2012 Italian Grand Prix - Monza

[zyphro]

Yep, Mercedes look really good here!

[zyphro]

Rosberg's doing times that are about 2 tenths quicker than Hamilton (1.29's).

[SpliT]

From live timing, Micheal's high fuel runs looks the best of the field. The time Lewis did towards the end of P2 is only a tenth quicker than what Micheal did in early P1.

Michael was informed via radio that the fastest car on a high fuel load run is Kimi.

[NonNewtonic]

There is nothing to be ''clearly'' seen. They did usual FP1 high fuel load evaluation and the times were very good. Don't read too much into headline times. They were fastest in SPA in the race and it's gonna be the same here...

I don't agree with that if they are really running on high fuel load they will not run it with the DRS being engaged because no point for the team to do so! On the other hand normally the team will start the weekend setup with some low fuel run so that they won't ruin the tyres in the early stages.

What seems ''normal'' to some does not mean that's close to any truth. This is not something that has to be understand now. This is how this team works and almost all FPs in last couple of years the pattern is the same... Yes, they look really well prepared and quite confident. McLaren can try something for Quali with obviously HD rear wing, but that is not gonna help in the race. Ferrari has more chance though...

My prediction justified in FP2 if you watch FP2 you can really see that RB is REALLY REALLY struggling!

[zyphro]

Long runs very competitive for Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes & Lotus.

Qualifying will be pivotal.

[LionKing]

Red Bull may struggle in qualifying but their high fuel runs looked good.

[dren]

Mercedes looks good here. This will be a close qualifying. Lotus may have good pace once again, but they will struggle to match in qualifying. I am curious how much Red Bull is actually struggling if any at all.

[f1316]

Why did Ferrari refer to their cars as F2007? lol

Scuderia Ferrari‏@InsideFerrari

Session finished: the two F2007 are just behind the two McLarens

[godlameroso]

When drivers do timed laps they do so in blocks, and they sometimes try to get a combined lap time, say a three run stint. Their engineer might suggest to run a combined lap time of 4:30 and leave it to the driver to sort it out. He might suggest to not push in certain parts of the track as they degrade the tire, and push in others where it might not matter as much and still come within the target time.

From what I've seen today some teams might opt for a little more downforce, especially in the front, but it's going to be tricky to get the balance right. The parabolica in particular seems to be the most important turn from a tire degradation standpoint, without enough downforce you cook the tires and you lose time. Conversely, if you have too much downforce you put too much energy and you cook the tires, but you don't lose time. Until your riding the tire carcass and have no grip, then you lose a lot of time.

If the track and ambient temperature are hot, it means it helps get the tires up to temperature which results in less slip angle on the tires, which means they can be brought in their operating window without having to put so much energy through them. If the car is tuned to take advantage of this and the driver has enough sensitivity in his steering feedback he can have incredible pace. It's partly why this year has been such a lottery, the cars are so close together, and the performance window of the tires is so small that everything has to be done with utmost precision to get results.

It's nice to have a completely dry weekend as we get to see what the whole organization can do to prepare for a race, the last time we saw that was in Valencia I think.

[SpliT]

Gearbox problem.

Am I right in saying this is only the thrid race for that gearbox and therefore any change would result in a penalty?

That was not a race unit. Ferrari can replace that gearbox without penalty.

[satlan]

Why did Ferrari refer to their cars as F2007? lol

Scuderia Ferrari‏@InsideFerrari

Session finished: the two F2007 are just behind the two McLarens

As the chicanes are one of the crucial points of the Monza lap, where time can easily be lost or gained, the mechanical setup of the MP4-25 will be a balance between good stability under heavy braking, and soft settings to ride the kerbs and provide traction on the corner exit

McLaren made the same mistake on their "dashboard"

[Ferraripilot]

Can we confirm both cars were running different setups/wings for FP1 and FP2?

[zyphro]

Laptimes for FP2:

http://184.106.145.74/fia-f1/f1-2012/f1 ... 0Times.pdf

[Guisson]

Red Bull have A Strong Race pace ( As usal ..)
Althought their Qualifying Performance in poor
Maybe it's the same case as Hungary when they tried to hide until FP3
Mercedes look very competitive , as was Mclaren and Ferrari but we certainly don't know about Fuel quantities

[zyphro]

I'm punting Schumacher to be on the podium here.

My prediction may well come true .