2012 Indian GP: Qualifying Thread

[Rob]

How would you and a few others here have coped with very dry 14 years pre the Schumacher and Brawn era

spot on.

[MP081984]

Well friends, not that I don't hope anymore, but the title chances are slipping out of Fernando's hands. Even if he manages to win it this year, it'll be due to RBR's and McLaren car failures. Well, not that he didn't win in 2005 and 2006 due to luck, which was because of Kimi's car failures in 2005 and Michael's car failure at Suzuka and San Paolo.

But, like I've said countless times, we lack a true and charismatic team leader, the one that'll keep every bit of thing under control, which SD doesn't.

Everything has gone upside down since Todt left the team. The tunnel has broken, pit-stop failures until this year, slow cars and nothing innovative, nothing. Copy&paste from other teams. Look at Sauber, look how their management with the resources they have they squeeze them out to give the best car possible in their scenario, while we've been promised a damn fast car for last year, for this year, because, look, they stopped the development of previous cars to start from scratch etc etc.

Man, there is no direction in this team, there is no continuation, and I'm not talking about the crew, which is the best one in Formula 1, I am talking about managing this huuge project efficientlly and in the right direction. SD has been working for a life for Ferrari, I'm not blaming him as a professional, as a man, he's just not the right person, asset for such a task. He will be much more efficient in being something else, but not Team Principal.

There is no thinking outside the box, nothing innovative that'll put them to fight RBR toth to tooth every race and even be ahead, like we used to be. Domenicalli seems to me like a kind white rabbit next to the sharks from other teams in the paddock. It doesn't matter, cheat, do smth. illegal and cover it wisely like the RBR do, but do it, try it because after all this is the world of F1, where every bit of thing matters in the end.

So, to conclude all this - the problem is not in the car, in the wind-tunnel, in Felipe Massa, it's in the not up to the task head management.

Right on!!!

[stefa]

How would you and a few others here have coped with very dry 14 years pre the Schumacher and Brawn era

It is not 14. Sadly it was more. Last WDC for Ferrari was won back in 1979.

[Rob]

@dmkevin..

RBR have copied people this year, their nose, i mean underneath is bulged like we saw on Williams few races ago, helps making downforce on the front, their side pod gills on top, Mclaren. All teams copy each other. DRS, copied Merc, but not with the F/W

[stefa]

How would you and a few others here have coped with very dry 14 years pre the Schumacher and Brawn era

I have coped really OK.Because Ferrari was at that time mid field team. From time to time, they had good races, some poles, some wins, and that was it. No high expectations, because even Ferrari at that time didn't had high expectations.
Just watching Formula 1 races week after week, year after year, till someone finally sad it is enough to have Ferrari as such mid to low field team, and start building championship winning team. It took them a while but they brought us joy from 2000 till 2005. Even before and a couple of seasons after we were good.
And now it season like dry season is coming and it is here to stay.

[kiwifella]

Well, not trying to cause argument or be negative, looks like we'll be bridesmaids again this season. I honestly cannot see us coming back from this, as you could see with Fernando's body language post qualy.

We struggled because of a poor design in the first instance, we've lacked vision in terms of upgrades, and for the 2nd season in a row we've blamed the wind tunnel again.....

We've obviously not matched the work rate/vision/go forward that RB's have had this latter part of the season, and I get the feeling that if Finger Boy wins tomorrow, I'd say that will be the killer blow for us. We're now relying on something to go wrong during the races now, its frankly just not enough.

Shame really, Fernando should by now be 4 or 5 times World Champion.

All we can do is hope for the best and...........again..........see if we can pick up a podium to at least keep ourselves in touch.

[dmkevin]

pre schumacher expectation were never that high.. i supported them back then and is still... For them to move forward they had to take drastic measures.. getting brawn, todt, byrne to be at the top.. now they have gone back to the old days!!! So mate what i am doing is to wake them up again. Luca need to be more harsh on them highly paid, no good engineers... get them out new blood in. might take another 5 years but as long as we know that we have a good team behind then time we will give... but for now e know that the team are no good. Pat said it himself not blatantly but in his own words... whatever top processes you have, or state of the art structure... if you dont have the right people then you wont succeed. Currently we dont have the right people, maybe some need to go, new blood in... but We definitely need a leader like Horner, todt... not dominica, he is way to soft!!! we also need a top chief desgner, tomba maybe good when working under a top chief designer, but him as chief no good!!! he hasnt got what it takes.. Tell me how come a drink company is wooping our back side... they have no history!!! Thats because they innovate, take risk which they have been doing since they came in... took them 5 years to get there but they keep on innovating until they got it right... we lost 3 years trying to be 2nd not 1st... aim high, take 2 step backwards, try new things and keep at it.. maybe in 2 years time we will have a car that everybody would dream to drive... RB has the people to keep them there, and trust me they will be there for a long long time... 2014 might get us somewhere but with the current team i doubt it!!!!

[stefa]

Encouraging words from FA:

"I think it's more challenging for us now," he admitted, "but I remain 100% confident we will fight for the championship and we will win it.

"On Saturday they have the fastest car at the moment so they are first and second. One pole position is for [Mark] Webber in Korea and one pole position is for Vettel here so they are dominant as a team in performance. But I think on Sunday normally our pace improves a little bit and in Korea also we put some pressure on Webber especially.

"So let's wait for tomorrow. I think we can do a good race tomorrow and I still think we can take some good points tomorrow and hopefully more points than Sebastian. And then the next races we can hopefully be a little bit more competitive. The first target is to finish ahead of them tomorrow and I think we have the chance to do it."

[F1NAC]

Sent from my GT-I9100P using Tapatalk 2

yea for how long will 5th and 6th be a very good result while Vettel is 1st ?IT IS NOT GOOD ... yea poinst are on sunday but Vettel will be far away

[Rob]

@Stefa

People still think its those times. F1 is so close right now, times move on, Im used to highs and the lows, being Tifosi since 1982, yeah bit young to understand what was happening in the 80s but soon read and understood the problems and situations and i was old enough to understand. As i have said in post before, its happened to Williams, Mclaren Tyrell (in their day), us now, will happen to RBR soon, all goes round in circles. People (fans) have enough of RBR and Bernie and FIA do something to stop them, happened to us 2005, Mclaren 1999, you get the picture.

[wacc]

http://www.formula1.com/news/intervi.../10/13971.html

Excuses excuses and some more excuses...

p.s. It's striking for me that SD has just realized that the game has changed since 2008. Took him a while!!!

Have you even read it?

"Luca di Montezemolo once said that if Ferrari win they are heroes and if Ferrari disappoint they are idiots."

We can see even on this forum that di Montezemolo knows what he is saying.

[Rob]

Stefano Domenicali: “We were hoping to be able to start from the second row: that was our target. We didn’t manage it and that will make our race more complicated but it does not mean we have given up hope, far from it. As usual, tomorrow’s race will be long and tough on a track where overtaking is possible and where maybe, we could witness some different strategy choices to usual. Yesterday, we saw our race pace was reasonably good, but the others certainly didn’t seem to be lagging behind in this respect. Reliability, teamwork in the pits and on the pit wall, the start: the deciding factors will be the usual ones. We know it’s going to be hard and we will do our utmost to bring home a good result which will allow us to keep pursuing our objectives for the season.”

Pat Fry: “We were hoping to at least get our cars onto the second row, but we did not hit our target, even if we did get close. The result reflects our current potential, but in order to be where we wanted and where we were capable of being meant we needed to be perfect today and we weren’t. Sure, we want to have the quickest car of all and we are not there yet. We brought some updates for the car here: nothing revolutionary but it did produce a step forward, otherwise we would have been even further back, given that all the top teams are pushing to the maximum on development. Tomorrow’s race looks like being very interesting, partly because tyre degradation seems lower than usual. We must try and do everything perfectly to stay in the fight for the title right to the end. All of us, here at the track and back at the factory, are pushing as hard as we can to try and give our drivers the best car possible.”

Fernando Alonso: “We tried to get the most out of what we had, but there was no way we could be ahead of the Red Bulls and McLarens. In the end, fifth place is not so bad, because it would have been easy to end up even further back if anything had gone wrong. Clearly, finishing ahead of Red Bull is our aim, but today it was impossible to fight them, at least in qualifying: when we had a similar car, it was possible to fight with Vettel and we have even been ahead of them, but now we are fighting against Newey and, at the moment we cannot match him. We brought some updates here which have worked as we expected, but the others have also improved over these past two weeks: it’s down to us to bring something more significant for the final three races. I am not concerned nor demotivated, because I know that things can change very quickly and that high spirits on Saturday can easily turn to sadness on Sunday. We must try and make up places on the first lap and try to put pressure on our main rivals, ensuring they don’t have an easy race. There are sixty laps to work with and we will need to tackle each one as if it’s qualifying, by attacking. Clearly I hope I can soon have a more competitive car to try and fight them on equal terms on Saturday and not just on Sunday. I definitely am not the sort to give up and that’s my real advantage.”

Felipe Massa: “I am reasonably pleased with sixth place, even if maybe, but for a mistake at Turn 6 on my run in Q3, I could have started from further forward. In Qualifying Red Bull is faster, while McLaren was only just ahead and then it’s us: in the races, things are a bit different and we hope we can fight with these four cars for the top places. There are many key points for tomorrow: the start, strategy, tyre wear and not making mistakes. We will need to be very focused because it will be a very long race. Today, it wasn’t easy to put together the perfect lap, partly because the track surface was still quite slippery. We have brought updates here which seem to work, but maybe it’s not enough to be ahead of our closest rivals.”

[FA fan]

Truly encouraging words!! Should be a lesson to all pessimistic people on this site,Who say it's all over!
Well it's not all over,and I refuse to give up!! We fight till the end!!

[roddick_andy]

Yes we are fighting for the title courtesy ALONSO's superhuman efforts but also due circumstances(that favored us more) in each race--
Malaysia===WEATHER, alonso's great skills in rain, winning in pit lane(Vettel DNF)
Spain====Poor Q3 session for red bull and lewis getting a penalty!
Valencia===Vettel DNF else he would have win.
Silverstone===qualifying 1st(but in Wet)
Germany===qualifying 1st(but in Wet)
all other races were average or poor except MONZA...(where we could have won!!)

So i am just pointing that we were leading and fighting for WDC due to the circumstances even Alonso said that is was a "suprise" coming with a lead in WDC before Singapore Gp
And its just that our car is not good.
Note:with these points i am not expressing that what alonso did was a fluke but just it was all by chance bcoz of a poor car. I respect the man a lot ..
even more than schumacher!

One question mate while registering to this forum did you even notice the the tag line "the online voice of Ferrari f1" I for one never noticed any drivers name anywhere while registering, I am here just to support Ferrari period.

[FA fan]

People still think its those times. F1 is so close right now, times move on, Im used to highs and the lows, being Tifosi since 1982, yeah bit young to understand what was happening in the 80s but soon read and understood the problems and situations and i was old enough to understand. As i have said in post before, its happened to Williams, Mclaren Tyrell (in their day), us now, will happen to RBR soon, all goes round in circles. People (fans) have enough of RBR and Bernie and FIA do something to stop them, happened to us 2005, Mclaren 1999, you get the picture.[/QUOTE]

Well I certainly hope so! It looks highly unlikely for 2013,but hopefully starting 2014 with the new engine regulations there should be some changes in the positions! Hopefully red bulls down in the middle and lower positions!

[zike]

Truly encouraging words!! Should be a lesson to all pessimistic people on this site,Who say it's all over!
Well it's not all over,and I refuse to give up!! We fight till the end!!

What are you expecting they will say, we are all stupid and we are giving up, all they have are excuses.When do you think is enough?

[Rob]

@FA fan..

The aero is going to be less in 2014, smaller wings front and rear, putting more emphasis on engine and drive train, so yeah our time is coming.

[varun]

any chances of us moving up the grid tomorrow ? even with faster cars ahead of us?
and also considering there are 2 DRS zones?

[stefa]

@Stefa

People still think its those times. F1 is so close right now, times move on, Im used to highs and the lows, being Tifosi since 1982, yeah bit young to understand what was happening in the 80s but soon read and understood the problems and situations and i was old enough to understand. As i have said in post before, its happened to Williams, Mclaren Tyrell (in their day), us now, will happen to RBR soon, all goes round in circles. People (fans) have enough of RBR and Bernie and FIA do something to stop them, happened to us 2005, Mclaren 1999, you get the picture.

I get the picture. Since the same time we become Tifosi, I assume we are around same age (39 here ), and I fully understand the circle in sports. We were at the highest sport, now it is someone else, and it will go like that till the end of time. It is quite normal that Ferrari or any other cannot be winning every year championships. Simply cannot. I am OK with that. What bothers me is that I don't see Ferrari is coming close that that one we are chasing, and time waits for no one... Season after season... That is what hurts me the most!

[Rob]

any chances of us moving up the grid tomorrow ? even with faster cars ahead of us?
and also considering there are 2 DRS zones?

We are faster than RBR on the straights, (think i read that right earlier)

[anuragiyer8989]

any chances of us moving up the grid tomorrow ? even with faster cars ahead of us?
and also considering there are 2 DRS zones?

I think P5 is clean side....so yeah we can get past button and if hamster gets past webber than probably he'll go for the kill.....and we can take on webber on the straights....so yeah an interesting race coming up!

[varun]

We are faster than RBR on the straights, (think i read that right earlier)

yes but first we need to reach near them..first we need to pass mclarens and i hope vettel does not fly away by then (what he always does!)

[Rob]

@Stefa
this year we are close, closer than past 2 years, i think at this stage. RBR, as i have said, keeps moving the target. End of the day, Red Bull are in F1 for 1 thing, marketing. Imagine if the RBR started loosing, im sure Dietrich Mateschitz woud start to think twice about being in F1 still.

Im (34) started F1, love for Ferrari when i was 4.

[Rob]

yes but first we need to reach near them..first we need to pass mclarens and i hope vettel does not fly away by then (what he always does!)

Seems like they short gera ratios for SV for that reason, to get away quick and be quick out of corners, but tomorrow with Mclaren right behind them they should (hope) fight him into turn 4 and then we can get in there aswell. Think it be hard for SV to run away tomorrow (hope he will find it hard and have to race people)

[FA fan]

What are you expecting they will say, we are all stupid and we are giving up, all they have are excuses.When do you think is enough?

Well I think it will be over when it's mathematically impossible,I.e going to brazil with Sebastian more than 24 points in the lead,then it's over!! Till then anything can happen!! Dont you think I'm frustrated and hurt also,we wake up early race after race and year after year to win!! But the fact that is we have a fighting chance,and it's still possible,but really difficult! So just don't let go of hope.ITS HOPE THAT KEEPS US ALIVE!!

[varun]

@FA fan..

The aero is going to be less in 2014, smaller wings front and rear, putting more emphasis on engine and drive train, so yeah our time is coming.

Waiting for it then desperately... and seeing both Ferrari drivers on podium (whoa..btw its been a long time since 2 Ferrari drivers have been on the podium together!)

[wacc]

Seems like they short gera ratios for SV for that reason, to get away quick and be quick out of corners, but tomorrow with Mclaren right behind them they should (hope) fight him into turn 4 and then we can get in there aswell. Think it be hard for SV to run away tomorrow (hope he will find it hard and have to race people)

So let's hope there won't be yellows in DRS zone for the first 20% of the race like last time.

Both Ferraris are quite high in speed trap list

[Rob]

with the tow from Felipe Fernando hit 322 kph. We got the speed, just need to use that at the start.

[FA fan]

@FA fan..

The aero is going to be less in 2014, smaller wings front and rear, putting more emphasis on engine and drive train, so yeah our time is coming.

Thanks Rob feel better already:)

[M.K]

with the tow from Felipe Fernando hit 322 kph. We got the speed, just need to use that at the start.

Hope Mark gets in front of Vettel at start, would love to see how RB would play this and how Webbo would act + give us some chance. It's a shame his starts usually is far from good.