Joe Saward's take on the driver silliness

agree.

One of the things that doesn't get mentioned often is James Allison's move to Ferrari; Lotus losing a key technical guy, in addition to the alleged money woes, does not bode well for their future....

 

Yeah I can't figure that out. Never comes up in the media conversation.

 

Gary Anderson on BBc mentioned there is a lack of decision making at Ferrari due to the way parts are put on and taken off constantly. The culprit seems Fry, who doesn't strike me as a leader. Allison will mainly take his responsabilities becoming chassis director, Fry becoming a more general technical director and both reporting to Domenicali. The real problem is that the only full time designer is and will be Tombazis.
The Mclaren recruits have under performed so far, let's see the Renault ones, who could be more than just Allison pretty soon

 

What about Byrne?

 

Could not agree more. Isn't Byrne designing the 2014 Ferrari?

 

No recent mention of him after the LaFerrari but I suppose he's still around the f2014. Is he still going to be as strong a designer as he was before the break? Many things have changed. And what if the new F is aerodynamically excellent and the engine sucks?

 

I'm just not buying all these "Ferrari's engine sucks" rumors.

 

The fact is that they lost toro rosso's supply for obvious reasons but right when it seemed deal done with Force India, they changed wind and went with merc. Marussia and Sauber didn't have much choice...

I frankly don't see it rosy

 

Byrne said in an interview that he was working on the 2014 F1 car but it has been very quiet.
Does Ferrari even have a working wind tunnel or are they still using Toyota's?
What is the basis for the "engine sucks" rumors? Cause they haven't released a picture yet?

 

No news on one front, the fact that it will be the cheapest, the fact that it's still not in demand, the Marussia association that will hardly produce any development data, the fact that the Reanault is the most popular and this:

Report - Mercedes to have 100hp advantage in 2014? | News | Motorsport.com

OTOH I'm sure that any initial advantage will be ironed out before the big freeze.

 

once again the cliche "when the green flag drops, the bs stops" is appropriate....

 

As long as they keep making car slower than the Red bull then Fernando is boss, regardless of what LDM says.

 

The problem is Vettel. The Ferrari is pretty good this year but it's not quick enough in qualifying (yet again). For Alonso to have a realistic chance of winning all he needs is a top three car and he can do the rest. With Red Bull however, Vettel either gets pole or front row and scampers off int the lead and creates a gap that even Alonso can't overcome. Alonso came from 9th on the grid to second. Had he been up a bit higher he would have won. That is the only missing ingredient right now. I'm sure it's pissing Fred off to no end and can you really blame him? He'd be a 4 time champ by now had it not been for this fact.

 

As I have just posted in the "Kimi to Ferrari, part two thread":

The french magazine Auto-Hebdo, a rather serious publication (existing since 1976) has an interview of Stefano Domenicali posted on its internet website today, in which Stefano says that "my first choice for 2014 would be to grant Felipe another year"...

Rgds

 

Is Grosjean staying at Lotus? What about a Massa/Grosjean couple? They could attract new sponsors to F1 such as google with their autonomous drive system.

 

Fair point, I do not disagree, same applies to Ham, given a car that didn't eat tyres for breakfast, he would most certainly be leading the table or within whiskers grasp of Vettel in points. Merc Q great, race pace crap. Ferrari Q poor, race pace good = end result RB win.

But it's all if's and but's. Thing is RB money + Newey + Vettel = unbeatable and that is that I'am afraid at min, but all concerned have my respect, boring as it maybe.

 

It would come as no surprise to me if this is the case.

 

Huge sigh.....................

I can't believe LdM is crying about Alonso's comment, which was so mild honestly, and yet
he's not saying anything about the lack of pace from Felipe in the last, what, 30 races?
He shouldn't say anything on Alonso, if he's not winning, probably nobody would. Maybe
Vettel or Hamilton would be a couple of places up, but would that guarantee a victory?

Staying in third place in the championship should annoy him much more actually. The
way things look, Mercedes will keep 2nd, but the Lotus is also looking strong. It will
be shameful if they end up in 4th place and that will probably due to Massa, I'm afraid.

 

And we wonder why the scuderia isn't going anywhere...

 

For those of you that knock Massa, ever notice that some how Massa suddenly ends up on the podium when Alonso retires?

The pit stratedgy Ferrari runs Massa on is awful for overall finishes. They are using him for test data - and to hold up other cars. That, or either Ferrari only has one good strategist, that switches over to Massa when Freddy retires. If Ferrari is to win a WCC, it might be best to say good bye to Alonso. Frankly, the WDC is what counts.

 

O.K Gentlemen, just to be precise and quote in full, here is the article, with a careful translation from myself for those who don't read french. Make up your own mind... (also posted in the "Kimi to Ferrari part 2" thread)

AUTOhebdo.fr | F1 – Domenicali : Massa reste mon choix favori pour 2014

F1 – Domenicali : Massa remains my favorite choice for 2014
Felipe Massa still has Stefano Domenicali's support, but the Brasilian must now be convincing



Scuderia Ferrari could well grant Felipe Massa another season. Stefano Domenicali hopes, in any case, that the Brasilian will bring convincing results for the times ahead.

If some speculations foresee Räikkönen's return at the Scuderia Ferrari, the drivers changes among the teams may actually be much less numerous than what was expected. The Lotus management has good hopes to keep the 2007 World Champion within their team, and now the Scuderia Ferrari is overtly demonstrating his support for Felipe Massa. The man from San Paolo nevertheless has not been very convincing for several seasons, notably if the results of Fernando Alonso are taken into account, and so far has only one podium to his name since the beginning of this year (obtained at Barcelona). Defending Maranello since 2006, it now appears that the Brasilian could be provided with the opportunity to carry forward his contract for a ninth season with the prancing horse.

Stefano Domenicali is the one who stepped forward to answer the rumors about Felipe Massa's quitting the team at the end of the season. « Every driver wants to drive for Ferrari, but we must still wait », states the Scuderia's Team Principal; « My first choice would be, evidently, to keep Felipe, because he is a really good one, who is especially devoted to the team. Looking carefully around, you will not find so many good drivers to swap that would be performing right from the word go. But of course we evidently need good results from Felipe, and this is why we are in no hurry, because we must take the right decision. As soon as our choice will be made, we will do an official announcement, this to definitively bring an end to all rumours".

 

Probably his contract is waterproof and he feels great where he is, but,
why is there no mention at all about Rosberg as a candidate for the second Ferrari?

- He was a candidate last year and the one before and he's the driver I would best see in red.

- At merc he's been given second status already and quite unfairly.

- Mercedes can get the cheaper Hulk in his place.

- At Ferrari Nico would get a lot more cash.

Of course leaving an improving car for a constantly struggling one seems stupid (or is it L.H.?),
but at Ferrari he could become more than just a second driver, especially when alonso is gone, giving him his best chance of becoming WC.

Being LdM I'd go for him 100% over anybody else.

Thoughts?

 

Meanwhile Nicolas Todt is trying to get Bianchi at Sauber in 2014 to replace Massa in 2015.

Je suis fatigue' d'être a la merci de le famille Todt

 

If massa were constantly getting screwed by Ferrari wouldn't he want to leave? Other than backmarkers, what other cars is he holding up? Massa hasn't won a GP in almost 5 years and off the top of my head I think he has podiumed 3-4 times since 2009 whereas even grosjean has podiumed 5 times since 2012. Phil qualifies ok but fades on Sunday. Alonso wants Phil because Phil isn't a threat, but having such a weak teammate means that Phil isn't taking away points from wdc contenders. Every second half of the season it's always about Phil having to up his game to keep his job. It's getting tedious. Btw if other top teams wanted massa where are their offers?

 

It depends from the perspective, I guess; the father never had the reputation to be an easy man and his character is something like an iron hand in an iron glove, but most agree that the team he built at Ferrari brought some strong results, so respect for that.
As for the son, well, I don't know exactly what to think. I don't think that you can say that the Todt family exert an influence at Maranello, I was under the impression that the father at least is rather "personae non grata" at Maranello since 2008, but I maybe wrong on this?

There is some romance attached to Bianchi here, due to his family. And again, any young and promising young gun is a bit like fish, I guess: he doesn't stay fresh very long. The window of opportunity is rather small for all these young guys. If they miss the train one year, it maybe gone forever.

Rgds