430 beats all the 458s in qualifying at Sebring

A fully developed race car is almost always faster than an ultimately more capable but currently less devloped race car.

 

Well that turned a very bad day a bit brighter. (check the username)

I know Risi had less than a week with the car but I confess to being a bit surprised. Proves Mitch right above.

 

the driver makes all the difference, so you cannot compare lap times unless the drivers are equal.
secondly, if i had both cars, and i lapped them both around sebring, i would subconsciously be taking fewer risks with the brand new 458, than i would with my trusty and familiar 430 track weapon.

 

The Drivers are equal.
The F430 C has a lot of development and is a very good car.
All street cars have issues when turning them into race cars, figuring them out takes time and some things may not be fully sortable without heavy modification. I'd work on dampers, suspension bushings and geometry.

The BMW M3 GT2 is some car.
The Porsche GT3 RS is some car.
The Corvette is some car.

Even our small totally not factory supported at all team has made a few tweaks to the 430C that we're not dissatisfied with.

Test, Test, Test.

Downforce/balance...

VMAX is Great but if you have enough downforce to go flat out through some turns and pull
massive G's in the turn before the straights you may do better sacrificing some of it.
Search for videos and compare them. Note braking points. Listen for throttle lift or lack thereof. Keep in mind people rarely post their best laps. Also think about tire wear/consistency and Fuel efficiency...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwN-h7ykYR0[/ame]

 

"Keep in mind people rarely post their best laps. "

+1


Back to original topic, I completely agree on development time requirement...test, test, test.

 

Man, that's the story of my life working with drivers equipped with these great data acquisition systems!

I'd change "may" to "nearly always." You're only at vMax for a very short time. You're in the corners for a LONG time!

 

You can't qualify to fast for a 12 hour race. If you do, they penalize you. I think at one piont the 458 did fastest lap of the race at 2:01. I was watching the Risi monitor.

www.youtube.com/user/gatorgreg1968?feature=mhum

 

I was at the race, and was with the Risi/Ferrari hospitality event. I talked to the team, and to Ferrari after qualifying on Friday. They said that Bruni qualified on medium compound tires, even though Risi (and most others) used the hard compound which was a better choice for the race (due to the longer life of the tire). One team member even commented that Bruni, being with Risi last year, wanted to stick it to them and that may have influenced his tire choice.

At the event we all had lots of fun debating the merrits of the two cars. The common consensus seemed to be that the 458 has a ton of potential, but (keeping in line with all of your comments) it needs more track time in races and testing to fine tune tune car and the setup.

 

Did he crash the 458? Missed that on the internet and tv broadcast. What lap was that?