yooogurt wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 10:02
Imagine if the stint on the medium was the last and the race started on the hard, would ppl say that McLaren was the fastest in the race?
I think that if you split the race into three parts, each was faster than a certain team's driver.
That's a very nice way to put it and indeed no one would have even questioned if RB20 is still the best out there in that case
AmateurDriver wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 11:45
So there are even tifosi not buying the usual, trite Ferrari propaganda. We are clearly missing something: this team can build a car that reach to within say 3 tenths behind the best in class (more or less what they're already achieving), but not much more. They lack some fundamental know-how to be truly eligible to win a title, they know this but it seems they are not exactly selling their souls to have it. Red Bull has it of course, McLaren got to acquire it by poaching Marshall from Red Bull. Ability to predict improvement in performance by Red Bull (new concept) and McLaren (recent upgrade) speaks loud: they know very well what they are doing. This weekend Ferrari was again disappointing, expecially in quali, despite a new package that -before being strategically downplayed- was worthy spending a filming day to pre-test: and at end of the day they came up saying, oddly enough we were weak in terms of EOS speed, but we were strong in turns. Come Montecarlo, where everyone one will be set up to maximize cornering and -I fear- they'll say the opposite. They are not to be blamed for failing to succeed: competitions is there with the same targets, and if rivals prove to be more capable you have to compliment them, rather then blaming your favourite team. But this attitude, promising when they know they can't keep, creating expectations just to tear them down when the "proof of the pudding" is imminent, that is simply irritating.
My friend, there is no magic button for success in F1. Todt, Schumi, Brawn and Byrne worked exceptionally hard for 4 years to make a team that would win 5 titles in a row - only 2 of which were truly dominant. They had infinite budget, testing and other resources at their disposal and no team can do this right now. They completely transformed the operations of a modern F1 team that also no one will be able to do today, due to massive budget constraints.
Red Bull was handed a huge advantage with TD39 and 2023 rule changes and they cannot ever thank Toto Wolff enough for this precious gift of easy 4x WDC and WCC from 2022-2025. The fact that Ferrari was basically 1s a lap bellow Red Bull in races last year and has cut it down ten times is absolutely stunning. McLaren did an equally stunning job during last year, but they had an even worse starting position and a lot more margin. They also carried out big internal changes and did away with James Key who was again the wrong person in the wrong position, before they managed to make a huge jump.
Binotto's Ferrari managed to make the best chassis before TD39, but failed massively with "upgraded" PU after Barcelona. Needless to say, they also failed spectacularly to win Monaco and Hungary (along with Barcelona and Baku) due to strategic incompetence, which carried over even last year. All those weak links have been replaced in the last 16 months since Vasseur took over. The result - an even better haul of points in every race compared to 2022, even though the car is not the best chassis in the field like it was in first half of 2022.
They are clearly the best team in optimising the results based on the capabilities of the car this year. Red Bull has a weak link in Perez and they keep him there to focus only on Max. McLaren is also more than happy to sacrifice Oscar almost every race to focus on Lando's results. Ferrari manages the strongest driver pairing on the grid and Vasseur makes sure they push each other to the limit and to try and further improve - without sacrificing the results of either driver.
What Ferrari managed to achieve so far this year, compared to how they finished 2023 as the clear 3rd best car and had many operational mistakes as recently as Texas GP, is nothing short of shocking. To jump over McLaren so convincingly in early races and now also to cut the gap to RB to 1 single tenth after the first batch of upgrades for both teams... No one would have believed this after Dutch GP last year.
It is completely up to you to continue denying the huge systemic and methodic progress they made since Vasseur joined, while some of us are enjoying this approach and know it will yield titles very soon.
LM10 wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 12:34
Vasseur is like a breeze of fresh air for this team and the Tifosi.
Four races from which the next one is Monaco where Red Bull will likely struggle (your analysis of them having issues when the track is not smooth has been spot on - Helmut Marko said they’ll struggle in Monaco over bumps and kerbs). Not sure about Ferrari’s pace there relative to McLaren, but I think Ferrari especially in the hands of Leclerc should be pretty OK there. What do you think?
Btw, seems like Red Bull once again was a step ahead and anticipated the importance of qualifying this season, changing the characteristics of their car.
Said a few weeks ago Ferrari will be closer to RB in Imola and Miami and they were. Also said they might be able to challenge for P1 in Monaco and Canada and I would only add to challenge Red Bull. For me, McLaren is an unknown right now, they may be able to step above RB in those two races. I think Piastri will surprise many people in Monaco, but we need to see how everything works for them, Miami updates improved the nature of their setup window in low-load configuration. Ferrari will need to focus 100% on Q and Leclerc needs to perform his magic in Q3 and it still may not be enough. A podium position though, should be reachable all in all.
Space-heat wrote: ↑20 May 2024, 12:52
Last years car was a monster in traction, was it not, I think we have dropped off a bit in slow corners and traction. I think RBR have been the best here this season. I would think Mclaren should be favorites here if RBR will struggle with bumps as some are suggesting.
What are Ferrari strengths, medium speed corners (1st/2nd), high speed (2nd/3rd), tire wear and maybe curb/non smooth tracks. Is there anything else the SF24 excels at?
It's not that the car is not good in traction now, it depends on the setup. Not even RB can be the fastest in high, medium and low speed sections all the time. In both Miami and Imola, RB and McLaren "sacrificed" a bit of speed in faster sections to improve in S2 and the overall gain worked well for them. In Australia, Ferrari was untouchable in S3 though and Sainz basically lost the pole in T9-10 chicane
Wings are quite ok, maybe the two-piece beam wing can be evolved or another spec introduced with bigger top element for a bit more rear downforce, but I don't think it would be a cost-efficient update. Then again, they might have something like that for Monaco already, so...
