FA sounds fairly positive. SO much of the car is new and will be sorted....
I believe much of the issues will be sorted, but from here and from what other drivers have seen it looks like something may be fundamentally wrong with the car. I refuse to declare any judgment on the car until after a few races but it's not looking good so far. And that's ok, because Ferrari are finally out of the box again and developing something different. Some Mercedes news. The peak is supposed to be this week. They were very vague as usual. Also, the quick lap time Nico set last week was on soft tires while Michael's lap was on hards. There remains a lot of talk about how much better the tires are this year, which I guess is good right.
+1 I think it was Fred who also said they were heating the tires better than before. A long way to go yet before we know if it's brilliant or a dog...... Indeed. Hembery say's they've reduced the gap between compounds from ~1.5 seconds down to about 0.6 (on this ~4KM track). This should get us away from saving softs and not running the option. We should see a bigger mix of strategies with mostly 2 or 3 stoppers. Cheers, Ian
I thought read him say they wanted the gap to be .8-.9? No big. Still, you're right, this will help with the spectacle and strategy. My worry about the Ferrari front end is actually overheating the tires now lol. That suspension can't have much travel and will be fiendish to fine tune
10:40 @InsideFerrari brings news of minor trouble: "A small issue is keeping Fernando in the garage for a while... Nothing major but it takes some time to fix."
The Merc is looking very strong out there lapping similarly to the Mclaren and half a second quicker than F2012. RB8 is tough to say but similar fuel load funs depict about a couple things, consistency and a tenth or two quicker than Macca and MB. MB are definitely much stronger than they were last year at this time when they were consistently .500-1.000 down from everyone during this test. for anyone curious: http://f1tests.co.cc/2012.php?rev=on
Final times from day one; Helluva gap back to the Williams!..... Autosport is speculating that Lotus have an engine mounting problem that requires the tubs be strengthened. That they've pulled out rather than fly chassis 001 down (this was on 002) suggests it's serious. Cheers, Ian Oops; http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97620
I think we're already seeing a pecking order emerge...RB at the top closely followed by Mac. Ferrari and MBZ are real wildcards at this point.
+1. Weakness will now be shown and will be more difficult to hide. The Aussie packages must now begin to be revealed so the teams can prepare for race 1. RB the favorite with Mclaren looking quite good. Ferrari are still in the sorting mode as is Mercedes, who are the most dis-advantage with the delay of their own choosing.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Force India is the real surprise to me. Then again, this is the time to attract more sponsors.
Yes, given Joe Saward's regular updates on Malya's financial difficulties, I was also thinking that FI may be running light to attract new sponsorship income! The Autosport article with Gary Anderson's comments about Lotus' chassis problem is very interesting - if he's right, then Lotus may not make any more test sessions before the first race, and may be lucky to have 2 cars ready for the first race! That's assuming that the engine mounts can't be easily reinforced and the tubs have to be rebuilt or remanufactured with stronger reinforcements molded in the tub. That would be a huge setback, from being one of the fastest teams at the first test to missing out on 8 crucial days of testing.
Yes Agreed, although you maybe more surprised than me about Force India, still early days though. JS is always a good read IMO, try the mole as well.
I can't say with FI: they have beaten MB last year on several occasions but this is a bit much Then again it's only testing
A FI finished in front of MB once or twice last year. Hardly several. This year, if you look at the FI, it will be dicing with Lotus and Toro Rosso if they are lucky. And maybe even Ferrari.
