final race spec aero packs and Barcelona testing

Already in the wind tunnel at Maranello lol....

 

Due to the rain tomorrow, today might have been the last useful test of the year.
Ferrari has been rock solid, and fast
Red Bull has not done many qualifying runs, and are scary fast
MB has taken a very disciplined, different approach which appears to have worked
McL is hurting
The rest are the rest.....

 

^^^ +1 agree with everything you said.

Red Bull could have cracked Schu's time today. Tough to say as Vettel was doing a few somewhat low fuel runs on softs earlier today but I doubt by the look of it he was pushing. What would be really odd is if RB has super race pace, but lacks qualy pace.

Ferrari is a tough call right now. I think the fight between them and MB will be utterly Titanic. Both are now fast and consistent but I think Ferrari have the edge not just with the car but of course with Alonso who is no doubt a racing genius. Schu is the man and Alonso respects the heck out of him, but the two may bump wheels more than once this year and I guarantee it will be nasty as both are ruthless.

 

+1 SO excited. Awesome testing from SF too, great mileage and car looks bulletproof. Can't wait for Australia!

EDIT: Was FA's lap done on softs? Like MS's?

Also wasn't it you who disagreed with me when I said the cars would be much slower this year?

 

Yes Alonso did a low fuel soft tire run....

 

Yeah I surely thought these cars would be quicker, but that's ok. One thing is for sure, W02 is quicker than W01 even with the extra aero and lighter weight W01 had.


So here is some interesting Red Bull news. Red Bull did a ton of heavy fuel load testing with soft tires and mistakenly used all of them. Red Bull DID in fact do a bunch of qualifying testing laps, only Vettel set his 1:22.933 while on HARD tires. So it's safe to say we can knock 1-1.5 seconds off that time had he been on softs.

 

From Vettel:

He would not be drawn on the potential pecking order.

"It's difficult to judge," Vettel insisted. "Today I think we were surprised a bit by Mercedes, but I think it's quite close. It should be okay, we'll see in Australia."

The German said Michael Schumacher's time-topping lap for Mercedes today was impressive regardless of what specification the car was in when he sent it.

"Even if it was very low on fuel, you have to do the lap time first," Vettel said.


Mclaren:

It appears they are building a new tub!

 

It's the MP4-12 C tub

 

McLaren building a new tub? What a disaster; does that mean a whole new car?
The same day Ron Dennis loses his license, not a good for the Woking crew.....

 

Tub is the monocoque. They can't really change it at this point since it's homologated, nor would they. It is most of the chassis. Tubs are usually replaced if the team suspects a structural issue (out of spec geometry or stiffness). Red Bull did this last year with Mark, and iirc Vettel got his repaired tub. I remember reading each tub is something like $125k.

 

LMFAO! I guess Nostradamus' crystal ball can't work 100% of the time...

 

NWIH they'll change the tub design now. They'd have to start from square one and it would be tantamount of saying that they've written off the entire season before it began.*






* I have been wrong before though

 

Thanks - the reason I asked is that it seems odd that something would be wrong with the tub, considering the low miles on it, and no crashes....

 

Good on Mikey. I'm hoping he has a better season and it looks promising. Good for F1 too, Schu needs to be in the mix for a podium.

 

Lee-oots makes it one more year . Joins Narain at Hithpania....

 

3 inches of rain today!
http://live.autosport.com/commentary.php/id/318

 

this is an interesting site
http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/

 

Scarbs is great. He posts a ton on the F1technical forums as well.

 

Great stuff. Thanks.