Ferrari at Monza

DaveKillens · Post 24 Aug 2005, 18:19

Well, this is the big one for Ferrari. There are certain races a team looks forward to, and hope to do well. And of course, Ferrari and Monza are a no-brainer. The thousands (at times it seems like millions) of enthusiastic and wonderful Italian fans show up, and expect (some say demand) a red car to win.
So what are Ferrari doing? It looks like just about everything they can. Shu has cancelled personal time off to be testing, every available pilot will be testing for Ferrari, even Massa. Make no mistake, Ferrari are doing every short term fix they can, no one is taking any time away, because Monza is coming up.
So far this season, Ferrari's record has been dismal. They have only two good things to look forward to. First is to maintain third in the manufacturers' title, and second, maybe more important, is to do well at Monza. What probably makes matters more difficult is the fact is at Imola, Shu made the drive of the year, and captured an incredible second. Because of this partial success, the fan's expectations are high. To fail to meet their expectations will be a bad thing for Ferrari.
McLaren are pushing hard to overtake Renault and Alonso. Renault are diligently working to maintain a sane lead, and not make any major mistakes. And Ferrari, they have the greatest burden coming up.
To placate the tifosi.

jaslfc · Post 25 Aug 2005, 00:35

i think ferrari will perform much better in monza. they will use a similar or ungraded version of tires used in hungary. I think they may be able to challenge the renaults and maybe button but to catch kimi and mclaren will be a shumy miracle!! It hasnt rain this season yet. i think ferrari need to find a witch doctor to make it rain. then we can see ferrari do well!!

joseff · Post 25 Aug 2005, 10:45

Rain at Monza? You're kidding.

The screaming fans must be worth at least 0.5 seconds a lap.

Reca · Post 28 Aug 2005, 15:46

joseff wrote: Rain at Monza? You're kidding.

Actually, judging by the weather of the last couple of weeks, this year there’s an higher probability of rain compared with the previous ones. That’s the second weekend in a row that it rains a lot, last week it started Sunday morning and lasted till Monday night, this week it started yesterday (Saturday) at noon and stopped only this morning at 10 am. Weather has been quite instable in August, it was possible to have a sunny morning and rain in the evening or viceversa, just like today. It’s been quite a coincidence that it didn’t rain during this week of tests, just a tiny bit Friday morning.
Nevertheless I’d prefer a dry weekend for the GP. First of all for the drivers, Monza isn’t certainly the best track on the wet; considering the aero setup and the difficulties I’ve seen this week from some drivers, particularly at the first chicane braking and in the Ascari change of direction, even on the dry, many could have lot of problems to keep it on the track (Karthykeyan wouldn’t probably last 1 lap, more often than not he was locking the wheels and missing the apex at first chicane even while exiting from the pits...). Then the rain would be a big problem for spectators, to move in the park in these conditions isn’t certainly easy.

Scuderia_Russ · Post 28 Aug 2005, 16:18

Will you be in the stands next Sunday Reca? Be sure to post some pics if that's a yes mate.

pompelmo · Post 28 Aug 2005, 19:04

I hope it'll not rain..couse I'm going to monza to see the GP, and all hotels in radiouis of 100 km are booked..so I'll have to sleep in camp, and my tent is leaking..

jaslfc · Post 29 Aug 2005, 04:53

hopefully shumacher and button help kimi by finishing ahead of alonso.. im not a supporter for either kimi or alonso but hopes the title race goes down to the last race!!

Scuderia_Russ · Post 29 Aug 2005, 09:54

My sentiments exactly!

Reca · Post 29 Aug 2005, 10:57

Scuderia_Russ wrote: Will you be in the stands next Sunday Reca? Be sure to post some pics if that's a yes mate.

At the moment no and will probably remain this way unless a quantity of circumstances happen, but I don’t put lot of faith on it (they involve a friend of a friend who knows someone who works for a sponsor and a client who didn’t confirm his presence...).
Fact is that the difference between the two mornings I passed last week seeing cars continuously on the track, going everywhere I wanted to go and spending 0 €, and the amount of € I should spent for the privilege of sitting 1 hour and 15’ in a single place while mainly watching on a maxi screen the tv images I could see at home, is a bit too much for me to accept it.
Don’t get it wrong, to see a F1 race live is certainly something to do and I did, just I don’t feel the need to go each year, I prefer to go to races of lower series and watch the GP at home.

BTW, if the single chance over a million happens then I’ll certainly post some pics, for the moment, here a few more from last week, Ferrari only in an attempt to stay on topic...