Ferrari F2012

[raymondu999]

Aren't those a mandated spec part? Those are the camera pods.

Yep, but still.. first time I've noticed them in that spot and don't think any of the other teams are doing this or have done it the past though.

Are you talking about the cameras in between the front wing pillars? This placement was done last year.

Started in 2010 too. The RBR put it there in Silverstone... I think the Force India started it in Turkey?

[Hush]

I think we have ourselves a dog here.

based on what?

Trackside reports about the handling of the car are pretty damning. I think it was AmUS which labelled it "lazy" and others are just saying that it is messy. Twitchy, understeery, late on the gas.

[Ferraripilot]

I've heard/read the same reports. The new front suspension system is going to take some experimenting with to figure out what's right. I suspect the higher front roll center from this new system to not be helping with the understeer either?

[ledzep4pm]

It appears on that that photo that the exhaust has a cut out at the top. Or it might be that there is heat shielding of the same cover underneath it.

[Hush]

I've heard/read the same reports. The new front suspension system is going to take some experimenting with to figure out what's right. I suspect the higher front roll center from this new system to not be helping with the understeer either?

I don't know much about suspension dynamics but Will Buxton said that Massa was locking up into turn 2 a fair bit. He also said that Massa was pushing hard.

[Mr Alcatraz]

I've been reading quite a bit of doom and gloom about the F2012 after day two of testing. Massa stating the car needs a lot of work yet. It's too early to start drawing conclusions about the F2012. I will be rather surprised however if Alonso doesn't take it into the low 1.19s by Friday. He usually gets a glory lap whenever he drives in Spain. What they bring to OZ is still a huge question mark.
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2012/02/f ... t-of-2012/

[Robbobnob]

A pic of the Ferrari yesturday, seems they are still doing Exhaust compairsons

EDIT*

note the bottom of the bodywork there seems to be some charing from the exhausts
right click>view

[motobaleno]

Trackside reports about the handling of the car are pretty damning. I think it was AmUS which labelled it "lazy" and others are just saying that it is messy. Twitchy, understeery, late on the gas.

If it's twitchy, understeery, late on the gas and yet is faster than mclaren I'm pretty optimistic for the future...

seriously, it is rather clear that properly setting up this car will be a pain on the ass but it seems that if they succeed in doing this then the potential will be very high...

[CmdrVOODOO]

I've been reading quite a bit of doom and gloom about the F2012 after day two of testing. Massa stating the car needs a lot of work yet. It's too early to start drawing conclusions about the F2012. I will be rather surprised however if Alonso doesn't take it into the low 1.19s by Friday. He usually gets a glory lap whenever he drives in Spain. What they bring to OZ is still a huge question mark.

To me, with a brand new car with an all new suspension design and new tires, you have to go from one end of your setting to the other and everywhere in between. You have to do every combination of settings, and you have to do it with all the different tire compounds and with different fuel loads.

There's an awful lot to do before you can even attempt to dial the car in. It's not surprise that the RB8 and some of the other "evolved" cars look faster, are setting faster lap times and are more stable than the F2012 right now. Heck, the fastest car on the track today, the w02, was a car that didn't win any races and only cracked the top-5 a handful of times in 2011.

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

“These two days have been different to usual, at least compared to what we’ve been used to at the start of previous years,” explained the Brazilian when he met with journalists. “This car is packed with elements that need plenty of fine tuning and they are different to what we had on previous cars. We concentrated on setting up a lot of specific points and there is still a lot to do: as usual, some things work the way they should, others less so. For example, I did a lot of laps at constant speed to gather information on the aerodynamics and on the general handling, because we need to be sure of the direction in which we need to go on the development front.” Some aspects have been positive, as Felipe explained: “We made some set-up changes from yesterday to today and the results this produced were what we had expected. It’s important that this happened, as it means the car is reacting in the right way. Obviously, there is still a lot to do, maybe more than we had expected before we started, but we are definitely not scared of hard work!

“I think the F2012 could well suit my driving style better than the previous car: for example, there is much less understeer,” continued Felipe. “It’s only a case of working on it calmly and with concentration and that’s what we will continue to do over the next few days when Fernando drives. I think this car has great potential, also taking into account the point we are at now. Is this the ugliest Ferrari I’ve ever driven? I don’t know, as from the cockpit you can’t see the front wing and therefore not the step either: but definitely from the outside, it’s not the prettiest…”

[Lorenzo_Bandini]

Peter Windsor:
Felipe Massa looked very good late in the day, when he was finally able to string some laps together (prior to that, Ferrari were in telemetry mode: out-lap, in-lap, out-lap, in-lap). The new Ferrari gave the impression of being fast on both slow and fast corners – and I say “gave the impression” because Felipe appeared to be driving well within the car’s limits at every given moment. And he was doing so with a nice, taut entry phase, just as he used to have in the good old days. No reason to be anything but positive about Ferrari at this early stage of the day.

[jordangp]

Discussion should be on the technical aspect of the Ferrari F2012, and not stating a rule, that isn't even currently being discussed. I'm sure people are aware of the rule. If people are not there is already a 2012 noses thread.

[jav]

ScarbsF1:

I've done some analysis on the Ferrari pull rod front suspension, surprisingly its geometry is as good as pushrod...!
Ferrari front pullrod: It provides a similar ratio of wheel to rocker movement as pushrod

Is there a link to this??? I ran some rough calcs based on the push rod being at 35 degrees from horizontal and the pull rod being 7 degrees from horizontal - each optomized for maximum rocker rotation and the push rod version could produce over 3 times more rocker rotation. Other than the angel of the push/pull rods- most other geometries were best guesses. Is there any more on this analysis?

Did they change the rocker ratio to compensate for the decreased motion prodcued by the pullrod?

[RacingManiac]

Did they change the rocker ratio to compensate for the decreased motion prodcued by the pullrod?

Why wouldn't they?

[Ferraripilot]

Would Ferrari keep an array of pushrods and rockers so to make minor geometry changes on the fly depending on what the driver or setup warrants? Makes sense to me....