2016 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team - Ferrari

[Schuttelberg]

Red Bull aside, Ferrari need to improve in all areas. Reliability has failed them in Austrialia (RAI), Bahrain (VET), Baku (VET), Silverstone (VET) - that's simply too many times. The drivers have under-performed as well, Kimi crashing in Monaco, even Vettel under-performing in qualifying a couple of times. And what to say about strategy, they've made "questionable" decisions to say the least. Worst of all, Ferrari seem to struggle with setting up the car. One weekend they're quick, the next they are no where. Ferrari should look internally and fix the problems, rather then looking externally and compare with Red Bull.

I think you meant Austria, not Baku.

On the subject of under-performing drivers? I don't agree with your assessment at all. The drivers are the least of Ferrari's issues. The two world championship contenders themselves have had poor races. (Rosberg @ Monaco & Canada, Hamilton @ Baku and he's coughed up the start several times) Let's not forget that Ricciardo has been average ever since Monaco and Verstappen himself binned it at Monaco. Raikkonen had a bad race at Monaco and a few mediocre races while Vettel was looking far from a world champion in Silverstone.

The whole deal here is that because the Mercedes-Benz is so dominant, mistakes from their drivers are often masked. Secondly, there was a whole heap of expectations from Ferrari and Vettel in particular to give them a run for their money and that has simply not materialised. So, they've generally been magnified. Verstappen in my view has been exceptionally outstanding in all these circumstances and Ricciardo who I'm a big fan of has tailed off post Monaco.

I think we guys constantly make drivers out to be robots. Unquestionably, Vettel and Ricciardo have been knocked on in terms of confidence with a heap of strategy and reliability failures. It does weigh you down. It's when champions rise and I think once this season is over, both these chaps will be better drivers. The championship is over, it's about how much they can maximise with what they have. Red Bull and Ferrari are neck and neck in my opinion where one will be better than the other depending on the circuit layout.

The media and public can and will no doubt hype the battle up, but both the teams and it's drivers only care about catching Mercedes.

[ME4ME]

I think you meant Austria, not Baku.

On the subject of under-performing drivers? I don't agree with your assessment at all. The drivers are the least of Ferrari's issues. The two world championship contenders themselves have had poor races. (Rosberg @ Monaco & Canada, Hamilton @ Baku and he's coughed up the start several times) Let's not forget that Ricciardo has been average ever since Monaco and Verstappen himself binned it at Monaco. Raikkonen had a bad race at Monaco and a few mediocre races while Vettel was looking far from a world champion in Silverstone.

The whole deal here is that because the Mercedes-Benz is so dominant, mistakes from their drivers are often masked. Secondly, there was a whole heap of expectations from Ferrari and Vettel in particular to give them a run for their money and that has simply not materialised. So, they've generally been magnified. Verstappen in my view has been exceptionally outstanding in all these circumstances and Ricciardo who I'm a big fan of has tailed off post Monaco.

I think we guys constantly make drivers out to be robots. Unquestionably, Vettel and Ricciardo have been knocked on in terms of confidence with a heap of strategy and reliability failures. It does weigh you down. It's when champions rise and I think once this season is over, both these chaps will be better drivers. The championship is over, it's about how much they can maximise with what they have. Red Bull and Ferrari are neck and neck in my opinion where one will be better than the other depending on the circuit layout.

The media and public can and will no doubt hype the battle up, but both the teams and it's drivers only care about catching Mercedes.

I agree with you that drivers are only human, they fail from time to time. That's why Alonso in 2012, and Vettel in 2015 were so impressive, they performed on a very high level throughout those seasons, with few major mistakes.

So far this season, no driver has been perfect. But compared to last year, Vettel hasn't performed as well as he should. He has under performed in qualifying at least 2-3 times, of the top of my head, which is something he can't afford if he wants to compete for the championship. Additionally he has been troubled by unrealiability, strategic failures and a tyre blowout. All in all, it's just nowhere good enough.

Kimi is average, no more no less. He has done well though, compared to last year, but not on a championship competing level.

I think if you were to make a ranking of all drivers so far this season, neither Ferrari driver would feature in the Top 5. VES, RIC, HAM, PER and possibly even Sainz have made more of their opportunities.

By this I do not mean that Ferrari should do something about their driver line-up, but both Vettel & Raikkonen do need to improve, with qualifying in China being the clearest example of waisted opportunities.

[Vasconia]

So far this season, no driver has been perfect. But compared to last year, Vettel hasn't performed as well as he should. He has under performed in qualifying at least 2-3 times, of the top of my head, which is something he can't afford if he wants to compete for the championship. Additionally he has been troubled by unrealiability, strategic failures and a tyre blowout. All in all, it's just nowhere good enough.

Kimi is average, no more no less. He has done well though, compared to last year, but not on a championship competing level.
By this I do not mean that Ferrari should do something about their driver line-up, but both Vettel & Raikkonen do need to improve, with qualifying in China being the clearest example of waisted opportunities.

The most disappointing fact has been the qualy performance of Sebastin this season so far. He is one of the top 2/3 qualifiers of the current F1 so its a bit surprising to see how he was failed in some races. Can we blame partially the car? perhaps its difficult to find a good set-up.

[ClarkBT11]

So far this season, no driver has been perfect. But compared to last year, Vettel hasn't performed as well as he should. He has under performed in qualifying at least 2-3 times, of the top of my head, which is something he can't afford if he wants to compete for the championship. Additionally he has been troubled by unrealiability, strategic failures and a tyre blowout. All in all, it's just nowhere good enough.

Kimi is average, no more no less. He has done well though, compared to last year, but not on a championship competing level.
By this I do not mean that Ferrari should do something about their driver line-up, but both Vettel & Raikkonen do need to improve, with qualifying in China being the clearest example of waisted opportunities.

The most disappointing fact has been the qualy performance of Sebastin this season so far. He is one of the top 2/3 qualifiers of the current F1 so its a bit surprising to see how he was failed in some races. Can we blame partially the car? perhaps its difficult to find a good set-up.

The Ferrari is more gentle on the tyres a trait Alison has brought with him from lotus. Maybe because of that neither of the drivers can get enough heat in their tyres if they only get one lap to set a time. If your tyres aren't in the right temperature range your more likely to make mistakes going for it in quali. Mercedes and Redbull can generate more heat than Ferrari in smaller amount of time that could be the reason Redbull have had a better time than Ferrari since Monaco.

[Vasconia]

So far this season, no driver has been perfect. But compared to last year, Vettel hasn't performed as well as he should. He has under performed in qualifying at least 2-3 times, of the top of my head, which is something he can't afford if he wants to compete for the championship. Additionally he has been troubled by unrealiability, strategic failures and a tyre blowout. All in all, it's just nowhere good enough.

Kimi is average, no more no less. He has done well though, compared to last year, but not on a championship competing level.
By this I do not mean that Ferrari should do something about their driver line-up, but both Vettel & Raikkonen do need to improve, with qualifying in China being the clearest example of waisted opportunities.

The most disappointing fact has been the qualy performance of Sebastin this season so far. He is one of the top 2/3 qualifiers of the current F1 so its a bit surprising to see how he was failed in some races. Can we blame partially the car? perhaps its difficult to find a good set-up.

The Ferrari is more gentle on the tyres a trait Alison has brought with him from lotus. Maybe because of that neither of the drivers can get enough heat in their tyres if they only get one lap to set a time. If your tyres aren't in the right temperature range your more likely to make mistakes going for it in quali. Mercedes and Redbull can generate more heat than Ferrari in smaller amount of time that could be the reason Redbull have had a better time than Ferrari since Monaco.

This problem is almost a tradition in Ferrari. Alonso and Massa used to suffer a lot with this.

[Sevach]

[ClarkBT11]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3OEaXYAAEgps.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3O50XEAEuQ5o.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3P-bXYAUy2b5.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3QsZXYAEn_ST.jpg

It really shows no direction in my eyes. Why would he not know when they are getting any aerodynamic updates "I really hope so". You would of expected the answer to be yes we have updates for a certain race or at least lie and pretended he knows what the plan is, if he has no answers who does? I bet Ferrari fans are hoping Ross Brawn does return or at least someone that has past experience in F1. Or are the fans happy with Arrivabene?

[Nuvolari]

There are quite a few races coming in the 2nd half of the season that Ferrari can expect to be competitive. Who says if either Vettel or indeed Raikkonen might not have a big surge in the 2nd half of the season as Alonso did in 2010? But I feel only one Ferrari driver must win these races for Ferrari to even think about the Drivers' title. If the points are split half and half, then a Merc WDC is a certainty.

[Fulcrum]

Ferrari simply isn't fast enough to mount a competitive challenge to Mercedes.

Even if Ferrari maintained perfect reliability, experienced no driver errors or accidents, and directly favoured one driver over the other in every situation, that favoured driver would still have less points than Rosberg or Hamilton.

Taking the strongest possible result from each race, including making an assumption that reliability, driver error, and accidents only effect the second driver, would generate 157 points, 11 short of Rosberg, 10 short of Hamilton.

Optimising/favouring drivers isn't practical if there are other drivers between your own, or if you can only manage to get one car to the finish line. 5 of 10 races namely, Australia, Bahrain, Russia, Monaco, Austria, Ferrari has only had one car finishing. Raikkonen and Vettel have been separated by at least one other car for 3 races where both finished (Malaysia, Canada, Great Britain). Ferrari swapped positions in Baku, and in theory they could have done the same in Barcelona.

Look at their best race results:

3rd,2nd,2nd,3rd,2nd,4th,2nd,2nd,3rd,5th

Only once have they managed a double podium, and that was in Spain when neither Mercedes finished.

Incidentally, if you apply the same logic to Mercedes - best finish from either driver - that theoretical driver would have 225 points; relative to 157 for the theoretical Ferrari driver. Look at the best Mercedes result per race:

1st,1st,1st,1st,DNF,1st,1st,1st,1st,1st

In conclusion, with their current form, Ferrari have no realistic possibility of winning either the WDC or WCC. Rosberg and Hamilton would have to DNF multiple times to make it even remotely possible. Mercedes, in spite of their constant reliability niggles, are more reliable than Ferrari, and considerably faster. The gap in the WCC could be even larger if Mercedes had fewer operational issues, as could the gap in the WDC were one of the Mercedes winning the bulk of the races.

Of course, this analysis is historical, so if Ferrari were to magic up another 50HP I suppose anything is possible.

[Vasconia]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3OEaXYAAEgps.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3O50XEAEuQ5o.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3P-bXYAUy2b5.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CnP3QsZXYAEn_ST.jpg

It really shows no direction in my eyes. Why would he not know when they are getting any aerodynamic updates "I really hope so". You would of expected the answer to be yes we have updates for a certain race or at least lie and pretended he knows what the plan is, if he has no answers who does? I bet Ferrari fans are hoping Ross Brawn does return or at least someone that has past experience in F1. Or are the fans happy with Arrivabene?

I really hope that Ross will return someday but I am not very hopful about this. Ferrari really needs him.

[Vasconia]

There are quite a few races coming in the 2nd half of the season that Ferrari can expect to be competitive. Who says if either Vettel or indeed Raikkonen might not have a big surge in the 2nd half of the season as Alonso did in 2010? But I feel only one Ferrari driver must win these races for Ferrari to even think about the Drivers' title. If the points are split half and half, then a Merc WDC is a certainty.

They should be stronger in Germany, Singapur, Brazil, Italy, Spa and Mexico. Enough to be second? I dont know but we will see.

[Sevach]

Turbulent times.

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/march ... es-798840/

Honestly, it's time to give it another shot in 2017, if the car isn't great from day one then heads can start rolling.

[evered7]

Honestly don't know what Marchionne was being told before start of the season. I hope he isn't another Luca. Give the current team a shot at the new regulations. They have been able to improve the car but others have been able to do an equally good job.

Like Sevach says, fastest since day one should be the target in 2017.

[FW17]

Ferrari have never been great when it comes to change in regulations, 1998, 2006, 2009, 2014; don't see how 2017 is going to be different.

[Scuderia1967]

Ferrari have never been great when it comes to change in regulations, 1998, 2006, 2009, 2014; don't see how 2017 is going to be different.

In 1998 and 2006 Ferrari fought for both championships (scoring 6 wins in 1998 and 9 in 2006), so you're not exactly right