diffuser wrote:turbof1 wrote:diffuser wrote:I think Ferrari has been a mess in the last 2 years, all stemming from aero issues. I think the aero team has been a major disappointment. I agree with Alonzo it is a miracle that they are where they are in points. The best thing to have happened this year was the switch to the Lotus aero guy in late September.
Well that and the addition of James Allison.
They haven't been such a mess. Just take a look at those 2 years and Imagine Red Bull Racing never existed; you'll inmediately get a different picture. Ferrari actually did a very good job, but it's just that red bull whipes the floor with everybody else in F1.
Ok maybe "a mess" Is too strong. On race day things are a bit different (speed balances out between teams when carrying 150kg of Fuel). If you're of the mind that Qualifying is a good representation of the cars actual pace... Then the Ferrari has been weak on Qualifying and the true pace of the car is much slower than the points it racks up on race day. The points you bring home on Race day is influenced by how well the other drivers are doing. Lets face it, last year Schumi just about had 1 DNF in 2 races either cause he ran into someone or his car broke down. I can think of a couple of races last year that Hamilton took himself out of the race cause he just pushed too hard and button was lost for a good part of last year. Add to that Alonzo was just about perfect last year and still overachieving this year.....It can lead to an incorrect vision of the car.
Lets face it, the car has been 3 or 4th fastest in the last 3 years.Worse, on average, they've been about .750 seconds off the pace.
And what's more concerning is that, whilst they were slow in getting off the ground with the new regulations in 2009, they were actually very competitive in 2010 and close in pure pace terms to the RBs. Albeit they were reasonably competitive at the start of this year, as a general rule they 've slipped further back ever since.
Then again, a lot of their problems have come from wind tunnel correlation and/or (in)ability to get the same results from exhaust technology as other teams. With that in mind a) the tunnel will hopefully be much improved from this month on b) I personally don't see how teams can get round the new exhaust placement to get much benefit (which I'm aware is a conversation for somewhere else), so Ferrari may have the opportunity to play to their strengths a little more from 2014.
For now, the F138 is a blighted by its slow corner speed; I think they will actually do better in Japan than in recent races, due to the nature of the track, as they were fast in quick corners for the past two years.
They have broken in at different Shell refineries dressed as polarbears 
