Ferrari SF21

[aerofoilf1]

Rear brake duct inlet/wing change for 2021

[JVictor]

why Ferrari is not using the t wing?

[Manfer]

Watching the times, tracking testing in the way one usually does, you would suggest that the Ferrari is not fast.

But I’ve never known the team to say the car is good or give positive impressions if they’re actually concerned. A couple of other hints: the lower top speed than Alfa; the purple first sector; even the fact that Leclerc was slower than Giovanazzi on the same tyre - I just can’t imagine their chassis is worse than Alfa’s (with everyone else you could say it could also be the engine but vs Alfa that’s no longer a variable).

I suspect what they may be doing is not setting the car up optimally for the Bahrain circuit - rather perhaps they’re trying to set it up to test aero loads etc (eg more similar to how they usually would in Barcelona). I hope that’s the case, at least.

It's only testing. Numerical methods and deep modelling has to be used to get any semblance of order of the true pace of the cars.

This!
It boggles my mind that these so called pundits are pumping out articles with predicted order and lap times after two days of testing in extremely unpredictable weather conditions.

[PlatinumZealot]

The only guy i trust when it comes to this is "what the fat" who is a doctor of mathematics. He has the blog "f1-metrics" where he applies his models to estimate pecking order and driver pace. He is often on the money. Hasnt posted anything for last year though and likely not for this year. I was really looking forward to his refreshed driver rating chart.

[Marble]

The only guy i trust when it comes to this is "what the fat" who is a doctor of mathematics. He has the blog "f1-metrics" where he applies his models to estimate pecking order and driver pace. He is often on the money. Hasnt posted anything for last year though and likely not for this year. I was really looking forward to his refreshed driver rating chart.

We used to exchange by mail and compare our calculations. He posted in September 2020 on his blog

[JPower]

Carlos running an extremely consistent high 1:36 race program on hards right now. Car looks good.

EDIT: 1:35s now.

[f1316]

The only guy i trust when it comes to this is "what the fat" who is a doctor of mathematics. He has the blog "f1-metrics" where he applies his models to estimate pecking order and driver pace. He is often on the money. Hasnt posted anything for last year though and likely not for this year. I was really looking forward to his refreshed driver rating chart.

We used to exchange by mail and compare our calculations. He posted in September 2020 on his blog

All this is of course true. But I’ve followed testing very closely for at least ten years now and I can’t recall a lot of big surprises - usually you get a general sense of who’s doing relatively well/badly.

Obviously completely unscientific - and the Ferrari times look A LOT better today (both Leclerc’s C3 time in morning and Sainz race sim) - so it’s certainly too early to make definitive proclamations, but I do think it’s interesting to start trying to see patterns. Anyway not very relevant to the car itself so I can move it to another thread.

[zioture]

[Ringleheim]

The only guy i trust when it comes to this is "what the fat" who is a doctor of mathematics. He has the blog "f1-metrics" where he applies his models to estimate pecking order and driver pace. He is often on the money. Hasnt posted anything for last year though and likely not for this year. I was really looking forward to his refreshed driver rating chart.

We used to exchange by mail and compare our calculations. He posted in September 2020 on his blog

All this is of course true. But I’ve followed testing very closely for at least ten years now and I can’t recall a lot of big surprises - usually you get a general sense of who’s doing relatively well/badly.

Obviously completely unscientific - and the Ferrari times look A LOT better today (both Leclerc’s C3 time in morning and Sainz race sim) - so it’s certainly too early to make definitive proclamations, but I do think it’s interesting to start trying to see patterns. Anyway not very relevant to the car itself so I can move it to another thread.

The track had a ton of sand blowing across it from a nearby sandstorm the first 2 days.

It sounds like Day 3 is much better in that regard, and so the times have improved.

Not sure you can draw many conclusions from any of it, other than that having an F1 race at the edge of a desert is a stupid idea.

[ryaan2904]

Did anyone else notice how Ferrari was running almost mercedes level of rake this year? Looked much lower compared to previous year on all three days

[PlatinumZealot]

The only guy i trust when it comes to this is "what the fat" who is a doctor of mathematics. He has the blog "f1-metrics" where he applies his models to estimate pecking order and driver pace. He is often on the money. Hasnt posted anything for last year though and likely not for this year. I was really looking forward to his refreshed driver rating chart.

We used to exchange by mail and compare our calculations. He posted in September 2020 on his blog

That's nice to know. I went back and checked. I realise i have to put "2020" in the search field to find his newer articles. It seems he has no navigation menu for the mobile version of his site.
To my surprise he actually did a belated 2019 driver's ranking using his new model! https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2020/09 ... on-report/

[Stu]

Did anyone else notice how Ferrari was running almost mercedes level of rake this year? Looked much lower compared to previous year on all three days

Yes, spotted that in the launch photos (and commented on it). I’ve not seen anyone else commenting on it.

[zioture]

[FDD]

Did anyone else notice how Ferrari was running almost mercedes level of rake this year? Looked much lower compared to previous year on all three days

Yes, spotted that in the launch photos (and commented on it). I’ve not seen anyone else commenting on it.

Yes it definitely looks that they are closer to MERC than to RB regarding the rake.

[Thunder]

Please keep the general testing discussion in the team o testing threads. I moved some posts to the team thread.