Why? Ferrari has been able to build a great cardespite all the doom of despair predicted by many here. What is more even important Ferrari has been able to keep up with the in-season development, something we have only see a few times since 2007. I dont see any reason to expect a worse car. It can happen indeed, as it could happen with Mercedes or Red bull, but Ferrari has ended the season very close to Mercedes and sometimes being better. With the same rules the new Ferrari should be even better.NathanOlder wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 12:01Yeah i think next year will see Ferrari fighting Mclaren for occasional podiums. This year was perfect for Ferrari. New rules, a decent PU and 2 main rivals havinh parts banned at the start of the season. As Nico Rosberg said the other day, Ferrari's best chance has now gone. Next year will probably be Lewis vs Max.
Game on.
Mercedes and Red Bull started the season with a major part of their planned car banned weeks before it started. All on an appeal by Ferrari. You do realise that, don't you?Vasconia wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 12:33Why? Ferrari has been able to build a great cardespite all the doom of despair predicted by many here. What is more even important Ferrari has been able to keep up with the in-season development, something we have only see a few times since 2007. I dont see any reason to expect a worse car. It can happen indeed, as it could happen with Mercedes or Red bull, but Ferrari has ended the season very close to Mercedes and sometimes being better. With the same rules the new Ferrari should be even better.NathanOlder wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 12:01Yeah i think next year will see Ferrari fighting Mclaren for occasional podiums. This year was perfect for Ferrari. New rules, a decent PU and 2 main rivals havinh parts banned at the start of the season. As Nico Rosberg said the other day, Ferrari's best chance has now gone. Next year will probably be Lewis vs Max.
Game on.
Red Bull is very strong and they will be very strong in 2018 but Renault needs to close the gap with Mercedes and Ferrari´s PU, if not, they will only fight for victories in only a few tracks.
Mercedes is(likely) to re-desing their car with a shorter wheelbase because it semes that their current design has almost reached its limit. They find interesting too that Ferrari´s shorter wheelbase has mad possible to build a more adaptable car.Restomaniac wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 13:24I said this weeks ago. This was Ferrari's best chance. In 2018 Mercedes and Red Bull don't have to design a car around a banned key part of their car. Hell Mercedes are already making noises about a rethink on car build.
The biggest problem of Red Bull is Renault. Renault wants to be fighting for victorys. There will be a moment in time that they will have to have an advantage over their customers teams.NathanOlder wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 12:01Yeah i think next year will see Ferrari fighting Mclaren for occasional podiums. This year was perfect for Ferrari. New rules, a decent PU and 2 main rivals havinh parts banned at the start of the season. As Nico Rosberg said the other day, Ferrari's best chance has now gone. Next year will probably be Lewis vs Max.
Game on.
The reason IMHO goes back to trick problem.Vasconia wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 13:37Mercedes is(likely) to re-desing their car with a shorter wheelbase because it semes that their current design has almost reached its limit. They find interesting too that Ferrari´s shorter wheelbase has mad possible to build a more adaptable car.Restomaniac wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 13:24I said this weeks ago. This was Ferrari's best chance. In 2018 Mercedes and Red Bull don't have to design a car around a banned key part of their car. Hell Mercedes are already making noises about a rethink on car build.
Its a risky move fore sure, because they could fail.
If Renault makes an step forward Red Bull could have an advantage here because I guess they have begun earlier than Ferrari and Mercedes to design the 2018 car.
I think that Mercedes PU is closer to its limit than Ferrari/Renault´s PU so it will be interesting to see if they can close the gap even more.
Well IMHO your opinion is incorrect. Sure the ban on the suspension took them out of an option to use later on but that was not game changing as you might think. In fact even Horner said they wouldn't even use it for the first races if it was allowed. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... rm-887147/Restomaniac wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 14:46
The reason IMHO goes back to trick problem.
Both Mercedes and Red Bull had it. When it was banned Red Bull were nearer to the Ferrari ideal (shortwheel base, high rake) so although it hurt them they were able to work around it better.
...
Well last year everybody said that with rules changing to aero focus and Allison leaving the team they would be doomed and the fight should be between RB and Merc.This year they started with a win and 8 months later here in Brazil we saw a Ferrari that is still competitive even after a full year of development after the new rules for every team. So why should they blunder in 5 months time?NathanOlder wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 12:01Yeah i think next year will see Ferrari fighting Mclaren for occasional podiums. This year was perfect for Ferrari. New rules, a decent PU and 2 main rivals havinh parts banned at the start of the season. As Nico Rosberg said the other day, Ferrari's best chance has now gone. Next year will probably be Lewis vs Max.
Game on.
Are they competitive really? Hamilton was 5.4 seconds down in a Mercedes, all Renault engine cars were turned down to make sure they had a working engine for Abu Dhabi to save the embarrassment of having several Renault engine cars unable to start as they appear to have a lack of spare engines with them blowing at the rate they have been. So being ahead of RBR all of a sudden is meaningless. Before that happened Kimi was 54 seconds behind Verstappen. Renault lacks higher engine modes for qualifying, if they didn't then Max would have been on pole, Ferrari is really the only team that mostly doesn't have an issue getting tires in the window for difficult qualifying (Singapore, Mexico), but they also have worse tire wear most places. their race pace has been pretty poor for the last 5 or so races, fp2 in Singapore looked bad for them, Cota wasn't great, again Ham cruising on a worse for tire strategy was under no threat, Vettel got the lead as he used too much tire life and wasn't fast enough pushing hard on a two stop to gain time back and also had to stop much earlier. He barely finished 2 seconds ahead of Max who started in 16th. In Japan Kimi was 37 seconds off the lead.Big Mangalhit wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 15:58
Well last year everybody said that with rules changing to aero focus and Allison leaving the team they would be doomed and the fight should be between RB and Merc.This year they started with a win and 8 months later here in Brazil we saw a Ferrari that is still competitive even after a full year of development after the new rules for every team. So why should they blunder in 5 months time?
Yup, they won the race and got double podiumdrunkf1fan wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 16:15Are they competitive really?Big Mangalhit wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 15:58
Well last year everybody said that with rules changing to aero focus and Allison leaving the team they would be doomed and the fight should be between RB and Merc.This year they started with a win and 8 months later here in Brazil we saw a Ferrari that is still competitive even after a full year of development after the new rules for every team. So why should they blunder in 5 months time?
Imo, this shows why. Over the last decade, Ferrari has had a hard time improving on consecutive years. This year they have had no back to back wins, or no back to back dual podiums. I know Fans don't want to hear it, but I expect next year they will either maintain their position or fall back.
Year WCC WDC 2008 1 2 2009 4 6 2010 3 2 2011 3 4 2012 2 2 2013 3 2 2014 4 6 2015 2 3 2016 3 4 2017 2 2
Well, they one more races this year then the other two together. I also heard before the season start that Red Bull would be strong this year. And Mclaren could be fighting for podiums.dans79 wrote: ↑14 Nov 2017, 19:01Imo, this shows why. Over the last decade, Ferrari has had a hard time improving on consecutive years. This year they have had no back to back wins, or no back to back dual podiums. I know Fans don't want to hear it, but I expect next year they will either maintain their position or fall back.