Ferrari F2012

[Hail22]

I would believe Pete Windsor, the guy is trackside at nearly every grand prix has good contacts in every team.

He's a trustworthy, reliable source (he's not going to flame/sugarcoat the situation) but he's not exactly the best source of technical/driving observations

Yeah, apparently Keke Rosberg says the general paddock consesus is that the car is a failure.

Yet the same person said Ferrari couldn't catch Mclaren in 2007, he has a poor track record of reporting "facts" I'm on Paddy Lowes side when he stated that possibly Ferrari and Mclaren are on a similar programme which means Friday will be Mclaren and Ferraris dial in run?

[Hush]

Well, I'm not the kind to dismiss what anyone says. The team seem to be following a very specific test program and there is no way to know the relative performance until Australia.

Until then I will just read the comments even though hearing the car has handling troubles doesn't give me a world of confidence.

[raymondu999]

People often say "handling problems' when they see the car sliding in/out of corners, etc. So what? Think back to the Schumacher-Ferrari heydays. In qualifying you'd see Schumacher making many such mistakes, as with Sunday warmup. Most of the times he was just testing the limits of the car - which he was very diligently good at.

[bhall]

So, which is it? (Or is this just testing, and neither mean a thing?)

I must admit that this was more of a statement than a question, a subtle jab at the fallacy of drawing conclusions after the first two days of testing. The only thing we really know for certain at this point is that the F2012 is red.

Moreover, Ferrari was very quick during last season's preseason tests, and I think we all remember how well that worked out.

[Hail22]

So, which is it? (Or is this just testing, and neither mean a thing?)

I must admit that this was more of a statement than a question, a subtle jab at the fallacy of drawing conclusions after the first two days of testing. The only thing we really know for certain at this point is that the F2012 is red.

Moreover, Ferrari was very quick during last season's preseason tests, and I think we all remember how well that worked out.

Agreed and furthermore it seems Ferrari has decided to be less Arrogant this year and become more humble, thorough with their programme.

[raymondu999]

...a subtle jab at the fallacy of drawing conclusions after the first two days of testing. The only thing we really know for certain at this point is that the F2012 is red...

You can't be serious. That is absolutely preposterous.

We also know it is powered by a Ferrari engine, which exhausts its waste gases from two pipes; one on either side. It has 4 black Pirelli-branded wheels; has pullrods front and rear. We know FOR SURE it is fitted with two wings; and a diffuser, and that it is controlled via pedals, a steering wheel, and a number of buttons, knobs and paddles on said wheel.

Your comment obviously can't be taken seriously /end sarcasm

In any case. bhallq2k is absolutely right. Testing times; heck probably even handling characteristics visible in testing; might not hold true when the actual season is underway...

[MIKEY_!]

It seems that we have learned very little about the car since the old preseason speculation thread

[Donuts]

...a subtle jab at the fallacy of drawing conclusions after the first two days of testing. The only thing we really know for certain at this point is that the F2012 is red...

You can't be serious. That is absolutely preposterous.

We also know it is powered by a Ferrari engine, which exhausts its waste gases from two pipes; one on either side. It has 4 black Pirelli-branded wheels; has pullrods front and rear. We know FOR SURE it is fitted with two wings; and a diffuser, and that it is controlled via pedals, a steering wheel, and a number of buttons, knobs and paddles on said wheel.

Your comment obviously can't be taken seriously /end sarcasm

In any case. bhallq2k is absolutely right. Testing times; heck probably even handling characteristics visible in testing; might not hold true when the actual season is underway...

Well, you need to do much more of an in depth analysis than I've seen anyone do on f1technical. No one has the time or simply takes the easy way out and specualtes. But a combination of an in depth study of stints, laptimes and tyres(Jerez Circuit Timing) togheter with the info from someone at the circuit(autosport plus has some interesting articles) would be as close as we could come to a qualified guess. Beacuse, somehow the teams have a pretty good understanding of who is competitive and who's not at the end of testing. There is also always some kind of hint from the drivers, even if it's not direct(Jense having a good look at Force India and Red Bull or Masa starting to moan about "much work").

[FrukostScones]

I assume that the car at the moment is a dog ( I read somewhere that "the car" was difficult to drive even on the simulator).Now they can show tha they are able to respond like McLaren last year.
My question is: did Ferrari know that they could have build a V-nose? Or did they sacrifice a smooth nose for their front-pull-rod-suspension. Do they have a lose-lose-situation now? And with this much rake we have seen, the kink sits like a wall right in the wind.
I hope they get everthing sorted, not because Ferrari is my team, but with only McLaren going after the Red Bull (which looks so simple, refined and clever) it could be a more boring season than the last one.

[raymondu999]

The only thing that we truly can read, IMO, is probably how easy the car is to drive; and how well it can take care of the tyres; based upon how consistent the lap times are.

[bhall]

[...] powered by a Ferrari engine, which exhausts its waste gases from two pipes; one on either side.

Or so the Italians would have us believe...

Everyone is, of course, free to make up their own mind about Ferrari's performance. Personally, I'm going to give them more than two days to figure out the car's all pull rod suspension, tire wear characteristics, exhaust configuration, aerodynamic properties, cooling requirements, KERS integration, etc., not to mention all of the "little" things for which the team does NOT have to start from scratch, those teething problems that are inherent with testing a new car.

And I'd certainly like to reserve judgment on the F2012 until the team's two-time World Champion gets behind the wheel for at least a lap or two.

It's also probably worth noting that McLaren's MP4/26 was left for dead at the conclusion of the winter tests last year.

[Hail22]

Alonso's first lap a 1:32:546...

Also the track temperature today is 0.6 centregrade, hardly a testing day absolutely horrible.

Unless Pirelli have some arctic treads?

[Daniele M]

I'm very curious to see how fernando feels with the pull rod, he did drive a pull rod car before, the minardi ps01 in 2001. For sure he will be faster than felipe.

[Tozza Mazza]

You can't learn anything from testing.

May I remind you all of last season.

Everyone thought Mercedes was the 2nd fastest car, Williams and STR would be challenging for podiums, and Mclaren would be tailenders...

[FrukostScones]

You can't learn anything from testing.

May I remind you all of last season.

Everyone thought Mercedes was the 2nd fastest car, Williams and STR would be challenging for podiums, and Mclaren would be tailenders...

No, I ( and many others) thought the Merc was a tyre eating dog, and it was.