ltc

Running the 2011 car at Magny Cours with Pirelli "demonstration tires" during the mandatory summer F1 break?

http://www.onestopstrategy.com/daily...-+Ferrari.html


Thursday 1 August at 08:35 : Aug.1 (GMM) Ferrari has dismissed as "fantasy" reports a lucrative 2014 offer has been made to former team driver Kimi Raikkonen.

Those reports had followed suggestions the Maranello based team might lose its current number 1 driver, Spaniard Fernando Alonso, to Red Bull.

But Ferrari's communications boss Renato Bisignani told Brazilian newspaper O Estado de S.Paulo the rumours are "the typical fantasy in this period of rumours".

"There is not the slightest foundation," he insisted. "We are united in this moment of loss of competitiveness and confident in the return to better ways."

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, however, reports that Raikkonen's manager Steve Robertson was spotted entering Ferrari's motor home in Hungary.

Bisignani added: "For the German journalists who called us about the (Raikkonen) news, we officially deny it."

A Ferrari spokesman was quoted elsewhere as insisting rumours about Ferrari quite often turn out to be completely untrue.

"For all those with short memories," he is quoted by DPA news agency, "only a year ago everyone came up with a list of drivers who would replace Felipe (Massa)."

Meanwhile, Bisignani played down any suggestion its running at Magny Cours this week might be compared to Mercedes' highly-controversial 'test-gate' test.

"We have been testing for two days with our 2011 car and the Pirelli demonstration tyres," he confirmed.

"The FIA was informed in advance of all the details, and (Ferrari) meets the requirements to be able to do it."

He added that the main goal of the test was to collect "data for several new programmes of the simulator".

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consolidated

The Ferrari we know and love. And I thought testing was to improve the safety of the tires, and not the Scud-ulator.

"He added that the main goal of the test was to collect "data for several new programmes of the simulator"."

multi21

Exactly why is this an issue? Ferrari is well within the rules on what they are doing: 2011 Chassis on Pirelli demo tires on a track that hasn't been used in at least 2 years on the F1 calendar and as far as I can recall is not on any future calendar in 2014 and beyond. What am I missing here?

Lest we forget Mercedes was using their 2013 chassis and race drivers and got a slap on the wrist. BTW, little publicized tid bit was that Mercedes was provided all the technical data from ALL the other teams that ran the Silverstone test a month ago even though they were banned from the test. Is it little wonder that the MB won at the Hungaroring?

My pick to win for SPA is one of the MBF1 cars.

ltc

Pete,
I was under the impression that there is a mandatory 3 week break, facilities locked out, monitored by the FIA if necessary, to give the team members/factory workers a mid season break.

Running a test during the mandatory break seems to go against the spirit of the 3 week break.
Unless they are using non team personnel or a customer car team.

Either way, it is both a sign of desperation and typical Ferrari as usual.

ltc

Ross is quite clever.
Produced a WDC based on a double diffuser, now looking at the possibility of producing another WDC based on an illegal tyre test used to tweak their FRIC.

Yes, I recall MB being given the full data collected from the YDT, in exchange for not being allowed to run.

multi21

IIRC, Factory teams must take a mandatory 2 week break and they can do so anywhere within the 4 week summer break.

Of course it's desperate, but all within the rules. You can't begrudge a team that is trying to do all it can to get faster. I contend they go the Mercedes route knowing that precedence has been set as far as punishment or lack thereof. It's been demonstrated that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. IN MB's case, you can ask for permission and when it's denied, then ask for clarification.

jcs_911

Oh, so the offer isn't that lucrative?

mgent

Also, I believe the testing took place a few days back...

They're still struggling to correlate the tunnel to the track, and trying to get that nailed down - they may not be using the race team to do this as well, which would not go against the 'factory shutdown', as I'm sure the tunnel is used for car development as well as F1, and historically, Corsa Clienti ran the older cars (including the Pirelli tests)...

ltc

Wait a minute...how many times can Ferrari use the excuse "we're having trouble with our wind tunnel".

This year, aren't they using Toyota's old F1 wind tunnel? What, did Google translate screw the pooch when going from Japanese to Italian?

Ferrari Aerodynamic Department Logo ....

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pu...bullwinkle.jpg

multi21

Well of course the Toyota wind tunnel has been shut down for years and naturally it has to be recertified and calibrated...

mgent

My understanding is that they were using the Toyota tunnel while trying to fix theirs... Unless you work for their team, we can only go off of what they say - I highly doubt they would be using the Toyota tunnel if theirs worked perfectly. Even for F1 that wouldn't make any sense. I'm sure Toyota's tunnel works perfectly, an is not an excuse now for their struggles, but that would be the only reason to run a 2011 spec car on demo tires - lots of knowns in order to calibrate.

ltc

The recent version of the Ferrari brain trust couldnt find their a$$hole with a wind tunnel, flashlight, a funnel, Google maps and an instructional DVD.

You never seem to hear about Newey having trouble with his drafting table, pencil and notebook.

Just the latest PR spin, excuse, binky to pacify Alonso and Santander.