New Ferrari requires lots of work, Massa says

They have undoubtedly hampered the beginning of their season. Until they figure out what exhaust and suspension arrangement works best, there will be no point in running a race simulation. Every major team has already done at least two race sims and are now concentrated on finding speed, and they will. Ferrari will find it but I will bet anything those sidepod rear ends will be ditched or at least redesigned in a major way which will leave them grasping for best setups once again. This will be a bitter pill

 

Although I really do enjoy the look of the car. Looks-wise it's tops for me followed up by the Mclaren in a close second. The Ferrari looks wild and different. It's the Apple computer of the field.
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Here is Blick's Benoit take on the current strengths of the top team:

1) Red Bull
2) McLaren
3) Mercedes
4) Force India
5) Lotus
6) Ferrari

http://www.blick.ch/sport/formel1/ferrari-ist-im-elend-id1782228.html

Sounds pretty bad for Ferrari. Fingers crossed they can sort stuff out till Melbourne.

 

Blick's and a few others are posted on the form below which was compiled by yet another website. Some interesting stuff.
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Stupid expert!!! Ferrari is bad of lotus end force india....... haha haha

 

Ermm not far from my prediction, although I do think Ferrari will pull some thing out of the hat.

 

I don't like to go out on a limb but I agree with their last three.

 

I would probably switch Marussia with HRT, HRT beat them the last two years.

 

Benoit regularly guesstimates the strengths of the teams. It is always in retrospective, not a forecast. So this table reflects his (and others) assessments of how the latest round of testing went. Doesn't mean, that this is how they will qualify in Melbourne.

I'm still hopeful that Ferrari will sort it out by then. I don't think they'll be gunning for the championship (not that I expected that going into this season) but I do hope they'll do better than 6th (hoping for 3rd or 4th).

PS: I realized that my post of the top 6 is not by Benoit but the average off all the journos. He actually has Ferrari as 5th, FWIIW.

 

Like everyone, I wish they would just bring back testing.

It seems teams have 2 choices... evolution or revolution. Revolutionary cars are an all or nothing affair. I remember the super high-tech (Newey designed) McLaren that was technically excellent, but never worked long enough well enough to win races with Kimi at the wheel.

Seems Ferrari are doing the same thing this year. Technically proficient, but not winning them races (so it would seem - reality may be different when the season starts).

It makes the racing less interesting.

 

Hmm, I read the current issue of Auto Motor Sport and they were highly critical of the new McLaren... quoting half the field, including McLaren's own guys, that this year's car might be a miss due to the low nose.

 

I've never liked Benoit! [Comes across as a self important prick IMHO.] Kinda like the PF1 site and the tabloid press in the UK......

Seems to me he's a lot like the guru's at Sports Illustrated who predict the NFL season then change their predictions 4 or 5 times during the season - They've always got their reasons for getting it wrong though

Cheers,
Ian
PS - Is the rain in Daytona on the tube over there?

 

I'm not surprised you don't like him. Your views are about 180 degrees from his (which is probably one of the reasons I like him a lot).
Is he a self important prick? Yeah, there is that. I had the fortune of flying with him from Istanbul to Zurich after the GP and got a bit of a feel for what makes him tick.

However you cannot dispute the fact, that he has been following F1 as a journo for more years than most guys out there. Which is why he is best friends with Bernie, runs the teams own gambling pool etc. Definitely somebody who is more connected than most journos.

That said, he has his bias etc. so you have to take his comments with a grain of salt (I fell for that hook, line and sinker last year when he was cheerleading for Toro Rosso after preseason testing, should have known that was all about Buemi. This year he is doing it again for Sauber, but that's obvious.).

As I said before: Benoit's assessment is not a prediction but a review of the status quo.

 

With Massa behind the wheel you better file for divorce now then.

 

Wow. Martin sounds confident. And so far no complaints from either drivers. Compared to last season pre tests, which was a disaster for them, i think they look pretty ok at the moment.

 

The exhaust is positioned to blow the gasses right into the suspension? I hope we'll have no suspension issues...Monaco 2001..

 

Well, Mclaren certainly do not have the CFM under the nose all other teams have which is why I am confused regarding the rumors that the Mclaren is quickest in the fast turns. Being quick in fast turns of course means they have more downforce on their car so I can only conjecture that their exhaust blowing is working particularly well. Mercedes' car seems to make the most sense of all the non-Red Bull cars so I certainly hope they one-up Mclaren due to their front end potential blunder.