TBK-Light.com

Maybe Mercedes, Lotus GP will take Ferraris place..

Van der Garde has spun into the gravel. He managed 70 laps though, which is decent without an error. Bianchi shunted on Lap 3.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Seems something is not right with Ferrari, while everyone else is doing long runs, short runs etc Ferrari is still doing tons of flow vis and calibrations since day 1.

Obviously its testing but it has that McLaren feeling where they spent half of testing trying to find out why their data on computer didn't match track data.

Ferrari really needs to hire drivers that are able to develop and evolve cars. Massa has never shown to be great at telling engineers what the cars is doing. I think Alonso is pretty good but, he seems to be past his prime of developing wining cars.

They could dig up Senna and put him in the car, it wouldn't change a jot because the problem appears to be that the windtunnel data is not corroborating with what is going on on the track.

And if they've gone in this more radical direction on the basis of what is now dodgy windtunnel data...oops.

_________________
Dan Wheldon ¦ 1978-2011
Marco Simoncelli ¦ 1987-2011
Jules Bianchi ¦ 1989-2015
Justin Wilson ¦ 1978-2015

Yeah, I know he's mad and I don't care. I do not care. I did not care then. I do not care now. I'm here to race him.

Paddock believes that Ferrari is deep in shit.

Lotus is good, but a bit shaky in places. Williams looking better than in 2011.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

McLaren were in a mess this time last year, then when they turned up in Australia they were RBR's closest challenger.

True, but that was solely down to the Octopus exhaust. They dumped it and were fine.

Ferrari seems to have a plethora of problems, if you believe the rumours. Not just the slowish times, but the body language and the wording of team interviews. Plus track side spectators have said that it looks nervy.

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Ferrari admitting there not happy with the cars performance so far:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97453

HRT has delayed the introduction of the HRT02 until the final pre-season test, beginning on March 1st. Oh dear...

Anyway, here's what Mar thought of today's action, including some interesting visitors in the media centre...
http://www.f1zone.net/news/jerez-day-3- ... ock/12181/

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

I won't be surprised if it doesn't turn a wheel before the AUSGP. Why ruin the tradition set by the two previous cars.

somebody at atlas, who attented to the track, posted this:

Additionally, time-wise(not that it matter), Perez's best time was done with hard tire and on cold morning.

Brief report from SSN on today's test, Includes a nice super-slow-mo shot:

[dailymotion]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xohghq_f1-2012-testing-jerez-day-2-feb-8th_auto[/dailymotion]

Bad news for HRT:

Did anybody noticed they've put gravel at the chicane ? Was it said already or did nobody see it ?

If you read the actually quotes and not the Autosport typical sensationalising headline/first sentence they seem "ok". They're just trying a bucketload of different things at the moment

We go through this every winter. BMW in 08. Ferrari/Mclaren in 09. Mclaren in 2010. Mclaren/Mercedes in 2011. Ferrari again in 2012 it seems. The only one who truly had a dog was Mclaren, and that was obvious from the moment they kept the 08 wing bolted on the car for nearly two tests.

I hope they're fine because F1 needs a competitive Mclaren/Ferrari to challenge Vettel because we all know Webber isn't going to do shit. Another dominant RBR coupled with half the races on Sky I might not even bother for the majority of this season.

Video from Sky at the test's about Caterham:

So, this is Vettel's official 2012 helmet...

_________________
Dan Wheldon | 1978 - 2011

Until he wins a race

call me 'old' if you like, but I really, really, really miss the times that drivers had a distinctive helmet design, and stuck with it for their whole career. It was part of their personality, of their history in F1. Most of them also had a story behind as to why using a certain scheme (Hill being one of my favourites) or colour scheme.

Oh well, it's not the end of the world, but still, I think it sucks bigtime.