1.5 seconds off the pace is not very promising: Practice session 2 on Friday: 1 35 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:20.484 2 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 1:21.052 3 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 1:21.704 4 38 Ricardo Zonta Toyota 1:21.889 5 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:21.899 6 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:22.025 7 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 1:22.048 8 10 Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 1:22.174 9 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:22.211 10 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 1:22.335 11 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 1:22.791 12 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 1:22.955 13 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:23.343 14 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 1:23.458 15 17 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:23.466 16 14 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 1:23.815 17 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 1:23.842 18 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 1:23.964 19 37 Christian Klien Red Bull Racing 1:24.320 20 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 1:24.573 21 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull Racing 1:24.626 22 39 Robert Doornbos Jordan-Toyota 1:25.172 23 20 Patrick Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth 1:26.620 Obviously there is some sand bagging involved. What is interesting though, is that MS' first and second session times are nearly identical whereas Renault chose not to even run in the first session. The battle at the front promises a tight and dramatic GP.
I am going to have to stop betting on Rubens!! This is the second race in succesion that I have put money on him and it looks like I've wasted it again! Ah well, at least I've still got some of my winnings from Alonso in Malaysia to keep me going. Come on Rubens! Peddle faster!!!!
Just learned, that Massa's Ferrari engine blew and he is going to loose ten spots on the grid. The engine was already somewhat sick after Bahrain and I believe that is the same design engine that is now in Rubens and Michael's car. Villeneuve already has a new engine for Imola after his kitty litter excursion in Bahrain.
The news from Imola is positive. Both Scuderia Ferrari cars are healthy and responsive. Michael and Rubens are working on optimal car setup and fine tunning their strategy. A good race is expected
Tires, tires, tires, tires... That seems to be the key to Imola this year. Toyota had apparently made a mistake on their set up this afternoon for Ricardo's long run tire evaluation and are having a hard time making a selection. The car seems to be very sensitive to tire selection from what I've been able to piece together from interviews. They said they made a poor choice in Australia and good ones for the last two races. That's a big difference in how the car has performed! So, if they can get the tire selection right they should be in the show. If not... back of the pack for them. McLaren look strong. I'm sure the extra car is helping. That's really not a surprise. You can never count them out. As I said in another thread BAR has some new Aero bits and they seem to have done the trick. I'm assuming the breaking problems from the last race were from poor air flow to the front rotors and I'm assuming this is one of the fixes they've done in the meantime. They'll be formidable this weekend. Ferrari are looking good. Let's hope the car can finish! For some reason I don't think they've gotten the rear end sorted out though. Nothing to base this on, just a feeling. I think both RB and MS will qualify well but will be under constant attack during the race. Renault are looking good, big surprise there. You never know what program a teams running on Fridays and I'm sure some sand bagging is going on. Toyota only did installation laps in the first session and I'm sure didn't run their race cars as hard as they could. 35 laps for Ricardo, 20 and 21 laps for Jarno and Ralf respectively. They're saving the cars. Looks to be the same with McLaren. 31 laps for Pedro and only 16 for Kimi and 17 for Alex (second session). BAR on the other hand are doing some real work not having the third car. Both drivers are close to 30 laps each with good times posted. Ferrari has been pounding the pavement as well. A bit ominously Alonso's only did 10 laps with a top five time and Fisi did 23 while being in the top ten. I'm assuming Fisi was working on tires. Of course it's only Friday so none of this really means anything...
Also forgot to mention. Todays times might mean more than tomorrows if 1) it doesn't rain tonight and 2) does rain tomorrow night. The track was said to be very green today. If it doesn't rain tonight the rubber laid down will help traction and lap times. It will also mean different tire selection. Then if it rains on Sat night the rain will wash a lot of that rubber away... then teams are faced with another tire selection. If it rains tonight, but not Sat night I think most would be in better shape. Either way I think it could be a very good race.
Unfortunately for us in the States this will be one very good tape delayed race. No FChat for me on Sunday morning.
Well, I'm never on during the weekend so I'll look forward to your insight as usual on Monday morning!!! Also of note, upon further reading, The top 3 through the speed trap are Alonzo, de la Rossa, and Feisacher in the Minardi! Cosworth has said in a recent interview that Minardi were getting the latest and greatest engine for this weekend but, that's spectacular! Although it's the same engine I don't think Red Bull have this latest spec as Minardi though. Cosworth have also said they are already hard at work on the new V8 for next season and don't see any drop in power. Hmmm smaller lighter engines with the same power supply? If this is true would many here on the board be willing to eat their words that the switch to V8 power is a bad thing? After all the two race engines are already producing more power than the one race engines from last year. Could we see a third rebirth of Cosworth? Are they still the magic V8 builders? Rules and regulation change is not as bad a thing as many would have you believe.
Hmm, let's see: Ford sells their team to RBR and they put the car into the points. Ford drops Cosworth and the Minardi is the third fastest car through the trap. => Amazing how much Ford's bureaucracy must have stood in the way of their own racing division. Re: the rule changes: Always a good thing. Stirs things up and forces new solutions. They will never make things cheaper, but often more interesting.
Cosworth if anything lese has more experience building V8s. They do the whole champcar field so it should be pretty easy for them
I was thinking more about Cosworth providing the basic design for almost every F1 engine since the late 60s. Take a look at a starting grid from the late seventies. I think something like 70% of all the cars on the grid were running Cosworth DFVs. http://8w.forix.com/dfv.html From 1967 to 1983 the engine racked up a total of 155 GP wins! It wasn't until the Turbo charger came into it's own that the DFV fell out of favor. Then dusting the basic design off again in the early 90s and propelling MS to a world championship. So actually it would be a second rebirth. The first bit was the birth.. then MS with Benetton was the rebirth and now possibly the second rebirth. Does Cosworth still hold the record for GP Engine wins or has Ferrari overtaken them? Anyone? http://www.grandprix.com/ft/ftdt018.html
I think they still do. I overlooked the title for an article in the last issue of Octane talking about Cosworth and calling their engine the most successful in F1 of all times.
Schumachers walking Very interesting regarding Toyota's tyre issues ... hmmm. I'll be watching this one live thanks to Anzac day holiday Pete
Q1: 1. Kimi 2. Alonso 3. MS Ferrari has done a lot of homework, well done! But the gap to the front runners is there and I think even Michael wasn't counting on a home victory in the interview round. Basically no gap between the Iceman and Alonso. Sounds like we're gonna have a real battle at hand. And the best news of the day: Ferrari will give its engines to Red Bull next year! Yahoo!
Have the Ferraris really closed the gap? With Rubens in 11th position in 1st qualifying, which car is more representative of Ferrari's race pace? We'll find out tomorrow. The Speed announcers speculated on Michael running the riskier strategy of using the softer Bridgestones.
Ferrari hasn't closed the gap, but they have come a long way. MS on third is probably more due to him giving it all and taking risks (as he said he would). You saw him bouncing and sliding all over the place in the super slo mos, so you can tell he did the best there was possible. However the .3 second gap remains. Also I'm very interested to see how well either Bridgestone will hold up during the race. It is all for nothing if they go backwards as the race progresses. Mc Laren is probably the best positive surprise. I felt bad for Wurz who barely fits into the car.
Ferrari have sorted out any difficulties with the car from Bahrain and this is going to be a race that is a step in the positive direction. Ferrari 1 - 2 at Imola!
Sorry guys.... I know this is a Ferrari forum but Go Kimi, Go Finland, Go kimi ! Finally everything seems to work out great for Kimi, now if he only would drive Ferrari..... (edit: forgot to post the Q2 results....a bit excited maybe....) 1 9 Kimi Räikkönen McLaren-Mercedes 2:42.880 2 5 Fernando Alonso Renault 2:43.441 3 3 Jenson Button BAR-Honda 2:44.105 4 7 Mark Webber Williams-BMW 2:44.511 5 16 Jarno Trulli Toyota 2:44.518 6 4 Takuma Sato BAR-Honda 2:44.658 7 10 Alexander Wurz McLaren-Mercedes 2:44.689 8 12 Felipe Massa Sauber-Petronas 2:44.930 9 8 Nick Heidfeld Williams-BMW 2:45.196 10 2 Rubens Barrichello Ferrari 2:45.243 11 17 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 2:45.416 12 11 Jacques Villeneuve Sauber-Petronas 2:46.259 13 6 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 2:46.710 14 1 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 2:47.244 15 14 David Coulthard Red Bull Racing 2:48.070 16 15 Vitantonio Liuzzi Red Bull Racing 2:48.155 17 19 Narain Karthikeyan Jordan-Toyota 2:52.099 18 18 Tiago Monteiro Jordan-Toyota 2:54.252 19 20 Patrick Friesacher Minardi-Cosworth 2:57.048 20 21 Christijan Albers Minardi-Cosworth 1:25.921
Ferrari while obviously working hard have NOT closed the gap. Sorry to say this but the first qualifying performance was 100% down to MS's brilliance. Remember when Irvine was racing for Ferrari ... how we could tell the progress of the Ferrari CAR was where he qualified. More often it was many places behind MS and thus we knew that the car did not have the goods ... except for those miracle laps MS could pull out of somewhere. Now we see the same with RB struggling and ALSO MS made a mistake in his 2nd qualifying lap ... this just shows how over the edge he was pushing (great for us, the spectators) but not a great sign that Ferrari have closed any gap. I will be hoping that they race well, but in all honesty, I'm expecting them to fade as they have in other races. But we all know that they will keep on trying and with all our support ... well that is got to help surely . I was hoping the Williams would be improving too ... but they aren't. So yep go Kimi, take the fight to Alonso! Pete
F1 has finally come alive again !! I love how wide-open it's become. I'm still predicting a Renault dominated season, but the Mclarens are looking silky smooooooth through the tight circuits.
I like it wide open too but I wish F was in the chase. What a difference a year makes. I never thought we would start like this. Hopefully we will improve. SOON!!!!
Rubens Barichello just retired at Lap 19. Another dismal weekend ahead for the boys in red. MS is struggling in P10, 1.5 seconds or so slower a lap.
