Ferrari 150° Italia

[adrianjordan]

more air ,lower drag perfection...you can interpret all and everything into it but fact is :
RedBull are never ever quickest on the straights ...so the car is DRAGGY no matter where it has holes where others have not or vice versa...
they might have smaller openings but they are prepared to sacrifice all the drag gains for more downforce which brings me to the conclusion that all other teams have a very different lift drag ratio compared to RedBull.

I agree.

I get the impression than RBR go for outright downforce at the expense of ultimate top speed. McLaren seem to go the other way, going for a slippery car that they have to bolt downforce onto.

I almost think that Ferrari are trying to do both, rather than choosing 1 philosophy and focussing on that. Of course I could be talking total red-bull-ocks...

[marcush.]

What i find intrguing is :why do the teams not go more extreme in altering their cofigurations?
May it be cutting down on downforce would destroy all the advantage RedBull has? It should not be too difficult to shed some wing AoA or have simply less wing area...

[timbo]

What i find intrguing is :why do the teams not go more extreme in altering their cofigurations?
May it be cutting down on downforce would destroy all the advantage RedBull has? It should not be too difficult to shed some wing AoA or have simply less wing area...

I was thinking a lot about that and actually asked some guys with inside knowledge.
It is definitely a trend going probably since early-mid '00s. Before that you could tell car from Magny-Cours to the car from Silverstone by the size of the wings. Not anymore.
I guess the cars are so refined, that altering aero dramatically would totally upset the balance.
And the importance of the front-wing has raised IMO. The whole underbody depends on the vortexes it generate, so if you take some RW off, you wouldn't be able to simply use less angle on the FW to compensate.

[marcush.]

it could be the testing ban .
You need to validate all your different configuarations and with only limited preseason testing and nothing between the races maybe there is simply not enough confidence to turn the car inside out every other week?

To me there is no difference in physical effect from today to say 10 years back .The sophistication of front wings and other appendages has not started yesterdays i hear this sort of statement since the 90s.

[shelly]

I think that with the current set of rules the importance of downforce is pssibly higher than ever. Downforce, not downforce/drag ratio, is the key driver for perfomance, except in Montreal, Monza and maybe Spa.

[timbo]

To me there is no difference in physical effect from today to say 10 years back .The sophistication of front wings and other appendages has not started yesterdays i hear this sort of statement since the 90s.

Compare this

and this

[PlatinumZealot]

more air ,lower drag perfection...you can interpret all and everything into it but fact is :
RedBull are never ever quickest on the straights ...so the car is DRAGGY no matter where it has holes where others have not or vice versa...
they might have smaller openings but they are prepared to sacrifice all the drag gains for more downforce which brings me to the conclusion that all other teams have a very different lift drag ratio compared to RedBull.

I agree.

I get the impression than RBR go for outright downforce at the expense of ultimate top speed. McLaren seem to go the other way, going for a slippery car that they have to bolt downforce onto.

I almost think that Ferrari are trying to do both, rather than choosing 1 philosophy and focussing on that. Of course I could be talking total red-bull-ocks...

RB7 has top speed, they just run the gears short. I think they were fast in Malaysia and Barcelona. Look how fast they will go in Canada.

[Boost]

more air ,lower drag perfection...you can interpret all and everything into it but fact is :
RedBull are never ever quickest on the straights ...so the car is DRAGGY no matter where it has holes where others have not or vice versa...
they might have smaller openings but they are prepared to sacrifice all the drag gains for more downforce which brings me to the conclusion that all other teams have a very different lift drag ratio compared to RedBull.

I agree.

I get the impression than RBR go for outright downforce at the expense of ultimate top speed. McLaren seem to go the other way, going for a slippery car that they have to bolt downforce onto.

I almost think that Ferrari are trying to do both, rather than choosing 1 philosophy and focussing on that. Of course I could be talking total red-bull-ocks...

RB7 has top speed, they just run the gears short. I think they were fast in Malaysia and Barcelona. Look how fast they will go in Canada.

When running without DRS (ie wing in closed position) the McLaren is faster in a straight line. The RBR isn't rev limited at this point as the gearing needs to be selected to allow maximum speed when the wing is opened.

[marcush.]

RedBull have started out the season with 6kmh less top speed and extending the gap to 10 in Turkey and eventually even 12 kmh in Spain coming back to the more conservative 5kmh in Monaco.
I don´t understand why you would not gear the car to be able to exploit DRS fully and instead only run into the limiter earlier.With their early in corner use of DRS this would be even more significant.

[PhillipM]

Because when you're up front your not on the DRS all that often, why make the car slower the rest of the time?

[Mr Alcatraz]

more air ,lower drag perfection...you can interpret all and everything into it but fact is :
RedBull are never ever quickest on the straights ...so the car is DRAGGY no matter where it has holes where others have not or vice versa...
they might have smaller openings but they are prepared to sacrifice all the drag gains for more downforce which brings me to the conclusion that all other teams have a very different lift drag ratio compared to RedBull.

I agree.

I get the impression than RBR go for outright downforce at the expense of ultimate top speed. McLaren seem to go the other way, going for a slippery car that they have to bolt downforce onto.

I almost think that Ferrari are trying to do both, rather than choosing 1 philosophy and focussing on that. Of course I could be talking total red-bull-ocks...

At the risk of ending up only having accomplished “taking a flying leap at the moon”,
I think that Ferrari's mechanical traction, and compromise balance in down force/ top end speed will put them on par with or slightly faster than RB through T7. Tyre degradation characteristics may be the key to whether they are competitive with McLaren and Red Bull, with McLaren having and obvious advantage on the straights.
Straight line balance under breaking should help Ferrari through T10, and they would probably have a fighting chance if there was only one DRS zone at this track. Or ?
If the tyres hold up their best case scenario is FA p3 unless there is carnage at McLaren and Red Bull experience DRS failure.

[PlatinumZealot]

But RedBull has the best balance and the best braking.

I can see tyre nursing as Ferrari's strength... but it only applies to tyre not named Hard.

[Mr Alcatraz]

But RedBull has the best balance and the best braking.

I can see tyre nursing as Ferrari's strength... but it only applies to tyre not named Hard.

Fair point about RBR balance. The hards may not be as much of a liability as you suggest due to the abrasive nature of CGV. However the weather is always a factor, and right now the forecast is 50% chance of rain Sat. and Sun. On a less objective note, and a bug that I would like to put in your ear and some others I can think of. Will Hamilton’s random walk keep coming up on the same side of the coin, this week maybe due to changing track conditions in quali and/or race?
Vettel Hamilton Button and Alonso are all very good in the wet, but the nod has to go to the RB7 in that department
http://www.weather.com/weather/extended ... e=CityPage

[Byronrhys]

So far all early forecast suggested rain after friday and we got none, its weather so we'll have to wait till around early friday to judge race day. I really want some rain though, we finally got a SC at Monaco time for some precipitation ( some snow even ).

[Mr.G]

I can see tyre nursing as Ferrari's strength... but it only applies to tyre not named Hard.

Hopefully not - http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/50874.html