Ferrari F2012

[banibhusan]

Firing Massa won't solve their problem. You give Massa a car, something like the F2008, and then if he makes mistakes then you can probably think about it. Even if he is 1 second slower than Alonso, we all know what Alonso is capable of.

This qualifying showed that no one was sandbagging in the testing. Everyone suspected Merc, RBR, Lotus and mclaren to be strong and they are. Though no one expected that RBR wont be the fastest.

And we still dunno what the Ferrari is capable of in the hands of Alonso. He may would have been able to find another few tenths if he could have managed a proper lap, without any mistake. But that's a big IF.

[timbo]

Some strange Q2 strategy for Massa. He stayed out on track for almost full 15 minutes. Maybe they still try to learn what to do with race setup.

[FakeAlonso]

Guys I support the team but I stick to my initial belief they don't fully understand the car. I hope they will sort a few things out for Malaysia but maybe they should redesign the car.

[Nando]

Perhaps, except that this was FP2 and I saw a car with inherent handling issues being exposed by low traction.

...On a drying racetrack.

Alonso would have been in the mix in Q3 had he set another banker in Q2.

[sknguy]

Some quotes from Alonso: "I think we possibly could be a bit better, maybe top 10. What we need to concentrate on is the top speed."... "We need to change the direction quickly if we are to challenge for the championship. We have to react."

They'll probably fair better in the race tomorrow. But following this race I do hope they end up ditching the flared side pods and go with a more traditional design approach. Whatever concept they were working on with the side pods exits needs to be refined in some other way.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

It will be worse tomorrow. Like Alonso said, the top speed of this car is terrible, the F2012 is 15 KM/h slower than the Mclaren or Mercedes.

[lillschumi]

I think it´s all down to bad timing. Last year they missed the EBD train, they took the decision to sack Costa and some more and go aggressive this year. Then EBD were banned for this year but taht decision came way to late for Ferrari, they had choosen their route.

Had they stuck to orginal 2011 concept and refined it to 2012 they would have been fine.

And then Massa plain suck. If the car is not top notch he can´t deliver.

[Ra8]

Looks like the car is serious crap. No offence guys but again at least 1,5s a lap down is simply too much. They would be better of with adapting last years car.


From observation how the car handles it has some serious problems with back end. It lacks top speed obviously, and mechanical grip is nowhere to be seen. It seems to me that Ferrari can forget about the title again this year.

We still have to see tomorrows race but I highly doubt it could change that drastically.

PS: Massa 1s off Alonso even with more quick laps... AleF.luya. Then the car is not only 1,5s off pace, its 2s off. Midfield it is...

[mahesh248f1]

And then Massa plain suck. If the car is not top notch he can´t deliver.

You can say that about a lot of drivers who don't suck. There is a serious problem with this car. It's looking like a much bigger one than last year. Those acer ducts are at least part of the problem but they can't be all of it, something more is going on here.

Inevitably people are going to get fired at Ferrari this season if they don't so something significant.

I have a bad feeling that this is Massa's last season at Ferrari, it not because he is a bad driver, we know he can be good , provided there is a better car , but right now he is at the receiving end of the all the bad stuff happening at Ferrari.

[AdrianoZed]

Hi guys, long time reader of the forums first time posting and long time devoted F1 fan.

Anyway it keeps getting mentioned in the media and forums how "aggresive","extreme" the car is and how the team was blamed last year for beeing too conservative.
What exactly about the car, (on the technical side) makes it so "aggresive" ?

Other than the pull-rod front suspension, exhaust position which is similar to Mclarens but placed further back, vertical radiators, to the naked eye the car looks much same as the others.


In my humble oppinion it was a mistake for them to have a kneejerk reaction to the media blasting them, firing Costa and taking on Pat Fry. Nothing against Fry but i think they would have been in a much better position if they didnt go so "aggresive" as media says and stuck to their old concepts of last years cars, which were relatively competitive and would have had better change to challenge this year. Hindsight eh....

Side note, there are some very knowlagde people on these forums and jeez some trollers to match.

[motobaleno]

I think most of you are too nervous: tha car is lacking top speed and this could be expected due to the aero inefficiency of the sidepods (they are to be reshaped until the new exhaust concept will work and also this was not new).
Nevertheless no one noticed thatas far as alonso was on track (that is to say first tire set on q2) his performance was more or less the same of RBR...after that all the drvers improved their performance with the second tire set in Q2 and the whole Q3 but you can't compare those futher laptimes with alonso ones...
My final consideration (limited to the firts qualify of the season) is that ferrari is possibly half second behind top teams and maybe less behind RBR.
The car is remarkably complex and there is much room to improve...
It could be worse.

[s91066]

I think it´s all down to bad timing. Last year they missed the EBD train, they took the decision to sack Costa and some more and go aggressive this year. Then EBD were banned for this year but taht decision came way to late for Ferrari, they had choosen their route.

Had they stuck to orginal 2011 concept and refined it to 2012 they would have been fine.

And then Massa plain suck. If the car is not top notch he can´t deliver.

The EBD was Ferrari's big win. They were pushing like mads FIA and they managed that. As said earlier, the issue is that either they lack innovation, or tools. I cannot accept the fact that they are the only big team that cannot correlate CFD/WT data with track data.

[kris]

I think most of you are too nervous: tha car is lacking top speed and this could be expected due to the aero inefficiency of the sidepods (they are to be reshaped until the new exhaust concept will work and also this was not new).
Nevertheless no one noticed thatas far as alonso was on track (that is to say first tire set on q2) his performance was more or less the same of RBR...after that all the drvers improved their performance with the second tire set in Q2 and the whole Q3 but you can't compare those futher laptimes with alonso ones...
My final consideration (limited to the firts qualify of the season) is that ferrari is possibly half second behind top teams and maybe less behind RBR.
The car is remarkably complex and there is much room to improve...
It could be worse.

Yes they looked competitive as long as alonso was driving it. But the car seems to have issues, twichy for one, which they would need to resolve. We still cant confirm they are too bad, only in long runs do things like cooling, reliability and tire wear show up. So they might not really be in the midfield as some point out, but they sure aren't there among the leaders by the looks of it

[bhall]

I think most of you are too nervous: tha car is lacking top speed and this could be expected due to [...]

I can see it now. The Monday after the Brazilian Grand Prix:

"Guys, come on. It's still a little too early to jump to conclusions. All they need to do is..."

[Echo]

THE CAR: Unbelievable a lot of oversteer. I have never seen a car with so much understeer into the curve and somehow oversteer like a drifting car.

DRIVER: Hope Massa reads it because he is an embarrassment... honestly I would rather reitre than drive like ---. So much lack of skills

THE TEAM: Okay.. I don´t want to insult somebody but honestly they have put in some Italians with English men in a team. Italian engineers make honestly really smart solutions but the basics they are rather stupid. English men are to proud to realise they are wrong..