Ferrari 2012..

[luke g28]

Originally Posted by wolfhound

Could they adapt last years chassis to current regs as it used push rod suspension?

My understanding is the most urgent problem is with the rear of the car but I may be wrong.

My understanding to.

From a simple view, they launched the car with fancy exhausts supposed to generate loads of downforce "at the wheels" they could not make them work in testing and now they point towards the beam wing. Hence they have less rear downforce now than they expected to have. Similar to Mclaren last year, couldnt get their exhausts to work and were stuffed until they did. Even so they were arguably compromised all season due to the miscalculation in the design stage.

[JeremySmith]

Originally Posted by bella

do you think he'd have much choice? i mean, depending on his contract presumably if the scuderia calls, you shake hands with peter sauber, thank him for all the fish, and get on the road to maranello?

Well We are always hearing that contracts in F1 are not worth the paper they written on, so anything could happen and being Ferrari I am sure that will be the case.

As others have surgested they may just do a straight swap ?

[djinvicta]

I can see a total revamp at Ferrari very soon. Massa has not been the same since his terrible accident, no fault of his own, but I really cant see another team taking him on. I do think hes near the end as a front running driver, and hes not been up there for ages, only by default.
Stefano must know his end is nigh, unless it all turns around in the next two three races. Luca has been very quiet for a few days, I expected an outburst by now!
To return staff and cars back to Italy for 3 days shows the panic that is going on.
Whether they drag Perez out of Sauber I dont know, but there has been one guy that played second fiddle at Ferrari and made more out of it than any of us would, and that was Eddie. I cant see any driver in the middle field turning it down. I certainly wouldnt.
I do think they have one of the best in Alonso, Im no great fan, but he drags it round and collects positions that the car doesnt deserve. I hope they sort it, we could then have McClaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes within 10ths of each other. It all augers for a good season ahead....

[Bononi]

Oh, yes and bring him down... Domenicali, you're done.

[djinvicta]

Hes in charge...........

You know Bon as well as me theyres talk of him being shifted already..

[stripedcat]

I think the Ferrari will probably be much better by the mid season. Recently, they just seem to do it that way. They do have good technical staff, but at the moment seemed to start the season with a weak car.

I do think that Alonso is going to pick up 2 wins. He is a good team leader, but sadly the Ferrari just needs to get its act together better.

As for Massa, well he has never been the same since the accident in Hungary. I expect he will be on his way out.

Who will replace him? Perez? Well, I would like it, but would he settle for being Alonso's teaboy?

[shiny side up!]

Originally Posted by stripedcat

Who will replace him? Perez? Well, I would like it, but would he settle for being Alonso's teaboy?

It would likely be his only opportunity to drive for a team that competes regularly for podiums/wins - I think he would accept the role graciously, and if he really raised himself to Alonso's level over a couple of years there would be no reason to expect that he couldn't take over the reins from FA when he exits...

I find the idea of Perez operating on Alonso's level rather far-fetched, though.

[Born Racer]

We know Massa's been poor, but that's not the crux of the matter (the bad car, which is also stopping Alonso, a championship-potential driver, winning a championship). Is it right to single out Domenicali? Surely the point is that the technical team as a whole are not building the car they want to build.

That said, Ferrari don't have a divine right to be the best and is it therefore so weird that they have their problems right now? Why should there be an expectation that it is so terribly bad for them to be in this position?

[barnettracing]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

We know Massa's been poor, but that's not the crux of the matter (the bad car, which is also stopping Alonso, a championship-potential driver, winning a championship). Is it right to single out Domenicali? Surely the point is that the technical team as a whole are not building the car they want to build.

That said, Ferrari don't have a divine right to be the best and is it therefore so weird that they have their problems right now? Why should there be an expectation that it is so terribly bad for them to be in this position?

You can't be the best forever. Ferrari feel (well, di Montezemelo) that they have a divine right to be one of the top teams in F1. Across the years, McLaren have built duff cars, Williams are only recently emerging from the doldrums. Maybe it is Ferrari's turn to have some barren years.

I suppose the problem is money. There is so much to play for these days in terms of placings in the Constructors Championship. FIAT is hardly the most financially secure car company around so an unsuccessful F1 team could be seen as deadweight by an uncompassionate board.

As Marbot has often said, aero is king in F1 at the moment and, if they don't have the best aero staff then they are immediately at a disadvantage. They also said that this year's car was going to be 'aggressive'. Well, 'aggressive' is a gamble and in a gamble it can either go well, or go badly.

[Sodemo]

Yep, aero is dominant, which for me is a sad thing. I look at the size of the front wings and think "why". Why are the front wings so huge, why have they allowed the teams to pile elements on top of elements to generate more downforce...?

If I had control over the rules I would start a massive cull on the allowed amounts of wing space to generate downforce. I would be looking for an 80% cut.

[barnettracing]

Originally Posted by Sodemo

Yep, aero is dominant, which for me is a sad thing. I look at the size of the front wings and think "why". Why are the front wings so huge, why have they allowed the teams to pile elements on top of elements to generate more downforce...?

If I had control over the rules I would start a massive cull on the allowed amounts of wing space to generate downforce. I would be looking for an 80% cut.

I'd love for them to cut down on the aerodynamic downforce of the cars. It's become silly over the last 15-20 years. Unfortunately, despite even di Montezemelo agreeing with us, I cannot see it happening. The teams have invested too much in their aero departments to suddenly have them cut.

Personally, cars to me are all about mechanical grip on the whole and creating low drag. If you want wings, go look at aeroplanes (though saying that, the cars of the early to mid-70s are some of my favourites, an they have wings, albeit largely inefficient.)

[luke g28]

If you cut down on Aero than you leave nothing to differentiate teams. They are the same size, with the same engine on the same tyres with the same tech.

Finally how do you even measure how much downforce a car generates? I dont think the FIA have the ability to. Unless they want an FIA wind tunnel to test the cars in, you would need parc ferme between tunnel and race track though....then you would get teams putting bodywork on that seems to always fall off and improves downforce..

[bella]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

Is it right to single out Domenicali? Surely the point is that the technical team as a whole are not building the car they want to build.

on the flip side of that coin, is it right to single out adrian newey as the man solely responsible for red bull's success?

(i know it's slightly different but that's not the point)

[Bononi]

Originally Posted by Born Racer

We know Massa's been poor, but that's not the crux of the matter (the bad car, which is also stopping Alonso, a championship-potential driver, winning a championship). Is it right to single out Domenicali? Surely the point is that the technical team as a whole are not building the car they want to build.

That said, Ferrari don't have a divine right to be the best and is it therefore so weird that they have their problems right now? Why should there be an expectation that it is so terribly bad for them to be in this position?

I'm completely satisfied that Ferrari is doing badly, sorry Ferrari fans...

That keep us entertained, remember the 80s ?

I say sack Domenicali, he's an italian trying to be an englishman. That doesn't work, I prefer the standard italian mode, even if it's messed.

I say sack Massa, what he's doing there ? He's not worth the seat, let Ferrari doom another driver to number two status, so the story goes on. Perez might be the one, he's not taking the world by fire and looks like an average to good driver. Webber is too old and Ferrari must have a long term commitment, someone that Luca thrashes occasionally and could praise Teflonso as a measurement of success. That's how things work there...

[JeremySmith]

It will be interesting to see what difference this makes, if any..

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98220