Ferrari, where did that second go?

[SiLo]

So, I think it's common knowledge that Ferrari have lost some performance somewhere in the magical ether that is Formula 1. If they were pretty close to Red Bull all through testing, and now nowhere near, where Red Bull sandbagging or have they just improved by around a second?

And Mclaren finding almost 2 seconds across a month? Jeez.

[marcush.]

I think Ferrari were not hiding anything but neither Mclaren nor RB were showing their hand in testing,that´s all.
Mclaren had in my view a good idea what they could do but gambled a bit on the more radical ideas in the hope to leapfrog RB which did not work out so they just stepped back to solid ground.
RedBull were quitely developping their car without the need to show their speed and put their their KERS development at the end of their programme.
Ferraris car is just too conservative to challenge for the front row

[donskar]

I think Ferrari were not hiding anything but neither Mclaren nor RB were showing their hand in testing,that´s all.
Mclaren had in my view a good idea what they could do but gambled a bit on the more radical ideas in the hope to leapfrog RB which did not work out so they just stepped back to solid ground.
RedBull were quitely developping their car without the need to show their speed and put their their KERS development at the end of their programme.
Ferraris car is just too conservative to challenge for the front row

Exactly. And now, even before the second race, we face the boring prospect of a 2-make race for the season. The gap between RB/McL and "the rest" is at 1-1.5 seconds -- an eternity. Yes, it's very early, but Ferrari, Renault and M-B need to find well over a scond to be competitive (because RB and McL will continue to improve). Time to speculate about when Pat Fry moves up -- or someone else is brought in from the outside.

[Jersey Tom]

I can't imagine a pro race team sand bagging in testing. Seems pointless. Why even show up?

[timbo]

I can't imagine a pro race team sand bagging in testing. Seems pointless. Why even show up?

Agreed. Although I think there were several phases that all teams went through during testing — first reliability checks, than mechanical setups. At the final test teams introduced aero packages that were intended for the first fly-away races.
Many teams made significant advances in speed with such package and for some reason Ferrari didn't.
I still wait for when onboards from Malaysia will show up on Youtube. In Australia the car seemed to be light on the front which definitely was not a problem during testing. That is what seems strange here — there were no signs of handling problems before actual races.

[raymondu999]

I guess they could be testing with full tanks, but still on the limit. Rather than driving below the limit on purpose.

[myurr]

I can't imagine a pro race team sand bagging in testing. Seems pointless. Why even show up?

Agreed. Although I think there were several phases that all teams went through during testing — first reliability checks, than mechanical setups. At the final test teams introduced aero packages that were intended for the first fly-away races.
Many teams made significant advances in speed with such package and for some reason Ferrari didn't.
I still wait for when onboards from Malaysia will show up on Youtube. In Australia the car seemed to be light on the front which definitely was not a problem during testing. That is what seems strange here — there were no signs of handling problems before actual races.

Brundle said during the quali session that Alonso was struggling to find a balance. The car starts off with deliberate understeer but as the tyres wear down the car shifts to horrible levels of oversteer. Alonso introduced that understeer to try and combat the oversteer at the end of the stint but it still wasn't enough.

I guess they could be testing with full tanks, but still on the limit. Rather than driving below the limit on purpose.

Agreed, and McLaren are definitely doing that at the moment as well. What I find interesting is that McLaren have worked out Red Bulls approximate program and are copying it to a degree, so that their times throughout the practice sessions are actually pretty comparable to their relative ultimate pace.

[timbo]

Brundle said during the quali session that Alonso was struggling to find a balance. The car starts off with deliberate understeer but as the tyres wear down the car shifts to horrible levels of oversteer. Alonso introduced that understeer to try and combat the oversteer at the end of the stint but it still wasn't enough.

There were comments that tyres changed quite a lot from testing. Maybe the car is too tyre sensitive.

[beelsebob]

I can't imagine a pro race team sand bagging in testing. Seems pointless. Why even show up?

Perhaps because the idea is to test things, and because you don't need (nor in fact want) to go flat out to test these things. None of the top teams show their true pace in testing, that's why you get anomalies like williams seemingly being the 3rd fastest team in testing, but ending up right back there with team lotus when the races arrive.

[gray41]

i think it blew away down the pit lane and mclaren picked it up?

[Pandamasque]

Guys, you're missing an important point. They have been testing that Ford truck with some success, and now they have no choice but to race a 150th Italia. And nobody yet knows where are the other 149 of them.

[richard_leeds]

Panda

[SiLo]

i think it blew away down the pit lane and mclaren picked it up?

Seems that way!

[andrew]

During the commentary today, it was mentioned that Ferrari have been very open in saying they have problems with the car (no sh*t Sherlock!!!) and they are in damage limitation mode.

On track, it looks like the front end is washing out in some corners through lack of front end grip.

[alelanza]

It's hard to see their point, it's as if they thought the winter tests were quali sessions and took whichever gaps they saw there for granted. So maybe it's not that their performance went away, at the moment it seems more likely to think they never had it to begin with.
Then again it's too early in the championship to say this or that.