Specialist Media say Red Bull have upper hand while Ferrari in trouble
27 February, 2012
Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton during Barcelona testing
Feb.27 (GMM) Most leading specialist publications believe that Red Bull Racing, with the Adrian Newey penned RB8, continue to be the pacesetters in Formula 1 after the first two pre-season testing sessions in Jerez and most recently in Barcelona.
Jenson Button in the McLaren MP4/27
In their recent analysis, outlets including Auto Motor und Sport (Germany), La Gazzetta dello Sport (Italy) and Autosport (Britain) believe world champion Sebastian Vettel again has the best car at the start of the season.
“They still have an advantage, but it’s smaller,” agreed Jenson Button, according to O Estado de S.Paulo.
His boss Martin Whitmarsh added: “Red Bull has a solid, fast car, better than us in slow corners, but we’re better in the fast ones.”
Sonntagsblick, however, sees McLaren actually ahead of the energy drink-owned team, with Mercedes in third place and Force India a surprise fourth.
“Red Bull is faster (than Mercedes),” said the German marque’s boss Ross Brawn, “and clearly a little more than we had hoped for,” he told Auto Motor und Sport.
The international publications said Lotus, amid their chassis flaw issues, rank anywhere between third (Auto Motor und Sport) and eighth (Blick).
According to the same press, Ferrari is in trouble, ranking no higher than fifth in the lists of the aforementioned publications — and the authoritative Auto Motor und Sport predicting nothing short of a disastrous season for the fabled Italian team.
Felipe Massa is quoted by Spanish reporters as saying Barcelona was “a little more positive” than the Jerez test recently, and he was asked to rank the development of the new F2012 car out of ten.
“Probably more than five. There is still much to do, but now we are closer than we were,” said the Brazilian.
As for whether the car is a race winner, Massa added: “I hope so, but it’s very difficult to say anything in testing,” he is quoted by Finland’s Turun Sanomat.
Indeed, Sauber’s Kamui Kobayashi ended last week’s Barcelona test with the quickest time, but Blick’s veteran correspondent Roger Benoit warned against taking that too seriously.
Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes AMG W03
“When with the same tyres at the same time, (Mercedes’ Nico) Rosberg was a second faster per lap than Sauber’s Japanese driver,” he said.
“In testing, the truth is seldom revealed – if the teams used lie detectors, they would all be laying exploded around us.”
According to the Sun newspaper, Kobayashi confirmed: “I don’t think McLaren and Red Bull are slow.
“We don’t really wish for wins or podiums. For us this is a bit too far away.”
Instead, the midfield battle looks extremely tight, with Brazilian correspondent Livio Oricchio surmising that Sauber, as well as Force India, Toro Rosso and Williams are all in there.
“It will be race to race,” Toro Rosso’s Giorgio Ascanelli told the Italian press. “From what we’ve seen so far, this fight will be amazing.”
And Oricchio concluded: “As for HRT and Marussia, who have not even presented their 2012 cars, they undoubtedly have capable people, but also almost as many difficulties.”
Subbed by AJN
Related posts:
- F1 entry list for 2012 has nine blank spaces
- Practice 2: Massa tops as Ferrari shows pace
- Ferrari versus Red Bull moves to Hungary
- Where can Red Bull be threatened now?
- Malaysian GP Preview: Must win for Red Bull
I will give only an opinion about Ferraris. They are amazing. I sell used cars in Australia and I have loved cars since I was a child. But Ferraris are my favourite cars. I always dream of owning one of these cars.
Regards,
John from Used Cars Anymotors
“Ferrari looked like Gold & McLaren looked in all sorts of troube in p.s testing last year…& look what happened. ”
That exactly the point that’s trying to be made. The F1 media don’t know what they are talking about. If they did, they wouldn’t be working for some sports publication. Instead they would be engineers for Formula 1 teams.
Even if they’re right, it’s just a lucky guess.
Year after year, we all know that pre-season testing means absolutely and I mean “absolutely” nothing, yet the F1 media needs to attract viewer-ship during this “boring” part of the season.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they post a headline like “Red Bull will win another championship this year!”, taken from a quote from Niki Lauda.
i feel you on the 2009 honda should have stayed and won that but ,Jenson button deserved that championship, all tho i really didnt like 2009 season,and congrats to JB he was al most gone and forgotten about those wasted years at honda.now he is 1 of the highly rated drivers.
my god when will thos red light go out in melbourn 1 more time, “look but never stare. and the 2012 champion ship is under way!
now now nothing outlandish is being said…if they were saying that williams & sauber are gonna dominate 2012 then i’d be SMH but thats what pre-season is all about…trying to see through the smoke and mirrors & making your own predictions!
Ferrari looked like Gold & McLaren looked in all sorts of troube in p.s testing last year…& look what happened. What about Brawn’s ‘show boating’ in 2009…hey, brawn defied history that year. I felt sorry for Honda who’s hard work on the double diffuser was wasted…poor bstrds shoulda been world champs
Yeah boring day for the media,
this is just pre season testing no way possible to rank teams
personaly i hope ferrari have more in the bag , since all they are doing is testing the basics atm forthe new car and i hope in the 3rd test it will be just fine tuning and we will see some real
single lap pace…
al tho with all the new rules redbull might suffur the same kind of blown engines it had in 2010,
come on RB have had 2 yrs dominance now, i really really belive history and history will tell Ferrari, maclearn will be at top this year.
Media has never been good at analysis or making any sort of prediction. Media is hurting right now because the internet allows people to search for real news of their specific interests. If the media would only publish facts, it would be pretty boring for the masses. Flashy headlines sell, but that’s all they are – flashy headlines. So, I generally don’t post comments to any F1 news/media sites because I feel it’s a waste of time – not really really ‘The News’, in my opinion. However, I had some free time today and I thought this was a good attention grabber – enough to make me post a comment!
Says a lot about the expertise of the so called experts. But hey, having an article with BS is always better than nothing at all… they think. If I got a dollar from every ‘expert’ who will be wrong with their predictions i’ll be rich.
it’s just pre-testing not even started race people media always could speculate but not read or check your facts better pls. so nobody gets offended.
who knows? they might be right..bring on the first race
The amateur media.
The first race no begin yet.. The media make a joke like this? Who in trouble and who is not… Or they has nothing to review,,?