The 2012 Season

Techincal analysis of the Malaysia GP by an Italian former F1 engineer that Scarbs shared on twitter. It's in Italian, so here's a translated version for those like me whose Italian vocabulary only extends to about 10 words:

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/...us-gp-malesia-aerodinamica-gomme-e-strategie/

Though the Mercedes had the highest speed with DRS activated, it seems the Lotus reached the highest speed without DRS activated.
 
ExtremeNinja said:
Knowing the problem is not the same as knowing the solution. For example, most of the teams on the grid have the problem that there are faster cars than their own. Imagine what would happen if everybody solved that problem. I think they would end up with the same problem.
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We'll know after Spain whether Ferrari have solved their issues. As I said, they know where their weaknesses are and have been working on correcting them. We may get a hint of whether they know the solution in China but more likely in Barcelona.
 
Il_leone said:
last year their cars was good at maintaining grip being the gentlest on tyres usually the softs but they were terrible on harder tyres which have less grip and dropped off like a stone

This year it seems the car can't get up to speed for 1 lap but race pace in Alonso's hands its not too bad It seems to be lower fuel and when the tyre has worn down they really drop off again



We've only seen glimpses of it in Melbourne because Schumacher was out early. In Malaysia their straightline speed set up is a handicap in the rain when more aero grip is needed which they lack to the other teams.

They are closer to cause more problems for the other 3 teams than last year

With extra resources this year they will be able to sort the car out more quickly you'd think
Click to expand

You appear to have agreed with me regarding last years difficulties for Ferrari being tyre related.
They don't have a problem this year getting heat into their tyres, they simply need a few more tenths and I'm sure they'll find that extra speed by the time they reach Spain. The lack of one lap speed you refer to only occurred in Malyasia when Alonso had a KERS failure.
 
Mercedes problems seem to be a performance deficit that has been masked in testing, practise and qualifying by the advantages conferred by the DRS cum F-duct system. In race conditions the DRS can only be used a very small proportion of the time - i.e. when close enough to another car to allow it to be used and then only for the duration of the activation zone. The first couple of races have exposed this and as they were back to back gave not time for Brawn and his tech's to address the problem. If it's a downforce issue (i.e. they might have too much or too little) they may be able to fix it with new front and rear wings for more (or less) downforce and traction. I suspect too little downforce resulting in the tyre issues they've had. I don't think it's a power issue since we know that the Merc is on of the best engines on the grid.

it will be interesting to see if they have made inroads into their problems in China. If they haven't we get some more clues as to what has gone wrong with the car.
 
Kewee said:
We'll know after Spain whether Ferrari have solved their issues. As I said, they know where their weaknesses are and have been working on correcting them. We may get a hint of whether they know the solution in China but more likely in Barcelona.
Click to expand

I think I half understand what you are getting at, but it's a bit like saying that we will know who won the race at Monaco once the race is over and somebody has won it.
 
ExtremeNinja said:
I think I half understand what you are getting at, but it's a bit like saying that we will know who won the race at Monaco once the race is over and somebody has won it.
Click to expand

I'm not saying that Ninja, I'm simply saying that Ferrari are working on a substantial upgrade but until they run it and are able to fine tune those upgrades they won't know, and neither will we, how much of a step forward they have made in relation to everyone else. My opinion that they will be competitive is just a gut feeling, nothing more, which is why I said we will know after Spain and more precisely after Q3.
 
Kewee said:
I'm not saying that Ninja, I'm simply saying that Ferrari are working on a substantial upgrade but until they run it and are able to fine tune those upgrades they won't know, and neither will we, how much of a step forward they have made in relation to everyone else. My opinion that they will be competitive is just a gut feeling, nothing more, which is why I said we will know after Spain and more precisely after Q3.
Click to expand

Sorry. I'm not being fair. I was nitpicking as it's quite an obvious statement. I probably didn't need to comment on it all.
 
Having just heard about the latest disturbances in Baaaaaarain, I had a revelation.

It looks very possible that, having finally come out of the box with the fastest car, McLaren will only get to compete in 1 or 2 dry races with that advantage. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple teams make big inroads by the time we get back to Europe, with Macca unable capitalize on their early season pace.

They benefited from Baaaaaaarain being dropped last year, but this year they may be screwed.
 
KekeTheKing said:
Having just heard about the latest disturbances in Baaaaaarain, I had a revelation.

It looks very possible that, having finally come out of the box with the fastest car, McLaren will only get to compete in 1 or 2 dry races with that advantage. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple teams make big inroads by the time we get back to Europe, with Macca unable capitalize on their early season pace.

They benefited from Baaaaaaarain being dropped last year, but this year they may be screwed.
Click to expand

mjo said:
The Chinese race looks like it could be a wet one.
Click to expand

.....and we know how dominant those Red Bulls were in Spain last year because of their aero package. If you ask me Mclaren need to get a big result in China.
 
KekeTheKing said:
Having just heard about the latest disturbances in Baaaaaarain, I had a revelation.

It looks very possible that, having finally come out of the box with the fastest car, McLaren will only get to compete in 1 or 2 dry races with that advantage. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple teams make big inroads by the time we get back to Europe, with Macca unable capitalize on their early season pace.

They benefited from Baaaaaaarain being dropped last year, but this year they may be screwed.
Click to expand

All complicated somewhat by the fact that the race organisers are major shareholders in the team, of course!
 
RasputinLives said:
.....and we know how dominant those Red Bulls were in Spain last year because of their aero package. If you ask me Mclaren need to get a big result in China.
Click to expand

Red Bull weren't dominant in Spain last year except in qualifying, they were pushed to the line by McLaren all the way. Indeed, arguably McLaren's strongest pace in 2011 was at Suzuka, which is very aero dependent too.
 
KekeTheKing said:
What a debacle. This race should have been axed for good last year, with another taking its spot. This whole will they/wont they saga is an embarrassment.
Click to expand

With this type of ongoing activity, and one person already killed while demonstrating in Bahrain, chances that it wont are very good.


14088_2.webp
 

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