2018 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[Vettel165]

In Melbourne the Mercedes had seemed unapproachable, in Bahrain the Ferrari was clearly the fastest since yesterday's free practice. On a track where the power of the Power Unit is very important, Ferrari managed to bring two cars in the front row. That the Maranello Power Unit was very powerful, it was also seen in Australia where, the SF71H, earned precious tenths on straight lines against Mercedes and Red Bull.

If at the power unit level the work done by Maranello's men has been truly remarkable we await confirmation regarding the fuel consumption in the race. Tomorrow, all the teams will embark 105 kg of gasoline since, consumption on this circuit is quite high. We must pay close attention to the "Live Timing" to understand if, the two riders dressed in red, will be forced to save fuel as we saw during the race simulation made during the Barcelona test.

Returning to talk about maximum power, the Ferrari SF71H, has been confirmed to be very fast on the straights so much that we find it at the top of every top speed chart made by the FIA, on the finish line and the speed ​​trap. The big improvement, however, compared to the first race of the season, took place in the cornering speeds and, the SF71H, has improved a lot in stability under braking.

According to GPS data, compared to Australia, the SF71H has recovered a lot of speed even in the slow average corners that had been a big problem in Melbourne. The same Vettel admitted that, thanks to some setup, the car is much more precise when cornering and does not seem to suffer from the understeer we had seen in Melbourne and during the winter tests. Problem that we had pointed out in Melbourne because of the use of a rather low front wing to balance the lack of load at the rear. Rear that, on this track, seems to be much more stable also for the use of a greater rake trim that has recovered aerodynamic load at the rear.

At a technical level, the SF71H has remained unchanged compared to that seen in Melbourne and this shows that, substantial work has been done at the setup of the car. Ferrari has radically changed the project compared to last year and it is logical that engineers and pilots need time to extract the potential of this car.


http://www.f1analisitecnica.com/2018/04 ... -vola.html

[MtthsMlw]

Good news for Vettel, Ferrari has exchanged his CE only as a precaution. It should still work. I think they will use the first CE from now on in the free practice sessions and the new one in the races. Last year they did the same with the turbo I think and it worked just fine.
Reminder: only 2 CEs are allowed.
Source

[Cuky]

This is, at least for now, shaping up to be a great year for Scuderia. It is the first time since 2004 that Ferrari has won both of the opening races of the season

[godlameroso]

Mercedes is generally very fast in China, I have a feeling Hamilton will be untouchable there, but yes great start to the season from Ferrari. The improvement they made to the diffuser has paid off handsomely. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 10 laps, I can't believe Vettel held off Bottas, shame for Kimi.

[Vasconia]

Mercedes is generally very fast in China, I have a feeling Hamilton will be untouchable there, but yes great start to the season from Ferrari. The improvement they made to the diffuser has paid off handsomely. I was on the edge of my seat for the last 10 laps, I can't believe Vettel held off Bottas, shame for Kimi.

Gene mentioned that China will be though for them so if Vettel can be second it would be a great result. A 1-2 for Mercedes wouldn´t be a greast surprise though.

[Vanja #66]

If Mercedes don't win in China, it will be very difficult for them to recover. Either that, or they'll just pump in even more money (already an insane amount by them) and win at all costs.

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres. However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here. However, if Merc take pole, the only chance for Ferrari will be an undercut or an overtake, and we've seen just how hard that is with 2018 cars. If Ferrari hadn't improved their top speed so much, I wouldn't count even on a second place here to be honest.

[Big Tea]

If Mercedes don't win in China, it will be very difficult for them to recover. Either that, or they'll just pump in even more money (already an insane amount by them) and win at all costs.

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres. However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here. However, if Merc take pole, the only chance for Ferrari will be an undercut or an overtake, and we've seen just how hard that is with 2018 cars. If Ferrari hadn't improved their top speed so much, I wouldn't count even on a second place here to be honest.

But it is not a slow car that has stopped the wins this year, it has been unplanned things. The gearbox penalty and VB crash or the Safety car incident could all have happened with a dominant car. Things just happen if you have the fastest car or not.

[Vanja #66]

The point is - Ferrari has 2 wins and they are not in full control, they don't yet fully understand their car. Seb is doing a good job reminding the team about that to keep them focused. W09 is a better car - at the moment.

In my view, SF71-H is a car with greater potential than W09, but it's not unlocked yet. It turned out W08 had a better concept than SF70-H even with all the reliability trouble Ferrari had. So Ferrari fused the best ideas from last year and added some new stuff as well. Merc has cured their diva issues, but they haven't picked up all the good stuff from Ferrari.

Whether or not Ferrari will improve their car more than Mercedes is to be seen, it's just my opinion that SF71-H has more room for improvement than W09.

[Big Tea]

The point is - Ferrari has 2 wins and they are not in full control, they don't yet fully understand their car. Seb is doing a good job reminding the team about that to keep them focused. W09 is a better car - at the moment.

In my view, SF71-H is a car with greater potential than W09, but it's not unlocked yet. It turned out W08 had a better concept than SF70-H even with all the reliability trouble Ferrari had. So Ferrari fused the best ideas from last year and added some new stuff as well. Merc has cured their diva issues, but they haven't picked up all the good stuff from Ferrari.

Whether or not Ferrari will improve their car more than Mercedes is to be seen, it's just my opinion that SF71-H has more room for improvement than W09.

I think the Ferrari is very good, as was last year's car, but Ferrari seemed to go into self destruct mode a few times or they would have been up there at the end. Kimi's incident has already cost them valuable non car related points loss.
It seems to be things like this knobbling Ferrari lately even when they have a good car.

[marvin78]

They have a good but not dominant car. Mercedes can manage the speed, the hardware and the drivers (yeah they did that wrong. because their domination is not that strong anymore, but they learn very fast and won't do this mistakes to often). Ferrari on the other hand has to take risks and that makes you vulnerable.

[Vettel165]

The drivers reportedly had balance and stability issues in Australia, an issue that the team believed was in part due to its new-for-2018 diffuser design.
Whilst a full-blown solution will not be available until China, the team made some minor alterations to the central portion for Bahrain as seen in the below video.

All of this work appears to have made the car better balanced in Bahrain, something that proved key in helping Sebastian Vettel eke out the extra life from his tyres to win the race.
And with it understood that a new floor is scheduled to arrive for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, Ferrari could be all set to build on its very strong start to the campaign.

You can read the whole article here.

https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/how- ... s-1024781/

[marmer]

If Mercedes don't win in China, it will be very difficult for them to recover. Either that, or they'll just pump in even more money (already an insane amount by them) and win at all costs.

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres. However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here. However, if Merc take pole, the only chance for Ferrari will be an undercut or an overtake, and we've seen just how hard that is with 2018 cars. If Ferrari hadn't improved their top speed so much, I wouldn't count even on a second place here to be honest.

But it is not a slow car that has stopped the wins this year, it has been unplanned things. The gearbox penalty and VB crash or the Safety car incident could all have happened with a dominant car. Things just happen if you have the fastest car or not.

the gearbox penalty might not have cost them the win. ham would have still started 4th, he would have still needed to pass kimi and botas somehow lets not forget kimi also had bad luck so that might not have been easy.

lets say the front 3 got away as they did and Hamilton didn't move up he would have had to pass kimi on pure pace or by better race strat. while Bottas would have been easier if he had been battling kimi for too long bottas could have been too far ahead and vettal might have been able to pit in the right window

[Big Tea]

If Mercedes don't win in China, it will be very difficult for them to recover. Either that, or they'll just pump in even more money (already an insane amount by them) and win at all costs.

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres. However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here. However, if Merc take pole, the only chance for Ferrari will be an undercut or an overtake, and we've seen just how hard that is with 2018 cars. If Ferrari hadn't improved their top speed so much, I wouldn't count even on a second place here to be honest.

But it is not a slow car that has stopped the wins this year, it has been unplanned things. The gearbox penalty and VB crash or the Safety car incident could all have happened with a dominant car. Things just happen if you have the fastest car or not.

the gearbox penalty might not have cost them the win. ham would have still started 4th, he would have still needed to pass kimi and botas somehow lets not forget kimi also had bad luck so that might not have been easy.

lets say the front 3 got away as they did and Hamilton didn't move up he would have had to pass kimi on pure pace or by better race strat. while Bottas would have been easier if he had been battling kimi for too long bottas could have been too far ahead and vettal might have been able to pit in the right window

As you say, but having car say 2 tenths faster a lap probably would not have changed things much. Bottas car would also be 2 tenths faster and Ferrari would have to compensate with strategy, so I still dont think Hamilton would have won. He was driving down to a delta in one, and it was position in the other, and would have had a faster car infront.

Everyone wants a faster car though, just 'because'

[GPR-A duplicate2]

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres.

China is a front limited circuit and rear degradation isn't an issue here. So far, we haven't seen degradation being an issue for Mercedes. Using mediums was a strategic gamble to do a one stopper in Bahrain.

However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here.

I looked at the speed trap figures for qualifying for many a GPs from last year and could find Ferrari ahead in trap figures!
https://www.fia.com/f1-archives

When the circus reaches tracks where downforce demand is more, is when you would actually see the difference in the compromises. We saw two races of varying characteristics. On a circuit like Albert Park, which puts premium on downforce and power, Mercedes was ahead and on a circuit that puts large premium on power and less on downforce like Bahrain, Ferrari was ahead (at least in qualifying). Until Ferrari sorts out the fuel economy issues (based on available information from different sources), Ferrari cannot afford to put large amount of downforce as it would hurt them in races. It would help on straights (due to less drag) but loses out on cornering performance. Albert park and Bahrain were two contrasting evidences.

Once they manage to resolve the fuel consumption issues and manage to put more downforce, they would be slower on straights, but faster through corners. But with only 3 PUs allowed, which means only two more upgrade packages, it remains to be seen when would the next upgrade for PU comes.

[Vettel165]

China should suite Mercedes more, cooler track namely - as they definitely struggle with overheating the tyres.

China is a front limited circuit and rear degradation isn't an issue here. So far, we haven't seen degradation being an issue for Mercedes. Using mediums was a strategic gamble to do a one stopper in Bahrain.

However, there are some positives to look for in Ferrari's case - their top speed being the most positive fact by far. Merc had the upper hand in that area so far and it's not a small thing here.

I looked at the speed trap figures for qualifying for many a GPs from last year and could find Ferrari ahead in trap figures!
https://www.fia.com/f1-archives

When the circus reaches tracks where downforce demand is more, is when you would actually see the difference in the compromises. We saw two races of varying characteristics. On a circuit like Albert Park, which puts premium on downforce and power, Mercedes was ahead and on a circuit that puts large premium on power and less on downforce like Bahrain, Ferrari was ahead (at least in qualifying). Until Ferrari sorts out the fuel economy issues (based on available information from different sources), Ferrari cannot afford to put large amount of downforce as it would hurt them in races. It would help on straights (due to less drag) but loses out on cornering performance. Albert park and Bahrain were two contrasting evidences.

Once they manage to resolve the fuel consumption issues and manage to put more downforce, they would be slower on straights, but faster through corners. But with only 3 PUs allowed, which means only two more upgrade packages, it remains to be seen when would the next upgrade for PU comes.

Not true, this year its not the same. Look at other Ferrari engine-powered cars! Ferrari has done an amazing job this winter by leapfrogging all of the Mercedes-engine powered cars on pure power. This was already seen in Barcelona (testing). Ferrari car philosphy is for me the best this year. The car has a high rake (RBR style) with low drag ,the car is having in my opinion even less drag than Mercedes. I wouldnt be suprised if Ferrari is having a better aero efficiency in medium-high speed corners with that car than Mercedes. This was a big weak factor by Ferrari last year.

With than new evolution of a car, the car should only get better from race to race. It wasnt just setup changes that brought Ferrari much closer to Mercedes in Bahrain, but they slightly changed many things in the car, front wing, floor, and that did the difference. The car looked glued to the track and with better stability in the corners as Red Bull or Mercedes. Of course Ferrari will need some time to really find the right setup for every track, high-downforce,low-downforce, but when they do, they could be very fast.

We will see, I as a Ferrari fan will stay humble. I think its gonna be interesting season until the end. I could be of course wrong, everything I did say its just a speculation and my own opinion.

China-preview.

http://www.f1analisitecnica.com/2018/04 ... dalla.html


Cheers.