Indeed. I read an article, which compared the car to their first car (not their second). Ouch. Also read an interview with Brawn who is at a loss for what's wrong. Knowing him that might be sandbagging though. At any rate it doesn't look like the Merc has the race pace some folks hoped for. It'll be interesting to see how this story develops: If they can't improve the car to be also fast in the race, I doubt MS has much interest for sticking around beyond his contract.
They fixed the issue which was present in Australia which was that the tires were not reaching operating temperatures which caused excess lateral wear. Today, the problem was the same as most everyone else except Sauber and a couple others and that is a lack of understanding the rain tires for their platform. If they still have excessive tire issues at the next dry race then the issue has not been fixed, but per Schumacher last week the issue has been handled. We'll see, it's a long season and the car has a ton of downforce so I remain unworried by oddball race weather anomalies. In Barcelona the car had fantastic heavy load pace so I'm sure this is nothing more than a heat issue. Easy. That and they have a brain trust of who's who in F1 working the issue.
Agree it has no race pace. Vettel doesn't appear to me to like this years car. Out qualified twice now by Mark, and Vettel was all over the place at Australia trying to take corners faster than the car could manage. Pete
Congrats to Alonso on a great drive and great win. He squeezed every ounce out of that F2012. I just hope they can fix that chasse as it does better in the wet right now and still poor in the dry. It's a start thou.
Pay particular attention to lap 44 on. As you can see, the pace is competitive between the Mclaren and Mercedes on dry tires. There is nothing wrong with W03. Michael was even held up by a car in front of him hindering some performance on this stint. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Perez was slicing seconds off the pace of Alonso towards the last 15 or so laps, it was eye boggling really. He was literally a second away from Alonso before he slipped off the curb in lap 50...I think he definitely would've had a good shot at Alonso. He did get the most # of fastest laps too in the race btw.
Where is my crow. I said they wouldn't be on the podium this year. I still think the car has a lot of problems and some teams did screw up a bit today but you got to hand it to Alonso and the team for bringing him home first. That I would say is pretty darn amazing. Now Ferrari, hire that Mexican kid!
Keep your friends close... Given the parity in engines and Sauber's superior chassis putting Phil in the white car might see him placing higher than Alonso in dryer races.
+1 So predictable - Ferrari win, so they must be doing something not kosher. Sauber must have been thinking about how many points Maldonado threw away in Oz trying to chase down Alonso. I was thinking the same as Perez closed on Alonso and wasn't surprised to hear the warning to be careful.
hell of a race from alonso. really really impressive. i'm still waiting for kimi and ms to show me more!
From what i think, I'm really surprised at Alonso's win. But heck, it was worth it, and he deserves it. However, i think Ferrari are still backward compared to other teams. Perez reeling in on Alonso in the closing stages pretty much dictates that. I'm super disappointed with the Benz's performance. After all the hype, i think Merc made a few strategic mistakes too. When MS and Nico was running so far behind, they should have made the first move to switch to slicks, when the only part that was wet on the track was actually the back straight. Who knows what would have happened. As for Massa, i think he's really suffering with the F2012. I don't know if it was tyre degradation or a puncture, but he made an extra stop compared to Alonso and it was a slow stop. It's still hard to say anything about the Bulls, but so far they don't look convincing. Pity Jense didn't make the most out of the situation, which he is best known for. Overall, a great race.
A great race indeed. Fred got the most out F2012. the team performed flawlessly. Massa showed he is out of his depth. Forza Ferrari!
What a spectacular race!! I just watched the recording of it and it was such a great race. Lots of battles and fun to watch. Alonso squeezed every ounce of performance out of that Ferrari. I had no idea there was a chance of a Ferrari podium. He's made a lot out of the car in the past two races. It was definitely Ferrari's day. Mclaren struggled in the pits and red bull didn't do much. It was a bummer to see Grosjean wreck early on. He seems like a talented driver, but he can't survive the first few laps so I have no idea what his race pace is like. Although he did have a great start. If Perez hadn't gone off I'm not sure how Alonso would have done. Perez was much faster but made one small mistake that cost him a possible 1st place finish. The next couple of laps would have been very. I have my dvr record an hour after the race just in case of rain, but that wasn't enough as it cut off in the middle of the anthem. So I'll just have to watch the interviews tomorrow. I look forward to see if Alonso can still compensate for the F2012's lack of performance in china.
When it rained heavily, and the race was stopped on the start/finish straight, instead of the usual umbrellas and raincoats, most of the top team put up some sort of 'tents' that shielded the cars, drivers and personnel from the rain.
Alonso, what a master. He demonstrated why he's the best driver on the grid. Vettel, on the other hand, was calling other F1 drivers "idiots" and giving them the finger. Stay classy!
