FORMULA 1 AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX 2022: PRACTICE 1/2/3 *** SPOILERS ***

Nice to see F1 has adopted Nascar's "Crank it UP" sound lap.



sjd

 

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If only it was in the NA era of F1 engines instead of the current ones

 

In true WWE style.

 

Almost. But I would've paid money to see Bernie in spandex

 

As I’ve noted before, this “kick” was most likely a response to knowing he couldn’t attract and maintain an “international” work force in his small Italian town of Maranello or Italy in general. By developing a home-grown work force, he’d guarantee a stable organization for the future.

Frank Tost of TR basically confirms this in this interesting Autosport report:

“Experienced people are around 40 years old, and they have families, they have children. And often families don’t want to relocate to Italy. Therefore it’s not easy to bring really experienced people here. But fortunately we’ve got some of them – their families stay in England. I prefer if they take long weekends, than trying to convince families to come to Italy.”

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/inside-the-faenza-facility-where-alphatauris-f1-pragmatic-vision-is-realised/10328236/

In other words, the foreign designers will always be a tough draw and with their families back home, they always have one foot out of the country—just like Brawn, Todt, Allison, etc. The only one I remember moving semi-permanently was Byrne.

Interestingly, Tost indicates he has mostly English designers so it would seem not having Italians is not necessarily a good measure for success.

 

The team was never funded as RedBull was. Finance they could not compete, but provided young RedBull drivers entry to F1 as designed

 

Not buying it. There were tons of great designers working for Mercedes and Redbull back then that they could have pilfered from - while Brawn and Byrne etc... were all active. James Allison comes to mind, but they chased the guy away. I don't mean to make it a nationalistic thing, but if Ferrari want to be at the top - they then really either need to support having English designers - and support their way of life ... or move the F1- team's base to the UK. Ferrari in the 80's had the constant fight for homegrown Italian designers - Forgiheri's etc... and Postlewait, Barnard etc... and each time the Ferrari ( Italians ) made their lives hell.... I get the patriotic part - I really do, however, the days when one guy could do the engine and car-like Forgheri did are long, long gone... its an entire team - and that expertise is based in the UK.. you have to go there.

 

Infinitely hard springs would work too. "Look, Ma, no porpoising"

 

Lauda's book mentions 13 PSI.....

 

Interesting. What year was he referring to? Tires very different, especially now at 18”.

 

I wasn’t there but some of the facts are pretty well known. Also well known is that infighting was not limited to Ferrari—just look at the Steve Nichols & co. vs Gordon Murray saga at McLaren, for example, or how Barnard was displaced at Benetton by the team working at Reynard, including Byrne.

Recall that Allison left Ferrari after his wife died suddenly and his kids were in the UK. Again, a typical arrangement for UK designers working in Italy—they have no long term plans to stay there.

Postlethwaite, like the Austrian Gustav Brunner, was probably pushed out not by Italians but by Barnard. Barnard, so well thought of and yet who never won anything of note after leaving the team at McLaren. He did make the best looking Ferraris, though, along with Byrne. The same Byrne who proved his affection for the team and Maranello and is still there and his contributions appreciated 25 years later. Nobody kicked him out because he’s not Italian.

Finally, although historically the UK was dominant in racing, recall that 4/10 F1 teams are not UK-based, LeMans cars are predominantly French-built; Toyota is based in Germany and Glickenhaus cars designed in Italy. And most single-seater series cars are Italian Dallaras or Tatuus.

 

Mid-late 1970s

 

I like that Barnard's solution for the flappy paddle box wasn't to make shifting easier, but it was purely for aero reasons as having the whole gear lever unit in the cockpit caused for a bulky area, lol. The fact that shifting is much more accurate and faster was a nice bonus (though not so great for the spectacle).

 

True—as long as it was an advantage, the paddle shift was interesting. Now that everyone has one, not so much.

Regarding the hydraulically actuated paddle shift, it’s always funny to read about how Barnard invented this while the truth is Ferrari were working this in one form or another since the Villeneuve days.

 

Steve Nichols was junior to Murray at Mclaren as well as Barnard. He wanted more, but Dennis brought in Murray - and now Nichols is trying to take credit for the MP4/4. I believe Murray - as Nichols actual record of design and winning is very slight.

when Nichols was at Ferrari - same issue - he inherited a Barnard design - and got now where with it. He will even say that the Ferrari camp (Italians managers ) would get in the way.

Barnard the same thing - 639 / 640 Design with hydro pneumatic gear change - the Ferrari Leadership wanted him to abandon it and go with a regular 6 speed box, Barnard had to constantly fight Felisa, and Piero about his ideas. only when the Old Man around did he even have a brief period of freedom. Its true that Barnard pushed out Brunner, but that was after Ferrari made Barnard show up at the races in 88 - because the car was going so badly. Barnard goes further talking about the Italian way of working - lunch for 2 hours with wine, knock off at 6PM no matter what, how to work with suppliers, not holding to standards etc... Its better today - but back then that is why Ferrari failed - they were too old fashioned and would not change. The tradition was more important that tech.

As for Allison - I remember his family issues - however, if he is that good - you make all accommodations possible Ferrari is a Billion $$$ operation - with international clients / reach.... Especially with it being a Dutch held company there is no reason to keep F-1 all based in Maranello.... IF there is talent to be had elsewhere.

 

Correct. Actually Ferrari had the auto box way back in 79- based off a motorcycle design. All that Barnard did was tie in the electronic actuation. and you are right it was to make a slim frontal aspect of the car - to drive air around and through the car. when you see the 640 - 641 in person the front rad opening is long and tapers downward - Barnard was using this to create downforce through the car, with very narrow exits in the back that fed the rear portion of the lower wing. However cooling issues resulted in having to have larger side openings and ducting that disturbed the airflow. the 639 - was much narrower - and steeper raked from front to back... clever design.

 

Ferrari isn't like Mercedes, Renault or Toyota that were quite happy not to base their racing team at home;
Moving the Scuderia out of Italy would be unthinkable for Ferrari, I think. It would be like ripping its heart.
Maybe the foreign engineers reluctant to move to Italy could be allowed to "work from home", and keep in touch through audio-visual conferences. I understand there could be some security issues there.
Since Covid and the need for isolation, some companies have stopped insisting for the physical presence of all their staff, and instead made use of technologies to keep their business running. Maybe a design team could do the same?

 

Nichols junior to Murray in title yes, but nevertheless they squabbled. Nichols left, Murray went to play with his road cars and the team did nothing until the bagged Newey, who also left eventually because he didn’t like the dynamics there. After that… it was the wilderness for McLaren.

Ferrari were obviously concerned about the reliability of the new gearbox so any responsible management would require a Plan B, as certainly Dennis, for example, did. Remember how Lauda insisted on running the TAG at the end of the season (‘84?) knowing it wasn’t reliable. Dennis opposed this but eventually gave in—same as Ferrari with the gearbox. It’s hard to see the other side of things when you only listen to those that like to promote their genius.

Yes, Barnard was sent in to salvage the ‘88 season but ultimately could do no better until Ferrari figured out how Honda were effectively bypassing the boost limiting device and their fuel management system matured. The ‘88 Brunner car, like the ‘87 was a good car. And don’t forget how Brunner carved up Barnard’s ‘94 car, to get at least one win from it. Barnard followed the ‘94 car with a lacklustre ‘95 car and then the dud that was the ‘96 car. This was only saved by late season development lead by Brawn & co.

No money in the world would have kept Allison in Italy and even then, he really wasn’t worth it and would only have created dissension in the team.

Finally, give some thought to which British team survived upheavals, changing times and didn’t fall behind? Basically every one of them except maybe McLaren. Every other team either disappeared or mutated to the teams of today—and of those, only 1 is tops.

 

The Toro Rosso these days is designed at UK by the same parent company that makes the Red Bulls. At Faenza they only make the manufacturing and assembly, so I guess they don´t need many designers at Italy,

 

Not so, per Tost—see the linked interview above. Each team has to develop their own design and TR do this in Italy but with apparently (per Tost) mostly UK designers. Probably some non-listed parts are designed and made in the UK by Red Bull Technologies but because the suspensions on the RB and TR are so different, seems to me there world be very little of this.

 

1. Lauda ran the turbo car at the end of 83 - against wishes of Barnard. that is true. Lauda went to Lausanne and talked with Hogan and the PH leader to put pressure on to run the turbo car - and Lauda was correct. this was really pressure from Metzger at Porsche through Lauda.

2. Barnard's plan B was to test the car relentlessly - and make it work vs. waste of time on another car because it would have changed the fundamental layout of the Carbon chassis.

3. I think Allison was not there for the money but his ideas were cut short by the infighting at Ferrari.

4. Very few British teams except for Lotus were actual car manufacturers at the same time as Ferrari. Also if it was not for FIAT Ferrari would have gone bust in 1968-69. if not sooner. the war with Ford and Porsche quickly put him under. But yes, it is very special that Ferrari have been there from the beginning in 1950 -and before. Unlike Mercedes, BMW, Alfa, Ford etc... who come in and out - Ferrari has stayed. its the only thing that makes F-1 Special. Even Porsche cant say that about sports car racing. Ferrari is unique in that they have been racing F-1 since its inception. But the other point is true- if you have been in F-1 for 72 years non stop - you should be #1. in all categories by virtue of longevity.