Is the time now for Ferrari?

[LampCord]

Originally Posted by Dutton

A couple of wins before the end of the season would be nice.

Its going to take blind luck for them to get a victory IMHO. They can't qualify well on a reasonable amount of fuel and they can't get off the line quickly enough to hold their position.

Its just too much of a handicap. They had almost every possible break last week to get 2 podium finishes. They will need that kind of luck to finish first.

Three things could change this:

1) Bridgestone could make a quantum leap forward and start building tires that are competitive when cold.

2) They could go back to the old qualifying system of 12 laps in an hour and perhaps Ferrari could do 2 - 6 lap stints allowing their tires to come up to temp (although this doesn't help the launch issue).

3) Theoretically they could switch to Michelins. Then they could qualify and start with the rest of them and at least have a competitor's chance to win. But we all know that won't happen.

I'd say of those 3 possibilities, (1) is the only one that has a chance. Barring that, having both Renault's and both McLaren's DNF is their best hope.

[GP Racer]

Dumping Bridgestone for Michelin would be a cold thing for Ferrari to do. Rightfully, Ferrari has to give Bridgestone some time to get it right. Afterall, they've helped put Ferrari on the podium more times than we can count. Also without them, we would basically be a spec tire series. I agree, that won't happen.

As far as the launch problem, which is huge, I think it may have more to do with the gearbox than the tires, which has been giving Ferrari big problems on this car. We know it's reliability is spotty, so it's performance off the line could be insufficient as well.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by Gt_R

Comparing qualifying times, Button who is on the same strategy in fuel load is 0.2sec faster than Ferrari. Given that Ferrari at worse made a car as good as BAR-Honda...the tyres are still more than 0.2sec off.

Buttons BAR was 0.2 seconds faster with 3 laps more fuel on board.

[LampCord]

Originally Posted by GP Racer

As far as the launch problem, which is huge, I think it may have more to do with the gearbox than the tires, which has been giving Ferrari big problems on this car. We know it's reliability is spotty, so it's performance off the line could be insufficient as well.

That's a good point. I guess its possible that Ferrari has purposely toned down their launch in order to take stress off of the gearbox. After all, that is probably when the most stress is applied to the drivetrain.

So we may have a combination of things: Weak gearbox, poorly peforming cold tires, possible (doubtfull) driver error.

But the Ferrari on light fuel was passed by 4 cars off the line! I know the Renaults have always launched well (possibly using softer rubber which may have caught up with Alonso later) but something has to be done.

Lets just say for now, the entire package is not competitive. I'm pretty sure that a large part of that is the tires, but the gearbox is probably also an issue. If I'm Ferrari, I'm already looking at next year's car.

And if I'm Bridgestone, I'm thinking I have 11 races left to convince Ferrari to stick with me next season...

[Dutton]

Bridegstone and Ferrari will be together next season.

I think that that is the closest thing to a certainty you can get in F1.

[LampCord]

Originally Posted by Dutton

Bridegstone and Ferrari will be together next season.

I think that that is the closest thing to a certainty you can get in F1.

No, the closest thing you can get to certainty is Minardi won't be sitting on pole!

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by LampCord

No, the closest thing you can get to certainty is Minardi won't be sitting on pole!

They got a provisional pole in 2003 @ France. Never say Never in F1