official F1 World Championship 2012 Thread

[i11usive]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPOnvHh4gg&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iQurrE15bA&feature=player_embedded

He got away with it ... twice!?!?! OMG!!! If it were Hamilton, he'd have suffered a heavy penalty.......

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Rosberg escapes penalty for incidents with Hamilton and Alonso

Nico Rosberg has escaped any sanction for the on-track moments during the Bahrain Grand Prix when he appeared to push Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso off the track.

The stewards of the meeting met with the drivers and their team representatives after the race to look into the details of the clash that took place as Hamilton exited the pits on lap 11 and tried to retake a position.

Rosberg defended hard, moving across to the right on the exit of Turn 3, and Hamilton had to complete his pass off the track before Turn 4.

The situation was repeated when Alonso tried to pass the German on lap 11, although the Spaniard did not manage to overtake.

The stewards looked into the matter and decided that because Rosberg had moved to the right to defend his position in a 'constant and continuous straight line manner' and because Hamilton was not alongside Rosberg as he began that move that the German did nothing wrong.

The stewards added: "Had a significant portion of Car 4 (Hamilton) been alongside that of Car 8 (Rosberg) whilst Car 4 still remained within the confines of the track, then the actions of Car 8 may not be considered legitimate."

Rosberg was cleared for his incident with Alonso for the same reasons.

"I can only say that if, instead of such a wide run-off area there had been a wall, I'm not sure I'd be here now to talk about it," said Alonso.

After hearing the decision, Alonso wrote on Twitter: "I think you are going to have fun in future races! You can defend position as you want and you can overtake outside the track! Enjoy!"

Source: Autosport

[spikey_richie]

ESPN has a breakdown of the stewards rule processing:

http://en.espnf1.com/bahrain/motorsport/story/76811.html

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Nico Rosberg says challenge of 2012 Pirelli tyres is great for Formula 1

Nico Rosberg believes that the challenges being thrown at drivers by the current Formula 1 tyre situation is good news for the sport.

The closeness of the field this year has increased the influence of the Pirelli rubber on cars' overall performance. This has resulted in teams' form fluctuating as they work to get the rubber into the right operating window for their cars.

The four grands prix so far in 2012 have provided victories for McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, with no team having looked like repeating its success at any other circuit, such has been the vast difference in track conditions at each race.

When asked by AUTOSPORT whether races were becoming too much of a tyre-based lottery based on what has been seen so far this year, Mercedes driver Rosberg said: "No. It's just a very different game.

"We have seen already this year that when you go from one condition to another, one racetrack to another, one temperature to another... different cars are better on the tyres, so there's a very big engineering challenge to understand why, to adapt and to try and be the one to understand the tyres best. That can be a very big key for the season, so we're pushing hard to try and understand that quicker than others.

"Personally, I think it's great for the season. We've had four winners in four races, [so it is] all mixed up. It couldn't be better for Formula 1. Also within the races, with the tyre degradation and with lots of overtaking, we've had lots of exciting races."

Rosberg also claimed that the current performance window of the Mercedes, which was dominant in China and off the absolute frontrunning pace elsewhere, was not yet wide enough.

"Well we're not the best yet [in that regard], so of course we still need to improve in various areas," he added.

"I think we've progressed a lot recently; we were far off in the first race in Australia and even in the most difficult conditions in Bahrain we were there or thereabouts, beating, for example, McLaren and Ferrari. So we're looking much better, progressing in the right direction. We were the fastest car in China all weekend so we're moving forward very quickly."

Source: Autosport

[philcruicks]

Interesting, MSC said pretty much the opposite at the end of the last race, said he hated the new tyres and wanted predictable ones back.

[what]

Both Schumacher and Rosberg are right though. Schumey is right in saying the design of the tyres means that it's very difficult to ever be in a situation where you can push it to the limit, because either the grip won't be there, or you'll pay for it later on. But Rosberg is also right in saying that the importance of tyre management means a lot of teams have good opportunities to score well if they get it right and the big players get their strategy wrong by a couple of laps. It might be a little bit artificial, but it's great for the audience and keeps teams on their toes.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Sauber unite F1 and football with innovative deal

Sauber have announced a ground-breaking new partnership with British Premier League football club Chelsea FC.

At the recent Chinese and Bahrain rounds the Saubers featured the mysterious inscriptions ?Out of the Blue? and ?True Blue? on their engine covers to pique interest, but from next month?s Spanish Grand Prix the club?s official logo - in the team?s distinctive blue - will have pride of place on the C31s.

?A partnership like this between Formula One and football has never existed before in this form, yet there are numerous commonalities and possible synergies,? explained Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn. ?In either case we are talking about team sport at the highest - and international - level.

?The Sauber F1 Team and Chelsea FC are dealing with many of the same sporting and commercial topics and we want to strengthen each other in these areas. We are looking forward to exploiting these opportunities, and we congratulate Chelsea on making it to the final of the Champions League.?

Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay added: ?This is an innovative partnership that will see a football club link up with a Formula One team like never before, bringing together two of the world?s biggest sports and uniting our fans. We felt that this Swiss team, the fourth-oldest of the existing teams, reflects our own ideals perfectly.

?In a year when Chelsea celebrates 20 seasons as a Premier League team, Sauber does so as a Formula One team. We share many philosophies when it comes to how the respective organisations are run, from the development of young talent to constantly striving for success.

"This partnership will benefit us both greatly, with the potential to create unique commercial opportunities. It is a shared vision to unite the two most attractive sports in the world. We look forward to working closely with the Sauber F1 Team and wish them the very best of luck for the remainder of the Formula One season.?

The deal will also see Sauber?s logo on advertising boards at the football club?s London stadium at Stamford Bridge.

Source: Formula1.com

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All teams apart from HRT are taking part in an in-season test at Mugello from today until Thursday.

Live timing:

http://www.williamsf1.com/test-timings

http://f1tests.co.cc/2012.php

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Fernando Alonso fastest as rain disrupts first day of F1 testing at Mugello

Fernando Alonso's morning best of 1m22.444s was comfortably the fastest time of a rain-hit first day of testing at Mugello on Tuesday.

In contrast to the morning, when a wet circuit had slowly dried, the afternoon started wet following lunchtime showers and only worsened as torrential rain settled in, severely disrupting team's test programmes and the anticipated phasing in of new upgrades.

Conditions became so bad that the circuit at one stage had to be closed, as the emergency helicopter could not take off safely due to the low light.

As a result, several teams decided to skip the session altogether and save tyres for the second and third days of running, choosing as they must from the 100 sets of Pirelli rubber they are assigned for tests at the start of the year.

McLaren's Gary Paffett and Mercedes's Nico Rosberg - taking over from Oliver Turvey and Nico Rosberg respectively ? were two of the few who did venture out. Paffett managed just four laps, while Schumacher completed five but did not set a time.

Schumacher's stable-mate Nico Rosberg finished with the highest number of laps completed of any driver, a relatively paltry 49.

The dwindling contingent of fans who braved the weather and stayed until the chequered flag were rewarded when Fernando Alonso rejoined the fray in the final hour, although the Spaniard rarely completed a flying lap as he focussed instead on practice starts from the pitlane.

Better weather is predicted for the second day of running on Wednesday, when a raft of driver changes will take place ? among them Felipe Massa taking over at Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel taking charge of the afternoon running for Red Bull.

Today's times:

Source: Autosport

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Grosjean stays on top on day two at Mugello as Kobayashi posts exact same time

Romain Grosjean and Kamui Kobayashi have topped the second day of Formula 1 testing at Mugello with almost identical times.

Grosjean banked his 1m21.603s best for Lotus just over an hour into the morning session, while Sauber's Kobayashi waited until there was just four minutes left for the day to replicate Grosjean's time to the thousandth of a second.

Sebastian Vettel finished the day third fastest, having taken over the Red Bull RB8 from Mark Webber after the lunch break. Vettel completed 64 laps in the afternoon session, his 1m21.825 best narrowly eclipsing Webber's fastest morning time of 1m21.997s. Grosjean, Kobayashi, Vettel and Webber were the only drivers to break into the 1m21s bracket.

Felipe Massa was one of three drivers to complete more than 100 laps throughout the day, finishing fifth fastest. Behind him it was the Toro Rosso pair of Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo, with the Frenchman taking part in the morning session before handing over to the Australia. However, Ricciardo got less than an hour's running in, emerging from the pits for the first time with just 47 minutes remaining for the day.

Michael Schumacher was eighth fastest after completing more laps than any other driver, with 144 for the day. Charles Pic and Vitaly Petrov rounded out the top 10.

Garry Paffett finished the day 11th for McLaren after completing just 59 laps, while Timo Glock's post-lunch running was also limited thanks to a power steering problem, which required a full steering rack change. The German still managed to bank 37 laps, the best of which put him 12th for the session.

Paul di Resta completed even less laps, hydraulic problems limiting him to just 14 for the entire day. He and Bruno Senna finished the day 13th and 14th respectively.

Source: Autosport

[Kerm]

Hammy and Button couldn't be bothered to fly down? :p

[Daedroth]

Ferrari eye significant leap forward

Felipe Massa is hopeful that Ferrari's upgraded package will allow them to take major strides forward over the next few weeks.

The Brazilian was behind the wheel of the F2012 on day two at Mugello, but the car didn't carry any major upgrades with the team focusing mainly on tyres and getting data on some aerodynamic components and various set-ups.

Thursday, though, will be a big day for the Italian outfit as they will be introducing their much talked about updated package and two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso will have the honours of testing the new parts.

"It will be down to Fernando to experiment with some of the new parts we have prepared for the start of the European season," Massa told the official Ferrari website.

"It's obvious we need to make a good step forward as soon as possible if we want to be competitive.

"I am confident about the work we have done in these past few weeks, but we won't really know if we have reached our targets until we get to Barcelona.

"We can be sure the other teams have also worked a lot, so if we want to make progress, we will have had to make a significant leap forward in performance terms. It is a very long Championship, but we need to make up ground in the next three to five races if want to achieve our goals and this is a key moment to improve our situation."

Ferrari have made a stuttering start to the 2012 campaign, but the team have always maintained that the first four flyaway races will be about damage limitation as they earmarked the Mugello to introduce the new package.

With only one more day of testing left, all eyes will be on the Scuderia on Thursday and, according to Autosport, Ferrari have 'brought in revisions to the exhaust exits and rear bodywork'.

"On the sidepods they've put the exhaust pipes into a more conventional position," said Autosport technical consultant Gary Anderson. "They are not getting any great degree of benefit, but they're not getting any negatives either, and I think with a troublesome car that's the best place to get to.

"Because of the way the letterbox exit for the exhaust was being used for a radiator exit they've had to compromise a little. They still have a radiator exit there in the new iteration, but it is much narrower and the coke bottle is much better."

Anderson added that Ferrari could well gain "two or three tenths from that one change alone".

Source: Planet F1

[Fourjays Veteran]

Hammy and Button couldn't be bothered to fly down? :p

Apparently Hamilton wanted to do the test but McLaren wouldn't let him. :blink:

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Romain Grosjean fastest for Lotus as Mugello Formula 1 test ends

Romain Grosjean put the seal on an impressive test at Mugello for his Lotus team by going fastest on the final afternoon.

His best - a 1m21.035s set with two hours of the afternoon to run ? was the quickest any driver managed across the three days.

The Frenchman had also topped the second day of running at the Italian circuit, Lotus having opted to alter plans and give him both days of testing following the day one washout.

Sebastian Vettel's morning best was enough to keep him second for Red Bull, less than one tenth of a second ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

The Spaniard had set the early running in a Ferrari featuring revisions to its exhaust exits and rear bodywork, but an hour in he went off and nudged the wall at Turn 12, leading to delays of more than two hours for the Scuderia.

Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo closed to within a quarter of a second of Alonso in the afternoon, ending the day fourth fastest.

Sergio Perez finished six tenths of a second down the road in fifth, having triggered one of several red flags on the final day when his Sauber stopped on the main straight at the exit of the pitlane.

Nico Hulkenberg, taking over from Paul di Resta for the final afternoon, was less than one tenth of a second slower in sixth.

Di Resta was initially tucked up behind his Force India stable-mate, but late improvements from Pastor Maldonado, Oliver Turvey and Nico Rosberg forced him down to 10th.

Rosberg (Mercedes) set new bests on his final two tours to jump into eighth, 0.082s behind Maldonado's Williams.

Turvey meanwhile completed a low-key test for McLaren, which opted not to run either of its two race drivers, by finishing ninth ahead of Heikki Kovalainen and Timo Glock.

Kovalainen was the busiest driver of the day, completing 138 laps in the Caterham.

Source: Autosport

[what]

Hammy and Button couldn't be bothered to fly down? :p

It's kinda rude to have two test drivers and not use them.

Button was doing promo work in Budapest anyway.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Noticed by Auto Motor und Sport (article is in German): McLaren were briefly testing a new nose on Friday. See the comparison picture:

Also noted in the article is a system by which the heat from the breaks can be used to warm up the tyres to hit the sweet spot.

[simonlang]

Noticed by Auto Motor und Sport (article is in German): McLaren were briefly testing a new nose on Friday. See the comparison picture:

Also noted in the article is a system by which the heat from the breaks can be used to warm up the tyres to hit the sweet spot.

new nose looks neweyish :)

[MightyJordan]

new nose looks neweyish :)

Let's hope it brings McLaren some Newey-ish success. :p

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

McLaren set to switch to higher nose in Spanish Grand Prix

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh says McLaren is likely to switch to the new high nose design it trialled on the final afternoon of in-season testing at Mugello.

The new nose is far higher at the front than the original design, and features significantly longer pillars - effectively bringing it far closer to the stepped designs used by the rest of the field.

While McLaren only trialled the high nose in the final hours at Mugello, Whitmarsh said during a Vodafone phone-in on Wednesday that the team would run the design again in Barcelona, and that it was reasonable to expect it to remain on the car for the race.

"There's a reasonable chance we will see it on Sunday, which will be the first time our drivers experience it," Whitmarsh said.

"We got a lot of feedback from Mugello, so we have the data to set it up and can find the performance on track."

Asked about the philosophy behind the new design, Whitmarsh said the higher nose helped manage the airflow directed to the rear of the car.

"Classically of course you are looking for lower drag and higher downforce, but be aware that nowadays incremental improvements are generally modest," he said.

"In the case of the nose and front wing the attachment pylons are quite different and there are other subtle differences.

"You are managing the airflow that is enjoyed by the rest of the car. Nowadays, in quite a critical part of the car you are looking to find very small improvements. [There are] a lot of restrictions around the back end of the car, so you generate more improvement by managing the flow that arrives there than by developing the rear itself."

Whitmarsh said he expected McLaren to prove competitive once again after its poor showing in Bahrain, but said it was impossible to be fully confident given how competitive 2012 has proved.

"I believe we will be competitive in Spain and going forward, but you don't know what other teams are going to do," he said. "I think great thing about this sport is you can never been fully confident you understand everything.

"[We] have a car clearly able to be on front row in each of the first four races and therefore the pace is inherently there. We are working to continuously develop the car, but you can never be confident that other teams won't up their game and give you harder time.

"We had an interesting data gathering test at Mugello, and we will see at Barcelona but we expect to put that knowledge to good use."

Source: Autosport

[TheLegendOfMart]

What a shame, the high nose looks awful.

[Lingwo]

I don't think they care what it looks like if it makes them more competitive :laugh:

To be honest though, it doesn't look that bad, they've still held off putting a step in it.

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