FERRARI´S DOMENICALI Post British GP Interview *SPOILER*

(from autosport)
Ferrari need to learn from their mistakes at the British Grand Prix and move on in order to fight back at the next race.

That is the view of team principal Stefano Domenicali and Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, who reckon the Italian squad got most things wrong during the Silverstone weekend.

"It was definitely more difficult than I expected," Massa told reporters after a race in which he spun five times on the way to 13th position.

"It was a very tough race, it was very difficult to keep the car on the track with so many mistakes, it was definitely a race to forget and we have to start thinking of the next one.

"It's not just been a bad race it's been a bad weekend. Every day something has happened, especially with me so it was definitely a bad weekend and we need to think about the best one.

"We cannot go back and just look at what happened today, we need to think about the next race, the conditions today were very difficult so we need to concentrate and we know that we are competitive so we are in a good position in the championship so we just need to keep working like we did until now."

Domenicali said the Italian squad made errors "at every level" and that they can't afford to repeat them.

He reckons a mistake during the first pitstop cost world champion Kimi Raikkonen a chance to win the race.

"We could have won this race with Kimi but we made a key mistake at the first pitstop, choosing to stay on the same set of tyres," said Domenicali.

"The rain did not ease off and lasted longer and our drivers - Felipe had also gone for the same choice - found themselves in difficulty.

"With hindsight it's easy to say we should have changed tyres, but Formula One is not an exact science: sometimes strategic choices pay off and sometimes they don't. All the same, we have to admit that, this weekend, we did not operate to our usual standard.

"We made mistakes at every level and even our performance did not match our expectations and now we have to work out why, but calmly without panicking."

Massa admitted he was unsure about the reasons for his struggles.

"I don't know. For sure I was in trouble to drive the car in the wet and I made so many mistakes, it was because of the aquaplaning, I could not hold the car on the straights so it was difficult to comment. The conditions were very difficult and sometimes these things can happen."

Despite the dismal race, Ferrari still lead the constructors' championship and both Massa and Raikkonen are tied in the lead in the drivers' standings.

 

I really do not get this Ross Brawn adoration. He was responsible for the miserable 2005 and semi miserable 2006 chassis, even with Michael Schumacher driving. I remind you that a Ferrari driver did not win the WDC either of those years. His ¨creative genius¨was in part his working relationship with Michael Schumacher. They communicated in a way that I would doubt that Kimi would communicate with the former Ferrari managment.

To give credit to Ross Brawn for Ruben´s podium is inaccurate when Jensen Button, a driver considered better than Rubens, had a very difficult time even when he stayed on the tarmac in the same chassis. Rubens obviously drives well in the rain. Give Brawn, or at least someone in the Honda pits, or Ruben´s himself, credit for the decision as to which tires to use.

Trying to compare drivers in the rain becomes futile. Rain equilizes the cars and then shows which driver is better in the wet, that´s all. The Ferraris were clearly the fastest cars on the grid, their rain set-up was wrong. Kimi should have been superior in the rain, as should any driver from those snow bound countries. But then Heikki lost it a few times, so there goes that theory. Massa showed at the end of the 2007 that he can drive well in the rain, so his showing in England is just inexplicable. Except for a poor rain set-up chassis.

So is Webber´s. So is Kubica´s.

For me, the British GP showed that McLaren got the chassis set up perfectly for Lewis Hamilton´s driving style, not as much for Kovalainen, Ferrari blew it for both drivers for this race. Rubens drives well in the rain, but his car sucks in the dry. Basically, most of the F1 grid did miserably in the rain in England. Kubica, Webber, Coultard, Vettel, Sutil, the list includes most everyone, looked really bad, when in fact they all looked decent to great in the rain at other races. Supposely the best drivers in the world looked pretty bad on Sunday, except for two.

I hope this is Nick Heidfelds new form and that he is back to his previous ¨Quick Nick¨status. He showed he drives very well in the rain, his chassis is obviously very good. Kubica on the other hand had a miseable day, great driver, very good chassis, previously showed well in rain conditions, very hard to explain.

If the race was in the dry, Kimi would have walked away with the win. If Ferrari had not ruined Massa´s qualifying efforts, there would have been two Ferraris on the podium. Ferrari seems to get dry condition chassis set-ups pretty well. The mistake by his crew for Massa on Saturday appears to be really stupid. But then, I have no idea if there was a problem with the air gun, the threads on the wheel nut, the threads on the axle, etc.

The tire decision by Ferrari´in hindsight appears to be really stupid, but then in racing, gambles can pay off very well. This time Ferrari´s gamble proved wrong. I give them credit for trying. Remember, Ross Brawn gambled on a four stop strategy one race for Schumacher and it worked. If it hadn´t, I can just imagine the comments by the Monday morning quarterbacks here on FChat.

I would not jump to conclusions about any driver, any engineer, or any chassis. You will probably be wrong. I still see the WDC coming down to Raikkonen and Massa. I do not believe that McLaren will do anything more than show well at a couple of more race venues. I do assume most of the races until the end of the season will be in dry conditions. If not, and there is mostly rain in the future, Hamilton will excel and win the WDC as his rain drivinig is excellent and his second rate chassis will not be an issue.

Remember, two Ferrari drivers are tied for first place for the WDC and Ferrari is still ahead in the WCC. That´s not bad, could be better, but that´s racing.