Ferrari F2012 ‘B’ spec to take cues from Sauber C31

Ferrari’s current F2012 has not lived up to the standards set by Red Bull. It has taken some extremely incredible performance from Fernando Alonso to drag that car towards the top of the pack. Although one can argue that Fernando won the Malaysian GP with this car, nobody missed the fact that the Sauber was catching the Ferrari in the latter stages of the race by around 0.5-1 seconds per lap! Also, the same C31 was harrowing Fernando in Australia after his 2nd pitstop. This proves that in normal dry conditions, the F2012 is currently not capable of fighting for the top positions and that has been quite evident in the two qualifying sessions so far.

On the other hand, Sauber’s C31 has been the surprise package of the year. The car seems to be the most gentle on the tyres and along with that, it has genuine race pace too – in Malaysia they were fighting for the win and in Australia both their cars finished comfortably within the points. But what raised a few heads in the F1 circuit after Malaysia was how the Sauber was able to be more than 0.5 seconds faster per lap than the Red Bulls and the McLarens during the last few laps of the race. This indicates that there must be some very innovative solutions within the car which reduce tyre wear significantly. The C31 has been so impressive that even defending world champions Red Bull have implemented a Sauber-like rear to their car. That is quite a complement for a small team.

The C31 features some very interesting concepts in many parts of the car. One of them is definitely the hole on the top of the chassis. Another solution, according to Autosprint, the Sauber features a clever solution in front of the rear wheels which is not very clearly specified by the FIA technical regulations.

So, it is no surprise that Sauber have been the team to watch until now, at least in the races. So like Red Bull, Ferrari is incorporating some of the C31’s aspects into their car. It is rumoured that the Ferrari ‘B’ spec F2012 will feature a rear (exhaust, coke bottle region, diffuser) very similar to that of the C31, when it will be introduced at the Mugello test in early May. But only time will tell whether Ferrari’s approach has been able to solve the fundamental problems with the current F2012 and whether Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa will be able to challenge for pole positions and podium finishes once the European season starts.