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On the one hand we have Mclaren - a team that actually had and developed a car that was fast enough to win the championship. However, some bad reliability and poor operational and strategic decisions cost them during the season.
Ferrari were the opposite. They really failed to keep up with the development pace of Mclaren and Red Bull, and of course they started off very much on the back foot. Operationally, stategically and reliablity wise, they've been one of the best, if not the best.
I don't think Ferrari will have to much regret, it could of been a hell of a different season if you go back to the 1st test. They lost the title by 3 points with a car much worse than the red bull
Mclaren had the quickest car for 75% of the season and it still didnt get them near a title. They always blamed starting with a car off the pace - they can't blame it on that this time. Now with Hamilton leaving, i feel it will be a few seasons before they are in such a good position again
I definitely think McLaren - it is my belief (unsubstantiated of course) that over the course of the season they had the quickest car overall. HAM I think was definitely the unluckiest driver out there (if you can separate his luck from his teams).
They started the fastest, had very consistent pace in qualy/race and finished the fastest.
Not sure if they could/would have beaten VET & Red Bull, but I think they were more likely to than Ferrari if they really got things together.
mbvinnie wrote:
Not sure if they could/would have beaten VET & Red Bull, but I think they were more likely to than Ferrari if they really got things together.
if you go from singapore onwards (giving hamilton the win) then taking away on the mechanical problems Ham had. Winning Abu Dhabi and Austin. Pole for Brazil. Its a no brainer, Button wouldn't have fort with Hamilton like he did so it's highly likely he would have won Brazil. Its all guess work but lets predict the best we can. Hamilton would of gone into Brazil the favourite
This is all without counting the points Mclaren cost him the rest of the season. Without all that we could of had a Vettel 2011 but with Hamilton
McLaren, most definitely. They had a car there to make hay and beat Red Bull, certainly as Red Bull struggled for most of the season to get back what they had lost. To then finish third from there means there needs to be a lot of soul searching. There is a reason why this team isn't winning the championships they should be and it's probably the reason why Hamilton is leaving.
I don't think either have a whole lot to smile about...
Ferrari; the car was obviously not that great, Alonso for his part probably had his best ever season. Massa's resurgence suggests to me that maybe the car has improved quite a bit since the middle of the season, but still, Ferrari appear to be unsure of how to fix what is wrong with their car, given the many front and rear wings that have been tried and ditched. Had they got even a little more on top of their issues, Alonso could have pulled it off.
Mclaren; the car was the class of the field at the start of the season and a range of stupid mistakes denied them several wins, a mid season slump in performance followed by bizarre reliability problems likely denied Hamilton the title, or at least a better shot at it and may well have driven Hamilton out of the team. This was the best car Mclaren have produced since 07/08 and it wasn't enough. With Button left and the questionable Perez going forward, they will need to produce a very, very good car to win a championship.
So yeah, in different ways, a poor season for both, a mixture of mistakes and an inability to contend with Adrian Newey again. The mistakes can be cut out by both I'm sure, but can either turn up with a carnet year better than the RB9 and keep it ahead?
Obviously McLaren. They had the quickest car in for a good while but somehow found innovative ways to squander their chances or had too many mechanicals. The previous years we were wondering what if McLaren had the best car. Now we've found out. And so did Lewis, that's why he's decided to leave.
Ferrari on the other hand started with a hopeless car in terms of a title fight, but Alonso managed to keep them in the frame. The car was way better come mid season but not a match for Red Bull or McLaren regarding pure pace. Operationally they did a good job. Their technical staff did their maximum but couldn't match Newey's squad, I don't see anything to regret there.
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-Atatürk
I'm just waiting for someone from the Button / McLaren camp to point out that Button finished just two points behind Lewis over the season as a whole, and that therefore he's going to be able to lead the team next year.
The truth of the situation is that they were never really in the fight for ANY world championship, driver or constructors.
The real fight was between Red Bull and McLaren and both were missing the mark in one way or another, be it Vettel not being able to keep up with Webber till certain upgrades came in, to McLaren "forgetting" that you need to put fuel IN the car for it to drive and other such stupidities that not even a dead HRT team are guilty of.
Even the Lotus cars were smashing the Ferraris. If not for Grosjeans 50% DNF rate (TONNES of points lost), his speed and Kimis scary consistency could have further hurt Ferrari.
Ferrari while not super fast, were reliable and built a tank for Alonso to drive through the aftermath of McLaren and Red Bull (ant Loti to an extent) tripping over themselves while trying to fight each other.
Things levelled out mid season and RB/Macca began challenging once more, Ferrari having no answer. It was basically a race to catch Fernando.
Unfortunately, McLaren forgot how to build a car that can win a grand prix (or a car that didn't get upset at having to lead a race and explode) and it became a one horse race.
Due to McLaren, the ONLY team able to challenge the Red Bulls effectively ruining the REAL championship battle, the media needed SOMETHING to cling to and Alonsos unlikely WDC victory was literally all they could go with.
All Red Bull had to do to pressure Alonso was finish races (in the same way that all Lewis had to do to ruin Buttons reputation was finish races, hence the slew of DNFs and half working cars for Lewis).
Lo and behold, Red Bull finished races and they won.
So in the end, Ferrari came into the season trailing badly, but ended up leapfrogging their only realistic targets in McLaren (drivers AND contstructors) and will also get more funding for next year, while McLaren who are currently whining about cutting costs will have even less money to work with in 2013.
Meanwhile, Alonso standing has risen 100x, even though he didn't win.
What more could they have asked for given what they had to work with?
Last edited by GrizzleBoy on 25 Nov 2012, 23:27, edited 3 times in total.
Ferrari leave with less regret.
They were actually pushing their luck the whole season with Alonso having a very lucky and strong midseason. Look back to all the misfortune that gave him that big points lead.
But like all things, he returned to the nautral energy state of the team, and was hauled in by redbull.
Alonso have been on the podium more or less out of sheer determination and team effort. The fact Hamilton has more wins shows that the team were punching above their weight.
Mcalren is a very sad team. Invested too much in driver equality and wasted time trying to make button perform as well as Hamilton. While Ferrari was putting all their eggs in Alonso's basket mclaren was taking them out Lewis' and putting them in Jenson's.
They only changed this 3/4 way through when they realized button was a long shot.
Though i must say outside of the team blunders, Mcalren has had some rotten luck with Hamilton. Most of it coming from crazy midfielders, Maldonado and Hulkenberg. Otherwise all else falls at the feet of the team operation.
Formula One's fundamental ethos is about success coming to those with the most ingenious engineering and best ..............................organization, not to those with the biggest budget. (Dave Richards)
Mclaren: they lose Hamilton, their car was the fastest out of the winter tests, but they had all sorts of reliability issues and some unlucky incidents.
Ferrari are lucky to be vice (second) - both in drivers and constructors championship, but in the end the points count (unless equal - then the wins count). Started 1.5 seconds off the pace, crawled back and then faded away.
