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[What's Burning?]

The only thing I'm sure of, is that, where ever Ferrari stands, the F2012 will make large gains in performance over the next few races. And that will simply be the result of them understanding the car.

Not if they start to understand it and it dawns on them that the car is a dud...

Hey, always optimistic, at least they'll understand what NOT to do in 2013.

[scotty]

I think Ferrari will have the same pace (relative to Red Bull) as last year. Their problem is that Mercedes and Lotus will be much closer to the leading pace than last year...

[LewEngBridewell]

It's hard to say. They haven't performed as badly as McLaren did in pre-season testing last year, and look how that one turned out.

[bud]

It's hard to say. They haven't performed as badly as McLaren did in pre-season testing last year, and look how that one turned out.

McLaren knew where the problem lay though, their octo diffuser. It was a kind of easy fix just bolt on a more conventional Redbull style diffuser.
Ferrari say they have unknown behavior sometimes the cars behaving as expected then other times it's not. They can't pin point why it's doing this either.

[oaba09]

They wouldn't really gain anything if they pretend that they have a problem so my answer is no, I think their problem is legit....I'd still wait for the 1st race though before making any doomsday predictions for ferrari...

[vaptin]

I think a lot of this is hype, there's always a massive media circus around Ferrari, so issues tend to be reported in greater proportion than they warrant. Add to this Stefano's style of general honesty and humbleness and Luca's bullish "all or nothing" and you get this.

I think Ferrari are still happy with the base potential of the car, it just is taking a while to get there, I suspect regardless of the result they'll be a lot of media and rival teams looking eagerly at the Ferrari in Australia.

It's still exciting to see Ferrari mixing in the mid pack, it's just I think its a massive waste with Alonso in the car.

Brawn is usually right with his comments, "Ferrari are the big unknown".

Overall, they'll probably be relatively weak in the first few races, but its after that we'll see if they can fight for the championship or not. I guess it really depends on how far Redbull are ahead this season, and if Whiting and the FIA strictly enforce the rules this time: "Any aerodynamic effect due to the exhaust gases must be purely incidental".

Also, is it possible to allow 2 answers for this poll? The responses, hopefully/ not are in relation to a different question than the yes/no ones.

[Blackavar]

I chose "hopefully".

Not my favourite team by any means, but the more cars battling for the title the better. If Ferrari are slipping then it will only strengthen Red Bull's dominance.

[Hammer278]

Hopefully/Hopefully not are basically fancier words for 'Not Sure'.

I tend to agree with majority, Ferrari might be struggling for the first few races but they might have some serious potential yet to be unlocked. Something like the 2005 McLaren...though that was a good car to start with, but after 4 races it became almost invincible pacewise at least.

It just depends on how fast Ferrari can find the strengths in the chassis and exploiting it. If unlimited testing was allowed like it was in the early 2000s, they might have had a chance to dominate from Race 1.

[scotty]

I think this article is relevant:

McLaren driver Jenson Button believes that the ban on blown diffusers for 2012 has led to teams having a stronger correlation between gains in the windtunnel and performance on the track.

With an effective ban in place thanks to regulations dictating where the exhausts must be positioned, all of the teams running the concept last year have lost a significant amount of rear downforce. But Button reckons a positive by-product of this is that there is now less mystery in generating consistent downforce.

"It's a lot more straightforward than last year in terms of trying to find downforce," he said, after completing his pre-season preparations ahead of the Melbourne opener. "When you see something in the windtunnel, you stick it on the car and it goes quicker. But with the blown exhaust you could try so many things in the windtunnel. You think it's going to give you a second, then put it on the car and its slower. It is very difficult to work with it.

"Now if it works in the windtunnel, it pretty much works at the track. Less downforce - but the feeling is still pretty good."

Button says he feels much more confident going into the season than he did 12 months ago, when McLaren endured a fractured build up after encountering several reliability issues and suffering from a lack of running.

This time around the new MP4-27 has not only proven reliable, it looks to be a strong and competitive baseline with which to start the season.

"I'm a lot happier with everything," said Button, despite being limited to 44 laps of running on his final day because of a hydraulic problem, and having not tried a long-run on the final-spec car.

"[Last year we were] running round, scratching our heads, wondering what we've done wrong. Last year we had the problem of the exhausts cracking and also that we just weren't fast, which I think we kept a secret behind the exhaust problems. It was a very hard winter and when you have reliability issues you can't do any proper testing."

So basically, in my opinion Ferrari with their more extreme exhaust layout are still retaining a certain level of 'mystery' in how their car is laid out and how it needs to unlock it's pace. The fact that their testing speed seemed so hit and miss would tend to support this idea..

[stonemonkey]

I chose "hopefully".

Not my favourite team by any means, but the more cars battling for the title the better. If Ferrari are slipping then it will only strengthen Red Bull's dominance.

Not sure I totally agree with that, many teams chasing one will be sharing the rest of the points between them. I think that added to Vettels dominance last year. I want to see more teams fighting at the front but I'd prefer to see a fight for the lead even if it's just two drivers or teams rather then the 2nd place fight we had last year.