Australian GP 2011 - Albert Park, 24-27 March

[bonjon1979]

I am quite convinced of the car having quite an handling problem.

The car sported some weird long pillars, such thing was used in more extent by Renault but more recently STR using these since Hungary. Such pillars work similar like a diffuser increasing pressure between them thus increasing downforce.

Also they where running absurd high steering angles, with both going almost full lock through turn three, I cannot see another reason of running such absurd steering angles than having an enormous oversteering problem(or understeering, the nose going straight forward lol) and just requiring those to actually go through the corner.

On Alonso's Q3 flying lap you just saw the car lacking front grip, compare it to the Red Bull you see the Ferrari having enormous problems going into the corner where the Red Bull is such well planted.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferrari adding front downforce over the season.

It did look bad in Australia but I'm far from convinced that it is in big trouble. Horner was quite wary about the Ferrari pace over long stints in testing and that performance doesn't just disappear. It may be that they took a wrong turn or that it was just that one track but I really wouldn't right them off yet especially since FA managed to get some decent points.

[ringo]

I am quite convinced of the car having quite an handling problem.

The car sported some weird long pillars, such thing was used in more extent by Renault but more recently STR using these since Hungary. Such pillars work similar like a diffuser increasing pressure between them thus increasing downforce.

Also they where running absurd high steering angles, with both going almost full lock through turn three, I cannot see another reason of running such absurd steering angles than having an enormous oversteering problem(or understeering, the nose going straight forward lol) and just requiring those to actually go through the corner.

On Alonso's Q3 flying lap you just saw the car lacking front grip, compare it to the Red Bull you see the Ferrari having enormous problems going into the corner where the Red Bull is such well planted.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Ferrari adding front downforce over the season.

I'm seeing this as well. The front is stubborn to turn in and doesn't seem as compliant as last year.
The car looks top heavy as well, i think they have a COG complication, as that determines the tyre degradation as well.

[Caito]

I couldn't see the CoG marked anywhere.

Sorry :p, but it could be.


Assuming they were not running KERS, and since weight was increased, that would give them more ballast. If the ballast is put below CoG, then it would lower it.

Ayway, I don't see how you base your assumption with the video. Am I missing something?

[rfs]

The RB7 just looks to me like it has less body roll than the RB6. And I was guessing that was because of a lower CoG.

[timbo]

I'm seeing this as well. The front is stubborn to turn in and doesn't seem as compliant as last year.
The car looks top heavy as well, i think they have a COG complication, as that determines the tyre degradation as well.

Problems like that would be the first to show up on testing.

[Hangaku]

Here's a thought; perhaps Ferrari, knowing they are competitive, went for a very aggressive package in Melbourne (balls to the wall, win the first race, get a leg up, etc.) and went too aggressive, thus destroying the base setup. In which case, this fits in with winter testing pace, and what happened in Oz.

If you're going to make a leap of faith, it's better to do it at the start of the season than at any other time.

[beelsebob]

I don't get the comments about the Ferrari being faster than the McLaren's race pace at melbourne. Right up until Hamilton's McLaren broke he was consistantly faster than Alonso, and even after that he was running a similar pace. People seem set on comparing to Button, but he, similarly to Massa was struggling with setup. Yet, Massa was clearly slower than Button.

People also seem keen to point out that Hamilton could have been damaging his tyres. Yet the commentators and pit reporters all confirm that the McLaren was the second kindest (second to Sauber) on it's tyres, so that doesn't seem to fit either, especially given that Ferrari were running a 3 stop strategy – presumably they wouldn't do that if they thought they could make a 2 stopper faster.

I'm not discounting Ferrari by a long shot – they certainly seemed a lot faster in testing, but this at best shows that the car has some severe sensitivities to circumstance. Fingers crossed for the sake of the championship being interesting both McLaren and Ferrari find a decent amount of speed at Malaysia. McLaren I don't doubt – it's a revolutionary car that they haven't put the miles on to understand yet, but Ferrari may take rather more crossing of fingers.

[wesley123]

Well we cannot confirm it is a real problem. But my guess is that if they have the same issues in Malaysia as they had this race they will be way behind, they might even be out of the top 10.

Malaysia is a track that just requires good balance and turn in. An car like the Ferrari will already ruin your lap on the first and second turn. Then we are talking about the sweeping corners there, where you just want your car placed well.

Melbourne kind of masks this problem due to its chicane nature of the track, you do not need a complete turn as you can kinda cut the next turn directly. In the race when Button was chasing Massa you already saw how easy Button could come close to Massa in the last 4 turns, the turns not having this nature.

We will see next race but I am quite sure they are just lacking front downforce and the higher tub is hurting them CoG wise.

[PlatinumZealot]

I don't know about you all, but whether or not the Macca is faster I want the Ferrari to be slower.

[beelsebob]

I don't know about you all, but whether or not the Macca is faster I want the Ferrari to be slower.

I'm not a ferrari fan by any means, but I'd go with an exciting season over a McLaren win – preferably both though.

[Mchamilton]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

[Mchamilton]

Wow, look at the top of the front wing on both sides, just inside of front tyres. On 2010 car, you can see it all the way, but on RB7 it almost dissapears in fast sections of the track. The video is enough, not much to say.

i think that is more becuase the upper wishbone on the RB7 seems higher than on the RB6, the nose can only flex a certain amount untill it touches the floor so i doubt it flexes more on the RB7 than the RB6 seen as it was touching the floor last year

[beelsebob]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

How many places did you cross post this to? o.O

[volarchico]

vettels advantage was 0.778s over lewis hamilton in qualifying, at the same track last year, red bull were only 0.229s ahead of the best of of the rest. that means at albert park the red bulls gap has increased by 340% , imagine what the advantage is going to be at somewhere like malaysia, catalunya or hungary.. scary

Soon we won't have to imagine qualifying in Malaysia and we can just watch and see. Some predict that KERS and DRS will give more advantage at Sepang.

[ringo]

"The team have looked into the floor failure we experienced in Melbourne: it seems like the bond between the bib and the chassis was damaged so the damage looked quite bad by the end of the race."