Ferrari F2012

[Froggolo]

On a different topic, the F2012 had suffered a clear loss of pace in the last stints of the first four races when the fuel tank was empty. Looking to Barcelona this problem has dissapeared. Alonso was fast and catched Maldonado at the beggining of the last stint and only lost his pace in the last 5 laps or so, but that was clearly tyre related.

I wonder what is the reason for that improvement.

hello

a Ferrari employee (secret!)
said that before, they had many problems sealing the diffuser
and when the fuel tank was empty, the rear end got higher enough
to make the car lose some downforce produced by the diffuser.
Hopefully now they can seal it better and there are less differences
of downforce from full tank to empty tank.

[shelly]

@froggolo: did you get that info from blogf1 or from another source?

[Froggolo]

hello Shelly

bingo! read it on BlogF1
FabioC wrote that,
he shows out time by time to give us some info

[Gerhard Berger]

On a different topic, the F2012 had suffered a clear loss of pace in the last stints of the first four races when the fuel tank was empty. Looking to Barcelona this problem has dissapeared. Alonso was fast and catched Maldonado at the beggining of the last stint and only lost his pace in the last 5 laps or so, but that was clearly tyre related.

I wonder what is the reason for that improvement.

hello

a Ferrari employee (secret!)
said that before, they had many problems sealing the diffuser
and when the fuel tank was empty, the rear end got higher enough
to make the car lose some downforce produced by the diffuser.
Hopefully now they can seal it better and there are less differences
of downforce from full tank to empty tank.

Makes sense, but i wonder how we would have sealed the diffuser since the new exhaust doesn't point towards there and neither do the hot air exits.

[shelly]

the post froggolo rfers to dates back to 25th april

[Gilles 27]

On a different topic, the F2012 had suffered a clear loss of pace in the last stints of the first four races when the fuel tank was empty. Looking to Barcelona this problem has dissapeared. Alonso was fast and catched Maldonado at the beggining of the last stint and only lost his pace in the last 5 laps or so, but that was clearly tyre related.

I wonder what is the reason for that improvement.

hello

a Ferrari employee (secret!)
said that before, they had many problems sealing the diffuser
and when the fuel tank was empty, the rear end got higher enough
to make the car lose some downforce produced by the diffuser.
Hopefully now they can seal it better and there are less differences
of downforce from full tank to empty tank.

Makes sense, but i wonder how we would have sealed the diffuser since the new exhaust doesn't point towards there and neither do the hot air exits.

IMHO The other "big" problem of the car is still, less traction from the slow corner, Monaco could be the hell for this monoposto.
If you analize the Barcelona race you will see that all this problems (losing downforce by empty fuel tank, and traction...)come on the 6-7 final laps .
So in the last years Ferrari was one of the car, with the best mechanical grip. With the Pull-Rod suspensions and this new tyre generation they lose this one.

[Crucial_Xtreme]

IMHO The other "big" problem of the car is still, less traction from the slow corner, Monaco could be the hell for this monoposto.
If you analize the Barcelona race you will see that all this problems (losing downforce by empty fuel tank, and traction...)come on the 6-7 final laps .
So in the last years Ferrari was one of the car, with the best mechanical grip. With the Pull-Rod suspensions and this new tyre generation they lose this one.

I don't agree. I feel certain Fernando got 3rd in Q3 with less fuel than 6 or 7 laps worth. The team also did Quali runs in free practice with low fuel and Fernando was amongst the quickest all weekend in sector 3. The car has improved a lot in low speed corners. Whether or not it will be enough for Monaco we can only wait. But there is nothing to say the loss of downforce came from low fuel other than speculation.

[Hail22]

This Pull-rod suspension debate should and would end after Monaco reasons why?

Monaco in my view seems to be an unforgiving track in terms of apexes, kerbs, corners/turns.

I will be interested in Monaco as some people have stated that Ferrari will not be bringing "major" updates...but they never ruled out about small tweaks including upgrades to the turning veins on the Rear Diffuser, front and rear brake ducts and also the Monaco spec RW/FW.

Whether they're renditions/slight change from the wings from the first four races remains to be seen...however knowing Ferrari when they qwell "big updates" tend to usually bring small updates/tweaks to the original package.

Whether I'm right or wrong will be answered next week.

However from afar they are on the right path (in my view).

[bhall]

I don't even know how the so-called "pull rod debate" still has any steam. If the victory in a Malaysian monsoon wasn't enough to quell any doubts, no amount of driving around the Principality is going to settle the matter.

[amouzouris]

I don't even know how the so-called "pull rod debate" still has any steam. If the victory in a Malaysian monsoon wasn't enough to quell any doubts, no amount of driving around the Principality is going to settle the matter.

+1 the pull rods have proved themselves time and again! i just hope that the debate will end in monaco....

[kebab]

I don't even know how the so-called "pull rod debate" still has any steam. If the victory in a Malaysian monsoon wasn't enough to quell any doubts, no amount of driving around the Principality is going to settle the matter.

+1 the pull rods have proved themselves time and again! i just hope that the debate will end in monaco....

X might have different opinion though...

[Lycoming]

The conspiracy theorists will go on about it until they take it off their car, which I suspect they might do next year simply because it offers little advantage. I have given my reasons as to why it is not the source of their issues.

I'm uncertain that monaco is necessarily more about mechanical grip. It is definitely about low speed grip, but depending on the speed, aero still has a large influence. Exit of portier is, what, 90 km/h? isn't the car already generating its own weight in downforce at that speed?

Don't read into it too much in terms of mechanical grip. I particularly remember last year, how Vettel with the EBD was able to pull away from Alonso at the exit of Anthony Noghes...

We know the Ferrari has poor low speed traction, I agree that it could be a very difficult weekend... But don't forget, this is monaco. If there was ever a circuit that emphasized driver skill, this is it.

[xpensive]

I don't even know how the so-called "pull rod debate" still has any steam. If the victory in a Malaysian monsoon wasn't enough to quell any doubts, no amount of driving around the Principality is going to settle the matter.

+1 the pull rods have proved themselves time and again! i just hope that the debate will end in monaco....

But how can you be certain that the F2012 wouldn't have been even faster on water with a front push-rod?

[jaba.hut]

@joseluisf1 on twitter just mentioned that Ferrari still have to recover lot of mechanical grip from last iteration of Aldo Costa's push rod suspensions, both front and rear. And especially rear mechanical grip. So it looks like we are paying for introducing pull rod 2 years later then others. Make sense.

[beelsebob]

@joseluisf1 on twitter just mentioned that Ferrari still have to recover lot of mechanical grip from last iteration of Aldo Costa's push rod suspensions, both front and rear. And especially rear mechanical grip. So it looks like we are paying for introducing pull rod 2 years later then others. Make sense.

Looking at the speed they leave the grid at, I'd say Ferrari have no problem with rear mechanical grip!