Is it too soon to reboard the red pain train?
First rumors said Vasseur and co are happy for what they’re seeing with the simulator for next year..
As a life long supporter of SF from the early 1970's they did a pretty decent job of resurrecting the car into a competitive one in the 2nd half of the year. Silly strategy mistakes cost them points for the runner up spot but as someone else alluded to, they didnt deserve 2nd place. Mercedes did imho as the dog they had at the beginning was improved upon massively. I just dont see how any team can leapfrog RB and win both championships unless they invent something really special. RB will undoubtebly improve by at a good margin so its daunting for the other teams to respond. Another season like this one will be a disaster for F!, the Verstappen / RB road show cannot happen again.
I think it´s very unlikely that a season like this happens again next year: all the big teams are building Red Bull clones and even with their current cut/paste car Ferrari improved in the second half of the season in tyre management and so on. So instead of winning all races but one I suppose Red Bull will win all but 5 or 6.
It seems like it to me that Ferrari is still babying the engine in the race. Idk if it's an overheating issue or something else. Hopefully if it's airflow/ overheating, they can mitigate within the rules.
If they use it at full spec, perhaps they eat the tires even more. It might just be a case of the engine being too good for the car. In other words, the design was flawed from the start.
Just my guess, as I'm far from a race engineer, but a lot of decisions are made based on trade-offs and trying to find an optimal solution in most circumstances. So like someone else alluded to, maybe the tire degradation is even worse at full beans when the track temp is high. I know there was at least once race where Leclerc was holding to his spot for dear life with dying tires at the end. (I think it was against Russell on a sprint race).
I'm a believe it when I see it kinda attitude....after 5 races I've made up my decision against the Scuderia.
Ferrari's primary problem might be that their simulator doesn't do a good job of actually simulating. So everything looks great there, then eh in the real world. Maybe the reason the RedBull is so good is their simulator is the best? /
Seems like Vasseur suggested the exact opposite. Their new simulator is top notch and they already knew SF23 was a turd even before first Fiorano shakedown.. Which speaks volume about Binotto’s lies..
No reason why we cannot win the next 10 races, shortly after TD renders the 2022 car a dud..... Vasseur at least is keeping a lid on expectations
The key is not pole for next year. No race pace, poll doesnt matter as Ferrari showed already this year. Leclerc: Still ‘a long way to go’ before matching Red Bull race pace
Anything but being clearly 2nd fastest would be a failure. I just hope there isn't a 5-7 race "learning period" about the new concept. They had a whole year assess the problems, time to deliver. If McLaren and Aston Martin can take a performance jump, it would be embarassing if Ferrari can't.
