F1 Testing 2012 - Week 2, Barcelona

Irish_Tom · 24 Feb 2012 at 11:04

I'm not really fussed as long as someone can give Vettel a clear run for his money this season. Mostly because I'm fed up with my German girlfriend gloating.

I'd like it to be one of the two McLarens, but if it was a Ferrari or a Merc I wouldn't be too disappointed, as long as there's some racing at the very front.

Mr Men · 24 Feb 2012 at 11:06

sunama said:
Do you believe the Ferrari will be "on the pace" in Australia?

No idea, will have a better idea at the final test when they as planned have a clear path for the car and begin to go for performance

Zuban · 24 Feb 2012 at 11:15

hard to tell how good the mclaren is, during there race sims they are apparently refilling the car with fuel at each tyre change so the time isnt dropping over the whole race sim like it normally would. I dont know how true this is, just something i keep reading from various forums etc...

arknor · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:06

Zuban said:
hard to tell how good the mclaren is, during there race sims they are apparently refilling the car with fuel at each tyre change so the time isnt dropping over the whole race sim like it normally would. I dont know how true this is, just something i keep reading from various forums etc...

same for merc and they did the race sim yesterday with used tyres

englishpremier · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:12

92 laps by Rosberg already. That's the race sim out of the way, now lets see some qualifying laps ;-)

tummelv · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:30

Don't know if anyone has linked this already but Scarbs has some new posts up

http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/

schumi84 · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:33

The main thing I am happy with is the fact that Merc appear to be happy with the way things are going and getting in the laps to fully understand the car.

Would like to see Michael doing at least one star-jump this year and a good competitive season so Vettel has to work a little bit harder to keep hold of his crown

sunama · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:45

schumi84 said:
Would like to see Michael doing at least one star-jump this year and a good competitive season so Vettel has to work a little bit harder to keep hold of his crown

Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

FrankJH · 24 Feb 2012 at 12:51

sunama said:
Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

looking at it another way - the gap between them at the end of 2011 was quite a bit smaller than that in 2010 (ie Schumi is getting better relative to Rosberg with every new season)

Could be multiple reasons why this is, which could assist one side or the other of the Merc garage , I wouldnt write off schumi just yet (even if I would love if he never saw another podium let alone win lol)

arknor · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:11

sunama said:
Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

ill have the sig of your choosing if nico beats michael this year on points

arknor · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:12

sunama said:
Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

ill have the sig of your choosing if nico beats michael this year on points

so do you think hamilton is really going to beat button this year?

schumi84 · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:19

sunama said:
Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

After some of his performances last year then yes, I do feel he can beat Rosberg. I think he has the better race craft and his experience will contribute to this, also Rosberg has never won a race nor been in a position to win a race so lacks that experience.

One of the biggest issues Michael has had is his qualifying pace which has compromised his race quite considerably on occasion, so he definitely needs to sort that out if he is to be in a position to get on the podium even. Niko, on the other hand, has been fantastic in this respect but has often dropped away in the race.

However this season goes, I just hope that they can get in amongst the top 3 as opposed to languishing in no-mans land.

Zuban · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:21

arknor said:
same for merc and they did the race sim yesterday with used tyres

sandbagging do you think? or just more interested in getting good data on a heavy car?, either way, the times look promising!.

englishpremier · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:23

sunama said:
Do you think MSc is likely to beat Rosberg?
Over the last 2 seasons Rosberg has beaten MSc in the WDC. Given that, I feel that Rosberg would be the guy more likely to be able to take advantage, should Merc produce a race winning car.

I thought that Schumacher actually performed much better than Rosberg in races last year. He suffered more DNFs IIRC a technical failure at Monaco where he was going well. Also Petrov taking him out when he was minding his own business.

JA reports that the new tyres have a larger rear contact patch and offer more grip relative to the fronts, thus changing the balance of the car. It's well known that MS likes oversteer, so not sure how this will affect him last year.

That being said, the loss of EBD should have more of an impact than the tyres.

I don't subscribe to the view that Schumacher is much slower (than he was), he consistently performs well against contemporary drivers when taking part in things like Kart racing and the RoC

Skeeter · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:31

arknor said:
ill have the sig of your choosing if nico beats michael this year on points

You will be held to this by the entire Motorsport forum.

arknor · 24 Feb 2012 at 13:38

englishpremier said:
I thought that Schumacher actually performed much better than Rosberg in races last year. He suffered more DNFs IIRC a technical failure at Monaco where he was going well. Also Petrov taking him out when he was minding his own business.

JA reports that the new tyres have a larger rear contact patch and offer more grip relative to the fronts, thus changing the balance of the car. It's well known that MS likes oversteer, so not sure how this will affect him last year.

That being said, the loss of EBD should have more of an impact than the tyres.

I don't subscribe to the view that Schumacher is much slower (than he was), he consistently performs well against contemporary drivers when taking part in things like Kart racing and the RoC

MSC had 3 technical failures more than rosberg if i recall correctly

sandbagging do you think? or just more interested in getting good data on a heavy car?, either way, the times look promising!.

probably just going about there own busisness gathering useful data for the races the same as mclaren and redbull.

it just looks like sandbagging because of the midfield teams desperate for sponsor money running on fumes to make headlines.

as i said before imo
redbull > mclaren/mercedes (should be really close) > ferrari

james allen seems to agree with me on ferrari not looking good for the first race so far.

btw anyone noticed the DD diffuser on the merc lol a minime version

sunama · 24 Feb 2012 at 14:14

Zuban said:
sandbagging do you think? or just more interested in getting good data on a heavy car?, either way, the times look promising!.

Sandbagging wastes time and serves little purpose other than to confuse other teams, who in most cases are not fussed with what other teams are doing.

Teams have their own testing schedule and I highly doubt that they put "sandbagging for 3 hours" as part of the test schedule (waste of valuable testing time, resources and money).

I think they were just getting some data for the races.

sunama · 24 Feb 2012 at 14:19

schumi84 said:
One of the biggest issues Michael has had is his qualifying pace which has compromised his race quite considerably on occasion, so he definitely needs to sort that out if he is to be in a position to get on the podium even. Niko, on the other hand, has been fantastic in this respect but has often dropped away in the race.

So, unless Merc produce a car which is a good 1s / lap faster than the RBR, it is likely that MSc will suffer again, in qualifying and then again in the race.

Sure, in the race I feel that MSc has been slightly better than Rosberg, however, once Rosberg gains the advantage in qualifying, MSc has a lot of work to do to recover that advantage.

Also, in equal cars, if Merc have the best car and are running 1-2, would MSc be able to overtake Rosberg? Does he have the necessary skills to do this in 2012?

Over the course of 2 years (almost 40 races), Rosberg has won the points battle with MSc and unless MSc gets a car which for whatever reason, suits his driving style, I can't see how how MSc will reverse this trend on track. There is another way that he might beat Rosberg and that is to use his political prowess, forcing Merc to give him preferential treatment and/or get Rosberg to slow down. This is not beyond the realms of possibility.

The battle, will certainly be close.

sunama · 24 Feb 2012 at 14:28

arknor said:
ill have the sig of your choosing if nico beats michael this year on points

Lets make a deal.

If MSc loses the points battle with Rosberg in 2012, whichever constructor finishes bottom next year...that is the sig which you shall construct and display for a minimum of 6 months, after the season is over. Deal?

arknor said:
so do you think hamilton is really going to beat button this year?

Without a doubt Hamilton is the driver who is capable of outscoring Button. On the other hand, the 2nd half of last season is not something he or anybody can ignore.

In any case, although he claims to have turned a corner, do not believe this. You don't go from being in the worst form of your career to going back to normal over a single Winter (with no racing). Most of the time, you need to drive your way into form. The confidence of consistently getting podium finishes builds up and propels you back to form.

If Hamilton can put together a series of 5-7 decent race finishes (no crashes), then I would definitely say he will beat Button over the whole season. If he continues as he finished 2011 - Button will tear him apart and probably force Hamilton to think about his future at McLaren.

To my mind, Hamilton needs the entire team focused around him. When he has this full and unanimous support, he does very well. The same goes for a lot of other top drivers. If he has a bad 2012, leaving McLaren might be the only way for him to rescue his career.

Tweaker · 24 Feb 2012 at 14:28

How long have Mercedes committed to F1? As in, if they dont win this year, will they quit by 2014?