+100
With KERS being mandatory next year, even if most of the teams hate it, Ferrari should be using it at every track to try and improve the system for next year.
i know most of u guys would think Kimi is being realistic. But IMO, it's just the 2nd race of the season. In Aussie, it's the first race of the season, u can't get everything perfect in the first race. Then, they also screwed up the race strategy, with the super softs, they opted to start the race with, and as a result, screwed up the race. Then in Sepang, they screwed up Massa's qualifying, and then Kimi's tyre blunder. Then the race was interrupted with the rain. As you can see, the F60 isn't being given any chance to actually being pushed to the limit. The screwed up the race strategy and also the the rain. I think, with the proper race strategy, and the proper race conditions, the car is actually fast. Look at testing times, i know they mean nothing, but because there wasn't any pressure, the car was the fastest. Now with the raceday pressure and all, the team is screwing up as a whole. They're loosing confidence in decisions being taken, the drivers are doubting the pitwall guys. Thats not good. As for me, it was really stupid for Kimi just to write it off after 2 races.
I posted a thread: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=238638 I was anticipating this kind of response after race #1
Agree on that. The car is not so bad, they just keep making silly errors. With the new rear end, the car should perform much better. Probably by then the championship will be already lost, but they still can win a bunch of races. They need to finish in the top four to get the big money from the FIA, and that´s money for the next season. But they´re not going to win anything if they retreat now.
I don't think anything less of Kimi for speaking his mind. He is also probably correct. I think him "throwing in the towel" is an unfair interpretation. I think he and the team will fight the good fight. The car wll ge tbetter. With test time limited and reliability known to be a problem, you know what I would do. Work on winning 2010. Everyone knew the KERS would have teething problems.They Knew that they were going to have it. Now they have it. Now win. I think they were taking KERS off for China. Right thing to do. You have to do something to try to win right here and now. I would interpret that as they are trying to score points not giving up or throwing in the towel. That will come when they put KERS on for the rest of the season in a decision to win 2010.
Ferrari will win nothing as long as Domenicali is calling the shots. Not in 2010, 2011, 2012 or 2013. He needs to go before the situation gets rectified. I would not be at all surprised if Todt came back to take over the team. He is known to be a workaholic and he isn't too old either. And nobody has a better resume than him.
Kimi is probably on the way out once his contract is up. The F team have a lot of problems right now so it's easy to start pointing fingers. Last race MS was the fall guy. All the money and talent behind the team and they just aren't pulling it together. The one's at the top aren't making the right calls to tie things together.
I heard on a speed show from Kimi he was going to leave Ferrari after his contract is up and he might consider rally racing.
Well, you are wrong. The last season that started as bad as this one was 1982 and the Commendatore was still alive. The moment Didier Pironi crashed into Alain Prost in the practice at Hockenheim Enzo said "Ciao Mondiale" (goodbye championship). He knew when it was over. And yes the team went on to win the WCC that year, but he knew the title race was over at this point (while mathematically it still wasn't and Ferrari had the best car). You still wanna maintain that position after the Chinese GP? The car is a turd. Both drivers can't put it on pole (or anywhere near it). Both drivers struggle to even reach the points during the race. And that's not even counting lack of reliability and poor team decisions. Ciao Mondiale.
Watching the pre- race, to a team engineer, they all say it's going to take 4 to 8 weeks to redesign the cars now that the diffuser issue has been settled. So yes I guess you could say the season's a wash. So start develpoing for next season like Brawn did last year for this one. It's time to dump Max Mosley. Why aren't the cars deemed legal or not before the season starts. To have to decide almost 3 races into the season is shameful. Kimi is probably just pissed.Although he really shouyld keep negative comments to himself. By the way, Enzo once pulled his cars out of a race in " protest " because they were'nt competetive, although he didn't say as much.
What's rubbing me (and possibly many) the wrong way about Kimi is the fact that he's getting paid to WIN. Not just to make it around the track a couple of times, declare the car to be crap and shrug his shoulders. There's LOTS of tomato cans that can do that for a LOT less. I guess it's time to get the gorilla suit out and PARTAY? Maybe he should drive for free? And, if the development of the car is so important, isn't that a part of his duties? So, if the car is bad, he is at least partly responsible for it being so. If the Scuderia "can't win" they might as well pack it in now, save the money and put it towards development. Furthermore, to declare it over so early is insulting. Racing involves luck and endurance, too. Who's to say what might happen in a race? It's a long season, too. Kimi's work ethic has ALWAYS been in question. He's collected BIG paychecks. You didn't hear Schumacher doing something like this. Even with a bad car you fight until the end. I assume Kimi will fulfill the minimal requirements of his contract, but he's not going to be working overtime to win this season, now is he? CW
I guess I'm old school. You don't air your family's problems to strangers or in public, like you don't bad mouth your country while abroad.Look at how stupid Briatore looks with his recent comments. I can see where team members will say times are tough, but don't throw in the towel. Can you imagine a general telling his troops there's no hope. How guickly the team seems to be going backwards in mindset from the positive Schumacher years to the chaos of pre Todt,Brawn.
Which is exactly what I'm recommending: Write off this season and use it to develop the 2010 car. No, it is realistic. The goal for Ferrari is to win the championship, not just a few races, which is all they can hope for this season. By the time their car is fast enough, the points gap will be too wide to go for either title. So what's the point of winning a few races if you are a top team?
Q. Tell us about you race, Kimi. Kimi Raikkonen: At the beginning it wasn't too bad, but then I didn't really have any grip, so it was a bit hard to stay on the circuit and all the other cars were fast, so they got past me. Q. Was is difficult to get the tyres up to the right temperature? KR: I don't know if it's the temperature. The thing is we didn't have grip. It was aqua-planning and sliding and every time I touched a wet patch I just lost the front end grip. Overall it was very difficult. In the beginning was not too bad but then, like I said, when we put a lot of fuel and the new tyres it became more difficult. Q. Did you have some problems with the engine? KR: Some times I had something and it wasn't running very clearly but sometimes it can happen when you follow people and there's a lot of water and the spray affects it. But it cleared up after a moment. Q. Three races with no points for Ferrari, what are your thoughts? KR: Not good. We have made some mistakes but unfortunately we don't have the speed to be where we want to be right now. But for sure when we get to Barcelona and get some new parts we should improve quite a bit. If we had had a dry race today we would have scored some points. We don't have enough grip in the dry but in the wet it seems to be even more difficult. We'll do the best that we can and I'm sure we are going to be back in a position to challenge for wins, but it will take a little while, so we just need to go through this hard time and we definitely going to get back. Q. Is it difficult to find the motivation under this situation? KR: It's nothing to do with motivation. Unfortunately we are not fast enough. It's not about people's motivation or that we don't try the best we can. But it will take a little while. It will not happen overnight. We know that once we get to Barcelona we should take a step with the car. Hopefully it will improve the situation and it has nothing to do with people not trying to do their best. But it's not an easy sport to catch up and sometimes when you don't have what you want it just seems to be very difficult and everything seems to be against you. It's hard to get out of it, but like I said it takes a while and we need to get through that period and I'm sure that we are gong to be in a position to challenge. I don't know when, but hopefully sooner than later. Q. Is this the worst situation you have been in your career? KR: I've have had difficult seasons before and bad starts of the season before. It's a hard time for everybody, but this is racing. We try to improve and we try to do the best. It's not what we want, so people are not so happy sometimes and we get lots of bad publicity from the papers, but it doesn't stop us from trying and improving things. Like I said, it will improve at some point. We will get back there, but unfortunately we are not where we should be now. Q. Where do you believe the problem lies? KR: We probably don't have the same downforce as the others. When we get the new floor for sure we are going to get lots of downforce and it will make the car fast. In the dry the handling of the car is not too bad, but we are missing downforce through the corners. For sure it will make a massive difference.
If you're only capable of maybe winning a few races, you're not a top team. Might be the 80s and 90s again.
+1 That's almost animated for Kimi! - He's trying, he just doesn't "show it off" with exhibitions of "gaelic" bravado. He is still the fastest pure driver on the grid IMHO. The car sucks right now, but that's not really his fault. And, please don't say SV could do any better. [Although, I do believe we'll see him in the red cars in 2011.] I honestly can't believe "we're" saying they should chuck the whole thing after 3 (pretty unusual) races - There's still plenty of time to get it "right". Some here obviously have very short memories........ Cheers, Ian
Well, then please refresh my memory. What am I missing? The double zero start to a season after Sepang was the equivalent of the 1992 season, which was one of the worst for the scuderia ever. The current triple zero start to the season goes back to 1982. Yes we won the WCC that year, but the WDC was long gone. Show me another team that had such a dismal start to the season and ended up fighting for the title. I said it many times and I say it again: By the time the Ferrari is competitive the points gap will be too wide to challenge for the title. BTW: The unusual weather conditions of the past two races had little to do with the lack of competitiveness of the Ferrari. Just look at the grid positions of both drivers before the rain hit. Fine with me. That would separate the fair weather fans from those who truly love Ferrari. The "Ferrarization" has gone way too far IMHO when there are shops popping up everywhere with teddy bears and Barbie Ferraris.
