2025 Scuderia Ferrari F1 Team

[GrizzleBoy]

There's also the point about the car that supposedly was the lowest didn't actually have the best race pace.

[SB15]

What in god’s name are you talking about? That’s exactly what I mean when telling that some people without any clue make up things out of thin air. That’s extremely irritating.

What I’m talking about is the story of the moment. I’m not going to make up so asinine story if that wasn’t the case for the car because there no sense for me lying about the situation right now.

Also, yes it is extremely unlikely irritating because once again Ferrari are now going to struggle even more than they already are just to make sure their car passes legality checks.

You have no proof that Ferrari ran the car lower than any other team. Plank wear does not solely depend on ride height. Suspension setup plays a key role to name just another major factor.
Every team will run their cars as low as possible because that’s the whole physical sense of ground effect cars.

Stop making things up please.

Oh I'm making up stuff right now you say?.... Even though Ferrari raised the ride height right after the sprint? Okay, I'm going to say nothing and let the results speak for themselves come Japan, because a lot of tech analysts and reporters can draw the same conclusion I did.

Also, to say I'm lying and making up stuff is just incredibly arrogant because Ferrari would've been close to the fastest car on track in China if they kept the same setup from the Sprint Race. And Ride height equals tweaks to the suspension lol, where do you think an F1 car gets it's adjustments from? Especially when it comes to plank wear, which obviously plays a massive role in. How do you think Lewis was disqualified in 2023 at Austin with Mercedes? Mercedes stated they ran the right height to low lol, vs Verstappen's Redbull which minimal wear due to them having a much taller ride height vs the Mercedes and Ferrari that race.

Also, if Suspension setup plays a key role in your eyes, wouldn't that mean you're implying that their Suspension geometry maybe has a fundamental flaw? But I don't know I'm just making up stuff in your opinion because that could has some explanation as to why other cars weren't affected by plank wear as much as Ferrari.

I don't like arguing on something that doesn't need to be sugar coated. Not my fault, Ferrari hype themselves up soo much this off-season.

[DJ Downforce]

It could've been ride height. But it also could've been the stiffness of the suspension too. Maybe they ran too low and a little too soft. Hamilton mentioned he tried something that Leclerc had used in Bahrain and it didn't work - maybe that's what led to this?

[venkyhere]

My assumption is that they will need a totally new floor + diffuser to solve the issue so we might be in for a hell of a start unless the engineers figure out something ASAP

That's, in a nutshell, the essence of performance in this era. The better understanding and implementation of that, the better the performance.

Comes to the "classic" numbers in CFD & Tunnel vs the real world on track fluctuations in use.

It's easy when written, so hard to do though

If anything, the Chinese GP showed that 'it's not the car all the time, it's the driver as well'. LeClerc with missing downforce on the critical front left, had better tyre age on the M and H and was faster than Hamilton on both compounds. And didn't suffer plankwear. What does it say ?

1) LeClerc's 'lines' through T1-2-3 and T11-12-13 were far far better than Hamilton's (even in the sprint). I know it will hurt the fans of the 7 time WDC who is renowned as a tyre whisperer ('bono tyres are gone' and then doing the fastest lap on worn tyres) ; but on this occasion, the evidence is there to see. At one point Hamilton was asking his race engineer - 'where am I losing time to Charles' , when he could clearly see in his mirrors and in front of him, how leClerc was driving the variable radius long corners completely different to himself.

2) LeClerc and Hamilton were most probably running two different ride height and spring stiffness setups. Otherwise, leClerc should have shown more plank wear considering his H had shed more tread and must have been riding lower.

This car is second fastest when they get the set up right and not far behind the McLaren, they can take that as a positive along with Lewis' masterclass in the Sprint Pole and Sprint Win but thats about it

again, not trying to piss on the 'masterclass' , but running super-low for added downforce resulting in a mega sector2 and mega traction from T12-13, helped him a lot.Plus the advantage of clean air. Just calling it as I see it. Goes to show the exact opposite of my reply above - 'it's not the driver all the time, it's the car as well'.

I feel, emphatically, that Ferrari are not doing anything wrong in how they arrange their sprint setup. Morally or "legally" howsoever it's considered.

To put it another way:- how many engineers in all the teams will miss setup optimisation for what, 50/60kgs less start fuel weight ? I bet not one of them.

That weight carried at start of full race though .... probably where most of the plank wear takes place .... in the first half of race laps.

Lewis may have been too candid in revealing the setup change and its effects after the shift between the two events. Others are noticeably quite on this topic.

Hamilton said they raised the height post sprint, and despite that the plank wore more than what they accounted for. That means they got their 'suspension stiffness v ride height v fuel load v plankwear' equations wrong. Perhaps they overdid the ride height increase in Australia, and underdid the same in China. I know it's super difficult, but they are a top top F1 team. Such optimizations should be 'low hanging fruit' for the kind of expertise they carry.

The excessive plank wear only occurred on one car. That doesn't suggest a fundamental issue to me.

Bingo, this talk of push rod v pull rod being the root cause is all incorrect, IMHO.

[LM10]

Oh I'm making up stuff right now you say?....

Yes.

Okay, I'm going to say nothing and let the results speak for themselves come Japan

Ok.

And Ride height equals tweaks to the suspension lol, where do you think an F1 car gets its adjustments from?

I mean whether you run a softer or a stiffer suspension setup.

Also, if Suspension setup plays a key role in your eyes, wouldn't that mean you're implying that their Suspension geometry maybe has a fundamental flaw?

Absolutely not.

But I don't know I'm just making up stuff in your opinion because that could has some explanation as to why other cars weren't affected by plank wear as much as Ferrari.

As Matt-A said, the excessive plank wear only occurred on one car and as GrizzleBoy said, the car with the supposedly lowest ride height did not have the best race pace.
Charles did not have plank wear to the same extent as Lewis, but had the clearly better race pace with a damaged front wing on top of it.

[SB15]

Oh I'm making up stuff right now you say?....

Yes.

Okay, I'm going to say nothing and let the results speak for themselves come Japan

Ok.

And Ride height equals tweaks to the suspension lol, where do you think an F1 car gets its adjustments from?

I mean whether you run a softer or a stiffer suspension setup.

Also, if Suspension setup plays a key role in your eyes, wouldn't that mean you're implying that their Suspension geometry maybe has a fundamental flaw?

Absolutely not.

But I don't know I'm just making up stuff in your opinion because that could has some explanation as to why other cars weren't affected by plank wear as much as Ferrari.

As Matt-A said, the excessive plank wear only occurred on one car and as GrizzleBoy said, the car with the supposedly lowest ride height did not have the best race pace.
Charles did not have plank wear to the same extent as Lewis, but had the clearly better race pace with a damaged front wing on top of it.

Well man I can't say tell you or force you what you want to believe. So, we'll have to see until we go into Japan. Let me leave you with something that you need to remind yourself of:

It's one thing to be quick, it's another thing to see Max Verstappen who had no pace all race long, get pass with minimal effort. And Lewis pitted for no reason.

[Farnborough]

I can see your point venkyhere, but feel it unwise and risky to get into that driver yang ying in here.

What I can see though in technical terms was that 44 car simply weighed more as it didn't fail that test, we don't know by how much either.
It may have been set differently in absolute terms of mm suspension too, we have no realistic view of that to make quantitative driver effect statements.
The broken wing on 16 was still supporting load into the chassis somewhat competently, the proximity to the ground CAN give it advantage in pure ground effect as aero "ideal" and why they have very strong test for drooping of the wing across the car in scrutineering.

Those effects just cannot be qualified by us to make a driver judgement I feel.

Its very clear that the team where running too close to the margins to be safe, that's not in dispute. They do obviously have to chase down any route to maximise against other teams doing exactly the same. MB in Belgium and apparently Alpine here in the same relm.

I'm certainly of the opinion that this is going to bring big long discussion internally, and so it should. Hopefully they'll get something positive to impact their process from such a public failing.

[OverheatedTurbo]

If they made a peaky car that need a to be slammed to the ground for performance and if said car loses a lot of it when being raised…they may have a problem on their hands..

[McLarenHonda]

Meanwhile wasn’t their bad performance in Australia down to them having to run the car higher so that the plank doesn’t wear out?

[.Bole]

The excessive plank wear only occurred on one car. That doesn't suggest a fundamental issue to me.

Leclerc’s car wasnt checked for plank

[CjC]

I feel, emphatically, that Ferrari are not doing anything wrong in how they arrange their sprint setup. Morally or "legally" howsoever it's considered.

To put it another way:- how many engineers in all the teams will miss setup optimisation for what, 50/60kgs less start fuel weight ? I bet not one of them.

That weight carried at start of full race though .... probably where most of the plank wear takes place .... in the first half of race laps.

Lewis may have been too candid in revealing the setup change and its effects after the shift between the two events. Others are noticeably quite on this topic.

At the time of him saying it I don’t believe he knew that he was in ‘trouble’

[214270]

No LiCo instruction for LEC, HAM from 17

[Sergej]

So last week there were rumours that they were forced to raise the car due to plank wearing too much. PR Army rushed in assuring that it was only for a full wet setup, just to find out on Sunday that it was bulls*it.

Now Lewis gets DSQ for eccessive plank wear, I think 1+1=2.

If they've designed a car that for extracting full performance is forced to run at a height which plank cannot sustain, they are in big troubles.

[MattLightBlue]

Two positive things in this very bad weekend, from my point if view:

1. Leclerc showed great pace and confidence even with the broken front wing, which I heard should be around 20-30 points of lost downforce. Plank wear, however, could be influenced by aero load, so this was beneficial for Charles’ plank.

2. They are running the car so low to be out of rules, but no evidence of bottoming. Fixing the issue should be a matter of tuning the height of critical channels, not a complete rethink of the floor.

[Farnborough]

I feel, emphatically, that Ferrari are not doing anything wrong in how they arrange their sprint setup. Morally or "legally" howsoever it's considered.

To put it another way:- how many engineers in all the teams will miss setup optimisation for what, 50/60kgs less start fuel weight ? I bet not one of them.

That weight carried at start of full race though .... probably where most of the plank wear takes place .... in the first half of race laps.

Lewis may have been too candid in revealing the setup change and its effects after the shift between the two events. Others are noticeably quite on this topic.

At the time of him saying it I don’t believe he knew that he was in ‘trouble’

Yes, agree with you. Unfortunately everything is so much "in record" as the world is generally now, with often eye watering responses delivered from all corners of society.

I'm surprised they are willing to answer anything on camera etc that can then be used to bash them. It's a difficult scenario and one that perhaps only the most sharply dextrous socially can respond to in any sort of relaxed fashion. Its not their core fortè as racing drivers and feel that it winches up consequences to often unacceptable position.