FORMULA 1 AWS GRAN PREMIO DE ESPANA 2023 - Barcelona....Race.... ▄▀▄▀▄▀ SPOILERS ▄▀▄▀▄▀

Here's a reality check: Ferrari have a weak technical bench and it needs a serious overhaul. We can blame the drivers, the team principle, the strategists, and the race engineers all we what, but the problem is and has been for a long time, the technical department.

And here's the thing. You can't just fire a senior engineer/designer and expect that to change things. Doesn't work that way. It takes a whole team of mid-level and even junior engineers, all working together.

Newey gets all the credit, but there are some great tech people under him, who are just as important as he is. Pierre Wache is a name you don't hear much, but I guarantee you his knowledge of tires from his time at Michelin has been essential at Red Bull.

Ferrari must find people like that and poach them. It's the only way.

The best aero department in the business is hands down, Red Bull. Mercedes is second. Ferrari need to recruit at least a good 20-30 of their staff over the next 2-3 years if they want to win races and titles.

 

Pérez is a fine driver but his father is a jinx: every time his father is around, Perez screws it big time.

 

you tell me. Woefully incompetent.

 

I think the car should be labelled Fiat at this point. Something definitely off with Charles car. Charles would look good in Alpine blue I say.

 

Well, you have to blame Leclerc for that. He's always defended Xavi, and for some reason, wants to work with him.

 

Here's another reality check. Max is only 1 (one!) victory away from Ayrton's tally of 41.

If he continues to drive like he does lately (and I don't have the slightest doubt he will) he can pass Prost (51 wins) and Vettel (53 wins) by the end of this season... and still be only 26 years old!

I.M.P.R.E.S.S.I.V.E.

 

Well, that was painful.

I think the "upgrades" made Carlos' car even slower.
And Chuck's car looked less like a prancing horse and more like a nervous squirrel.
Even at the beginning, there was a lot of correction input on the wheel on every in-car shot.

I don't really agree with Max as "driver of the day".
Car of the day, maybe.
But even with all that advantage, he couldn't keep it between the lines.

Ferrari is not only being out-developed, their "developments" seem to make the car worse.

Don't let any of the F1 team even walk through the production car plant.

 

At this rate, Max could become the most successful driver of the decade.
He displays such self confidence.
Skill-wise, I can't see anyone touching him at the moment.

 

Good upgrades adding to top speed. Decent pit timing calls, aaaaand wrong tires for both cars. Did they forget that mediums exist? Good thing they didn’t get the call right, they may have accidentally fulfilled their potential.

 

Ferrari is going backwards, just like last year.

I thought they solved this problem?

 

They did. They turned around to actually face the direction they’re going.

 

Problem is RB19 is a very reliable car now.
Their Honda PU is bulletproof too.

 

Vasseur explanations after the race were absolutely not convincing..

 

This is flat out depressing.

 

People forget there was a time when Newey was outclassed for ten years by Ferrari and then Renault.

His stint at McLaren was mixed. After 99', their cars constantly had reliability issues, and he just couldn't touch Ferrari.

Why? Ferrari had Byrne designing concepts, Costa, Tombazis and Allison fine tuning them, and don't forget Martinelli designing monster engines. Brawn made them all work together, compromising and checking their egos. Brawn and Byrne were especially skilled at identifying were the car had potential to improve, and acknowledge were development was wrong.

 

At this rate I cannot wait for Ferrari to come to Las Vegas in November and race -- to duke it out with Williams.

 

While it's hard to see a silver lining, the pace was consistent today. We didn't see the dramatic drop off as before, which tells me Ferrari has an idea of why they've had issues with degradation.

The drivers obviously blamed their tires (as racers do), but the truth is, Ferrari simply lacked pace. Sure, the old spec could do a qualifying lap on another planet, but that don't mean jack if your pace drops like a stone after five laps.

The true pace of the SF-23 is clear. It's a 5-6th place car. On a good day, it can nab a podium. It's going to take more development before the team is on the podium regularly, that's the reality.

 

2 historic teams dual in the desert!

 

Why did Ferrari waste time with Hards? Why didn’t they leverage the mediums?

 

If that's of any consolation for the tifosi, Ferrari was on top of the first Le Mans test session today.

 

They're still concerned about degradation, and probably thought the hards were a better strategic move.

 

Yes, I agree this is the case. The hards were painfully slow even to a casual observer. They used softs and hards. They seemingly should have used the mediums at some point.