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

[NanoTheQuickest]

The F2012 is just a blank canvas with great potential, that's the way I see it! I seriously hope to see this canvas evolving to a great world of art sooner than later though...

[PURE PASSION]

All i can say is that i don't care so much about how competitive is our car(even if it's painfull if it's not),but i i feel sad when i see my beloved team act like today.What is this thing that they don't allowed our drivers to speak to the media!!!!What are they afraid off!!!Don't they see that they are making things worse!!!Bad car or not i prefer them to face the reality!!!The drivers are professional and part of there job is to face the journalists in good times and in the worse!!!

[gazoz]

Supporting the team is one thing and living in fools paradise is another thing.........

i think if you really are a fan you should at least wait till season starts first or second GP before your negative virus starts spilling over , give them time if the car turns out to be cra p then you can become a RB fan paradise

[NanoTheQuickest]

Nothing too new but here is Ted on the RB new chassis/exhaust:

http://www1.skysports.com/formula1/video/18305/7564281

[Jose Lorca]

The rear of the car was designed around an exhaust position that didnt work properly and based on this, it's likely that the Acer duct is still causing some problems and contributing to the lack of sufficient rear downforce. Tomorrow we will not be using the Acer duct so lets see what effect that has on the car. As McLaren showed last year, a simpler solution can be a lot more effective.

The only other problem I'm a bit concerned with is tyre management, but we have Hamashima.

Even with the problems we've had so far, there have been positive comments about our car coming from respected people like Windsor and Anderson. This car has great potential.

[scuderiafan]

The rear of the car was designed around an exhaust position that didnt work properly and based on this, it's likely that the Acer duct is still causing some problems and contributing to the lack of sufficient rear downforce. Tomorrow we will not be using the Acer duct so lets see what effect that has on the car. As McLaren showed last year, a simpler solution can be a lot more effective.

The only other problem I'm a bit concerned with is tyre management, but we have Hamashima.

Even with the problems we've had so far, there have been positive comments about our car coming from respected people like Windsor and Anderson. This car has great potential.

yep. let's wait until Bahrain/Mugello to work out the acer duct. i'm sure it has a purpose, other than make acer love this.

[Dunerider51]

We did turn in the fourth fastest time on hard tires as I recall.....

[Crucial_Xtreme]

Fernando Alonso made statement to Spanish press tonight during a Barcelona football match, asked about Ferrari he said:

“We are well, although we still have many things to improve”.

“We are now in the last days of coaches(testing) and want to see where we are.” “We have work and we must tighten the teeth and keep improving little by little,”

[Sianellen]

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.

I agree with this. It does seem a strange thing to do.

[ferrari4life]

"want to see where we are" ...maybe a fast lap finally?

[scuderiafan]

"want to see where we are" ...maybe a fast lap finally?

Yeah and maybe for once they actually bolt on all the pieces they want to instead is individually test them.

[FrankAlfa]

The order to not talk to the media is focused on so much negative press. The less Ferrari says the better! Let the drivers talk to the Engineers and let the car speak for itself. All this talk and critic of a race car that has not been raced in anger yet to see where its limits are? As far as Jose Lorca's statements, I don't think what he is saying is total nonsense but the car is not designed purely around one celement. All of these race car shapes are based on air flow to exert downforce on certain areas of the race car. So we have to ask ourselves, how much are the exhaust gases aiding air flow to the diffuser and rear wing??? In the end the rules were revised to take the exhaust gases out of the equation and stop influencing the stream of air flow to the rear diffuser and rear wing. The rule change both the angle and the distance to the rear elements race car to make the exhaust more of a non-issue.

My personal feeling is there should be an effort to capture and channel / smooth out the air from the outer edges of the race car then direct air flow toward the center of the coke bottle shape, toward the central portion of the rear wing. I think that elements in the floor and maybe some tuning element on the engine cover are a better solution to channel and compress the air at the the rear wing and diffuser are better than the use of exhaust gases.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

[gazoz]

The order to not talk to the media is focused on so much negative press. The less Ferrari says the better! Let the drivers talk to the Engineers and let the car speak for itself. All this talk and critic of a race car that has not been raced in anger yet to see where its limits are? As far as Jose Lorca's statements, I don't think what he is saying is total nonsense but the car is not designed purely around one celement. All of these race car shapes are based on air flow to exert downforce on certain areas of the race car. So we have to ask ourselves, how much are the exhaust gases aiding air flow to the diffuser and rear wing??? In the end the rules were revised to take the exhaust gases out of the equation and stop influencing the stream of air flow to the rear diffuser and rear wing. The rule change both the angle and the distance to the rear elements race car to make the exhaust more of a non-issue.

My personal feeling is there should be an effort to capture and channel / smooth out the air from the outer edges of the race car then direct air flow toward the center of the coke bottle shape, toward the central portion of the rear wing. I think that elements in the floor and maybe some tuning element on the engine cover are a better solution to channel and compress the air at the the rear wing and diffuser are better than the use of exhaust gases.

Ciao.

Forza Ferrari!!!!

i personally don't understand how all media and fans here are writing us off before they have had a chance to see what the car can do, actually i have no doubt what so ever that Ferrari will get it right maybe and a Big maybe not this year and if that happens then its tough for us fans but at least let them understand there own car first, last year they were ready to give the championship to Ferrari before Melbourne then look at what happened, i think only Ferrari knows whats going on with car so all other so called experts need to take a positive approach
frank your posts are always constructive and thanks for the info lets hope all goes well for melbourne

[sorcereur]

I actually think this decision to avoid the press has more to do with the press desperately looking to twist words, and create drama. 24hours ago the press were spreading rumors that Massa was bashed effective immediately. That definitely did not come from inside Ferrari. More than likely Massa, and even Alonso, would've been flooded with these questions/talks, and it would've caused more distraction. Because of that I actually think Ferrari did the best thing to shield their drivers so they can focus on the job at hand. Makes perfect sense to me.
I remember Hamilton making a comment during his rookie year about going out the night before races.. He said that last thing you want is somebody getting in your face, or doing something stupid. Then that will be a distraction, because it will be something you'll be thinking about.

[RedRebel40]

Guys easy dont panic yet. After the first GP we have a clear idea where we are standing.

maybe some of you can remember how bad we were doing at the 2004 season testing. We all know how that ended. Now I dont mean that we are going to dominate them, but Ferrari has exceptional good employees and facilitys to turn this possible negative situation into a positive one.

[Grillo]

Like last year?

I don't know what you mean.

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.

We are not talking about the real potential, we are not saying things can't be fine in Melbourne, we are commenting on what we are seeing right now. In normal circumstances, we won't know the real potential of the car until the championship is nearly finished.

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.

He said that in 2010 not last season.

[FIAT PALIO]

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 !

I fully agree with you mate,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, just wrote it out of frustration

[NJB13]

Perhaps some of us are reading far too much, and making too many assumption about our teams statements during testing. Pretty much all our statements have been that we have a lot of work to do. The reason given for Nando and Felipe not being available to the press was to stay focused with the work load. So many interpretation and assumptions in posts here over the testing period, perhaps a good case to apply Occam's razon - the reason we are where we are at right now (which seems fine to me) is because we "really" have a lot of work to do, and we "really" do need to stay focused in the wind up of testing and the lead up to Melbourne.

FrankAlfa - spot on mate

[scuderia_alaska]

If you bolt on every new piece you've designed it is much harder to tell which parts are contributing to performance gains or losses. They must be tested individually against familiar baseline data. This work is very time consuming and must be done with very careful consideration. I think this is the reason we keep putting new parts on the car only to change them and try something else.

Some people have apparently expected Ferrari could adopt a new philosophy of car design and make it work immediately upon hitting the tarmac. Wind tunnels and CFD programs are excellent tools to assist the design of a car but the only way to prove a new design works on a race track is to race it on a track.

Personally I am enjoying watching Ferrari get to know their new toy.

[scuderia_alaska]

I don't know what you mean.

He means last year everyone declared Ferrari's winter test a success, then we got whooped when it really counts... In a race.

[meh123]

Holy crap all our tire data is on twitter now

http://twitpic.com/show/iphone/8rm0u3

[Forza 27]

Holy crap all our tire data is on twitter now

http://twitpic.com/show/iphone/8rm0u3

@piusgasso more information about # pirelli alonso ...

A better picture.

Todos los datos vuelta de las ruedas pirelli de fernando alonso. pirelli ferrari circuitc at formula one f2012 testf1.

The data you can read by yourself.
Ps. I don't certify the authenticity of this material.

[Sempre_Ferrari]

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

u absolutely correct...I expalined this in a post earier on. the "Le Rosse" (The Reds) is an affectioante name for the team

[Fer12]

This is just ridiculous..how can such sensitive data be so easily available on the net...

[SAEED]

Won't it be a good idea to inform Ferrari of these leaks?

[Hornet]

They might as well live stream all the data on the internet for everyone to read

Sighhh

[hogo]

I guess this is the guy that is leaking sensitive data...

[EL NANO]

Relax guys, these pics aren't real, there is no way Ferrari would let anyone take a pic like that!! I believe if they are genuine the data is incorrect to "misinform" the competition, nothing wrong with playing little games ...

[PURE PASSION]

This is it!!!!The final pre-season test!!!!Hope for the best!!!!!

[Nisko]

How many umbrellas does it take to hide a Red Bull exhaust?