Official: Testing Thread

Seb must be trying a few upgrades surely! He hasn't set a time yet and it's been almost an hour.

 

Red flag! looks like Alonso went off or stopped by the sounds of it.

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Not good news, reports saying he's broken the nose and suspension.

Ferrari: An off track from Fernando hampered morning's session. At least two hours to repair the damages. It is a shame but that's testing!

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Under all that is a Sauber.

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Gary Anderson says the Ferrari exhaust is a neutral solution, which is a step forward and should give them two or three tenths. It's a pity they've lost time with Alonso's off but I doubt we're going to see any light fuel running from Vettel so I reckon the best benchmark we'll get from Mugello will be against Lotus, which isn't a bad touchstone considering where Ferrari are starting from.

It looks a strange exhaust solution in terms of sealing the diffuser compared to the way the rest of the field have gone at Mugello but there's no evidence yet that everyone who is trying out McLaren's solution will stick with it. It's also worth remembering that managing exhaust gives only a small performance gain compared to last year so if that loss enables stability or increases downforce elsewhere then it could have a significant enough effect for Alonso at least to take the fight to the front.

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I like the fact that they appear to have gone their own way instead of just copying someone else's design.

 

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Alonso reported to have said something was on the track that caused the off.

 

Something going on with Ferrari?

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More pictures of Ferrari and Alonso

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Ferrari exhaust comparison over today and yesterday:

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@ScarbsF1 indicates that they're blowing the beam wing:

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Not that I would question him but there is a dramatic revision of the sidepod on today's car.

EDIT: He has, of course, considered it and also suggests the new removable heat shield panel might allow them to try a McLaren-type solution:

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Another red flag, looks like Di Resta on turn 11. That car sure looks unreliable at the moment?


Seb now just over 1 tenth off the best time.

 

Scarbs talks about it a bit more here: http://scarbsf1.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/first-sight-ferrari-revised-mugello-exhaust/

 

Yeah I edited my post, thanks.

 

Ferrari's new brake duct fins:

Pointed out by: https://twitter.com/#!/Crucial_Xtreme

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Force india on twitter: Slight trip through the gravel for Paul, but the car is back now so we'll clean it up and hope to be back on track soon.

 

Some guy reckons this is saubers f-duct, but I'm sure I saw that before on the Sauber yet nothing was said.

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It's Russell Batchelor, F1 photographer. I haven't seen that ducting before. It looks pretty hefty to be anything like sensor cabling.

 

Well this picture was taken at the start of testing yet no media storm was around at the time, so I thought it was something like that but nobody in the know was screaming out...

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Looks like it's just an attachment to the sensor at the back.

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Scarbs explains: "Sauber unlike McLarens pods their sensor hardware is inside the car."