F1: SPEED’s Matchett Gets Inside Look At Ferrari

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up
Kevin

 

Thanks, Steve. August 22 is my birthday, so I'll be up late anyway!

Jack

PS: Are they still "raisin' hell in Slidell?" (Sorry....left over from my Tulane days).

 

That will be an informative half hour.

 

Thanks for the info Steve, we'll have to set to record it since that LMS Nurburgring this weekend.

Carol

 

Thanx for posting.

 

I have visited the Ferrari factory and it was absolutely amazing.
Really looking forward to this inside look by steve!

 

Watching it now! They just finished a short walk through Classiche. Set your Tivos, folks!

 

Steve Matchett can't wipe the smile off his face. What a cool show.

Wow, Kimi is a terrible interview, but we knew that.

 

It was pretty good... a bit too much sales pitch for Classiche and Corsa Clienti though, but it was cool to get the info and see around the shop.

Gawd, Kimi is a horrible interviewer.

Overall a great piece. I thought Matchett was going to ask to go to the bathroom for 5 minutes with that signed Enzo document - he couldn't stop talking about it.

Very nice of Ferrari to open their doors that way. I wish it was at least an hour long, if not more. Too bad we didn't get to see any cars testing at Fiorano.

I thought it was pretty cool of Domenicali to specifically thank the USA fans for their support - he earned major kudos for that, nice to feel recognized

 

The story about Francisco Baracca and the history of the prancing horse was an interesting way to avoid the subject of F1 today. This delivered by the head of the F1 team was a very neutral topic. Steve certainly dug a lot deeper in the show where he exposed the internals of a Formula 1 gearbox for all to see. That story had more 'teeth' to it than the pilgrimage...
I wonder who has CAT 666 today.
CH

 

I was hoping for F1 technology discussions, even prior year technology. IMHO, Discovery/History has had better shows.

 

+1, cool that Speed got in, but overall unimpressed. Would have loved to see inside the wind tunnel, or the machine shops.

 

Somewhat agree. The word "Ferrari" gets any and all Speed-nut to watch so a 30 minute show (with commercials every 3 minutes) was pretty silly. They could easily have edited a 60 minute special and included some of Matchett's considerable prowess for explaining technical bits. It seems clear that the network (which seems more interested in doing shows on tow-trucks) didn't give them any time.

Still, a look inside the facilities is always fantastic and Matchett's excitement and joy at being there is pretty priceless! Good on him.

 

This book gives more insight to Ferrari's F1 shops and such than this show did.

http://www.bullpublishing.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=3

 

What they did show was decent, but it seemed like a 30-minute excerpt from what should be a much longer documentary. I found the difference between Felipe and Kimi to be pretty interesting. It doesn't seem as if Kimi has that typical 'Ferrari passion' that typically accompanies their drivers. I don't think there's any question as far as Massa is concerned. But overall, there wasn't much in the show that a fan hasn't already seen somewhere else.

 

I saw it today. I just happened to put on Speed at the right time! Didn't know it was going to be on. I enjoyed it.

 

+1. Watched quailfying where they mentioned that few get to see what they were allowed to film. Watched it. What did I miss? No real current F1 technology shown. Interesting show but NOT what was advertised. Mostly marketing.

 

+1 on the Bull Publishing book mentioned above - It relates to the 2000 season/car but does give a true insight - I splurged on the "publishers edition" which is signed by JT, Ross, Rory Byrne and Paolo Martinelli - Very cool.

As to the show, other than Matchetts obvious delight at being there, it really didn't contain anything "new" - A pretty impressive line up of old F1 cars for sale and that was first time I'd heard prices mentioned but it could have been so much more.

I understand the need to keep some stuff off limits, but as has been mentioned, where's the harm in taking us into, eg, the wind tunnel control room or the machine shop?

All in all, OK but disappointing after all the hype they gave it. As Mike said, big kudos to Stefano on his "we want to be back in the US" comment.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Ferrari is not going to tell you are show you anything that will give away their edge. When I made the factory tour, any question I asked that would have them reveal any of their F1 technology usually ended in silence. They are very tight lipped. Its fun to see your questions get answered on the race track 2 years later. If you want to see what is really happening spend some time by the back gate of the race track.

 

I'll leave the question of "what edge?" aside for the moment

For example, how would showing us the tunnel give anything away? I don't expect it to be running a test of the current car with HD shots of the 'puter screens, but I'd love to just *see* inside there.....

 

Think about what you said... If an educated person was to walk into the Wind Tunnel they will see. basic layout, technology, support equipment, possible wings and configurations. This info can be a very valuable to other teams. You never know who is just walking thru an area. How many times do you think the Speed bit will be played in the F1 team board rooms in the weeks to come.

 

Jim, I'm sorry, but you're just trolling again, right?

No matter, I'll feed the troll:

I like to think I always do.

I'll leave aside any implications about my education. Suffice to say my final year college project was "The design and build of a wind tunnel for simple testing of low speed airfoils." My tutor initially freaked when he discovered I wanted to measure downforce rather than lift until I said I was a car guy, not a plane guy and wanted to (in part) study the effect of the ground on downforce. But I digress.

Returning to your point:

"basic layout" is well known and published data - It's designed for 50% models of the F1 cars, but can accommodate 1:1 cars under less stringent conditions. Max wind speed is 70m/s. The access door is 2.2m high x 3.5m wide (min). And on and on [Source is the above referenced book btw.]

It goes on to give the specifications of the moving belt, the balance and the turntable (only up to +/- 8.0 degrees yaw with an acceleration of 2 degs/sec Sq - This seemed low to me).

"Technology & support equipment" Again, pretty well known - There's a bunch of computers and control desks - Servo motor controlled feedback etc etc. As I said, I don't expect to go in there while they're testing something, but just have a look - As a piece of engineering it really isn't anything "special".

"Possible wings and configurations" This tunnel is not used to test "wings" - Again, I'm not expecting to see a model of next years car sitting there - Although, I doubt even Adrian Newey could actually derive any useful data from it unless it was running and he was looking at the monitors.....

Are you talking about the show we just watched? Wow! - I'm confident in saying "zero!". There is *nothing* in there that's of any use to an F1 board - With the *possible* exception of the value Ferrari places on it's old cars as already noted. But, I suspect most F1 boards recognize an F-car is going to be more valuable than theirs, no matter how successful theirs may have been.....

Cheers,
Ian