What the hell is wrong with Ferrari's F1 team

That may explain THIS season.

I've been following the sport since the Jim Clark era and when Ferrari has this long a dry spell there's a reason

 

But why, oh why is it expected of the Scuderia to be at the top all the time?
That's unrealistic, and frankly it would bore the punters to death.

I think Schumacher's 5 consecutive titles were an overkill (like Vettel's 4 titles) and a right turn-off for anyone interested in following F1 - as opposed to being a Ferrari fan.

Williams, McLaren, and other teams have their good years and their bad years.
Why should Ferrari be different?

I can feel that Ferrari has an inferior car this year, and I appreciate Alonso and Kimi's performance accordingly. Simple...

 

+1 good post, I like F1 regardless who is winning, but repetition of the same winner race after race year after year, is a testing time for me to watch a full race.

 

Accepting that a team can't always be on top is not an excuse for shoddy management. This is an F1 team not the society for creative anachronism.

Ferrari is the only team that has ownership, aero, powertrain and chassis in one location yet they are among the worst at integrating them.

 

Ferrari is no longer the biggest spender. Nuff said!

 

Williams is spending more?

 

+1000

I wish there was more transparency between the team and the fans, so we would have a better understanding of who,s actually doing what. I suspect even more personnel changes in the near future.

 

Not directly but the engine they're using thanks to Wolff's involvement with the team had an amazing amount of money thrown at it. And I believe by the end of the season Ferrari will be on top of Williams anyway

 

There's only one that will matter.

I love and respect Luca. Without him Ferrari wouldn't be the company that it is today. It might not even exist. But his way of running the team is not working and he shows no sign of willingness to adapt.

 

The MB power unit had money spent and Williams benefits from that but what other money has Williams had thrown at it?

 

Not really being familiar with the management strategy of the team - how much does he override Mattiaci and the decisions that the engineers are taking to develop the car? There's obviously an engineering issue with the car, it's a bastard on track. How much does LdM have to do with that directly, aka with what's going on on the floor? I understand that as a chairman he sits with the ultimate responsibilty. But just how directly involved is he? Or is it all just the result of poor HR management?

 

Could be argued Williams had to give 15% or more of its shares to Toto Wolff to gain the power train. Force India is a better example at that. But the real problems and big spenders are Red bull and Mercedes. Williams and other Mercedes engined teams performance will always be a subset of the MGP's

 

How much he will override Mattachi, who was picked by Fiat, remains to be seen but since the Brawn/Todt era he has put in place technically competent people who have lacked the authority or the nous to run things.

 

And where did MB's power in F1 come from? An intelligent use of Ferrari's veto would have resulted in a landscape much more favorable to the team.

 

In the past, there was enough power in the straights to overcome the handling deficiencies in the curves. Now there's not enough power in addition to being a handful so no wonder the cars are bad.

As far as the management change not having any effect on the track, that's to be expected. Engineering take many months to implement and as others have stated, the design is pretty much baked in for this season.

Things could be worse. How many DNF's has Vettel had now?

Ferrari needs good technical management and good technical minds to turn this around. I think Luca would be willing to sit back if the right guy appeared. If the reports are to believed, they were willing to unlock the bank account for Newey. I think the willingness is there.

-F

 

Agreed. It is great for F1 that someone other than Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren are winning races. I believe the reason that Williams is doing much better this year is not only the MB power, but unlike Ferrari they have a team that works well together.

 

It may be that smaller teams can respond quicker to technical problems than larger ones, as long as they have the means to do it.

The Renault team under Briatore used to be like that: smaller budget, and a flatter hierarchy structure with less layers of command, more individual responsabilities .

Large teams like Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren tend to be top heavy with too many individuals tripping over each others and looking over their shoulders all the time.

 

The right guy isn't just going to appear and there's a reason that top (nonitalian) tech guys haven't signed on.

 

Didn't LdM say that Ferrari welcomed and wanted to include to other nationalities than Italians in their team (as long as they signed up for Italian courses lol)? I think Ferrari will hire talent where they see it regardless of nationality. If that's not the case will LdM's current leadership style, then he and the rest of the management are just dumb.

 

Not dumb so much as stubbornly chauvinistic.

 

Where did you see that information re LdM ?

That would be a HUGE fail on his behalf when you have such a great testing resource like Fiorano

 

The answer is ........ the engine , and the stupid rules about not being able to bring out a new one.

I can remember not that long ago Ferrari updating the engine several times a season

 

Back when he sided with FOTA against Max and the FIA.

Check out Mark Hughes' piece in the current Motorsport.

 

And who didn't veto that dumdazz rule?

 

Why aren't teams allowed to update the engines throughout the season? Cost control?