Ferrari F2012

[raymondu999]

Seems many teams have issues getting the tires to hold on after some laps. Some worse than others.

The overriding theme in many of your posts on the subject, to me at least, is that there are no absolutes with regard to tires. At the risk of asking you the mother-of-all tire questions, why are they apparently so damn difficult to figure out?

Because there are no absolutes?

[RobertPthe3rd]

The thing is with tires they areant difficult to figure out but all the teama are trying to get the max performance for the maximum amount of time. Some teams will make better use of them and go faster longer, making the less efficient teams appear to not understand. When they just areant as precise. It's all relative.

[raymondu999]

Interesting perspective. Thoughts on that comment, JT?

[bhall]

Because there are no absolutes?

Smartass.

I guess a better way to ask would be, why are there no absolutes?

[raymondu999]

Well you did say there are no absolutes. When faced with a problem with no absolutes - it goes to follow that the solution probably has no absolutes either.

[Pierce89]

Well you did say there are no absolutes. When faced with a problem with no absolutes - it goes to follow that the solution probably has no absolutes either.

Smartass

[Pierce89]

Well you did say there are no absolutes. When faced with a problem with no absolutes - it goes to follow that the solution probably has no absolutes either.

Smartass

J/K just trying to beat my own record for warnings in a week.

[Nando]

It will be interesting to see the tire wear for Malaysia, i think that gives you a better idea for the wear and tear in high speed corners.

[raymondu999]

What actually is the consensus on the F2012? It chews the fronts, or the rear?

[banibhusan]

Isn't it the rear tyres that it chews for breakfast??

[MIKEY_!]

Rears I think. It was the rear that was unstable so that should be where the excess wear occurs.

[timbo]

One thing is for sure -- on-track trouble is good for thread post-count!

[FakeAlonso]

Interesting article from Sky on Ferrari.
"Alonso's trip into the turn one gravel during qualifying came as they put their outer wheels on the grass under braking. Whilst this would appear to be a fairly fundamental sort of error for drivers at this level, it points to a specific trait of the car - namely its instability under braking, and this is almost certainly a corollary of an unfortunate combination of lack of low-speed downforce with the geometry of the car's pull rod front suspension.

Being normally a public road, the Albert Park track has plenty of bumps and one of the traits of a pull-rod suspension is that it's not great over bumps. To minimise its tendency to force the tyre to pull sharply sideways when encountering a bump during cornering load, it needs to be set up with negative camber (wheels pointing outwards at the bottom) so that the cornering pulls the wheel upright. That cures the pull-rod geometry's sensitivity to bumps but introduces a different problem - instability under braking because when travelling in a straight line the tyre does not have its full tread surface in contact with the track.

The exhaust On the Ferrari it is much further back - forming a blockage to the airflow at a crucially sensitive place, where the lower body tapers in.

Such a blockage would be expected to increase drag and give slow straightline speeds and also to prevent the airflow giving much of a blown effect to the diffuser, tallying with the F2012's traits. A lack of low speed rear end downforce would also hurt traction.

[speedsense]

Interesting article from Sky on Ferrari.
"Alonso's trip into the turn one gravel during qualifying came as they put their outer wheels on the grass under braking. Whilst this would appear to be a fairly fundamental sort of error for drivers at this level, it points to a specific trait of the car - namely its instability under braking, and this is almost certainly a corollary of an unfortunate combination of lack of low-speed downforce with the geometry of the car's pull rod front suspension.

Being normally a public road, the Albert Park track has plenty of bumps and one of the traits of a pull-rod suspension is that it's not great over bumps. To minimise its tendency to force the tyre to pull sharply sideways when encountering a bump during cornering load, it needs to be set up with negative camber (wheels pointing outwards at the bottom) so that the cornering pulls the wheel upright. That cures the pull-rod geometry's sensitivity to bumps but introduces a different problem - instability under braking because when travelling in a straight line the tyre does not have its full tread surface in contact with the track.

The exhaust On the Ferrari it is much further back - forming a blockage to the airflow at a crucially sensitive place, where the lower body tapers in.

Such a blockage would be expected to increase drag and give slow straightline speeds and also to prevent the airflow giving much of a blown effect to the diffuser, tallying with the F2012's traits. A lack of low speed rear end downforce would also hurt traction.

Either you didn't quote Sky correctly or Sky has no clue about driving or setup on a race car, everything said in this statement could be questioned as false by someone who sets up cars or drives one....first paragraph anyways...

[xpensive]

...
I have after careful consideration and consulting with my kristal ball decided to make one of my rare predictions;
Ferrari will appear in Spain with a heavily revised F2012, more than one page ripped out of McLaren's book there, among them a lower and perhaps even aerodynamic nose with a conventional push-rod suspension and flagrantly copy-cat style xhaust.
...

If Sky is correct, perhaps my kristal ball still works?