F1 Testing 2012 - Week 1, Jerez

~Mike~ · 8 Feb 2012 at 10:15

10:14 Webber sets the quickest time of the day so far, a 1m19.459s.

dazz25 · 8 Feb 2012 at 10:33

He's just beat that again with a 1m19.184

GravyMonster · 8 Feb 2012 at 10:33

Nismo · 8 Feb 2012 at 10:35

^ Brilliant

~Mike~ · 8 Feb 2012 at 10:41

Spunkey said:

Excellent.

~Mike~ · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:03

10:59 Schumacher fastest in the 2011 Mercedes by 0.5s over Webber

englishpremier · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:05

Lol at Schumacher blitzing the pack in the 2011 Mercedes.

I presume that they aren't running the blown defuser though?

Duke · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:12

englishpremier said:
Lol at Schumacher blitzing the pack in the 2011 Mercedes.

I presume that they aren't running the blown defuser though?

Not sure, it would give them results to compare to last years car/spec but on the other hand it won't have it this year so depends what parts they are testing I guess.

GravyMonster · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:23

Could be the 2011 car with a 2012 floor and exhaust? Hard to tell without pics.

deuse · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:31

TaKeN said:
I think gord is refering to the youtube video above?

Just RBR being super anal about hiding their back end from the photographers as per usual

Thanks for that..

Anyone got links to high res pics please?

Reaper 392 · 8 Feb 2012 at 11:44

Flibster said:
Right....

2010

Renault GP (Owned by Genii)

Lotus Racing (Owned by Tony Fernandes)

2011

Renault GP renamed to Lotus Renault GP - has NO connection to the Lotus that ran in 2010, many days in court proved that. It's just a sponsorship deal. Dany Bahar claims all rights to Team Lotus heritage, and in fact pretty much any use of the word Lotus for the past 2000 years it seems.

Lotus Racing renamed to Team Lotus - Tony bought the rights to the Team Lotus name. Bitchslaps Dany Bahar in court and proved that he has all rights to Team Lotus heritage and to call the car a Lotus.

2012

Lotus Renault GP renamed to Lotus F1 Team - still only a sponsorship deal.

Team Lotus renamed to Caterham F1 Team - Tony bought Caterham in 2011, and in return for a sizeable chunk of Malaysia Airlines agrees to stop using the Team Lotus name.

So yes, there is only one Lotus on the grid this year. But it's Group Lotus not Team Lotus - and thats the bad one.

ah, so i was right. when i said good lotus i meant good performance, not good/bad in a moral way. i assumed you meant the same but obviously i was wrong

arknor · 8 Feb 2012 at 12:06

Spunkey said:
Could be the 2011 car with a 2012 floor and exhaust? Hard to tell without pics.

was full 2011 car yesterday, aparently the same today but you cant see what is under the bodywork so they could be testing mechanical components.

i think they are mainly wanting to gather tyre data though

Overlag · 8 Feb 2012 at 12:38

cars sound miles better now the exhausts exit through the top again.

L33 · 8 Feb 2012 at 12:54

Anyone else noticed from various clips that the RB8 has a significantly different exhaust note (especially on deceleration) to the other cars, even the other renault engined cars?

Nick1881 · 8 Feb 2012 at 13:08

Mercedes didn't have a finished floor for their 2012 car as of last Friday.

LizardKing · 8 Feb 2012 at 14:05

Ferrari going for the Rally setup

arknor · 8 Feb 2012 at 14:06

Nick1881 said:
Mercedes didn't have a finished floor for their 2012 car as of last Friday.

how do you know?

aparently theres something black at rear of the sidepods that merc keep hiding when the car is stationery , so i guess they are testing something

GravyMonster · 8 Feb 2012 at 14:24

That's a massive amount of rake on the Ferrari, especially considering the teams needed to lower the cars this year due to the lack of EBD.

Irish_Tom · 8 Feb 2012 at 14:37

Spunkey said:
That's a massive amount of rake on the Ferrari, especially considering the teams needed to lower the cars this year due to the lack of EBD.

Wasn't extreme rake part of RBRs secret last season?

Maybe Ferrari have worked out something similar.

GravyMonster · 8 Feb 2012 at 14:41

The reason it worked for RBR last year was because they were dumping a lot of fast moving hot exhaust gas through the diffuser which meant the floor needed to be raised to accomodate it all.

Because the EBD has been banned, the floor in theory would need to be lowered as there is a lower volume of air now going under the car.

Maybe Ferrari tried to replace the exhaust air with air from somewhere else to maintain their rake angle, but at a guess from the testing times, it doesn't appear to be working.

@ScarbsF1 said:
you want rake if you can get it to work, the loss of EBD makes it harder to work, but there are other ways