from grandprix.com: Old favourites not doing so well McLaren and Ferrari are both admitting that their cars are not as good as they could be. Mercedes-Benz boss Norbert Haug is now admitting that the new 2.4-litre V8 engine is not as good as the company had hoped it would be and says that work is going on to make sure the package is improved before the start of the season. This is going to make it difficult for Mercedes-Benz to catch up with the opposition unless there is something obvious that has been overlooked. At the same time the new Ferrari 248 F1 is not as competitive as the Italian team had hoped it would be. In part this is due to the Bridgestone tyres which still seem to be lagging a little behind the Michelins. Felipe Massa has told the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper in Italy that the team still has a lot to do match the pace of the Renaults and the Hondas which seem to be the class of the field at the moment. Williams is doing well given that the engine has had a great deal less funding than its rivals but there is a feeling that eventually the big manufacturers will be able to develop their engines more rapidly than Cosworth. Toyota has yet to show its true potential but is expected that the team will be in the hunt as well, which means that we are in for an exciting season.
Confuscious say "When green flag drops the BS stops" You don't know how much fuel they are running, tire compounds, etc. Way too many variables-and BS-at this point. We'll start sorting it all out in 23 days.......
McLaren is well known for sandbagging during the Winter GP in the past, and Ferrari has learned to do the same in the past few years, especially in the MS era. This practice may have also been picked up by Toyota as well. They tend to run their new cars with last year's/outdated aerodynamic packages also until they are close to the season opener, so they don't tip their opponents off about their potentials or innovations thus gives them the advantage for at least a couple of races or until everyone else copies it. With that said, McLaren did appear to be having some problems with the MB engines, but that appear to have been corrected or at least improved since the release of their newest engine. So their lack of pace and lack of power from the MB engines may be real. As in the case of Ferrari, I have no idea what to think about them, other than I hope that they are sandbagging it as it was in 2004 and not the serious lack of pace as the case of 2005.
i think they might both be hindering there testing times when with other teams. Maybe more to the apprach of we wont let the other know our true faces till race weekend.
I think Ferrari will be fine this year, but I would really like to see Williams in the Hunt as I admire them very much.
I think they will. Their Technical/design team is still right up there with Ferrari, McLaren, or Renault and are at least as good as Toyota, Honda or BMW. And Cosworth has plenty of experiences building V8 engines. I would think the driver lineup is unproven and may be the weak link of the team.
I think their weakness is that they guessed wrong and turned out some fundamentally flawed cars over the past few years which lead to them falling behind in technical development and thus have been playing catch-up. Power aside, last year's chassis was nowhere near the McLaren or Renault.
I'll agree with you on McLaren. The Ferrari looks quick... when it runs. MS spent most of the past "testing" day talking and playing football (soccer) around the paddock as his car was out of commission for most the day with engine problems (See here). Not a good sign. I'm not sure about the Bridgestone tires though. Toyota had said they were very surprised with how good they were when they first put them on the car earlier this year. They were under the impression that the problem with last years Ferrari had more to do with the Bridgestone’s than the car itself. The implication was that the tires were fine so it must have been more the Ferrari than anything else. Which brings me to the Toyota. Last year's chassis was very tire specific. If they had the right tires the car was fast, if they got the tire selection wrong they were out of the hunt. Ferrari should benefit from having Toyota rack up the testing miles along with them. But, Toyota's specifically said they're not gunning for fastest testing times. They've been slowly and methodically working on reliability and tires, tires, tires, and tires. Bridgestone’s test this week is a big one and I'm surprised that Toyota hasn't been out in the Desert with Ferrari to finalize compounds and constructions for the opening race. It's been so cold in Europe that I don't know how any of the cars will actually perform once on a hot track in Bahrain and Malaysia. Bridgestone seem to prefer (in the past) a high track temp in comparison to the Michelins. Toyota has rolled out its final aero for the first race but have yet to put it on the track. I can only hope they do well with it.
Yep, I believe that atleast 50% of the problem was the car. If the car some hope they would have been able to improve it ... they weren't able to, thus it was major design decisions (just like Williams) that caused the problems. Decisions that define what the monocoque, suspension location, concentration of mass, etc. will be ... not something that can be quickly fixed. Sometimes to go forward you have to backwards ... but Ferrari really did look very lost last year. Pete
actually, u have a good point here. but from what i read, williams, renault and honda has been flying, while merc admitted that they haven't got their engines to full potential yet. look at how kimi is struggling when he started testing the new car. so far among the two, i think JPM is getting better outta the car. as for the scuderia, there seems to be some problems with the undertray of the car, which leads to the car getting stalled often. aside from that, i think when they get the car's full aero packages, there should't be any problems. look at this view tho, MS, felipe as well as luca has been the only drivers that make the new cars look consistent. if we look at testing times, ferrari has been the only team thats quite consistent, comparing to merc, etc. i seriously doubt that tyre has been a issue here. ferrari didn;t really take the new challenger head to head with other cars. they spent most of their time private testing and testing in bahrain, while other top teams were testing in europe. i might add that with them testing in bahrain, it will give them slight advantage over the rest in the first 3 races at least...
As much as I like Ferrari, I think this year is gonna be HONDA... and it aint gonna be a brit at the wheel... I have a sneaking suspicion that Rubens will be World Champ, kinda like Brabham back in 66 when everyone else was just not ready... he is, he's learned tons from Michael, and Honda is getting its game face on... if they can win several races before they get back to europe... I think he could pull it off.. I would be supprised if Alonso is fast again... too much hurt feelings at Chez Renault... Schumacher will retire this year, and Kimi will be in red next year partnered by Rossi.
I hatewinter testing so much. It's the same lame story every year! We're not competitive blah, blah, blah...
If Honda start winning races this year ... the other teams (Ferrari and McLaren in particular) will accuse them of cheating. This is partly their fault for recent issues. Pete
