Ferrari: the best team?

[Andrew2001]

This is just my opinion, however bias it may be to some of you..

Ferrari have innituated this action many times, a protest against what they claim are illegal devices of one kind or another being used by the closest rivals in the championship. Bruce McLaren and Brabham had numerous problems of Ferrari raising allegations of them competing with illegal components on their race cars in the 50s and 60s when Ferrari were at their peak, and Cooper and McLaren and Brabham were starting to find their feet.
And to cut a very long story slightly shorter, we had the draught of some 19 years where Ferrari failed to win the drivers championship. Williams and McLaren competitively slugged it out for that whole time, Ferrari did appear once near the front, in 1990, but failed to win the title.
To this day, the B194 Benetton remains to be one extremely controversial car, for by many, its electronics were regarded as illegal but never proved otherwise.Schumacher stopped the Williams tidal wave, and repeated victory in 1995, which saw yet another fragile and unreliable Williams fail.
Since then, Ferrari has steadily got competitive, almost exclusively because of the ability of Schumacher to motivate people to do a job - Senna style. The Ferraris of 1997, 1998 and 1999 were competitive, but just not quite competitive enough, seemingly, the limit of Ferrari's technical compacity, as McLaren had produced the pinnacle of the day, the MP4/13, the right (not necessarily the "best") tyres, chassis, engine and drivers, did the job, decisively. the following car, was quicker still but far less reliable, Mika won by the tiniest of margins, but displayed his uncanny ability to soak up the pressure and do the best job he could do.
In 2000, one would see the season as very equal, between Michal and Mika for the championship, the McLaren was the best car probably, not by much at all, but the championship "slipped" away, due to car reliability, one or two mistakes, but not because of car speed, that was there without a doubt, had McLaren as a team performed like they did in 1998 then Mika would be 3 times world champion. This was when the design team produced two cars the 17 and 18, that, while very aerydynamically efficient, were unreliable, uncompetitive, under powered and poorly balanced. Ferrari took off, with all the teams including Williams and McLaren floundering with many internal changes, the regulations and teething problems. The Ferrari was left to fight with itself, Williams had the fastest car in 2001, but also the most incosistant in terms of engine performance, driver performance and tyre performance. Ferrari won, by a big margin. Williams tried to fix the engine problems, Michelin worked harder than before, McLaren also jumped ship to Michelin, Kimi came onboard, the car was even more aerodynamically efficient but even more unreliable and just as poorly balanced and an even worse engine.
Once again, Ferrari were out in front, with no opposition, it wasn't that they had such a perfect car, it was more that the other teams were so far from their own peaks that ferrari had no opposition, bridgestone had it all right, so Ferrari could afford to spend even more time on reliability, so, Schumacher finished every race, either 1st, second or on just one occasion, 3rd.
The F1-2002 was a very good car, superbly reliable, but there was simply no opposition, nothing for it to test itself against.
Finally, Williams and McLaren, have found their feet, with the new world gizmo world of F1, they are now, just as they both were in the 80s and 90s, functioning superbly, typical Anglo-German style, the Germans conceive, the British Produce. The British critise, the Germans fix. Williams is resembling the days of Rosberg, the days of Piquet, Mansell, Prost, Villeneuve, and Hill, the days where they were UNBEATABLE.
McLaren has in the very immediate future, a weapon of total and utter domination, it has a driver like no other, its technical team remains, most of them have been there since the days of Bruce and Denny.
With this complete mending of the current situation, Frank and Ron have the tools, the people and the complete understanding of the regs at their disposal, they also have the brilliance of the anglo-german combination, which, just as the British and Japanese combination was so successful, and McLaren's association with Chevrolet over the years, another 20 years of domination of F1, until the next Michael Schumacher comes along to save Ferrari.
Ferrari never have built good quality cars, i say this in comparison with everyone else, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche of Germany, Jaguar, Aston Martin and TVR of Britain, chevrolet, Ford and Chrylser of the USA.

Ferrari's advantage, of being ahead of its rivals with the regulations, is over, they have no more cards to reveal, they have no more go-forward power, that little advantage is gone, as a result, as was the case in 1958, they decided to try and disqualify their opponents, eliminate technology which they simply do not posess, make the FIA change the rules and attempt to cheat themselves out by producing illegal components and having hte FIA cover them up, all, in the name of the Italian name, that is, Ferrari.

I cannot respect them any longer, nor hide my frustration, for seeing them do what they have done over the years. Enzo could never do it like Williams, Dennis, McLaren, Cooper, Brabham and Chapman did.
Schumacher, the master of adaptation, tactics, lateral thinking and leadership, has kept Ferrari alive, and his own career, as amazing as it has been, or as controversial as it has been, remains the sole reason, why Ferrari has been competitive since he joined in 1996. His achievements in the F310 are some of the best in the history of F1, and the F310B, 'his' car in my mind, also showed just how far Michael was ahead of the other drivers at the time, such as Villeneuve and Frentzen.
In 1998 he was again brilliant, driving an undriveable car to the title decider at Suzuka, but this, was as far as Ferrari could be stretched, it took the other teams to fall off their feet, off their guard, off their optimum performance, for Ferrari to win for 3 consecutive years.
ferrari may well win the title this year, but I highly doubt that happening, even if they do manage to get it, this will be their last time, for many many years to come.
While Schumacher is there they will still be in contention, still giving McLaren and Williams a run for their money, possibly, on some occasions, but Barrichello will be absolutely no where and Michael will just do his best, as he has always done, it begs to wonder, if only Schumacher went straight to a competitive team, and didn't bother exercising his vast ability in adaptation, and, with a fast team mate for once, who knows what could have happend if Michael was teamed with an equally quick driver, such as Hakkinen, Villeneuve, Raikkonen or Montoya.

[Andrew2001]

and just to finish that off, this is the problem that I have had with Ferrari at the front of F1, they do not play the game like williams and McLaren always have done and continue to do: Two equally good drivers slugging it out for the championship, which is why we revel to talk about the days of Senna and Prost, Piquet and Mansell, Lauda and Hunt etc etc. We haven't had that in the last 3 years, hence why I dislike Ferrari so much.
And I know I am not the only one.

[Mattracer]

It's almost impossible to dislike Ferrari, they are a cornerstone in the sport and a symbol of desire for nearly every person on the planet who understands the sport, cars and passion. Ask a person in the street what they would do if they won the lottery, chances are there will be a statement like "Oh, buy a great car, a Ferrari, a red one" in their to do list.

The F1 team feeds off this and the road cars do too- the relationship between the two halves of the company are intrinsically linked, something that no other team can quite match, either because of their links with manufacturers through engine deals, or much more limited road car releases, like the McLaren F1, which had everything a Ferrari had but without the same charisma, X factor and desirability.

Ferrari will be forever different after the Schumacher era, and not just because of the success they had with him at the wheel for so many years. Joe Sometimes expects Ferrari to win these days and when they do, it's just another good day. When they don't, heads turn, but so many more heads turn, because the mass market has now jumped on board and lived vicariously through Ferrari's victories. The passion has been diluted somewhat. Has it been too successful for it's own good?

[vatuloa]

Another Italian team dreaming you would need 13 cars to pull out for this to happen

From F1-Live.com
A point in home GP a possibility ?
Italian GP : Minardi - Preview [08/09/03 - 03:48]




The PS03 in Monza configuration


he Italian Grand Prix at Monza will be the last European race of the 2003 season. Monza is the fastest circuit on the F1 calendar, a real torture test for the engines and the brakes of the cars, which are not the best attributes of the Minardi PS03.

The chicanes require a perfectly stable car under braking and a good balance is also necessary to ride the kerbs, which is a must to do quick lap times at Monza. Regular drivers Jos Verstappen and Nicolas Kiesa will be joined by Gianmaria Bruni on Friday morning for the two- hour private testing session.

Over the years, the small Italian team was never able to score a point at Monza. In 1989, Pierluigi Martini obtained the best ever result for Minardi at Monza : a seventh place finish. The Italian was able to duplicate the same result a few years later (1993).




Last year, Mark Webber and Alex Yoong did not achieve a good performance. The Australian driver had to retire because of electrical problems on lap 21. Alex Yoong's car suffered from an electronic malfunction and a long pit stop was necessary to cure the problem. The Malaysian driver reached the finish line but 6 laps down on the leaders.

This year the challenge will not be easier for Minardi. The team will have to count on the reliability of the PS03 and wish the rival teams suffer from a high attrition rate. At least Minardi cars are equipped with Bridgestone tyres so the Italian team doesn't need to worry about the tyre situation afflicting Michelin-equipped teams.

[Mr V]

Ferrari: the best team?

Not lately

[climb]

Andrew2001, I respect your analisys, but about 2k, well you seem too affected by love for Mika, IMHO.
The Macs were still way better than Ferrari.
What made difference (maybe you don't like to read it, but it's truth) is that Ferrari driver was by miles faster.
MS is not that nice man, but as driver, well, no comparison with Mika (real nice man, on the other hand) who only won in his career when running a dominating car.

[Irv the Swerve]

So much of Ferrari is based on the legend or the myth. Those of you who have visited Maranello and seen the various displays and tourist traps there will testify to that. In terms of modern F1, they are just another team of course. In previous days, drivers would be honoured to driver for Ferrari, but now, its contracts, sponsors, status in the team etc...they could be any other team in the pitlane. Racing passion? - save it for the tourists.

Maybe its not a romantic view, but I reckon its more accurate than the whole "Ferrari are F1" viewpoint.

[alfasud]

Originally posted by Andrew2001
Bruce McLaren and Brabham had numerous problems of Ferrari raising allegations of them competing with illegal components on their race cars in the 50s and 60s....

Well this just goes to show how evil Ferrari are. Image that - in the 50's the first Brabham and McLaren cars had not yet been built (Brabham BT1 Formula Junior was 1961) and Ferrari were already raising allegations about them.

[Andrew2001]

No, I was talking about Brabham and McLaren, as in, the drivers themselves, Brabham and McLaren, I believe, were driving for Cooper in the late 50s,and early 60s. But I have heard some good stories from those days through members of the Bruce McLaren Trust whom I am a member of at various functions I have been at, and, and also seen some extremely rare footage of the old days when Bruce was there, for those of them who lived, could tell you that nothing has changed regarding Ferrari making allegations..

And to whom ever it was who bagged Mika, why don't you ask Michael yourself who he thinks would be his closest rival, and easily the 2nd best in F1 in his day, he'd agree with my view, so clearly, that makes you wrong in that case.

I really wanna see Kimi do it this year, but I really would be happy for Juan Pablo if he won it too.

[Andrew2001]

Originally posted by climb
Mika (real nice man, on the other hand) who only won in his career when running a dominating car.

Mika could have won many races and been far more consistant in terms of results had he had a car that was reliable enough, Michael always had a very competitive car except 1996, so he was always able to get both good grid positions and the result, Mika always always had good grid slots - even in underpowered, and poorly balanced McLarens of the 1994-1996 seasons - what did Mika do in the very first qualifying session in a Mclaren, oh thats right, he out qualified Ayrton Senna.
Mika also should have won a handful of races in 1997, which he was also driving a car more fragile, and far more erratic than that of the F310B, B197 and FW/18 or 19 of that year - two words, car reliability, or lack of it.

Hanaa Mika and Hanaa Kimi!