F150.

Doesnt matter. Teams doesnt know anything. Same according drivers, so its pointless trying to read out technical facts from Alonsos art of scratching his nose.

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

Looks like Ferrari have the downforce and grip but they are lacking largely in the aerodynamics again which is a shame. Anyway tomorrow is the last day, and i'll hold my breath until melbourne.
We can forget about winning for the time being, lets just hope we have a competitive car able to challenge for podiums.

[SashAlex]

Can tolerate anothe season of RB dominance.........................Hate to see that finger again

We also had like 5 years of full dominance in the 2000s. To be honest, I'm having more fun now watching F1 than in the Shumi era. Since 2007, it's been up&down, great wins and tough to swallow losses in 2008 and 2010, and that's the beauty about being a diehard fan. You can never win, especially win easily. The name is not enough to make the car faster, even top engineers because F1 is a very complicated world where things change quickly.

Be patient and have fun. You can't always have Todts and Brawns. Sometimes you have to deal with Domenicallis as a Ferrari fan. Try to imagine how did Ferrari fans feel in the 80s and 90s.

FORZA Ferrari !

[Speedy_Chris]

Hi all, finally read through all of today's events I have to say that although it didn't make for 'positive' reading you just have to take a step back a year and look at how Mclaren changed things around within such a short space of time...after the final test day tomorrow we have just under two weeks to analyse the situation and figure out how best to have car that delivers consistent handling performance & manage the pirelli tyre's. I find it a little extreme all the bashing Ferrari's been on the received end of, after last years performance we were dubbed as being 'conservative', now we're too 'aggressive'. Can't knock the guys for changing things around, there's always going to be a transition period, lets just hope they get things sorted sooner rather than later.

As long as nando's within 4 tenths of pole in Oz we will win the championship

[F1NAC]

Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham, 1:22.630,

[SashAlex]

Heikki Kovalainen, Caterham, 1:22.630,

Yes. Everyone is saying that they have a much quicker car this year compared to the previous ones.