2018 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[f1316]

I see. Thank you for the answer.

I've watched a lap comparison of Vettel's qualification this year and last year. What I find interesting is that this year's lap seemed way smoother (just by looking at the steering wheel) besides them still struggling with the car. On the other hand, as we all know the SF70H was a quite smooth and driveable car from the beginning on, but in the video Vettel looked like he fought much more.
Does this mean that Vettel was on and even over the limit last year and this year not because he maybe lacks trust as he has told? Or the basis of this year's car might be good so it is that smooth on the track, but still not there where they want it to be?

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rYn7eytgW8

Great video, Vettel looks like he's on an in-lap (2018)!

Quite clearly 2018 lap is not his final Q3 lap (fastest one) because the lights are not red at the end of it.

Regardless of which lap is it, the difference in car behaviour does ring true vs what Seb has been saying - I.e. he doesn’t have the confidence in the car to wring the extra performance out of it; his point was that this confidence (re Lewis’ lap) makes all the difference in lap time.

When thinking about the top speed/drag of the Ferrari, I’m suddenly reminded of something Marchionne said pre-season: that they’re confident they’ll have the car to win 51% of the races this year. In retrospect this is particularly interesting - last season the Ferrari was particularly good in high downforce configuration but had a marked disadvantage at low downforce tracks; dividing the races up (in a very superficial way), the results show that there are more low than high downforce tracks on the calendar.

So as has been noted by Vanja in the car thread, it seems Ferrari have done a great job at reducing drag, but Marchionne’s comments suggest they’ve consciously sacrificed the ‘49%’ to achieve this. So whilst it seems likely that they’re not getting what they were expecting from the diffuser, explaining much of the 3-4 tenths to Mercedes, it may well be that Melbourne was never likely to be one of ‘their’ tracks anyway.

We may get a better idea this weekend.

[dren]

Will Ferrari come through on their threat to leave F1 after the 2021 stipulations came out?

[MtthsMlw]

Can someone translate that?
[media]https://twitter.com/BerrageizF1/status/ ... 4393888771[/media]

[stf969]

Can someone translate that?
https://twitter.com/BerrageizF1/status/ ... 4393888771

It seems to be the new floor spec.

Someone said it will be introduced in china but, in some way, it's arrived this we.

[LM10]

I can't translate it, but it's interesting that they seem to have brought the new floor to Bahrain already (if this is the one they planned to bring to China). So I'm a bit confused now.

[stf969]

They say this is the new floor, the one Ferrari planned to bring to china.

[MtthsMlw]

They say this is the new floor, the one Ferrari planned to bring to china.

Weird they brought a new diffuser/floor already yesterday and now another one? It's probably the same spec.

[outsid3r]

They said that scrutineering was done with the diffuser that was tried in Australia. This is a new diffuser, but that is about all the info they give. They didn't say it is the one which was planned for China - just that there are planned updates for China

Edit: I am just doing a litral translation of that clip, I didn't hear the full context of what they were discussing before/after. And shouldn't this should go in the SF71-T thread?

[LM10]

Does anyone know if Ferrari already is running the new floor right now?

[stf969]

It seems that Seb only is using the new floor in fp2.

[LM10]

It seems that Seb only is using the new floor in fp2.

Really? The mechanics were putting Kimi's floor back on right into the start of FP2. I wonder why it was removed then.

[f1316]

Even with this 1-2, i’m still wondering how much is due to Ferrari getting on top of the car and how much would always have been expected due to their seemingly conscious decision to pursue low drag, efficient downforce at the expense of max df?

I still think Marchionne’s “51%” of tracks comment was much more prophetic than we gave it credit for at the time.

[JPBD1990]

Even with this 1-2, i’m still wondering how much is due to Ferrari getting on top of the car and how much would always have been expected due to their seemingly conscious decision to pursue low drag, efficient downforce at the expense of max df?

I still think Marchionne’s “51%” of tracks comment was much more prophetic than we gave it credit for at the time.

I think you’re absolutely right. It feels (at least in this moment) a very specific choice. Instead of simply seeking absolute maximum downforce achievable in any given configuration (redbull for example) it seems they’ve really paid attention to the calendar and tracks themselves and have determined that low drag may, over the course of the full season, be the marginally more beneficial option.

Obviously I have no idea but I’m intrigued to see if that is the case, or if as you say they’re just slowly coming to terms with the car they have.

[Vasconia]

It seems that Seb only is using the new floor in fp2.

Really? The mechanics were putting Kimi's floor back on right into the start of FP2. I wonder why it was removed then.

As Sebastian is having more problems with the car this new floor could suit him more but who knows

[LM10]

It seems that Seb only is using the new floor in fp2.

Really? The mechanics were putting Kimi's floor back on right into the start of FP2. I wonder why it was removed then.

As Sebastian is having more problems with the car this new floor could suit him more but who knows

Yesterday an italian article told that the only changes Ferrari did from Australia were the central channel on the diffuser and the front wing the car was presented with.
It seems, the floor delivered was not a new spec, just a spare. This would correlate with the rumors about a new floor coming in China.