Brawn = Genius, LdeM = Idiot

Let's wait and see, Brawn will eventually run into some hurdles of is own.

 

Brawn is a genius. Always was.

LdM is also a genius. He has brought the Ferrari car company and the racing team back from the misery of the early nineties to sold out stock and countless WDCs and WCCs.

That said, LdM put the wrong horses in front of the cart when his dream team went elsewhere. For some strange reason he picked nationality over the best available resource and the outcome is a less than perfect race team management.

But LdM is no fool. I'm sure he can look past his nose and realize what needs to be done. It is not that hard to figure out and compared to the situation in the early nineties, this one is a lot easier to analyze and fix. And fix it he will, I have no doubt.

 

Well said Andreas.

 

Excellent post Andreas.

 

Whilst i agree that LDM, whilst trying to stay patriotic to Italian personell, has scored the perfect own goal.

The team will return back to the old days of political infighting and chaos if it does not get its act together.

Yes, Ross Brawn is a very clever man and has a very good insight into "how a car should work" but he is part of whole army of technical wizards that Honda paid for and put into place. So the fruits have been reaped by Brawn GP instead of Honda.

The fault lays with the whole car package, it has been compromised by the R&D into kers. I simply do not believe its worth 0.2 secs per lap to Ferrari, when the Brawn is much faster anyway. Non Kers runners have not had those packaging problems and no intention to do so. So you get a power boost for 6 secs per lap...whoopee.

Fitting such a large bulky piece of kit into a F1 car has seriously compromised the design and aerodynamic layout. Personally i think non kers runners should carry a weight penalty, make them run kers or give kers runners full use of kers throughout the race, otherwise whats the point!!


So we can blame personel at Ferrari for making really stupid mistakes but unfortunately they have been rather spoilt over the last 8 years or so. When you have a team that dominated F1 and was in a position of superiority, those difficult decisions never confronted you or where not always necessary because you led from the front. Now crucial decisions have to be made and they are left wanting as they have no experience in taking those decisions.

The strategy engineers should have switched of the computers and walked outside!!

So whos fault is it? .............Dont know

 

While I am obviously upset with the Brawn gaffe, I think you've perfectly captured the situation.

...as usual.

 

I'd be really interested to see what KERS+diffuser would do. KERS does give the cars a great boost, but if the car is unwieldy then the advantage is marginalized in the corners (where additional weight+aerodynamic instability=McLaren)

 

I think this thread is missing a few vital points. When Ross Brawn's sabbatical was ending, many teams, including Honda, approached him to run their teams. He owed Ferrari the first right to go back to. However, as HE stated, when he was talking to Jean Todt in mid-2007, the team was fighting for the Championship and in good shape, and he did not feel that there was not enough of a challenge to keep Ferrari at the front. He said the team was running fine - which they were; as they were last year; and that as much as he loved Italy, he longed to return to England, which is where his family was living while he was in Italy.
Very simply, the Honda deal was the perfect scenario for him.
all this talk of Luca = Idiot is just stupid......
Get real.....
Kevin

 

Well, I've heard Luca called quite a few things but nobody in their right mind would call him an idiot...

 

The final decision WAS Brawn's. There were many a quote from Brawn at the time that he felt he needed a greater challenge than Ferrari. I am sure an ownership position in the team was important, something Ferrari can not offer. In the manner the team was structured, Honda could.

I had also heard the Jean Todt tried all he could to entice Brawn, but the deal from Honda was just too unrealistic for Ferrari. At least in hindsight.

Thanks.

 

Indeed +1 !

 

My connection is an old fart that used to work the Ferrari pits and is now relegated to the factory. As an employee in the race shop. I too am an old fart and I met this man when I was a professional photographer MANY MANY years ago, like in the days of Lauda and Villenueve. We stay in contact. He retires in two years, then I will hear nothing.

The other source was my former partner's relationship with Willi Weber, he hired Willi's son. That's how I used to get the insight on Schumacher. We were both interested in the Brawn story, and what I mentioned is the way it was presented to my ex partner by Willi, which coincided with the info from my paisano friend.

But we are both getting second hand information. Whats to say that I am right that Todt wanted Brawn, but you are also right and Luca would not agree to the terms and told him thanks but no thanks. I understand Brawn wanted the sun and the moon. He is worth the sun, but the moon too?

I would question then why Brawn would go public and state in the press he needed more of a challenge than Ferrari. Brawn is the type that would tell it like it is. If Luca dissed him, we would know about it.

 

I think it was just a matter of wanting a new challenge with a floundering team such as he had with Benetton and then Ferrari, strictly my opinion though.

tex

 

LCdM is no idiot, one just needs to step back and look at the wider picture as Andreas has so cleverly alluded. When his attentions and MOTIVATIONS were purely focused on the team winning, both with Lauda and Schumacher eras, he made very "pure decisions" focused solely on Ferrari winning. Well, in Italy, with Ferrari winning on the international front comes extreme notoriety and popularity.... and so follows politics. Many were whispering his name for much larger and prestigious corporate and government positions within Italy, even courted by Berlusconi, so now his motivations are some what colored a bit...tricolori one might say, as he now draws more popularity required for more political aims by keeping Ferrari Italian. However, no amount of Italian-ness at Ferrari will make up for them losing, so I expect the home team personel decisions to go back to more based on proven ability than what passport you carry. But, there will be decisions at Ferrari based on concerns that occur far off the track...

 

Lets not forget that Paulo Martinelli, Jean Todt, Rory Byrne, Michael Schumacher & Ross Brawn all left (although Rory Byrne stayed as a consultant untill this year ...)

Remember, Rory Byrne was chief designer of the more successful F1 cars not Ross Brawn

IMO, KERS is the problem. Look at the performance of the f60 car against other KERS competitors. Vastly superior.

 

So if the F60 is vastly superior to other KERS cars, then how is KERS the problem?

 

Because cars with KERS can´t beat cars without it. At least for the moment.

Anyway, there are more problemas apart from KERS.

 

+1

Very well said.

 

It seems LdM's vision of an Italian team rather than the best person for the job has been a failure. Confidence flows down from the top and the people chosen have proven to be incompetent. That lack of confidence permeates through the whole enterprise. Mistakes are being made that didn't happen before when success and teamwork bred continued success . Now there is always some excuse but the bottom line speaks volumes. Zero points. The thrill is gone and it shows in the way this team continues to conduct itself.
CH