Alonso says Ferrari’s pace confirms progress

2011 German GP FP2 analysis

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Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, Nurburgring, 2011

Against expectations, the weather stayed dry for both practice sessions today, allowing the teams to complete their testing programmes.

Red Bull and Ferrari were closely-matched with little over a tenth of a second between them.

But McLaren appear to be in an increasingly distant third place and were slower than both Mercedes in the afternoon session.

Here’s all the data from second practice at the Nurburgring.

Longest stint comparison

  • Both Alonso and Vettel showed similarly consistent tyre performance over their longest stints, each of eight laps.
  • After his long run Jaime Alguersuari said he expected to be stronger in the race than in qualifying, which has been the pattern for him in recent races: “I did a long run on the [soft] tyre this afternoon and we are still looking better in race trim than in the qualifying simulation.” He added: “Qualifying will again be the limiting factor for us, because it will be very difficult to get ahead of our closest opponents, but I am very motivated for the race.”
  • Renault say they did not do a high-fuel run as Nick Heidfeld was testing the new rearward-facing exhaust and Vitaly Petrov lost time with a water leak on his car.

https://www.racefans.net/charts/2011drivercolours.csv

12345678910111213141516
Sebastian Vettel97.482108.00196.88896.89997.12696.657102.58297.022
Mark Webber98.49797.53897.77897.03596.85397.0296.48196.44296.9396.47896.6497.30896.947
Lewis Hamilton98.66397.65497.79397.94797.42197.267103.996101.1397.694
Jenson Button96.89595.549
Fernando Alonso97.47297.45797.41597.18997.4398.88697.51297.408
Felipe Massa97.83297.40397.57697.236105.39497.41197.57897.34897.75697.552100.158
Michael Schumacher98.95999.234100.093113.90399.24599.41398.89899.13798.91199.22599.426
Nico Rosberg103.78699.0998.92698.91698.99198.95998.64899.02698.65898.77
Nick Heidfeld93.098103.94893.62895.119
Vitaly Petrov100.46499.97399.783100.313
Rubens Barrichello99.631105.46999.751100.11199.352
Pastor Maldonado101.3101.588100.15299.89599.43999.333103.405101.16499.819100.858106.382100.95
Adrian Sutil97.38997.10398.29298.20298.15798.03198.00798.26798.58598.27398.42999.11599.05
Paul di Resta98.65898.68399.09699.10198.87798.86898.29798.45598.33898.2398.49499.77698.382
Kamui Kobayashi99.65899.36999.4999.09799.697104.691101.59899.425100.004
Sergio Perez98.80698.86598.33598.54998.40998.98498.88898.77398.258
Sebastien Buemi
Jaime Alguersuari100.547100.21199.95299.66399.60199.57399.59199.72499.48599.3699.17299.14699.219100.05299.68299.797
Heikki Kovalainen100.162100.043107.254100.23299.91299.80899.5299.23999.1499.14999.53799.245116.245100.01299.638
Karun Chandhok104.035102.429103.433103.446101.203116.749102.494112.478
Daniel Ricciardo101.864100.737101.77
Vitantonio Liuzzi101.813101.021101.927101.831100.959101.475103.39101.368101.212
Timo Glock102.025102.413101.398101.855101.873101.795101.815108.921101.613
Jerome d’Ambrosio104.09103.466103.863103.964105.076103.581103.978

Ultimate lap times

An ultimate lap is a driver’s fastest three sector times combined.

  • Alonso aborted a couple of quicker runs during second practice and the ultimate lap time shows he had further time in hand.
  • Following Lotus’s driver swap Timo Glock has shown the pace to threaten Karun Chandhok. That said, he was leading Jarno Trulli at Silverstone until the Lotus driver retired.
  • The gap between Jenson Button’s lap time and Lewis Hamilton’s is partly explained by Button not having KERS for part of the session. But even so he’s concerned about McLaren’s pace and said “it will be difficult for us to beat the Red Bulls in qualifying.”
CarDriverCarUltimate lapGapDeficit to best
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’31.6460.065
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.6770.0310.202
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’32.0840.4380.000
46Felipe MassaFerrari1’32.1640.5180.190
57Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.3110.6650.100
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’32.5470.9010.010
73Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’32.7241.0780.000
89Nick HeidfeldRenault1’32.9541.3080.144
910Vitaly PetrovRenault1’32.9781.3320.160
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’33.0361.3900.175
114Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’33.2251.5790.000
1215Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’33.2681.6220.031
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’34.0792.4330.034
1416Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’34.2912.6450.200
1511Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’34.3442.6980.000
1619Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’34.3652.7190.122
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’34.9403.2940.056
1820Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’35.7534.1070.000
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’36.6805.0340.260
2021Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’37.1455.4990.103
2125Jerome d’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’37.2595.6130.054
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’38.1126.4660.033
2322Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’39.6578.0111.080

Complete practice times

  • Alonso said Ferrari’s pace at the Nurburgring was the result of progress made over several races: “I’ve said it before, it’s not a case of a miracle having happened at Silverstone, because of the regulations relating to the exhausts. That result was down to the many improvements introduced race after race, as could be seen from the fact that, even from Monaco, we had returned to a good level in terms of being competitive and here too, where we are back to the Valencia rules, we are at the front end of the field.”
  • Unusually, Sebastian Vettel found himself behind his team mate in both sessions. He said low track temperatures had made the circuit more difficult to drive: “It was cold out there today! It was good fun, the circuit was quite slippery with the low temperatures, but we did a lot of laps and the car seems okay, although I’m not 100% happy yet.”
  • Rubens Barrichello was downbeat about Williams’ pace having placed 14th in both sessions: “We weren’t as competitive as we should have been today,” he said. Team mate Pastor Maldonado added he expects a “tough weekend”.
  • Both Force India drivers set their best times using the development soft tyres, as did Daniel Ricciardo. The rest all used race-specification soft tyres.
CarDriverCarBest lapGapStint lapAt timeLaps
12Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’31.7113/35934
25Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’31.8790.1683/54938
31Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’32.0840.3732/36328
46Felipe MassaFerrari1’32.3540.6431/45236
57Michael SchumacherMercedes1’32.4110.7001/45431
68Nico RosbergMercedes1’32.5570.8461/36032
73Lewis HamiltonMcLaren-Mercedes1’32.7241.0131/25028
89Nick HeidfeldRenault1’33.0981.3871/48517
910Vitaly PetrovRenault1’33.1381.4271/37322
1014Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’33.2111.5001/35734
114Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’33.2251.5141/16517
1215Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’33.2991.5881/35634
1317Sergio PerezSauber-Ferrari1’34.1132.4025/56635
1411Rubens BarrichelloWilliams-Cosworth1’34.3442.6333/35934
1519Jaime AlguersuariToro Rosso-Ferrari1’34.4872.7761/34437
1616Kamui KobayashiSauber-Ferrari1’34.4912.7804/45635
1712Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Cosworth1’34.9963.2853/35335
1820Heikki KovalainenLotus-Renault1’35.7534.0422/35642
1924Timo GlockVirgin-Cosworth1’36.9405.2291/36232
2021Karun ChandhokLotus-Renault1’37.2485.5373/35533
2125Jerome D’AmbrosioVirgin-Cosworth1’37.3135.6023/39133
2223Vitantonio LiuzziHRT-Cosworth1’38.1456.4342/45831
2322Daniel RicciardoHRT-Cosworth1’40.7379.0262/384

Speed trap

  • As in the first session, Michael Schumacher was the fastest driver through the speed trap.
  • He was slightly down on the 308kph he hit in first practice, but still around 3kph faster than the highest top speed seen here in 2009.
#DriverCarEngineMax speedGap
17Michael SchumacherMercedesMercedes306.4
29Nick HeidfeldRenaultRenault304.42
32Mark WebberRed BullRenault303.23.2
410Vitaly PetrovRenaultRenault3033.4
58Nico RosbergMercedesMercedes302.24.2
65Fernando AlonsoFerrariFerrari301.35.1
714Adrian SutilForce IndiaMercedes3015.4
86Felipe MassaFerrariFerrari300.16.3
915Paul di RestaForce IndiaMercedes300.16.3
1019Jaime AlguersuariToro RossoFerrari299.86.6
111Sebastian VettelRed BullRenault299.47
1217Sergio PerezSauberFerrari296.410
1316Kamui KobayashiSauberFerrari296.310.1
144Jenson ButtonMcLarenMercedes295.111.3
153Lewis HamiltonMcLarenMercedes293.712.7
1612Pastor MaldonadoWilliamsCosworth293.413
1711Rubens BarrichelloWilliamsCosworth293.213.2
1824Timo GlockVirginCosworth29313.4
1925Jerome D’AmbrosioVirginCosworth292.813.6
2020Heikki KovalainenLotusRenault291.215.2
2123Vitantonio LiuzziHRTCosworth290.915.5
2222Daniel RicciardoHRTCosworth28818.4
2321Karun ChandhokLotusRenault287.718.7
2418Sebastien BuemiToro RossoFerrari203.6102.8

2011 German Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    26 comments on “Alonso says Ferrari’s pace confirms progress”

    1. Looking forward to an exciting race.

    2. Alonso said Ferrari’s pace at Hockenheim was the result of progress made over several races

      Maybe Silverstone? Or even Nurburgring. Certainly not Hockenheim.

      1. Although isn;t it interesting that for the last two years, Ferrari’s pace has come back at Silverstone.

      2. pace at Hockenheim 2010 :D

    3. I guess what everyone is missing is that it seems Williams is the team hit hardest by the ban (or non-ban) of the OTBD.

    4. Strange things happen.

      Webber is quicker than Vettel and by the looks of the speed trap figures he’s on a completely different setup.

      Both Red Bulls are on the front end of the speed trap classification which is not the standard for the car with highest downforce level of the grid.

      1. If anything this means they will be able to retain plenty of downforce even with setups favouring straight line speed. Fundamentally, the RB7 has tons of downforce so if you set the Ferrari up exactly the the same, the suspension, the wings, everything – you could bet your bottom dollar the Red Bull would still have the better grip.

    5. 3kph faster than the highest top speed seen here in 2009.

      I’m sure Charlie Whiting will find a way to prevent that in 2012.

    6. There are some really worrying signs for Ricciardo. Its ok to be trailing Liuzzi, but when Karthikeyan is 6 tenths quicker than you, then the future doesn’t seem too bright.

      I’m really looking forward to quali tomorrow. I’m expecting the toughest fight for pole we have had thus far.

    7. Alonso better get F1Fanatic up on his iPhone. It looks here like, despite being quick early in the stint, it looks like RBR is just going to run away in the end. Webber looks very steady for the whole stint.

    8. As much as it pains me to say it, I think it is soon going to be time for McLaren to start thinking about next season.

      The only hope they have for this season is that Alonso can set the cat amongst the Pigeons and hope that Vettel makes some silly mistakes under pressure.

      Ferrari have made a massive leap forward and Red Bull look like they are making steady incremental gains.

      Mercedes update for Silverstone looks like it has nearly leapfrogged McLaren in terms of 1 lap pace.

      Time for a technical shake up methinks!

      1. Thats the difference between Ferrari fans and the rest. We dont burn down the village very time our team falls behind a bit.

        I think you also need to consider which tracks suit the drivers and teams. The teams were quick on the same tracks as last year. The ups and downs are pretty consistent.

        Alonso for instance is normally very quick in the second half of the season because those are the tracks he enjoys. Massa on the other hand is always pretty good on the first few circuits in the year, but struggles from the half way point and on. Mark probably has a trend too, but I’m not bothered to look it up.

        1. “Thats the difference between Ferrari fans and the rest. We dont burn down the village very time our team falls behind a bit.”

          No your correct, Luca does that himself!

          1. I dont see how, but okay :)

    9. 3rd year in a row they have been playing the “catching up” game and have succeded.Regardless of their pace come sunday’s race, it’s impressive how quickly they improved.

      I was paying so much attention to Red Bull and Mclaren and bang! there goes Ferrari and starts setting the pace on sundays.

    10. I was reading what Fernando have said at James Allen’s blog and is clear that, between lines, he was digging into Aldo Costa:

      “We had brought a lot of new parts, some of which worked and others that did not.

      “Then in the last four or five races, every new part we brought has worked fine, which is definitely good news, not just for this year but for future development for next year.

      I am very, very confident in the car, the engine and all our designers are very motivated now, knowing that everything they did, working day and night is producing good results on Sunday.”

      Certainly there was some internal frictions and it looks like Fernando was a strong voice asking for change and I don’t think that with out him, Ferrari could have hired Pat Fry.

      It is clear that Fry is behind F150 sudden improvement.

      What we are looking this season is Fernando doing a Schumacher and turning Ferrari into a winning team again.

      What a great drive

      1. What a great DRIVER!

        1. absolutely

      2. UKfanatic (@)
        23rd July 2011, 1:09

        sorry to disagree, we simply cant know how much imput does a man have, we like to believe that there are some engineers that are miraculous but that is probably not 100% true, for some reason an F1 team has thousands of employees. I like him he must be a very good enginneer that isnt in question and he must have a bigger role that he did in mclaren, but we dont know anything basicly. However we can speculate and on this matter i believe you are right Ferrari has been showing an increase pace since his takeover, and I hope it stays that way and that Fry finds what he wants and be as succesfull as possible, there are alot of british enginners working for Ferrari, we just cant feel betrayed we should feel proud; and I dont know if you all know but Ferraris chassis has been developed in britain since the early 90’s (by memory, maybe even before) Im sure he doenst feel alone and maybe even more motivated than in woking, at least he features every week on Ferrari special news videos.

    11. Hey guys don’t know if anybody noticed yet but:

      Alonso said Ferrari’s pace at Hockenheim was the result of progress made over several races: “I’ve said it before, it’s not a case of a miracle having happened at Silverstone, because of the regulations relating to the exhausts. That result was down to the many improvements introduced race after race, as could be seen from the fact that, even from Monaco, we had returned to a good level in terms of being competitive and here too, where we are back to the Valencia rules, we are at the front end of the field.”

      Shouldnt that be nurburgring? Insteaf of hockenheim

      1. Damn, I knew that would catch me out at some point this weekend! Have changed it, thanks.

    12. maybe mclaren are sandbagging a little bit?? the speed trap times for their cars are not where they usually line up in the speed trap pecking order. maybe more fuel today?

    13. Both Alonso and Vettel showed similarly consistent tyre performance over their longest stints, each of eight laps.

      From your graphs Webber was faster than both during his thirteen lap stint, and was still lapping faster than either had managed in their stints even after ten laps.
      Would be nice if WEB can maintain that for qualifying & race and let ALO and VET squabble for the crumbs :)

      1. Yeah, it certainly looks good for Webber here.

    14. Alonso’s 1s deficit to Webber in FP2 graph is scary !

    15. I’m not sure if it is just me, but the colours for the end of the grid seem wrong, Ricciardo is purple like Buemi, D’ambrosio is the same green as Di Resta, and both Glock and Liuzzi are dark grey?

    Comments are closed.