Ferrari: Diffuser Verdict a Big Blow

Ferrari, as the other non-diffuser teams, had the chance to clean up the rules one year ago and be as competitive as the Brawn, but chose not to do so. Ferrari has no one to blame but themselves. Now we will see the true ability of this current group at the Scuderia. Either they will come back and show to be the #1 team, or they will fall flat and need to be replaced.

They need to stop complaining and just concentrate on not making mistakes in design and at the track.


I think the only one clever enough to run a team to compete with Ross Brawn is Michael Schumacher. He knows Brawn's thinking better than anyone. Give him Massa's group, and they will win races this year. But there are egos too large for this to happen.

 

I won't be surprised if Ferrari rolled out an entire new car by the start of the European season.

 

"Completely redesign the car..." = Convenient excuse for doing poorly this year.
They should have seen this (or thought of it themselves, others did ) at the first tests of the year and had designed their own diffuser as a plan B in case it was ruled OK.

IMO the whole diffuser advantage is overblown. It exists but does not present the huge advantage that is claimed. Look at the additional percentage of area and combine it with the rear wings effect and my seat of the pants engineering comes up with 10 or 15% additional downforce.
Ferrari and Mclaren can find lots more time on the track with their superior abilities in other areas.

 

Agreed. A good example is Redbull, they are the only team that is competitive without the diffuser. Ferrari and Mclaren need to stop *****ing and get back to work.

 

I can't imagine Ferrari hasn't been (partly) expecting this and not been in the wind tunnel 24/7 working on their own diffuser.

They can't think they have the FIA in their pocket every single time!

 

It shall be called the F61!

 

...or the F60B (for Brawn).

 

Agreed. I know Renault has already admitted they have been working on a diffuser just in case and that it will appear this weekend in China.
We can only assume Ferrari has been doing the same thing for AT LEAST a couple weeks now...(since the beginning of the season).
If they haven't, and simply expected the FIA to rule in their favor, and truly do have to start now and do this massive redesign---i'm afraid the season may already be over....

 

....great strategy...base your ability to compete on legal minutia instead of actually building a good car....brilliant..! For once the FIA seems to have realised that not bowing down to Ferrari's mendacious tendancies was in the best interests of the sport. Good for Brawn in being the better designer...and shame on Ferrari for not acknowledging that they should be winning on the track...instead of the courtroom. Go BGP.

 

Other teams were aware of the possibilities of the double deck diffuser, but deemed it illegal and against the spirit of the rule (which also is a limitation of the amount of downforce). However, this should have been taken to court much, much sooner. Way before the start of the season even. It was always possible that the FIA would rule in favour of the diffuser guys.

 

I am glad the diffuser verdict happened the way it did. It'll be a fun season for sure with hopefully a different roster of drivers winning. I wont mind seeing Rosberg, Trulli winning it.

Besides it is giving us good insight into how drivers of the erstwhile superpowers - Ferrari, McLaren, Renault and BMW - cope with inferior cars. Hamilton, Kubica and Fernando have shown their prowess in qualifying, racing, overtaking. Kimi, Massa and Heidfeld (despite his VERY LUCKY 2rd place) are all so-so. Heikki and Piquet are completely useless and need to be dropped ASAP.

I hope this season continues it wacky ways.

 

Sometimes, success can breed complacency. Time to get to work, boys. And, kudos to Brawn for the neat wrinkle--even though I don't like Button.

 

....yes, who could like a driver who demonstrates such unabashed joy at being in a good car (finally!). Plus all that smiling and teamspirit that he constantly displays. Hopefully we can soon get back to a driver grid of personal people like Villenueve, Raikkonen and the like....

 

Brawn was part of the FIA team that drafted the new rules, so he understood exactly where the limits were. I had no doubt he would win. And it has to be said that several months ago Brawn had warned his counterparts about the possible ambiguity of the new rules regarding aerodynamic configurations, but ALL the other teams (Ferrari included) declined Brawn's offer to redraft the rules to tighter and more restrictive specifications.

So if Ferrari and McLaren end up with no wins and a dismal season, they only have themselves to blame. Now I hope Toyota will beat Brawn. Go Trulli!!

 

+1 Lest us not forget terms agreed by FOTA, which is headed by Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo, new rules will be approved if seven out of the 10 teams involved supported them.

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-1 ..

 

But history will put them down as the diffuser-boys.

 

No. In about three races they'll all be diffuser boys. No one will rember it any other way. It'll just be three teams beat the rest out of the gate with a regulation loop-hole.

 

Iirc, Brawn, Williams and Toyota were the only ones that did not have representatives in that group. And allegedly missed the spirit of the rules.

+1 on everything else.

 

All true. Lack of testing will only hinder the rest from catching up with the other 3 teams; not just a simple matter of bolting on a new diffuser and calling it a day. I see some of the 7 fighting for victories later in the season.

 

Rest assured they have. However it will take them a couple of months to get back into the game by which time the gap will be too wide to catch up.

 

I can't imagine the lack of testing affecting them too much. The BGP car got the least testing in and look at where they are.

 

Ah yes. Just like we don't think of Alan Jones the World Champion, but the illegal skirts boy.

And Nelson Piquet as the turbo boy.

And Nigel Mansell the electronically controlled hydraulics boy.

Phil Hill will be forever the sharknose boy.

Jody Scheckter will be the flat 12 boy.

Do I need to go on with this absurd line of arguing?

It is called technological advantage. If you're smart enough, you have it and the others don't.

 

Exactly. Ferrari already have a few diffusers but need to test them. Don't be surprised to see lots of laps from them and the other teams on Friday and Saturday. Badoer, Gene, de la Rosa, etc are basically useless now.

 

Diffusers or no diffusers both Ferrari and McLaren started the year with designs that were not competitive. Coupled with that both teams screwed the pooch with poor team management.
Face it they did not adapt to the new rules as well as even Red Bull did, never mind Brawn. Just goes to show that smaller organizations can be more creative and react better to changing situations than the mega-teams can.
In the long run I have no doubt that money will out and the usual suspects will be back on top though.
So suck it up guys and get the engineers to work, not the lawyers and the PR flacks.