2012 Testing - Barcelona 2: 1 - 4 March

[beelsebob]

<video of McLaren and RBR in turn 8>

Wow, they both look to be absolutely on rails through there! Impressive stuff indeed.

[Blackout]

BBC F1 technical analyst Gary Anderson
« Kimi Raikkonen has been out doing a race simulation run, and if you compute his lap times on that back to his fastest lap this morning, it looks like he had a maximum of 20kg of fuel in to do that 1:22.0. His race run has been pretty consistent. He ran soft tyres and then medium, while Lewis Hamilton out at the same time in the McLaren ran soft-soft. Hamilton was a little quicker but had more drop-off – Raikkonen lost 1.3secs over a stint, while Hamilton lost 2secs and 2.4secs. The Lotus looks like it’s doing a decent job, the car looks balanced and Raikkonen has always been good at banging in the lap times. »

[SBarretta]

Hi guys, first time poster here. Been lurking for a little while, and this forum seems pretty great

Anyway, I'm seeing a lot of buzz over the video of Massa through turn 8. Don't forget that he could've just gotten on the power too early coming out of that first left hand bend, and upset the balance of the car himself.

However I still maintain that this year's prancing pony is behind McLaren and Red Bull, possibly even Mercedes as well. But that remains to be seen. Wish it were faster though.

[beelsebob]

Hi guys, first time poster here. Been lurking for a little while, and this forum seems pretty great

Anyway, I'm seeing a lot of buzz over the video of Massa through turn 8. Don't forget that he could've just gotten on the power too early coming out of that first left hand bend, and upset the balance of the car himself.

However I still maintain that this year's prancing pony is behind McLaren and Red Bull, possibly even Mercedes as well. But that remains to be seen. Wish it were faster though.

It's jittering all the way through the whole sequence of corners – either massa is really ---, or the car is a disaster.

[SBarretta]

It's jittering all the way through the whole sequence of corners – either massa is really ---, or the car is a disaster.

I think it may be a combination of the two. The car is definitely more twitchy than it should be, and I think Felipe accentuated it quite a bit by jumping on the throttle slighty too soon. But I don't think it means that the car is a disaster, nor that Massa is a bad driver. He's certainy better than you and I I just feel that this clip caught the car in an especially bad spot, and it's causing many conclusions to be jumped to.

[beelsebob]

It's jittering all the way through the whole sequence of corners – either massa is really ---, or the car is a disaster.

I think it may be a combination of the two. The car is definitely more twitchy than it should be, and I think Felipe accentuated it quite a bit by jumping on the throttle slighty too soon. But I don't think it means that the car is a disaster, nor that Massa is a bad driver. He's certainy better than you and I I just feel that this clip caught the car in an especially bad spot, and it's causing many conclusions to be jumped to.

Every clip I've seen of the Ferrari has shown similar behaviour, so I don't buy the "especially bad spot".

[scarlet]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNAEL_d ... age#t=138s[/youtube]

That Red Bull exhaust sure does sound suspicious at times - 02:55 and 05:36. Could just be the overrun through the middle of the corners, but none of the other cars sound raspy at all on those parts of the track..

[SBarretta]

Every clip I've seen of the Ferrari has shown similar behaviour, so I don't buy the "especially bad spot".

Fair enough. Although I don't think the F2012 is a complete lemon, I don't think it's necessarily all that good either. At least not when compared to MP4-27 and RB8. But I do think it has potential to mix it with those teams further on in to the season.

The way that it's been described how the car's balance changes throughout a run; for some reason, I have a gut feeling that there's some kind of extremely ugly underlying chassis problem. But the more logical side of me just thinks that somehow the tires don't wear evenly/predictably.

[radosav]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgNAEL_d ... 8s[youtube]

That Red Bull exhaust sure does sound suspicious at times - 02:55 and 05:36. Could just be the overrun through the middle of the corners, but none of the other cars sound raspy at all on those parts of the track..

they have a way to off-throtle blow exhaust gases

[godlameroso]

If teams really wanted to test in secret, what would stop them?

[Maynard G. Krebs]

I am going to speculate again that some of the teams have been heating suspension parts and the resulting changes in flexibility are hard to manage. Maybe they are trying to gain an aero effect with shaped suspension parts but the heat is an unwanted byproduct, and they are struggling to get enough cool air mixed in to negate the heated air. RBR now seem to be trying to suck the exhaust air down to the floor and maybe Ferrari will end up there too.
We sure did see a lot of heat tape on those rear susp parts.
I guess with the new regs, the exhaust was going to be blowing onto something, whether it be the tires, suspension, or body parts. Suspension seems like a logical path having less affect than the tires or bodywork.

[SBarretta]

I am going to speculate again that some of the teams have been heating suspension parts and the resulting changes in flexibility are hard to manage. Maybe they are trying to gain an aero effect with shaped suspension parts but the heat is an unwanted byproduct, and they are struggling to get enough cool air mixed in to negate the heated air. RBR now seem to be trying to suck the exhaust air down to the floor and maybe Ferrari will end up there too.
We sure did see a lot of heat tape on those rear susp parts.
I guess with the new regs, the exhaust was going to be blowing onto something, whether it be the tires, suspension, or body parts. Suspension seems like a logical path having less affect than the tires or bodywork.

As far as Ferrari is concerned, my gut was telling me that it might be chassis rigidity or something, but the blowing of the suspension may provide an explanation for their balance problems over time. Perhaps their wishbones are becoming more flexible as they heat up. That would definitely have an effect on the car's handling to some degree. Whatever the problem is, I hope Ferrari fix it. I'd like to see somebody beat Red Bull this year

[retpog55]

The footage looks like it is from Saturday. Somebody on this forum pointed out a while ago that you can learn a lot more about the cars from watching them go around than you can from the times and i definately know what they mean.

Just from watching those 12 minutes you can see that the RB8 and the Mclaren are like two skalextric cars through the sweeping corners. We only see one or two shots of each but it is enough of an indication to suggest that they do look mighty. The Mercedes looks very heavy on fuel so Nico's little show for concern about tyre degradation may well have some foundation to it. The Mercedes sounds great aswell, you can tell it's Nico arriving at 5:11. Force India again looks heavy with fuel. The Renault looked relatively light and quick. The Ferrari still looks quick and quite perky, if they could get it together then there is definately something there but the car is currently suffering from a lack of rear end grip. Good video.

[yener]

Wow, MGP looks really fast in that video. Stable and fast in the corners, just like McLaren.

[CHT]

Considering the problem RBR is facing with their RB8 v2.0, do you guys think they will bring RB8 V1.0 to Melbourne instead?

If reliability is really an issue, I would think that bringing a less developed but reliable RB8 to Melbourne would be better than having a marginally quicker but unreliable car.