FORUMula1.com

[Jabberwocky]

My mate had one years ago it he was a king amonst us 18 year olds at the time

[spankyham]

ALonso sitting in pit lane for long periods, revving then idling ..... possibly testing solutions for the overheating problem Pedro had at Jerez?

I would of thought they could do that sat in the factory, not need to waste limited track time

Generally yes, but, if there was a change made during testing or overnight, it may well have been an opportune time to test and easy to do.

[spankyham]

Felipe just keeps reinforcing how solid the F138 is. Our biggest decision seems to be whether to go with an aggressive exhaust layout which has not been tested to the extent wanted, or whether to defer it's introduction and do more testing.....

Massa believes final F1 test will be crucial for Ferrari

Felipe Massa sees the final Barcelona Formula 1 test this week as a crucial moment for Ferrari as it looks set to go right down to the wire with its definitive Melbourne car package.

Ferrari is working on a number of major upgrades to the F138 for the third test, and Massa admitted that some of the new components might not be ready until Australian Grand Prix practice.



"The car is still 'green'. We need to make the car in good shape for the first race," he said.

"There's a lot of work and a lot to do. This is a very important moment for the people who work on the aerodynamics, the engine and the chassis. They have to get everything together in a good direction.

"We should have maybe not everything, but some new parts for the next test, and we should have everything that we should have for the first race.

"It's important that we have the complete car we expect at the first race, and we need everything that we bring to the car to be working as we expect."

But he reiterated that his initial impressions of the car's current spec remained very positive.

"I think what we did in Jerez was quite positive and so were the changes we did in the car," Massa said.

"The car was balanced, and I think that's very important.

"Even in difficult conditions in the rain, the car was quite good to drive and competitive through the run. I feel good in the car."

Ferrari engine chief Luca Marmorini admitted during the last test that the team was cutting it fine with a potential new exhaust package.

"Failing an exhaust can force you to stop the car, so it's as critical as a piston failing or a gearbox," he said.

"So therefore we have a lot of concern about introducing the latest exhaust solution without the correct number of tests, but in the end we have to push.

"I think every engine person is a little bit uncomfortable, but we will be sure that in Melbourne we will have solutions that are tested enough."

[What's Burning?]

If you want to get a job at Ferrari, change your name to Luca and it immediately improves your chances threefold.

[darwin dali]

At least the avatar has improved

[LewEngBridewell]

At least the avatar has improved

+1

Nice one spanky! Love it!

[andrew]

At least the avatar has improved

+1

Nice one spanky! Love it!

It's better than the one passing judgement on Ferrari drivers.

The prospect of a Ferrari in flames does have a certain appeal.

[darwin dali]

At least the avatar has improved

+1

Nice one spanky! Love it!

It's better than the one passing judgement on Ferrari drivers.

The prospect of a Ferrari in flames does have a certain appeal.

Well, it's just the cavallino in flames, so don't jump to conclusions

[andrew]

At least the avatar has improved

+1

Nice one spanky! Love it!

It's better than the one passing judgement on Ferrari drivers.

The prospect of a Ferrari in flames does have a certain appeal.

Well, it's just the cavallino in flames, so don't jump to conclusions

You ruin all my fun!

[spankyham]

Seems Gary Anderson thinks we are looking pretty good. But then again he seems to say that about all the main teams..... talking about taking an each-way bet

Formula 1 testing: Teams prepare upgrades for crucial final test

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Ferrari

Fernando Alonso did all the dry-weather driving for Ferrari at the second test and he was genuinely quick.

He was second fastest overall, 0.027 seconds behind McLaren's Sergio Perez, but given he did his time on a longer run than Perez you know that the Ferrari could have gone faster.

If you take into account the length of the run, and fuel-correct the lap time for the minimum amount of fuel on board to allow the car to run that long, you get a figure for the speed the car could have gone. The car may have had even more fuel on board than that, but you know it could have gone at least that fast.



Fuel-correcting Alonso's lap gives him a time 0.258secs quicker than Perez's best. That's a pretty good lap.

I do a lot of analysis of where teams are based on their fastest lap times, and it's clear that Ferrari look as though they have stepped forward from the end of last season.

That's a good achievement because with the new restrictions on the use of the DRS overtaking aid, the cars should be at best the same as they were, given the improvements inevitably made from year to year, or perhaps a bit slower.

In fact, nearly every other team has either stayed the same or gone backwards. Only Lotus and Toro Rosso have definitely matched Ferrari in making the car faster than it was last year.

I would say Ferrari are looking OK at the moment.
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[spankyham]

I get a strong feeling from Nando, Felipe and most things we are hearing from the team that the F138 is indeed going to be competitive from the get-go and that everyone is very relieved that there are no correlation/wind tunnel issues any more - "parts they work as we predicted and expected".

Ferrari '200 times better' than 2012 - Alonso

Fernando Alonso says this year's pre-season has left Ferrari in a position "200 times better" than it was at the start of 2012.

Ferrari's poor pre-season last year left it on the back foot and even though Alonso took the title challenge down to the final race of the season he was ultimately unsuccessful in an inferior car to Red Bull's RB9. However, the signs have been more positive this winter and Alonso confirmed the team had progressed from its position at the end of last year.



"We hope that we have reduced that gap [to the top teams] and we will arrive in Australia in better shape than Brazil, which means 200 times better than last year in Australia," Alonso said.

The team won't have the major Melbourne upgrades available this weekend, meaning they will only be tested for the first time during Friday practice, but Alonso said he is unconcerned.

"I'm happy to bring to Australia all the things. I think it has been a trouble-free winter for us in terms of correlations in that we put little parts they work as we predicted and expected, so to bring some more new things to Australia, I think we have to be confident that they will work as we think. So no big worries and Australia is not the final race of the championship, Australia will be the starting point for many packages coming this season."

When asked if he felt the car would allow him to compete for the world championship this year, Alonso said he was confident it would if only because it's better than the F2012.

"I didn't see any reasons to not think so because last year it was a very difficult winter, we were completely lost, we had some races with the exhaust I remember ... and we didn't know what the car was doing. We didn't understand what was going on in the wind tunnel and on the track, and with that car we fought for the world championship until Brazil.

"So we have now a car that is responding well to what we change on the car. We have a car that is doing what we expected the car to do. We know that maybe we are not the quickest still, but the starting point and the potential of this car is there. We can touch it now. Last year it was a dream to make that car work. This year to make this car work it will be much more easy, that's for sure."

[spankyham]

Nice extended footage of Nando yesterday.



Very interesting watching this video of the F138. It was hugely heavy on fuel (as we now know he ended up doing a race sim) not ideal conditions/weather and yet, to me the F138 looked very solid on track at all points AND he was doing very very respectable times considering the fuel load. When he locks up coming into T1 (I think) at one point, even then the car doesn't become a handful, he simply recovers very fast and continues on.

I didn't spot Nando activate the DRS, so if he did use it, it was very sparingly. Makes those times with full fuel even more impressive.

That video for me is huge grounds for optimism. I'm more convinced than ever we have a very competitive car from the get-go

Minor point really, but, from this video (@ 1:06), Jake and co (along with quite a few other media reports I've read) take the line that the Australian upgrades wont be tested until Friday practice in Australia. But, if you listen carefully to Nando he says "some" of the bits won't arrive until Fri in Australia. Meaning "some" will be tested here.

[spankyham]

Great image as the exhaust flame is captured and it clearly shows how well the exhaust (and its gases) are being directed

Click here or on the image for hi-res version:

[bud]

Awesome photo spanky!

[spankyham]

Interesting day 3 for the F138 and Felipe. Lots of laps and times looked good. Nasty incident at the end of the day when a wheel nut explodes off the car.



A suspension upright was blamed for the wheel nut problem. They certainly want to get that sorted before heading back out on track!

Upright problem to blame for loose Ferrari wheel

A suspension upright problem on the Ferrari was to blame for Felipe Massa's dramatic conclusion to pre-season testing on Saturday.

With less than half an hour remaining in his final test day, Massa's front left wheel came detached at high speed on the run down to turn 10. He was able to bring the car to a controlled stop but it signalled the end of his day and he won't return to the cockpit of the F138 until the Australian Grand Prix later this month.



"A problem with the left front upright meant that Felipe had to stop the car on track, thus bringing a positive day to a slightly early end," Ferrari explained.

The issue will be further investigated overnight before Fernando Alonso returns to the cockpit for the final day of testing on Sunday. Aside from the problem, Massa completed aerodynamic tests in the morning before working on set-up and sampling the new super-soft tyre for this first time in the afternoon.

Massa's best time - a 1:21.266 - was the second fastest overall on Saturday and he completed 94 laps in total.