Apart from them winning the "Winter Championship" during testing in Barcelona, Ferrari was never in the hunt this year! Mercedes probably never revealed their true potential at this point, whilst Ferrari enjoyed showboating. How can anyone use the excuse of the tyres suiting Mercedes better, to explain Ferrari's constant strategic blunders ?
Hard to gather how Ferrari's incompetence is snowballing and gaining speed. Leclerc is 16th! Didin't make in into Q1! Binotto says there's nothing wrong with the team!
The teams complained and loudly about blisters. Pirelli made a technical change to prevent this. Period. End of.
Pardon me, but if Mercedes had tyre issues previous seasons, they couldn't be very significant. A quick glance at the record for the last 5 years show them winning 10 titles and probably 80% of the GPs !!!
You’re fandom of Mercedes is clear. Ferrari challenged in 2017 and 2018 until Vettel self destructed and then the team. The car could have won. Merc were having tire issues. It was common knowledge. Check your selective memory.
Objectively the Mercedes was not as good as Ferrari in regimes such as slow and medium corners.They have reworked the car and addressed that and Ferrari now are only fast in a straight line. The issue of tires is not the issue but the total development of Mercedes vs Ferrari. Ferrari have been out worked and designed.
I knew a CEO that would yell so loudly at bad employees that he'd shake the glass on the doors to his office suite. FIAT need a regular dose of this + foot up asses. How FIAT's strategy team still has jobs is beyond me.
Cannotto is now worried for next year's Ferrari - https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-at-risk-of-compromising-2020-car/
Strategic blunders apart you can't really accuse Ferrari of showboating during winter testing, though you could accuse Merc of ingenious sandbagging even though they claim they had legitimate issues. Just like they claim they have issues every GP Friday. Regarding Ferrari, they were going about their testing program and apart from Vettel's first comments about being happy with the car, I recall both Leclerc and Binotto saying that despite the press declaring Ferrari superiority this was not the case.
To be fair, the new (Mercedes friendly) tyres only were tried at the post-season testing, when the new cars were already designed. And now it's not only a bunch of tifosi who are complaining, but Adrian Newey too. I'm not trying to undermine Mercedes' work, but usually when a team wins too much, there are rule changes to piss them off. With Mercedes is the opposite, for a strange reason. Maybe Niki Lauda had some pictures of Jean Todt with whores.
I must confess that I admire efficiency above everything else, and at the moment the Mercedes team embodies that more than any other. They just get their act together, overcome their problems, solve their flaws and they do it without drama. That, I like very much. Years ago, I liked McLaren for the same reasons when they were on the crest of a wave Under Ron Dennis during the Lauda-Prost-Senna era. Compared to that, Ferrari has looked like a very dysfunctional team to me in recent years; comical to some extent. All the ingrédients are there in terms of experience, budget, facilities, technical expertise, but the recipe is wrong: 3 team principals in 5 years ! I agree that their car was probably better in 2017/18, but they were unable to capitalise on it. Their organisation faulted, like it does this year.
Jock Clear is no moron and a highly experienced race engineer, if you put Lionel Messi in a boys team don't expect to win the football match. The team has no structure or leadership, by that I mean the heart was ripped out many years ago and a strong leader to take charge. Its lost confidence. Agreed the Leclerc shambles was a mistake and its not the first time they have done it either, the rule is - stop looking at the bloody computer screens for the answer. The arrogance of Arrivabene was disgraceful, the first lesson to learn is get the media on your side. His refusal to interact with them and the "fans" was appalling.
Hardly a conspiracy theory when true, is it? How many times have we seen Mercedes ''struggle'' on a Friday, only for Pirelli to drop/raise minimum tyre pressures overnight and Mercedes suddenly finding form? We've seen Pirelli bringing tyres to several GP specifically to suit Mercedes (as they where the only ones with this problem), and for them to dominate said weekend. And now Pirelli mysteriously has made all the 2019 tyres in that way. To suit Mercedes. Mercedes indeed allowed the Token system. Mercedes was the main pusher for this formula. We've seen time and time again Mercedes drivers getting away with things that other received penalties for. The only thing Mercedes isn't to blame for is them being responsible for lack of racing, and you blatantly made that up yourself. Those fingers are pointed at the FIA rule makers.