Link to live testing...Autosport

The Mercedes hype is getting silly, especially for a team that failed to score a podium finish in 2011. And there's no way they're usurping Ferrari, Alonso is atleast 2x the level of (current) Schumacher and Rosberg.

 

Agree. I don't think the RB is going to be as dominant this year. McLaren are going to be fighting from the beginning, and Ferrari has the best driver on the grid. Hopefully we won't see Vettel run away with the WDC again.

 

If everyone else is running heavy

 

Down to a 1:18.8 - encouraging!

 

Maybe we will see some true out right pace from the bulls in a bit.

 

In 2009 the rebranded Honda won the championship. The year before they got 1 podium by pure luck, the 2007 and 08 cars where utter, utter horse****.

the 2012 mercedes hasn't turned a wheel on track yet...just the 2011 with some components that will be on the 2012 is being driven around now.

I'm not saying that the W03 will win the championship, but they might just compete for 3rd or even 2nd in the championship...podiums are what they should be aiming for this season.

 

Ferrari dumped some key people last year and have a good amount of fresh new people who have not had time to synergise with the team and development process. And on top of that, Ferrari has a very new platform they are running with a front end suspension system modeled after an old Arrows of all things! Alonso's low fuel run today was not all that impressive considering the new Red Bull is most likely capable of a team 1.000+ quicker. Ferrari's run today was strictly to please the Italian media who are currently having a meltdown regarding the new Ferrari. Remember W02s lap time at Barcelona last year? Very quick indeed yet meant nothing.


If I were a betting man, I would have no problem wagering Mercedes will walk all over Ferrari this year. Alonso is a fine driver but no miracle worker.



Also I see Red Bull are trying to copy Mercedes' front wing f-duct which is Red Bull's reason for such high straight line speed lately.

 

+1
+1
..and let’s not forget Kimi. That team would have had a much better outing last year if Robert Kubica had not been on the side lines. Renault spent a better part of the year trying to get there drivers to drive, not developing the car. I don’t see any reason why they won’t give fits to some of the bigger teams, at least at a few of the tracks.
My guess would be a strong first half to the season for Renault then the larger teams who have more resources to change direction will figure out what is working and make changes as the season moves forward...the smaller teams with less resources will be forced to ride out the remainder of the year with whatever direction they start.

All that said Red Bull has had the winning recipe for a while now.

 

Indeed they do. They have a wonderful engineering team to pull from.


I think it's best for the 'romantic' Ferrari lovers to above all else remember F1 is a technical excersize and if that base is not solid and of tenure then nothing else matters.

 

MBZ spent a bunch to move away from McLaren and buy Brawn GP. If they're not in it for podiums, they shouldn't even keep going.

Newey, Vettel and Webber, led by Horner, all know what it takes to win. That's a good head start and a big bonus in a competitive championship.

+1,000! So true.

Brian Redman on data collection and interpretation; "the only data that matters is the stopwatch..."

 

+1


Final times from day 4;

Will try and find the combined (4 day) times later.

"Better to be first than last".....

Cheers,
Ian
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97479

 

Personally, i think Ferrari is sandbagging.....i think they know they have a fast car.....it's that mind ******g part of the season.....they call testing...........don't you know......i wouldn't be crying for ferrari just yet........

 

I'm not so sure sandbagging helps with the limited amount of time for testing to get everything right for the first race.

 

yes i know......has been discussed before......

 

i could be wrong.....but seems the last few years....(personal observation not based on facts or figures)........outward promise during the practice sessions were inversely correlated to success in the season.

 

Why'd they only run 39 laps?

 

The significance of these at first sight promising numbers has been greatly diminished by seeing Vergne on #2 - if he can put a Toro Rosso on that spot, the other teams aren't showing their real speed yet.

 

+1

 

Yes, and I believe the top teams are definitely holding back until they see what Mercedes is up to. However the more I hear and read from people who were at the tests, I hear more of how the Ferrari is quite the handful around the track. It's laggy into the corners but carries great speed into the corner but is slow to get back on the throttle once out of the keyhole. Apparently it's very evident that the aerodynamics are good but the balance is all over the place.