ferrari tested new rear wing today, judging by the angle of attack of the upper element i think its for the lower df tracks

6 wins and there 2nd place in the first 9 races!!! Still not dominant?

Does anyone know if they used that in the quali sim?

Since they are teammates only Massa makes jokes or stupid statements. It wont help him for sure..

Dominant was Ferrari 2004 dude...

In 2006 Ferrari had more victories than Renault.

I mean the first half of the season,dude

If Schumacher hadn't made silly mistakes (the driver and not the car made the mistakes) like Australia or Monaco it would have been closer. If, if, if... but nothing "dominant" about the R26.

It´s simple. It´s the best car he´s driven, but maybe the McLaren this year is better. Not so hard to understand



Seasons have two halfs ;)

Michael Schumacher: "Ferrari is the team to beat"
Vettel: "Ferrari seems to be the strongest team"
Jenson Button: "Ferrari looks really strong"
Alonso: "This is the best car I've ever driven"

Sounds like a bunch of really good drivers agree on something... And Alonso is famous for voicing his mind...

And finally Massa denies everything!!!

What part of "It's the best car I've ever driven, but that doesn't mean that is the best car on the grid" you don't understand? He's just saying that this is the best car he's ever driven, but it doesn't mean that there couldn't be other cars better than his. I think he also added that this was going to be learned in Bahrain. It's shocking the way some people analize here word by word what a driver says or what a driver doesn't say...

Driver X: "Today, I felt happy with the car".
Forumer A: "That means he's unhappy"
Forumer B: "That means he's extremely happy"
Forumer C: "That means he's trying to put some pressure on his team mate"
Forumer D: "That means he's being ironic with his team".

Forumer E replying to Forumer A: "That means he's unhappy"... "I agree here, he didn't look that happy by the pictures I've seen in xxx.com".
Then Forumer F replying to Forumer B...

And then the long long long etc.

I've seen Massa as cautious and honest as Alonso. And by the way, I don't see any rivality between them right now. In the opposite. Massa said the other day that he and Alonso had some big laughs reading the big tittles in some Press about their rivality or about something that Massa supposedly had said.

Just in the same way Alonso never said something bad about Hamilton. He complained about McLaren, but he never said anything negative against Hamilton. The most offensive thing that I remember from Alonso on Hamilton was when Lewis said something weird about the 2007 season, like he had beaten a 2WDC or something, and Alonso was asked it. He just replied: "Well, it's Lewis, and we all know him", or something like that, meaning: "That's his style of expressing himself and we accept it as it is".

Ok, then in 2010 he'd better not to complain about the car if he can not win one GP or the championship

Yep, that about sums up half of the forums posts. But then again, this is a forums to voice out opinions so its normal, they could be more polite, but heck, that would take some fun of it(at least for me )
cheers people

Ahh okay u changed your mind...

He has never beaten any of his team mates. First year Kimi shows up at Ferrari he's world champion. First day Alonso shows up for testing he's faster than Massa. I mean where is his beef??

Then what happened with KR in his 2nd year against FM then? An he was ahead of KR in the standings before the accicdent.

Today Massa's flying lap is faster than Alonso's, mate

i think there is a seperate forum alonso vs massa

that said.... im waiting to pounce on you once the 1st 4 rounds are dusted....
u really think massa is better

Right, but this means nothing. But after first or second test series (i don't remember) that was voice from Ferrari that Alonso was fuel corrected slighty faster than Massa.

ohh guys take it easy, nobody knows conditions on what laps were made...let's wait a further couple of weeks and doubts will fade away

quite, going on like this will only play into the hands of fans of other teams as they sit back and laugh. As with Lewis and Button, may the best driver win. Enuff said.

If the big four are as close as the testing times suggest, this season is going to be epic. Great battles on and off track. Fortunately fanboys can't hurt each other over the internet.

What happened the second and third year after Kimi showed up?

That beats me. What I know is that Kimi was not the Kimi I have known for years. I have a gut feeling about it but I am not going there. Let's just say that it was interesting to see as soon as Massa was out how Kimi came back to life again.

I think he'll remeber today's lap for a while. I don't think he'll have many chances to do it again during the championship. At the end of the day, however, what it matters to me is Ferrari winning. Who would be at the weel matters little to me. I care more for the marque than for the pilots.

What do you mean, if?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPqm7RjgtVY
ferrari seem keen to keep their diffuser design quite , classic F1 . Im glad the Macca / Ferrari love in is calming down

Now what, did Ferrari manage to decrease fuel consumption of its engine or trade off the disadvantage of being heavy in fuel by advancing on aerodynamics and mechanics? I would be extra glad if teams would announce fuel loads before the start.

Perhaps the aero of the intake was not focused on so much the other years when it was not much of an advantage but now the rules makes it a big advantage they put a lot more resources into it and found big gains.
Also their partnership with Shell undoubtedly reaping rewards. I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if Ferrari has fuel with less mass per unit area than anyone else. Someone should look into the fuel consumption figures of last year and also consider the weights.

Brawn:"You saw in the beginning of testing that Ferrari were quite dominant but based on this test the teams are all pretty close," Brawn said.

I get the feeling it may be so close that it'll will come down to how quickly a team can get it's upgrades out before their rivals do.

That'll be a large part of it. If it *is* that close, it'll also no doubt swing back and forth between teams depending on the track and track conditions. So getting the luck of the draw in that department is also gonna be important. No way to get this 100%, but good instincts help, as well as some no-brainers(Bahrain - hot and dry, guaranteed).

Last year during the Moto GP in Qatar was also "hot and dry, guaranteed" and look what happened!

The consensus out in Barca is that the Ferrari is fastest. I didnt see it myself. I think Redbull looked better.

Do you guys know why the Ferrari is so fast? Its got no fancy aero like the Macca and it is not bolted to the track like the Redbull. It just seems like a solid car - but it is really quick. On the track it looks no better than, say, the Renault ... but the stopwatch does not lie.

Today, Antonio Lobato says the RedBull seems to be the best car at a single lap. After the Macca, 2 tentns slower; Ferrari, 3 tenths and Mercedes, 4t.

I don't think so, henry was within the mclaren garage on behalf of BARCA

don't understand the tendency of calling barca when barca is the name of the football club ONLY

Who's henry? Ohh I think I got it

Nice to know my eyes were not deceiving me completely...

everything is shortened over here... even a foreigner like me has picked up the habit.

Domenicali is the one guy in the Ferrari team that has won my respect.
He is a great guy

Mr. Domenicali

This is slightly off topic but relevant to the femi's post. Is it me or is there a definate change of the old guard in the last few years regarding the TP's? They are much more likeable.

Anyhow, they are logical words from Stefano and sums it up perfectly and I dont think this just applies to Ferrari. Nobody knows for sure where everyone else is.

Damn I said for sure.

Doh I said it twice.

Why is he a great guy?

He seems to be nice and wise guy , but he is under big pressure and he has to deliver. Ferrari must win no matter how.In the recent years when Ferrari was not fastest Jean Todt was abble to find alternative solutions. Domenicali is good manager but not good politician .

All the top 4 teams looked good. Being testing and all, there's no way to say anything other than 'its close' at this point. All their times could be interpreted in different ways by quoting all the different unknown variables. If 'Team A' looked a few tenths quicker during testing than 'Team B', it could very well turn out that 'Team B' still shows up at the first race, takes pole position by a quarter of a second and wins the race. Some variable along the way was obviously skewing our perceptions of the testing times, leading us to false conclusions. Red Bull is a prime example - nobody expected them to have such a good package last year. Some people were reluctant to even stick them in the top 5 teams. Thats how much things can be 'twisted' by the nature of testing.

As for why the Ferrari is fast.......well.........its hard to say right now. Seeing some sector times and how its behaving during practice will give some indication of where its strengths and weaknesses lie. Ferrari's in the recent past have historically had great aero, but only 'good' mechanical grip. And these Ferrari's rarely had any 'fancy aero' or anything. Seems to me that Ferrari's aerodynamics department is pretty competent with creating very efficient designs without necessarily 'rocking the boat'(apart from a few things like the flexi floor scandal and whatnot).

But I'll be interested in seeing if the mechanical grip is good. The car was very quick at Valencia in the first test, which is more of a mech grip track than an aero one. And I know its daft to brag about last year's car, but I think it had fairly good mechanical grip relative to some other teams. It went very well at Monaco after all. I think maybe now that they've got an aero package to really bring out that mech grip already in the car, they've really found something solid.

But its still early days. Just as I was saying earlier, times can be misleading, and Ferrari may not even be as quick as we expect. I've always gotta be prepared for that sort of thing, cuz it *can* happen. Things will be much clearer after the first race(but not 100%), and there'll no doubt be a ton of interesting things to talk about, so I'm really looking forward til then. Right now, there's too much guessing going around, and its not fun for me. I think the season will be exciting, even if there's rarely a pass in every race, just cuz of the driver pairings/assumed competitiveness of the top teams. But thats all I'm getting excited for. I'm not going to get carried away thinking Ferrari is in awesome shape, and I most definitely respect the competition and their ability. I'm equally fearful of Mercedes, Mclaren AND Red Bull. Each of them have the potential to do something special, and each of them have drivers that can get the job done. Basically, I'm assuming a 30-35% chance of Ferrari being the best. 25% would probably be more rational, but I'm trying to make an effort to not be so boring!

Still dont buy this whole, "Ferrari MUST win" thing. I've only been following this sport since 2005, but I have realized that no team stays on top forever. Ferrari has been winning and losing in F1 since the very first race. They've always been here, and they've dominated and they've sucked. Its one of the more endearing aspects of the team for me, because they're never some 'sure' thing. They are a bunch of passionate Italians doing what they love because its in their blood. Its a very beautiful thing, when you think about it. Ferrari are there because they are the seminal racing team in F1 and its what they do. Other teams have come and gone, but Ferrari have always been there. And they've never stayed down forever. Ferrari *will* come back and win. You can count on that as much as you can count on it getting colder in winter.

Forza Ferrari, baby. Win or lose, they're my team.

Passionate maybe 30 years ago ....now there are bunch of passionate english speaking Italians

English is the universal F1 language. You're pretty much required to speak it nowadays.

Its well-known that both Felipe and Alonso are fluent Italian speakers, and I'm sure they speak Italian with the team more often than not. Its kinda cool, actually:

Alonso/Massa -both speak Italian, working in an Italian team.

Schumacher/Rosberg - both speak German, working in a German team.

Hamilton/Button - both speak English, working in an English team.

This may as well be A1GP.

And you've gotta know that its great for everyone involved. Language barriers *suck* to overcome sometimes. Being able to speak your own language is an underrated advantage.

Yes, they can speak english better or worse. What's the problem with that?