2018 Ferrari SF71H

[shampion 0]

Going to be a great year!!

 

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Ferrari sandbagging BIG TIME!!!!

The car has serious pace folks!!!!

Ok. He's displayed some on supersofts going almost as fast as Merc and RBR. Ominous signs for the other 2 top teams!!!

[Sakae 0]

2 minutes ago, BradSpeedMan said:

Ferrari sandbagging BIG TIME!!!!

he car has serious pace folks!!!!

Ok. He's displayed some on supersifts going almost as fast as Merc and RBR. Ominous signs for the other 2 top teams!!!

Seb pulled back last year as well until dying minutes when he lifted his foot, to slow down. Then came Melbourne. Rest is history. Kimi is due for tomorrow. 

[BradSpeedMan 6]

2 compounds harder than Ric I must add

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Sebastian Vettel goes purple in the first sector on his latest lap...

And goes even faster to a 1:18.079.

That's the second-fastest lap of testing and 0.032 off Daniel Ricciardo's best time yesterday - and Vettel is on the 'harder' ultrasofts.

The German's time is also over three tenths faster than Mercedes have produced on the same tyre.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

As its testing, I dont think of course that all the teams are showing true potential yet. 

[BradSpeedMan 6]

So Vettel puts in a 1:17.6, four tenths faster than Ric on the hypersofts.

Judging by the comments from their rivals yesterday, apparently only RBR was going to run Merc close this year

[BradSpeedMan 6]

1:17.1

 

Hmmmm. Can he get into the 1:16's????

[BradSpeedMan 6]

TorroRosso Honda for the championship!! A 1:17:8 on hypersofts

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Altho its been ruled out for exceeding track limits

[Sakae 0]

2 hours ago, BradSpeedMan said:

So Vettel puts in a 1:17.6, four tenths faster than Ric on the hypersofts.

Judging by the comments from their rivals yesterday, apparently only RBR was going to run Merc close this year

Well, Lauda and Marko seems to think that Ferrari (and consequently Vettel) are good only for P3.

[Sakae 0]

8 March 2018, 18:47  -  Based on laps reported to-date, Sebastian completed approximately ten race distances. Hopefully Kimi will be OK and finish testing on the top as well.

[Sakae 0]

 

Found on the internet. Author is unknown.

[Sakae 0]

12 March 2018, 06:12  -  GP247

This sounds problematic.

Quote

Auto Motor und Sport journalist Michael Schmidt is not so sure Ferrari are in such a good place. He compared the race pace of Ferrari to the race pace of the Ferrari powered Haas and concludes that the SF71-H is only a couple of tenths better.

Schmidt added: “According to GPS measurements the red cars lose time in the turns. That was precisely their strength last year. Track spies reported locked up wheels when braking and very different lines used by the Ferrari drivers.”

He quotes trackside observer Pedro de la Rosa watching through Turns 1, 2 and 3: “The Mercedes and Red Bull are much quieter than the Ferrari .”

 

[Robert Rick 0]

6 hours ago, Sakae said:

12 March 2018, 06:12  -  GP247

This sounds problematic.

 

Yes. But tires looked better we also are told. You wouldn't expect that, if tires make much more noise, would you. I mean it must be friction that makes noise, or not?

Maybe it's mainly a sign, the HAAS (nicknamed The White Ferrari, I just learned) is truly strong this year. I would love that, being Danish.

[Sakae 0]

12 March 2018, 16:55

Vettel before season.

Civil, pleasant, and modest.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

Despite contradictory almost damning media reports about their 2018 chanves, this does'nt sound like a driver who is all that worried. Infact, he sounds quite confident. We eagerly await Melbourne

 

http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/631128/Vettel_Mercedes_and_Red_Bull_race_simulations_misleading/

[Sakae 0]

11 minutes ago, BradSpeedMan said:

Despite contradictory almost damning media reports about their 2018 chanves, this does'nt sound like a driver who is all that worried. Infact, he sounds quite confident. We eagerly await Melbourne http://gptoday.com/full_story/view/631128/Vettel_Mercedes_and_Red_Bull_race_simulations_misleading/

 

Quote

Vettel told Sport Bild: "We can build on last season and we believe we know what screws need to be turned to improve. But it's important that our car is immediately competitive." (GMM)

Essentially I think Sebastian is correct in stating, until they all race under same conditions, estimates derived of pre-season testing could be right but also wrong. It is however also true, that prevailing opinion among Ferrari's competitors is, that MB is too far ahead of them all for the full season.

[BradSpeedMan 6]

25 minutes ago, Sakae said:

 

Essentially I think Sebastian is correct in stating, until they all race under same conditions, estimates derived of pre-season testing could be right but also wrong. It is however also true, that prevailing opinion among Ferrari's competitors is, that MB is too far ahead of them all for the full season.

We will see. The noises from BOTH the Ferrari drivers are just too positive. Kimi is not a guy who will normally comment positively on the performance of the car after pre-season testing... I think something is up

[Sakae 0]

15 March 2018, 19:43

Quote

LAURENT MEKIES TO LEAVE FIA TO JOIN FERRARI TECHNICAL LINE-UP

So, guy knows "secrets", and McLaren is freaking out because of that?

[Robert Rick 0]

On 3/15/2018 at 7:45 PM, Sakae said:

15 March 2018, 19:43

So, guy knows "secrets", and McLaren is freaking out because of that?

I guess it might potentially help Ferrari. But maybe what really made them angry is they wanted Mekies themselves and now missed the opportunity.

[Sakae 0]

On 3/14/2018 at 9:34 AM, BradSpeedMan said:

We will see. The noises from BOTH the Ferrari drivers are just too positive. Kimi is not a guy who will normally comment positively on the performance of the car after pre-season testing... I think something is up

18 March 2018, 18:08 - Räikkönen is in headlines with his "if we wanted, we could have gone faster". Its pity he did not clarify under what circumstances that would be possible. Which testing day, time (track temp.) long or qualification run, with which tire, etc. Waiting whole winter for a season to start, apparently this last week before first race is literally killing me. What's notable, as you are correctly pointing out, Kimi is not the one who would usually spew such comments. I gather then, he seems to be happy this time around with that car. Whether such mood is particular to a one driver only, or both remains to be seen. Vettel didn't say much.  

[BradSpeedMan 6]

2 hours ago, Sakae said:

18 March 2018, 18:08 - Räikkönen is in headlines with his "if we wanted, we could have gone faster". Its pity he did not clarify under what circumstances that would be possible. Which testing day, time (track temp.) long or qualification run, with which tire, etc. Waiting whole winter for a season to start, apparently this last week before first race is literally killing me. What's notable, as you are correctly pointing out, Kimi is not the one who would usually spew such comments. I gather then, he seems to be happy this time around with that car. Whether such mood is particular to a one driver only, or both remains to be seen. Vettel didn't say much.  

Vettel did say that they needed to extract more performance from the car (based on their new design philosophy). Having pounded around with the most lap count during testing, I suspect they drove around with heavy fuel as some observers have pointed out. Also based on what he let slip to Ted Kravitz about still having plenty of fuel left after his race simulation. Extracting more performance means driving around with adequate fuel corrected amounts and monitoring how the car responds. The car is not only easy to set up (another Kimi comment), but seem to generate heat into the tyres quicker yet still mantain less blistering than their rivals.

 

I think they have a bullet and they know it

 

[Quiet One 15]

This is very serious. I doubt FIArrari will lift a finger to ban these exploits, though. 

Sad.

[Sakae 0]

After Whiting see that, anyone wants to place bet how long it takes before he shall change rules?