2012 Chinese GP - Qualifying Thread

[T van R]

The car has became quicker with that five updates. Updates are a step forward Well done Ferrari

[Imperatore]

Still off the pace but at least Ferrari are improving a little, the good news is that the field is rather close this year which will help.

[Julius]

Well done Ferrari

I wouldn't go so far and claim "well done" just now. The car is crap which is something we all know. You really have to stretch imagination to feel good about any minor update.

[Chicane]

yah its a crappy car..but lets keep the faith..were leading because of team effort and this strength i believe will transform us to many podiums and win this season..its long season its just round 3/20

[scuderiafan]

What happened guys? I slept in. :
Wh is everyone so happy? The gap to pole is still 1.3s and and though gap to Lewis is 1s, so improvement over Sepang.

[Chicane]

well done..cause atleast were leading and because of alonso and good overall team effort..
masssa right now..i dont know..good luck to him..and his future team maybe..

[Hornet]

Still off the pace but at least Ferrari are improving a little, the good news is that the field is rather close this year which will help.

I honestly didn't see any improvement.

Our qualifying results isn't that different from Sepang. The Renault of RG didn't set a time, or Alonso may have dropped to P10. So, our performance is similar to what we saw in Sepang, at least from what I can see.

[OSS EL BOSS]

Speed trap:

Driver Speed
Sergio Perez 322.4
Kamui Kobayashi 319.6
Jean-Eric Vergne 319.4
Romain Grosjean 318.4
Daniel Ricciardo 316.8
Vitaly Petrov 315.9
Heikki Kovalainen 315.8
Kimi Räikkönen 314.9
Bruno Senna 314.5
Michael Schumacher 314.1
Pastor Maldonado 313.9
Nico Hulkenberg 313.8
Nico Rosberg 313.8
Paul di Resta 313.5
Jenson Button 313.4
Lewis Hamilton 313.2
Fernando Alonso 312.7
Felipe Massa 312.6
Sebastian Vettel 311.5
Mark Webber 311.3
Narain Karthikeyan 311.0
Pedro de la Rosa 310.3
Charles Pic 307.7

Sauber and Toro Rosso are the fastest on the straights and both teams have Ferrari engines! They were also last year the quickest.
That means our engine is the strongest because the only thing the two cars are sharing is the Ferrari engine.
Why are we then not so quick? Because we have more downforce? No we dont!
Our car has a lot of drag but no downforce! We are very in need to some good aerodynamicists.
But the team is already looking for them:
548104_226278354146150_100002919607319_401707_60250326_n.jpg

[scuderiafan]

Well Ferrari have to compromise drag right now, to make the rear of the car stick a little.e I think one they get the df, they will take the compromises off.

P.s I thought Vettel was as good a qualifier as Senna??? getting found out now.

[mark p]

Similar to Malaysia is good we won. True gap here was not a second it's closer. Big factor here wasn't aero etc it was getting tyres into a small operating window and no team knows the secret as Kobayashi is not 8 tenths faster than Perez Buttons not that far behind Hamilton same with the Merc pair. Element of luck to tyres we could have been with Kimi. With this ray of light I'm quite happy compared to Aus and Mal quali. In a normal dry race we can get top 5 on merit.

[Jas]

nice to see where all satisfied with P9 and P12...is this what it has come to!!!! updates have worked and as pat said, the track does not suit the cars characteristics, lets see in Bahrain boys....and rain baby...rain!!!!!!!!

[Alfettafan]

I think we have to stop kidding ourselves here and face up to the fact that this car is the worst since 1992. There is no way you can start the season this far behind and hope, not only to catch up but, to get in front of the rest of the field. We didn't manage it 1992 when there was still unlimited testing allowed and I hate to say it but I doubt very much we will manage it now. Our only hope is to be around to pick up the pieces when it goes wrong for others as in Malaysia and that is not going to happen often enough or consistently enough to win championships. Time for a complete re-think on the car front, never mind tinkering with "upgrades"...

[T van R]

I honestly didn't see any improvement.

Our qualifying results isn't that different from Sepang. The Renault of RG didn't set a time, or Alonso may have dropped to P10. So, our performance is similar to what we saw in Sepang, at least from what I can see.

I know our car still fifth or sixth quickest but It depends how you analyze the situation.

In my point of view:
1: It is a good news that updates have worked very well.
2: Both Mercedes were quick in qualifying because of DRS-W-Duct but in the race they can't always use DRS-W-Duct so realistically top qualifying time in Chinese GP is about 1:35.600.

So when you compare Qualifying3 times in Malaysian GP with Chinese GP realistically:

Malaysian Qualifying3 top time was 01:36.219 and Our top time was 01.37.566 so the gap was 00:01.347
Chinese Qualifying3 realistic top time is 01:35.600 and Our top time is 01:36.622 so the gap is 00:01.022

So our five updates make F2012 00:00:325 quicker in Chinese GP despite the fact that As pat Fry said those five updates won't show that much in Chinese GP because the Chinese circuit characteristics doesn't suit F2012 well.

[Alfa159]

Alonso says the car isn't suited to this circuit, so far it hasn't been suited to any circuit.

[Fer12]

I honestly didn't see any improvement.

Our qualifying results isn't that different from Sepang. The Renault of RG didn't set a time, or Alonso may have dropped to P10. So, our performance is similar to what we saw in Sepang, at least from what I can see.

It was a noticeable improvement in the car...U could see in on the onboard footage the car was not fighting the driver inputs as much as before...
Also we cant compare the Mercedes lap because they were set on used set of tyres..i think ours was on tyres used in Q2...Realistically we have to compare times set in Q2 or compare times of teams using used set of tyres...ie Red bull..We are only 3 tenths away from wat Webber did today...

[scuderiafan]

I think rain is forecast for before the race, so they could start on a wet track. But maybe no rain during the race. Although the team did say that the race pace should be better.

Edit: Alonso interview.
http://www.skysports.com/video/inlin...671955,00.html

[Jas]

anybody have the team statements after quali, ferrari website is down for me

[hogo]

Alonso says the car isn't suited to this circuit, so far it hasn't been suited to any circuit.

^ this, as Pat said we will struggle in China because of straights and slow corners, but which track doesn't have straights and slow corners? O.o

I seriously hope we are building entirely new car atm, cos the one we have is garbage.

[Jose Lorca]

Same quotes, different headlines:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17712864
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98817

[Jose Lorca]

Today it was a good job by our drivers. Very pleased that Vettel is out in Q2 and I hope Massa can make hold him up for a while - to me Vettel is still our biggest threat to the title because Red Bull aren't that far behind the leader and Vettel is devastatingly quick when the car is handling how he wants it to.

Our pace in Q2 was encouraging. We WILL have a new car for Spain.

[scuderiafan]

Same quotes, different headlines:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17712864
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98817

Sector times. Sector 3 is a killer, but still 3 tenths off Hamilton there. so maybe a lot of the difference is that DRS duct.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre...ng-sectors.pdf

But top speed isn't THAT much worse than McLaren's for this race.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre...fying-trap.pdf

[Jose Lorca]

China radar update 16:13 CST: Rain / showers expected soon, could last up to 7 hours. This has massive implications for tomorrow
http://twitter.com/#!/radarguruf1/st...76805808095232

Leaving the circuit just as the predicted rain begins to fall here in Shanghai. Plenty of rain forecast for tonight to wash track clean.
http://twitter.com/#!/voxvocis/statu...93875341922305

So a dry race for tomorrow but rain overnight will have an effect. IIRC Pat Fry said our performs better in the low-grip conditions. So maybe a good result is a realistic possibility.

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

Sector times. Sector 3 is a killer, but still 3 tenths off Hamilton there. so maybe a lot of the difference is that DRS duct.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre...ng-sectors.pdf

But top speed isn't THAT much worse than McLaren's for this race.
http://www.fia.com/en-GB/mediacentre...fying-trap.pdf

Hey, check out this website here, it's fantastic.

[Jack]

So we have Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel in the midfield. And two Mercs which will destroy very quickly their tyres at the first line.

The race looks promising.

[Kiwi Nick]

"The car has became quicker with that five updates. Updates are a step forward Well done Ferrari"

Really, really. Ferrari qualified 9th and 12th at Sepang and 9th and 12th in Shanghai. Yes the car is faster but so is everybody else except Vettel who chose not to use the updated exhaust.

Don't over look the fact that the driver who set fastest lap in the last race is starting on the second row of the grid. He starts behind 2 cars whose big advantage is a DRS which they cannot use while in the lead, Kimi is a real threat for a podium or win.

[f300v10]

"The car has became quicker with that five updates. Updates are a step forward Well done Ferrari"

Really, really. Ferrari qualified 9th and 12th at Sepang and 9th and 12th in Shanghai. Yes the car is faster but so is everybody else except Vettel who chose not to use the updated exhaust.

I don't agree. Looking at the time gaps, and not the positions, Alonso is MUCH closer to the top times. In Malasia he was 1.1 seconds from pole. Comparing his Q2 time to pole he is now only .8 seconds off. And comparing to Hamilton he went from 1.1 seconds back in Malasia to 0.35 in China. To me that is a considerable improvement. I think part of that is down to the nature of the track as all the cars are closer (baring the 'qualifying special' that is the 2012 Mercedes). But I think clear progress was made today by Ferrari.

[Kyss4k]

I know our car still fifth or sixth quickest but It depends how you analyze the situation.

In my point of view:
1: It is a good news that updates have worked very well.
2: Both Mercedes were quick in qualifying because of DRS-W-Duct but in the race they can't always use DRS-W-Duct so realistically top qualifying time in Chinese GP is about 1:35.600.

So when you compare Qualifying3 times in Malaysian GP with Chinese GP realistically:

Malaysian Qualifying3 top time was 01:36.219 and Our top time was 01.37.566 so the gap was 00:01.347
Chinese Qualifying3 realistic top time is 01:35.600 and Our top time is 01:36.622 so the gap is 00:01.022

So our five updates make F2012 00:00:325 quicker in Chinese GP despite the fact that As pat Fry said those five updates won't show that much in Chinese GP because the Chinese circuit characteristics doesn't suit F2012 well.

Our top time is 1:35:982 Why are you guys keep ignoring it?

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

Our top time is 1:35:982 Why are you guys keep ignoring it?

Exactly, we are getting closer, there is no doubt

[Kiwi Nick]

There are still 9 cars that turned in times faster 1:35:982. And it would likely have been 10 had Vettel not opted to stick with the old style exhaust. Alonso was slower than both Mercs, both Maccas, both Saubers, Both Lotus, and one Red Bull. Is Ferrari closer? Perhaps, but for a man who many say is the best on the grid to be slower than a rookies in a Lotus and a Sauber is not comforting He will also be starting behind Lewis, Button and Weber, who will not be easy to overtake.

They don't award points for how fast you go but for how many cars you beat.

[Dino]

Our boys at the factory should really take a very close look at the Sauber's aero/penetration/drag numbers.
Kobayashi's speed at the trap is 10 kph faster than Alonso's while at the same time he does the same times in sector 1 where downforce counts a lot!!
Just goes to show it is not so difficult to improve our car quite significantly from here on!!