Ferrari 2012..

[bella]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

I am not sure that Perez would want to make the move right now to be honest..

do you think he'd have much choice? i mean, depending on his contract presumably if the scuderia calls, you shake hands with peter sauber, thank him for all the fish, and get on the road to maranello?

[wolfhound]

There is a lot of merit in what Schumacher is saying in that Sepang will give a better indication of the true compeditive order as Melbourne has a habit of throwing up slightly odd results because of the type of track there.

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2...ys-schumacher/

So we might get a better idea where Ferrari really is in the pecking order.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by steve nielsen

The Ferrari seemed to do better on full tanks.

So, they should maybe add about 100 kgs of extra ballast to the car from now on.

I had heard that there was some rather heated arguments going on behind the scenes in Melbourne. A great deal of which was focused around the pull-rod front suspension system.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by ECW Dan Selby

Would Smedley go with Felipe?

Selby

Originally Posted by Born Racer

I think so. They seem very close.

Interesting question and Born is right, they are very close, but "Felipe baby's" F1 career is not as long as Smedleys is likely to be and would Rob want to jepodise his future career with Ferrari for a few seasons with Massa? If i was in Rob's position, i know which decision i'd make!

The other question would be, would whatever team Massa went to want to upset its own technical staff just to keep Felipe happy? If we were talking about Sebastian or Fernando then yes, undoubtably they'd do it, but i don't think they would for Massa.

[arakis]

Originally Posted by JeremySmith

I don't want to try and read something more into this..
Is there more than meets the eye I wonder ?

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2...fore-malaysia/

They are probably being told to pack their desks

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Marbot

I had heard that there was some rather heated arguments going on behind the scenes in Melbourne. A great deal of which was focused around the pull-rod front suspension system.

I won't say 'I told you so' ..... yet. IF they can engineer it out, it won't be on the car at the end of the season and definitely gone by 2013. I suspect someone's ba?!s are on the line too over the decision to go with the design.

[Marbot]

Massa to get new chassis for Sepang race.

http://www.crash.net/f1/news/177781/...for_massa.html

Maybe he wasn't to blame at all?

Unfortunately for Ferrari, it may be very difficult for them to engineer the current front suspension out of the car. If we remember that Virgin had to get special permission from the FIA in order for them to build another chassis big enough to support a larger fuel tank.

[bella]

i thought we'd already established before that you simply (!) have to do all the crash tests and homologation guff to be able to run a second car?

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by bella

i thought we'd already established before that you simply (!) have to do all the crash tests and homologation guff to be able to run a second car?

There seems to be some confusion about this. I suppose that Ferrari can build as many chassis as it likes, as long as they conform to the specification that was homologated previously. In order to then change the specification of the chassis, it has either to be shown that it is dangerous in some way, or that, as in Virgin's case, it has some other defect that restricts its ability to complete a race distance.

Some other teams paid particular attention to the fact that Virgin should not be able to add other improvements to its chassis beyond that of making the fuel tank larger.

The homologation is enforced in order that the wealthier teams are unable to build improvements into the chassis by continually building new improved ones.

[phoenix]

It is not clear, though, that a new chassis would be required. Re-engineering the suspension activation may well be possible by simply throwing away the existing bracketry and bolting on some new stuff.

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by phoenix

It is not clear, though, that a new chassis would be required. Re-engineering the suspension activation may well be possible by simply throwing away the existing bracketry and bolting on some new stuff.

That may well be the case, but it's hardly likely that it would be an ideal solution to the problem. Changing the way the suspension fundamentally works is something that can't easily be done.

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by Marbot

Changing the way the suspension fundamentally works is something that can't easily be done.

It may be a case of Hobson's choice..... (and another reason someone involved in proposing/accepting the current design might be feeling nervous....)

[Bononi]

I think Felipe should go right now. That's awful simply as that.

We just need to think about a driver who is willing to play second fiddle to Teflonso, a driver with no heart or pride, that knows he would never be anything else but a second class driver.

[Bononi]

I like that everyone think all the time a name for the second seat of Ferrari, but in the end of the day, the most important is to understand what that will mean. Just look at the past drivers in the same position and look where they are right now.

Ferrari will never have two drivers with number one status, that's a legend.

[wolfhound]

Could they adapt last years chassis to current regs as it used push rod suspension?

My understanding is the most urgent problem is with the rear of the car but I may be wrong.