Scuderia Ferrari 2013

[ecapox]

A little pickup from work from the big boss woman's office.



A lot of novice F1 and Ferrari information in it to get the noobs up to speed, but cool none the less.

[WhiteBlue]

..I am led to believe that its a non Pirelli test. No black and yellow, more blue ..

You are talking Michelin blue, are you?

...has been testing this week at Magny-Cours with a 2011 car to complete a programme to check its simulator and track correlation. The test is taking place on Pirelli’s demonstration tyres, and the team has completed the necessary approval process with the FIA for running the car.

Keith Collatine is usually right, but never say no. It is a bit strange that Ferrari who own two test tracks smack at their doorstep have to hire the Magny Cours circuit to conduct correlation tests. What kind of sense makes that? on the other hand if Michelin were to conduct secrete tyre tests, Ferrari could run a few laps on Pirelli demos and switch over to unmarked Michelins. Magny Cours is in France where Michelin and the FiA have much more opportunity to keep certain things secrete than in Italy. What if there were a bunch of French accent speaking folks around that test? In France it would be natural.

[Kiril Varbanov]

I hope to be able to provide insight before the summer break on F138 with words directly from Ferrari's aero department - I will let you know in the respective thread.

In the mean time, I've talked to Rodi Basso, who is a motorsport coach, ex-Ferrari and Red Bull race engineer. I wanted him to comment on the Alonso's manager talks with Red Bull in Hungary and since the topic isn't entirely proper for my 'F1 Framework' blog, I thought I should share it here. Rodi says:

In general, a driver is like a customer. When you promise something to a customer but you can not guarantee the promised product level, the customer gets upset. I have the feeling the far too many hopes and expectations have been promised to Alonso but few have been achieved. As a customer would do, the driver tends to damage the Team's image to protect his (think of tripadvisor's comments on restaurants...). Then every person has his own way to react. Alonso chose his reaction according to his nature. His reaction in Ferrari is not acceptable. Ferrari remains a myth. A human being is not allowed to destabilize its reputation. And there is where the change of TD is coming from and I have the feeling that it won't be the only change in the next few months.

My analysis on the situation, also shared and agreed with Adam Cooper - could Alonso really go to Red Bull, is this possible:

1. Will Vettel want Alonso? I’m rather reluctant to accept that. That brings the subsequent question – is Vettel ever going to join Ferrari? Perhaps yes, if they have good post-2014 engine+ package.
2. Alonso is tired, IMHO. Sending samurai phrases over Twitter is just a corporate responsibility. However, he has already has that “they need to do something”, as opposed to the usual “us” – I think that was Germany post-Q.
3. Alonso certainly has out-of-contract performance clause – he’s a racer and I think he has had enough.
4. It is highly unlikely that Ferrari are going to produce something -0.5 seconds after the summer break. Even if they do, the rivals aren’t in hibernate mode – they will need clear second to get ahead of Mercedes and Lotus. The title fight is over for Scuderia, and Alonso knows that.
5. It is possible that he was just showing SF that he’s not bound to wait them forever, and thus asked his agent to appear in public.
6. I’m personally not ruling out a preliminary contract signing – that has happened many times.
7. Alonso will be a great asset to the team – he has already shown good marketing and PR exercises with Ferrari – the enormous amount of events Red Bull does over the world will have new ambassador...
8. ...but, Ferrari have been fast to announce Allison - a clear sign of reorganization and reinforcement, just to assure people actions are being taken.
9. Last but not least, Alonso and Santander is a strong relationship.

Based on all these (personal thoughts) I’d rather say that Alonso to Red Bull is possible in theory, but unlikely to happen. So is Kimi back to Ferrari.
Interesting times are ahead and I will be following the situation closely as it is going to be a huge shake-up of the status quo.

[bhall]

Am I the only who thinks this whole thing with Alonso, or the need for radical change at Ferrari, is a tempest in a teapot?

From 2010, Ferrari has been the only team to consistently mount serious challenges to Red Bull - and their gratuitous use of off-the-books funding, I might add - for the Championship. In fact, were it not for Alonso's inability get around Petrov at Yas Marina in 2010, or his spot-on impression of a kamikaze at Suzuka last year, he could easily be a four-time World Champion right now. In other words, he's been given ample opportunity to succeed, so I'm not entirely sure where such bitter discontent could come from.

Or maybe the press, and certain fans given to histrionics, are just bored these days and need something to do?

[FoxHound]

@bhall

I think Alonso may just want to make life a little easier for himself.
2 oppurtunities he had yes, but the 2 examples you gave where 2 examples of inconsitency in 2 very consitent seasons.

[TzeiTzei]

I dont see it that way. IMO it's thanks to Alonso that they have even been a championship contender in the recent years.

[bhall]

I'm not trying to take anything away from Alonso; I actually think he's probably the best driver in the field, and I wouldn't necessarily mind seeing him drive for Red Bull. (I'd love to see if their young German is as good as he's supposed to be.)

I just think the current "situation" at Ferrari and with Alonso is much ado about nothing. Bar 2011, Ferrari has produced the most competitive machinery available outside of that supplied by Red Bull Technology. All things considered, that's not bad.

[radosav]

I think Ferrari will try to get Kimi alongside Fernando, so if they produce bad car next year they will make it look better and it will rise Ferrari WCC chances !

[FoxHound]

Fernando should stick it out for 2014, see what Allison brings to the table.
They have their turbo v6 engines and energy recovery systems in house which could also help the team beating red bull.
How much of an advantage if any is anyone's guess, as chatillon work so closely with Red bull.

The more you look at it, the more the Alonso story is designed for kimi to get a hurry up and agree to the switch.

2015 could be the year Alonso rides a taurine tinged bovine.

[Kiril Varbanov]

Alonso is not going anywhere, according to Briatore, who was talking to Gazzetta Dello Sport, as I also indicate in my early analysis.
Such driver outbursts are totally normal, and it seems that the situation over there is quite nervous. This isn't going to get them anywhere, but at the same time I think they know the 2013 is lost for them. My part-by-part analysis will be following soon on the car thread.

[donskar]

IF there is a crisis at Ferrari, its cause is clear and obvious -- anything less than first place is unacceptable. That has always been true at Ferrari, going all the way back to Enzo.

[Richard]

Sorry guys, there was an outburst of spurious "proof" by statistics. We get selective datasets, in this case ignoring a championship year. We can also debate the validity of including a number 2 driver, or should we only include the fastest in each race, blah blah blah.

Then we get arguments that if you stare into the sun and then squint into a darkened cave you can convince yourself that sunspots on your retina PROVE your preferred gifted driver managed to increase the top speed of the car by through telekinesis. Meanwhile there will be an argument that a driver who lost the WDC by 1 point thanks to bad timing of his pitstop is in fact inferior to every other driver on the grid as proven by a hokum-pokum quotient of 73.5476, of course the quotient isn't given for any other driver.

As if to prove my point, when we apply the methodology that "proves" Ferrari were useless, it turns out to prove that they were second only to RB. What a waste of forum space, I've deleted the lot.

Game over, take the statistical self gratification somewhere else.

[godlameroso]

I wonder if Jenson Button would replace Alonso should he move next year, after all he does have Santander sponsorship as well.

[beelsebob]

I wonder if Jenson Button would replace Alonso should he move next year, after all he does have Santander sponsorship as well.

I doubt that Ferrari would see him as matching their image. I suspect Ferrari would try for Kimi, fail, and then try for a promising mid field driver. My personal bet would be on DiResta, though either Hulkenburg, or Ricciardo wouldn't surprise me.

[SectorOne]

Alonso playing mind games with Ferrari. He simply wants Ferrari to know that he will bounce if the opportunity should arise.
This is obviously not true as he said himself he´s content with retiring at Ferrari but would serve as a little fire under Monte´s butt who knows that without Alonso, Ferrari will be nowhere.

It is afterall his fourth year with Ferrari, not far off the time Hamilton spent with Mclaren. And that´s with no title at all.