Have Ferrari gone the wrong direction?

I don't see why Ferrari have gone the hard, aggressive way into pre season testing, like Mclaren did last year, and still say they have a lot to do to improve the car. Surely they should have learnt by Mclaren's mistake of a slow start?

Mclaren really messed up their chances of a strong start to the season with their approach last season> We all know testing times are nothing to go by, due to different fuel loads etc, but when a driver makes it public that he is struggling with the car, surely that should be a sign that the team has taken the wrong approach.

I personally don't see why Ferrari have gone with the 'innovative' route this year. It didn't really work out for Mclaren last year in terms of closing the gap to Red Bull. Ferrari had a terrible season last year so really they should be learning from every mistake they make.

Whats your opinion on this?

 

F1 changes all the time and to be fair Ferrari didn't exploit the blown diffuser as much as RBR and Mclaren so I can see why they feel the need to take a risk. However they have suffered a set back today because they have hydraulic problems. The only thing you can say is don't read too much into testing.

 

If you want to be better than your rival then going a different route will potentially give you more long time success rather than slowly catching them by copying them as they will allways be a step ahead

 

I'll wait until Melbourne to make any judgements. After all Rubens posted the fastest time at Jarez last year in the Williams, which didn't quite translate in to success for their season.

 

Ferrari were way too conservative last year and paid the price. I don't see that they've been "innovative", they haven't desperately pursued some strange device to catapult them to the front of the field like McLaren did with their octo-exhaust last year. Ferrari's approach is right, if they aren't successful it's because they haven't executed it well enough.

 

Ferrari say on their twitter that they are very happy with their car so far, and don't take any notice of the stop watch. I hope that they are right as so far it looks pretty bad.

 

We wont really know until the first race whether their design was a good one. They brought in a lot of people over the winter and people can take time to gel, or maybe to many cooks spoil the broth?
Ferrari don't sound positive, despite how they dress it up, but come the first race they could just as easily be the fastest.

 

I don't think they have anything to worry about yet, no one knows where any one is at the moment. Their problem may come at Melbourne if they find themselves not only behind Red Bull and McLaren on pace like last year, but also another team like Mercedes. That will show a definite step backwards.

 

To be fair their times were very similiar to Mclaren but they seem quite positive.

 

Same thinking here mate.

 

If Ferrari had done what McLaren and everyone else have done, they'd be in a similar position to last year - still not the quickest, and facing a lot of criticism for designing a conservative car. Normally I'd say evolution is better, but Ferrari have made it very clear that second or third is not good enough, so in that sense they've done the right thing by designing an aggressive car.

The car has the potential to win the championship, but if they can't unlock that potential, 2012 could be worse than 2011. No need to worry just yet; we'll see what happens in Melbourne.

 

nh-f1: You ask, "have Ferrari gone the wrong direction? - Well, I ask you: surely it is far too early to tell?

You express concern about Ferrari being aggressive and innovative but surely F1 is all about innovation? Surely you would agree that Red Bull have been consistently innovative? Any team which is not will surely stand still relative to the innovators.

 

Oh dear, it was starting to look better.....

Pat Fry says Ferrari not happy with where it is at the moment with new F1 car

and a tweet from Ted!

The man power and skill base Ferrari has I'm sure they'll have a improved package for tests two and three.

 

As far as I can see the only really factual thing we can say about any of the cars is Williams and Lotus both look fairly reliable, as for the rest, we don;t know the fuel loads, we don't know what, or how, they were testing their upgrades or tyres. Nothing will be known until the chequered flag in Australia.

 

Yeah... As Miggs says, I wouldn't panic too much until the first race is out of the way. There will be many changes and discoveries between now and then and the car doesn't look like a total disaster (though it does look bloody ugly).

It's still early days yet and I don't think any of the top teams are likely to show their hand until the last test. Personally, I have no idea who's looking like they might be out on top this year. Hopefully we'll get a good close battle.

 

I'm suprised that RBR starting showing some pace so early on. they don't normally bother in pre-season, we never know their pace until Oz. They must either have a ridiculously fast car, that they can't reign in, or an average car that they're trying to make look better than it is.

God knows what Ferrari are up to.

 

I say in all honesty that they are not primarily interested in the impression the public get.

Each team needs to evaluate its own parameters by working through evaluation programmes. How this is viewed by the public is not far adrift from assessing the quality of one's wheat from looking at one's chaff; or indeed, the quality of the wind which may blow it…

 

You'd have to think that the Lotus/Kimi quick runs were aimed at generating plenty of coverage and a bit of hype though... call me a cynic.

 

You may be right here Sarge but the primary concern is long-term (potential for season-long) development. This may - and usually does - involve all manner of tests of all manner of 'gubbins', which focus upon calculable differences rather than specific lap times.

 

Totally... which is why we can read bugger all in to anything just yet, try as we might.