Ferrari F138

[Alonso Fan]

I get surprised how anal the FIA and the stewards can sometimes be applying the rules, and how lenient they are other times. Alonso ran (for a while) illegally on 3 grounds: rear wing elements outside of their regulation box, DRS flap moved by more than 50mm and DRS activated outside of the allowed zones. It is clear that it was all due to one and only one mechanical problem and also that it was detrimental to race pace, but I thought the car had to adhere to all regulations "at all times"? Obviously other cars have been allowed similar exceptions on similar circumstances before, i.e. Kimi running with a hanging exhaust pipe, front wing flaps flapping around, cars with a loose wheel nut being pulled back to the pits, cars minus one tire being temporarily underweight. What are the rules?

P.S. huuuge Alonso fan here from the city next to his. Not trolling, just surprised.

and massa's car would be significantly under the legal weight when it came to scrutineering because he had elements of the front wing missing. then there's the argument that the teams didn't do all these on purpose, and that something outside their power caused them to, like raikkonen's exhaust pipe and massa's front wing, and of course, alonso's drs.

and i suppose the teams didn't gain any benefit from these infringements because if they did then the FIA would be on their case

Just two words and all of this is explained:

Force majeure.

very good summery, i never thought of that one!

[timbo]

Force majeure.

very good summery, i never thought of that one!

I believe FIA eliminated "force majeure" conditions from sporting code (in the event of short-fuelling). And also if stewards consider a car damage to be unsafe for the driver or other cars on track they may demand that the car is taken to the pits or parked on track. It's all in the discretion of stewards.

[Huntresa]

Yeah Force Majeure was removed atleast from fueling rule.

[Kalsi]

OK they failed... again... but let's look at a little bit underrated aspect of all the facts happened in the barhein weekend...
Alonso menaged to keep the car on track for 2 laps without losing a significant amount from Vettel and keeping Di Resta safely at his back before he was called into the pits... we all know what Alonso's is capable of but, i think that if it happened with the F2012 things would have gone WAY differently

If you look at some videos you can even see the wing so bend upwards that should also generate a positive lift ...
What you all guys can conclude from this aspect?
I mean in terms of car's performance

[Alonso Fan]

OK they failed... again... but let's look at a little bit underrated aspect of all the facts happened in the barhein weekend...
Alonso menaged to keep the car on track for 2 laps without losing a significant amount from Vettel and keeping Di Resta safely at his back before he was called into the pits... we all know what Alonso's is capable of but, i think that if it happened with the F2012 things would have gone WAY differently

If you look at some videos you can even see the wing so bend upwards that should also generate a positive lift ...
What you all guys can conclude from this aspect?
I mean in terms of car's performance

we can interpret that the Ferrari has very good mechanical grip. maybe not as good as the redbull, but if Alonso can drag that thing around with rear lift and keep the flying force india behind him, then it also can be interpreted that alonso is a very very good driver.

the ferrari is also light on its tyres, maybe not as light as lotus, but still light enough for alonso to go fast on an inlap, and the extra grip that was saved would have allowed him to maintain the gap to di resta. Alonso has always had a speciality on heavy fuel. he outshines anyone in the opening laps of the grand prix, and this combined with a good car with good mechanical grip and narrow 'coke bottle' area, (which allows much more air to reach the diffuser and underside of the car) makes a car that can run quite quickly with an inverted rear wing flap.

[Owen.C93]

You can't really discern anything from it.

[Alonso Fan]

You can't really discern anything from it.

well, i can't really think of any other explanation other than the fact that alonso is a very good driver

[langwadt]

Yeah Force Majeure was removed atleast from fueling rule.

my understanding is that it wasn't removed, just modified so that in the event that you cannot return to the pits you need to have enough fuel for the fuel sampling plus what would have been needed to complete the in lap

[Alonso Fan]

Yeah Force Majeure was removed atleast from fueling rule.

my understanding is that it wasn't removed, just modified so that in the event that you cannot return to the pits you need to have enough fuel for the fuel sampling plus what would have been needed to complete the in lap

Exactly, this tweak of the rules has nothing to do with the concept of force majeure being "removed" from practice, of course your car is light if 25% of the front wing is strewn across the circuit. Obviously the team didn't plan for this to happen, not trying to cheat the minimum weight rules...

exactly my point

[Alonso Fan]

Whoops I skimmed your post too quickly the first time

its ok

[rssh]

OK they failed... again... but let's look at a little bit underrated aspect of all the facts happened in the barhein weekend...
Alonso menaged to keep the car on track for 2 laps without losing a significant amount from Vettel and keeping Di Resta safely at his back before he was called into the pits... we all know what Alonso's is capable of but, i think that if it happened with the F2012 things would have gone WAY differently

If you look at some videos you can even see the wing so bend upwards that should also generate a positive lift ...
What you all guys can conclude from this aspect?
I mean in terms of car's performance

we can interpret that the Ferrari has very good mechanical grip. maybe not as good as the redbull, but if Alonso can drag that thing around with rear lift and keep the flying force india behind him, then it also can be interpreted that alonso is a very very good driver.

the ferrari is also light on its tyres, maybe not as light as lotus, but still light enough for alonso to go fast on an inlap, and the extra grip that was saved would have allowed him to maintain the gap to di resta. Alonso has always had a speciality on heavy fuel. he outshines anyone in the opening laps of the grand prix, and this combined with a good car with good mechanical grip and narrow 'coke bottle' area, (which allows much more air to reach the diffuser and underside of the car) makes a car that can run quite quickly with an inverted rear wing flap.

How did you translate comparing Ferrari's mechanical grip over FI in Bahrain with DRS open ?

Firstly Bahrain has more straight than you average Grand Prix track here Fernando could out run the FI but in corners paul was easily catching him (Not to show disrespect to FA , he did excellent job with the damage) , if the situation happened in China even a driver with FA caliber would have spun off at turn 1-2 complex if he tried to defend the FI and carry those sorts of speeds into the corners .

I think the only track were excellent mechanical grip excels (with blown diffuser offcourse and driver influence) is Monaco.

[ironrose]

I wonder if the same thing happened to the rear wing on car at Monza, Alonso wouldnt have bothered coming in for an extra pit stop to get it down, being a low downforce track he would have carried on given his capabilities he would have nearly lapped everyone on the track with the advantage

and FIA then would start scratching their head ... "oh god ..we cant penalize him because we did not do so at bahrain and nothings written the rulebook"...

Impressed with the way alonso managed to complete the lap and keep everyone behind with an effectively broken rear wing.. remember MSC had a similar problem (at Canada I think) last year and he was all over the place ...

[wesley123]

I dont see why he was allowed to run 2 laps with DRS open in the first place.

[Joie de vivre]

so he should have stopped the car, right? it was a failure

[beelsebob]

so he should have stopped the car, right? it was a failure

Sorry, but since when has "some part of my car has failed, I must stop now" been part of F1?