Ferrari boss agrees with Alonso that car is not good enough

[PURE PASSION]

Fernando Alonso at Silverstone
Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali has refused to rebuke Fernando Alonso for questioning the lagging development of the tream’s 2013 car.

Spaniard Alonso qualified tenth but finished the British Grand Prix in third place, taking a bite out of Sebastian Vettel’s championship lead after the leading Red Bull broke down at Silverstone.

“We saw this weekend that the pace is not good enough,” he said afterwards.

Earlier, Alonso had pointed a finger at a trend of backwards development coming out of the Maranello factory.

“Fernando’s analysis is one that I share,” team boss Domenicali told the Italian newspaper La Stampa. “We have made the car worse.

“Now we need to analyse all the data to find the reasons for this step backwards, and [find] a solution. The drivers are in a difficult position psychologically, so it’s important to reassure them,” he added.

Domenicali also put his support behind Brazilian Felipe Massa, who has suffered multiple crashes in recent races, including yet another in Silverstone practice.

Some have suggested that the accidents are denting Massa’s chances of a 2014 contract.

“He needs to feel the confidence of the team, so that everything can be perfect in the next races,” said Domenicali. ”Adding pressure serves neither the driver or the team.”

[demon2424]

I think Felipe Massa will leave the team after this year. All the bad luck is going to him. All because of Pirelli. :(

[Nero Horse]

Let the senseless team bashing and sacking talk begin...

[Hornet]

The car certainly did looked worse. The hot weather was no help to us on race trim like what we hoped for. Car looks twitchy all weekend. Martin Brundle reported that the car has poor balance through the fast corner

This is strange considering that we did so well in Barecelona

[Meiga]

Let the senseless team bashing and sacking talk begin...

Yay! Time to bring this thread back to life... http://www.thescuderia.net/forums/sh...-Sack-them-all

[Ferrarichamp]

Ferrari has a right to sack people and they've done it before (eg. Dyer and Costa). I'm sure if things don't improve some heads will roll sooner or later.

[zike]

“We have made the car worse." we are currently the only team capable of such extraordinary feat

[Rob]

“We have made the car worse." we are currently the only team capable of such extraordinary feat

Mclaren have done it other teams do it aswell.

[Tony]

Let the senseless team bashing and sacking talk begin...

LOL +1!

[Tony]

Mclaren have done it other teams do it aswell.

Exactly, McLaren were the fastest team (certainly on par with Red Bull at the very least) down the stretch last year and look at them now...

[Hornet]

My biggest concern would be the long standing issues Ferrari have been facing, such as the ability to get the tires up to optimum temperature, which is probably a huge factor contributing to the other long standing issue being qualifying pace. While I don't expect any team to be 100% perfect (or at least not all the time), I would prefer the idea of being able to conclude older chapters and moving on to new challenges.

It's normal face new challenges as every team pushes for new ideas. But it's more concerning when we have long standing issues constantly lingering around.

As for McLaren, they got into the trouble this year primarily due to their new front pull rod suspension.

Whitmarsh said the decision to switch to a pull-rod front suspension layout had been particularly costly for the team this year.

"It's primarily the front," he said. "The suspension systems front and rear are quite different. The front suspension connects and holds the wheels on the car, as you know, but it is also right in the wake and wake management of the front wing and that's had quite a big influence on what we are doing and that knocked on to a whole development path that I think at one stage was quite wrong."

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

That is the impression i got too, the car hasn't been itself in Silverstone and in Canada. But didn't the team say in Canada that the updates worked? Something doesn't seem right, at the start of the season the team praised the car's balance and in Spain the car worked wonders around the high speed turns, I wonder what's changed. What's more annoying is that every time the team is expected to make a move forward they actually go backwards. This has happened far too often, most notably after the summer break during SPA time. I hope it doesn't happen again, the team cannot afford to commit similar mistakes.

[shamim179]

McLaren got it wrong with their base car this year but since then they have been constantly improving it. The fact that we bring in so many development parts race after race suggests that we are working hard but not getting the results. It's a bit like a student just spending a few minutes for the exam but gets a 99% mark and another student studying everyday but just barely passing the exam. We saw that last year that we have trouble fine tuning the smaller upgrades that is but are ok with the larger upgrades. Until we get to the bottom of this we will always trail the leaders even if we start with a good baseline car. We can of course turn things around but it is a reoccurring problem so something is wrong here.

[Salvador Dali]

That is the impression i got too, the car hasn't been itself in Silverstone and in Canada. But didn't the team say in Canada that the updates worked? Something doesn't seem right, at the start of the season the team praised the car's balance and in Spain the car worked wonders around the high speed turns, I wonder what's changed. What's more annoying is that every time the team is expected to make a move forward they actually go backwards. This has happened far too often, most notably after the summer break during SPA time. I hope it doesn't happen again, the team cannot afford to commit similar mistakes.

I have been thinking in the same line as you. One thing I can think of is that when you add more complex elements that work in smaller and smaller operating window the whole car becomes less stabile (maybe they even loose some DF and/or gain drag) outside those windows. It's like with the tyres in the right operating window they work very good, but outside... And this margin is getting smaller and smaller on all the parts of the car. And now think of all the combinations...

I just can't believe we made a mistake again - it's the same thing as last year only reversed.