Scuderia Ferrari has confirmed that its former team principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, is leaving the team. Italian media broke the news this morning before the team released a short statement, marking Binotto as his replacement.
This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
If you think they had the fastest car in the races you clearly have not paid attention. The only times they could convert pole positions into race wins were in Belgium and Italy and if you remember it was only due to the long straights which made Leclerc hold position even though Mercedes was right at his gearbox for several laps.
Being quickest in qualifying won't make you win races. It's on Sunday when it really matters.
Now, because the season is long done already, it would be foolish not to try things out. What Ferrari obviously is trying out is to put highest possible downforce on the car. But they're doing it in a really unefficient way with biggest rear wings. Their car concept is low drag after all so unless you don't change your concept every way you do it will be unefficient.
At no time before in this season Ferrari has been that close to Redbull in the corners. The difference is that Ferrari managed this only with the biggest rear wing on the grid while Redbull had the slimmest.
Did you read my post, I said especially in qualifying. And seeing as they won those races you've mentioned they were "quick" enough and that's all that counts.
You talk as though they've sacrificed top speed and qualifying for race pace, they are still no better off in that department and in fact are worse off.
Qualifying in front gives you the chance to control the pace, now they don't have the luxury of being able to and neither do they have the pace to challenge for the win.
From Singapore on their qualifying pace was better than before, but except Singapore none of those races ended with a Ferrari win and in none of these races Ferrari looked competitive. You cannot control the pace, if your tyres fall off 10 laps before the ones of the other teams. In 2019 following cars is much easier. Cars with less tyre deg will just follow you and either overtake or under-/overcut you when your tyres aren't in good shape anymore. Belgium and Italy are high speed tracks and only this saved Ferrari.
You wrote that they still are not better on race pace. First of all, Ferrari appeared to have had a strong race pace this time. What's more, it was only the second time in a row they've gone the direction of adding highest possible downforce on the car. If it was that easy to do such set-up changes and immediately nail it, we would have much less problems in F1. But it isn't.
And again, Ferrari's downforce might help them in the corners now as they are matching Mercedes and are quite close to Redbull, but it is downforce with a big drag penalty.
Ferrari were losing .6sec to Merc in the twisty s3 in Abu Dhabi.
Did you read my post, I said especially in qualifying. And seeing as they won those races you've mentioned they were "quick" enough and that's all that counts.
You talk as though they've sacrificed top speed and qualifying for race pace, they are still no better off in that department and in fact are worse off.
Qualifying in front gives you the chance to control the pace, now they don't have the luxury of being able to and neither do they have the pace to challenge for the win.
From Singapore on their qualifying pace was better than before, but except Singapore none of those races ended with a Ferrari win and in none of these races Ferrari looked competitive. You cannot control the pace, if your tyres fall off 10 laps before the ones of the other teams. In 2019 following cars is much easier. Cars with less tyre deg will just follow you and either overtake or under-/overcut you when your tyres aren't in good shape anymore. Belgium and Italy are high speed tracks and only this saved Ferrari.
You wrote that they still are not better on race pace. First of all, Ferrari appeared to have had a strong race pace this time. What's more, it was only the second time in a row they've gone the direction of adding highest possible downforce on the car. If it was that easy to do such set-up changes and immediately nail it, we would have much less problems in F1. But it isn't.
And again, Ferrari's downforce might help them in the corners now as they are matching Mercedes and are quite close to Redbull, but it is downforce with a big drag penalty.
Ferrari were losing .6sec to Merc in the twisty s3 in Abu Dhabi.
I wrote this before Abu Dhabi. It was true for Austin and Brazil.
- We still have not understood what happened between winter testing and Melbourne 2019.
- The singapore package was the most important step, but in addition to that there was further understanding the car balance.
- Mercedes had the perfect concept. We had an efficient car, but it obviously was not enough.
- Our drag increased in the second half of the season, but we reduced our disadvantage in the corners from 5 tenths to 2 tenths.
- The truth about our power advantage is well off from what others say. We have an advantage of 20 hp max. But that still is a respectable number. We've done a great job closing the gap to Mercedes. In 2014 we were more than 80 hp behind.
- I'm not sure others are doubting our legality. They probably try to put pressure on us. It's part of F1 to make the opponent feel insecure.
- Our opponents have drawen false conclusions. We've not changed anything on our engines.
- We're happy with the technical directives. I'm sure we'll see some more in the future.
- We still have not understood what happened between winter testing and Melbourne 2019.
- The singapore package was the most important step, but in addition to that there was further understanding the car balance.
- Mercedes had the perfect concept. We had an efficient car, but it obviously was not enough.
- Our drag increased in the second half of the season, but we reduced our disadvantage in the corners from 5 tenths to 2 tenths.
- The truth about our power advantage is well off from what others say. We have an advantage of 20 hp max. But that still is a respectable number. We've done a great job closing the gap to Mercedes. In 2014 we were more than 80 hp behind.
- I'm not sure others are doubting our legality. They probably try to put pressure on us. It's part of F1 to make the opponent feel insecure.
- Our opponents have drawen false conclusions. We've not changed anything on our engines.
- We're happy with the technical directives. I'm sure we'll see some more in the future.
i wonder why Mattia is getting back every possible time to say, "we didn't do anything wrong" it doesn't make it better or let ppl think differently because IMO "where smoke is, there is fire"
Ferrari cancels Verstappen and Alonso from the 2021 driver list
Max Verstappen, for example, was struck by Louis Camilleri with a categorical no. He was asked if a pilot who allows himself to say that the Ferrari bara could have become a Scuderia driver. The answer was lapidary. And he put a cross on the Dutchman who, not surprisingly, looks at the Mercedes.
To use the red card on Fernando Alonso was, instead, Mattia Binotto: "We talked about it - revealed Mattia - but it no longer falls into our plans".
From Binotto's Christmas Dinner speach, published on motorsport.com:
"I believe this was the first important mistake of this year: having taken too long to realize the weakness of our project and to try then to find a way to address it. [...] The flaws we had at the beginning of the season were rear instability under braking and mid-corner understeer, all flaws we had not noticed during the winter tests [...]."
If Ferrari learnt something from last years they will be doing hundreds of laps and being on last positions on each test day apart from the last one.
During any previous tests they tried to show their muscles when Mercedes was recognizing tyres and each time we have seen in Melbourne what happened...
The problem most people have nowadays with 'fathoming' such a thing is that in today's age, teams aren't run like they were back in the Schumi days, so the organisation and all around it is pretty different, which would make it unlikely to believe that Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton and some other people would jump ship to Ferrari.
Having said that, there are some things to concider though.
Ferrari will be desperate to find ways to become NR1 again.
If we concider that Ferrari's former 'legendary' success happened not just because Schumacher was there,
but the complete package that was wheeled in from Benetton, then it might not be such a far fetched idea to concider having Toto, Lewis and important staff figures.
But having that said, there are some things that are overlooked.
Ferrari won't be in a NR1 condition in 2021 just because Hamilton and Toto would go there at January.
If they are a success formula, it'll take quite some time to get things going.
And then, that's without adressing the problem that neither Toto nor Hamilton are what makes the winning streak so successfull.
It's the fact that Mercedes have been planning and investing in the V6TH era for a long, long time and the entire package works because they all had the same common goal
and vision. There is no such thing for 2021 with Hamilton and Wolff and co and Ferrari.
PERHAPS Ferrari are investing to be in a favourable position as of 2021, but that will be regardless of Hamilton or Toto, and regardless of Vettel or Leclerc.
Let's face it, if Hamilton stayed at Mclaren, he wouldnt be the success he is now, or if he went to Ferrari in 2012, he wouldn't be the success today.
Instead, we would have seen some other driver alongside Rosberg as of 2014 and either see him or Nico be multiple champion.
Instead, Hamilton went to Mercedes at the 'right time' to be ready when 2014 arrived. Neither Toto Wolff nor Hamilton have anything to do with the might of the Mercedes V6TH engine.
Yes, both have their absolute talents, the combo works flawlessly. But it's not like Ham-Wolff would instantly bring Ferrari stardom again.
Which is in the end why i honestly won't see it happen.
Well, Hamilton to Ferrari, yes, i definately can see that happen.
But Wolff to Ferrari? No, not at all, nor would i expect to see Horner to go to Ferrari for example.
We also have no idea how 2020 will pan out.
Just imagine for a moment that RB-Honda will completely obliterate Mercedes and Ferrari,
and we will see Ferrari struggle again and see again a lot of people get fired causing chaos again,
and perhaps even Mercedes announcing they'll step back from the project and sell the team and focus on Mclaren again.
Will Hamilton then go to Ferrari, will he retire, will he go back to Mclaren or will he even go to RedBull alongside Max?
Whether it sounds reasonable or not is another story alltogether, but quite frankly, we have no idea what will happen in 2020,
which is vital for how 2021 is going to pan out.
"Explain the ending to F1 in football terms"
"Hamilton was beating Verstappen 7-0, then the ref decided F%$& rules, next goal wins
while also sending off 4 Hamilton players to make it more interesting"
Ferrari, nuovo contratto per Leclerc
rinnovo di 5 anni per blindarlo
Il monegasco riceverà anche un importante adeguamento dello stipendio
(si parla di 9 milioni l’anno, a salire, più del triplo rispetto a prima).
Ferrari, new contract for Leclerc
5-year renewal to keep him
The Monegasque will also receive an important salary adjustment
(there is talk of 9 million a year, going up, more than triple than before).
Ferrari cancels Verstappen and Alonso from the 2021 driver list
Max Verstappen, for example, was struck by Louis Camilleri with a categorical no. He was asked if a pilot who allows himself to say that the Ferrari bara could have become a Scuderia driver. The answer was lapidary. And he put a cross on the Dutchman who, not surprisingly, looks at the Mercedes.
To use the red card on Fernando Alonso was, instead, Mattia Binotto: "We talked about it - revealed Mattia - but it no longer falls into our plans".
Makes one wonder who they have included in their plans. Assuming for a second that Vettel retires, then Ferrari's shortlist will indeed be rather short indeed. RIC, SAI, HAM, BOT
5 years, why close doors like this? And does this fix his salary just when they're going to skyrocket with being exempt from the cost cap? And exclude Max over a couple of words? The whole thing looks a bit ridiculous, for both sides
If i were Charles I'd be plotting to Mercedes with Mattia, thanks very much!!
9 million a year for a driver that hasn't won a title yet seems pretty decent to me. If they have an escalator clause too, perhaps X% per year per win, Y% for a title, for example then it looks pretty good. And for someone like Leclerc who is very much at the start of his F1 journey, 5 years isn't too long. At least he knows that even if he wins races but no titles, he'll end up a wealthy man anyway.
It's a problem I'd love to be facing, that's for sure!
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.
