Felipe is faster than you... Can you confirm you understand this message Fernando?

[LewisWDC11]

Well first of all Hello and I wish everyone here a happy year in F1.

Also you may find me as a Lewis fan Fernando bashing but that is not the point.

He only qualified 26 thousandths faster than Felipe and only 1 place ahead of him going into the grand prix.

In the race he got comprimesed by getting held up by Michael.

It got even worse when he activated the DRS in a Non DRS Zone when trying to get past Michael.

The FIA have taken no action as they have found it was a "malfunction" but they are looking into what caused it.

The final race result saw him finish 30 seconds of Lewis and 15 seconds of Felipe.

This weekend has been a bit of a shocker for him, and I think that in Turkey they should have some good updates so will all the teams but it all needs to be on the car for him to fight it out for the victory in his home grand prix in Spain after the Turkish Grand Prix.

I have no doubt that a great driver like him will bounce back and get a very good result in Turkey.

But my question is will Ferrari have sorted out their pace issues by the Spanish Grand Prix??

 

[FB]

I've been wondering about Ferrari. They were 2nd to Red Bull in pre-season but then there performance (relatively) seems to have collapsed and they are now probably racing with Mercedes and Lotus Renault. Andrew Benson put up an interesting blog about Ferrari on the BBC website a few days ago and the Ferrari team seem as confused as the rest of us.

It's good to see Massa showing some good pace, especially after last season. I can't imagine they will let the grass grow under their tyres but they have to catch up with the others first and, as we all know, F1 never stands still.

On Alonso's DRS, it was a indeed a glitch and as he gained no advantage the stewards took action.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13109394.stm

 

[Brogan]

I don't think Ferrari and Alonso will take too long to bounce back.
We saw it last season and by the last race Alonso was one overtake away from the WDC.

The DRS glitch is odd though. By all accounts it is supposed to fail in the down/closed position so it will be interesting to hear exactly how it was able to be activated outside the zone, and whether it self activated or Alonso was just holding the paddle waiting to hit the zone.

 

[Incubus]

I think tthe main problem for Alonso so far this season is tthat he seems to have forgotten how to start a Grand Prix.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

We saw it last season and by the last race Alonso was one overtake away from the WDC.

I thought Alonso had to overtake Petrov then Kubica and then Rosberg to be in a position to win the WDC?

 

[Brogan]

Poetic license

 

[MCLS]

More like under the influence

 

[snowy]

Ferrari went to great lengths to understand the tyres during winter testing and made them work better, for longer and more consistently than any other team. Unfortunately the tyres were designed to function normally at higher ambient temperature. At higher temperatures the character of the tyres doesn't appear to favour any particular type of input to significantly increase longevity during a race.

To compound Ferrari's problems, qualifying well requires an aggressive car that works the tyre and generates heat quickly. The Ferrari is probably not designed to do this as it would have a detrimental affect on tyre wear... they've got a bit of a dilemma.

 

[Brogan]

To keep this thread on topic which is generally about Ferrari and Alonso's form, the discussion specifically related to Alonso's DRS issue in China has been split off to here: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/alonsos-drs-in-china.2488/

 

[teabagyokel]

Alonso needs to improve his starts in the 2011 version of his car, because they've been poor three weeks in a row. A confident Massa is going to take some beating at the next race in Istanbul, his record there is nothing short of stunning.

Can they recover by Spain? That is if there is a lot to recover from. The way Massa held on to Vettel for a long time in China suggests the pace is there in race conditions, as does the way Alonso caught everyone in Malaysia. I think they just need to qualify better, or maybe even just not get swamped at the start.

They're OK, I think. They won't want to see Mercedes repeat their pace from China, though, especially if Lotus Renault return to form!

 

[Incubus]

They have a raft of updates coming up for Barcelona don't they?

 

[LewisWDC11]

They have a raft of updates coming up for Barcelona don't they?

Yeah but so do all of the teams I think.

 

[snowy]

They have a raft coming for Barcelona don't they?

 

[KekeTheKing]

In short, I haven't a clue.

It's nearly impossible to know what a cars pace will be after a specific round of updates. Look no further than Winter Testing. Ferrari was going to challenge Red Bull and the McLaren was a dog. After 3 rounds, the testing times look utterly irrelevant.

But if I was absolutely forced to give an answer one way or the other, I would say yes, in a months time Ferrari will be closer to the Bulls than they are now.