The outcome of Sunday's Chinese grand prix will determine whether Ferrari stays the course or reverts to 'plan B' for the development of its 2011 car. That is the claim of Italian newspapers including La Stampa and La Repubblica. "We are analysing everything to find out why things have not worked as expected at this stage of development," said team boss Domenicali. The Italia 150 car will be fitted with some new components this weekend, he revealed."If in China everything works as hoped and expected, good, but if we have worked on developments that bring no result, we already have in place an alternative programme that will be introduced as soon as possible," said Domenicali. He said in La Stampa: "We have a deadline. Now we go to Shanghai where we must decide whether to continue with this aero package or change direction." http://f1.madeinmotorsport.com/en/h...b--after-shanghai-deadline-reports-21658.html So Plan A = The planned upgrades work in China. So it looks like these China updates are quite significant, despite being only a week after Malaysia. We know one of these updates is to the front wing, possibly flexible but realistically just little tweaks to the front wing. Ferrari are having problems with their wind tunnel data not matching on track information, and it looks like they are giving this aero package one last chance. As it says above Plan B = Updates do not work in China and Ferrari change the development direction. I don't think this means a B-Spec car, because the Ferrari has a good base. Whatever "plan B" changes are, it's good to see them working so hard to ensure they become competitive this year. I suspect Pat Fry has a big part to play in this alternative development path. I read somewhere that Ferrari were scheduled to do a test at Vairano after China, and this will probably be the "Plan B" test.
They wont be able to make any significant changes in China, but to be honest they were pretty quick during the race in Malaysia, Alosno easily overtook Jenson into turn one who only finished 3 seconds behind Vettel. I dont understand why they are starting to panic so early. Did they really expect to start the season faster than the Red Bull? No team expected that.
They obviously need to work on the front wing as they are lacking front downforce which is causing Fernando and Felipe to have to deal with horrible understeer. Other areas that need to be looked at: Floor area Sidepods Little areas of engine covers. All these things when fixed should give them around 6 tenths I believe. But that still won`t be enough as Fernando was 9 tenths off pole in Sepang.He can alone bring 2 tenths of his talent so still 1 tenth missing which should come from the big Spain update or even Singapore update.
Alonso on Shanghai updates: "As for the new aerodynamic components, it is too early to say if they really produce an advantage. The engineers will now have to study the data carefully, before drawing any definite conclusions as to whether or not we are moving in the right direction in terms of development." Really unfortunate that Alonso had such little running in Practice. What do you think? Plan A or Plan B?
I think plan A. It looked pretty good in practice, and if they use the Malaysia they get nowhere. If they get spun in T1 or get really bad luck, they can have a mini testing session in the race. Or they could get lucky and it works. Unless it makes you slower I believe they shouldnt ever take an update off, how do they know that Malaysia spec car will work?
When Alonso drives up somebody's backside it will be Plan C. Anyway it will either be so smoggy that everyone will miss braking areas and spin off, or piss down and become a lottery.
Domenicali's statements are aimed at a highly impatient national identity, commonly known as 'La Tifosi'. Ultimately, he lives and dies by them. However, I am not playing down the dilemma he has voiced. That car was fundamentally quick compared to others only a few weeks ago. It seemed to be right there with Red Bull and miles ahead of McLaren. My belief is that Alonso is trying to lead the direction of development almost single-handedly and that Ferrari are suffering from Massa's lack of confidence; the result of their own one-sided management philosophy. In my opinion - and this is deliberately simplistic - they are reaping the rewards of their indifference to Massa; and Alonso seems unable to do what Schumacher did, although such a comparison is unfair without the same 'dream team'.
The entire team is a squabling rabble at the moment, I really dont see how they can get it sorted. Italian public opinion is what seems to drive Ferrari into panic mode, Motezemolo simply reacts to that and the situation gets worse. Ferrari whether they like it or not, need a Brit at high level like Brawn to steady the ship.
Disapointing qualifying. As Alonso was doing all the aero tests, Massa was left to do all the set up work - so Alonso had to use Massa's setup. Ferrari I believe have gone for a stronger race setup, but even then, 1.4 seconds off the pace is very worrying. Also in qualifying I noticed that Alonso was running the old wing! This doesn't look good, but according to Marc Gene, the aero tests yesterday were very important and allowed them to know where was the failure of correlation between track and simulation. He also said the new wing only works with the Turkey update.
