Pre-championship winning Ferrari competitiveness. | FerrariChat

Pre-championship winning Ferrari competitiveness.

Discussion in 'Other Racing' started by Mr Payne, Sep 1, 2004.

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  1. Mr Payne

    Mr Payne F1 Rookie

    Jan 8, 2004
    2,878
    Bakersfield, CA
    Full Name:
    Payne
    As a relative newcomer to F1 I have to ask why people think that Ferrari had a laughable effort in F1 for a long time. If I remember correctly, they've been a top 4 team for nearly 20 years solid...

    In 94 and 95 they placed 3rd in Constructors. It seems that they must have had a reasonable competitive car in order to do that. What am I missing? People are calling the pre-championship winning Ferraris ****boxes, I just don't see it.....can someone enlighten me?
     
  2. Anteriore

    Anteriore Formula Junior

    Jan 4, 2004
    863
    Netherlands
    Full Name:
    Ramon
    Since the last (pre-Schumacher) WC of Jody Scheckter in 1979, it all went up and down for many years. They won the constructors titles in 1982 and 1983, but because of the accidents from Villeneuve and Pironi, the drivers title was not theirs in 1982. After that, things were going downhill for the years to come. 1990 was a good year compared to the others with Prost nearly taken the title. Well, 1991, 1992, 1993... Those years were a shame.
    Many things did go wrong at the same time at Ferrari: they did not have the best drivers for a great number of years, most cars were unreliable to even VERY unreliable, internal arguements, technological features which did not prove themselves, etc. For all those reasons, and strong competition, they have not been on the top spot in those years, say 1983-1996.
     
  3. LopeAlong

    LopeAlong Formula Junior

    Mar 29, 2004
    461
    West of St. Louis
    Full Name:
    Jim
    The worst years were close to the end of Enzo's life (poor guy). THe Ferrari F1 team was full of hangers on and was just one big political mess. Obviously, that chaos was felt in all the departments and even the drivers suffered. When Monte took over, things started to slowly come around. He was able to clean out most of the old guard and progress was made. Wouldn't it be cool to sit down with an old-timer that lived through all that crap! Oh the stories to be told!

    Jim
     
  4. bigodino

    bigodino F1 World Champ
    Silver Subscribed

    Apr 29, 2004
    13,127
    The Netherlands
    Full Name:
    Peter den Biggelaar
    In the early eighties Ferrari became pretty strong with their new V6 turbo engines and 1982 should have given them the drivers title easily, but sadly those (fatal) accidents prevented that.
    In 1983-1985 the cars were strong, but the drivers seemed to go up and down and although sharing a lot of points between them, they didn't win the title (so much for having teammates fighting amongst eachother). In the meantime the Honda turbo engines became stronger and stronger and 1986 was without any win for Ferrari. At the end of 1987 the tide seemed to be turned and Berger won the last two races. A good omen for 1988. alas it was not to be, because one of F1 history's most invincible bonds was formed: Honda, McLaren and Senna.
    The Ferraris were good, but Honda was in a class of its own. By luck Ferrari won one GP (but an important one!).
    1989 saw the return to normally aspirated engines and Ferrari was there straight out of the box. But somehow the titles were not in their grasp. 1990 should have been Prost's year with Ferrari but Senna thought otherwise...
    After that it was downhill again until 1996 when slowly (but still with mechanical failures) they crawled back with the now legendary team of Michael, Todt, Brawn et al.
    1997 was close (too close if you ask Villeneuve!)
    Well, the rest is history.
    I think it's unfair to say that Ferrari was in the dumpsters between 1979 and 2000. They were there but expectations with Ferrari have always been high. The fans are not called tifosi for nothing.
     
  5. PSk

    PSk F1 World Champ

    Nov 20, 2002
    17,673
    Tauranga, NZ
    Full Name:
    Pete
    Good point, but as we are seeing now coming home 3rd can mean finishing a lap or 2 down ... you are still one of the top 4 teams but hardly competitive. McLaren and Williams thrashed Ferrari for many years ... by laps, just like comparing Ferrari and BAR now.

    Who is going to get 2nd in the championship this year? ... would you really say they were competitive. I wouldn't.

    When MS went to Ferrari, he drove the skin off those cars to get any performance. It was very, very obvious that the car was a piece of **** ... just like Prost told Ferrari many years earlier. They broke down, they were never fast and the only person who could make them look respectable (in '95) was MS. The other driver was seconds slower per lap.

    But as others have pointed out ... if you are not winning the car is a piece of **** ;) ... and finishing 2nd is the first of the losers and finishing 3rd, 4th, etc. is just fncken useless!

    Pete
     

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