Ferrari pessimistic over podium prospects in Australia

BBC Sport Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/17252539

Spoiler:

Is this going to be another one of those seasons for Ferrari? Or our they going to have a Mclaren style season from last year?

If they don't do well this season I can see Stefano Domenicali being sacked at the end of the season.

I honeslty believe they are sandbagging. Ross Brawn thinks its going to be a tight season and I agree with him.

RedBull look worried and justifiably so. They not only have to worry about Mclaren and Ferrari but Renault and Mercedes too.

I can't wait

Belgarion of Riva wrote:I honeslty believe they are sandbagging. Ross Brawn thinks its going to be a tight season and I agree with him.

RedBull look worried and justifiably so. They not only have to worry about Mclaren and Ferrari but Renault and Mercedes too.

I can't wait

I completely disagree regarding Ferrari. They are well and truly off pace and consistancy compared to Red Bull & McLaren and testing is evidence of this. The drivers being withdrawn from media interviews tells us exactly how 'serious' there situation is. Why would they be sandbagging, the car is not slow, it's just unpredictable to read and lacking rear end downforce. They struggled to understand all the new components they have desperately thrown on the car over the winter in a stupid attempt to match Newey.......and it's blown up in there faces. I'm actually disappointed because I think a season where Alonso isn't competitive makes the F1 season much poorer and I'm a Hamilton fan saying this.

As for Red Bull being worried......I think that's a hopeful comment BoR. The season will be tighter but more in the midfield bunch in my opinion

Hmm. Most pundits and analysts say you can conclude very little from testing.

However, something that did get my attention were comments in the testing live text, about the Ferrari being unpredictable. They almost sound like Jenson Button over the last couple of seasons, when he talked about the McLaren being great during one session then awful the next.

I'd guess they do have some genuine problems to iron out - not that surprising given how radical their design is. They can afford to be off the pace for a couple of races, (or longer, if no one team dominates), but their design boffins will need to have the car sorted before the halfway stage of the season, if they're to seriously challenge for the title.

Even without the technical issues, I think everyone (including the bosses at Ferrari) need to consider this could be one of the closest seasons in recent history, with Renault and Mercedes looking to gatecrash the podium parties.

Belgarion of Riva wrote:I honeslty believe they are sandbagging.

I agree, they have not been too bad and have been making out things are really bad... I think its a new design so currently they have just been taking care of the important things and have not really gone for lap times yet... I think there is allot more under the hood to come..

If you have watched testing and practice you can see clearly that the car is on the ragged edge. There is no consistancy with this car with a lack of rear downforce, resulting in continous sliding out of the corner as they put the power down early which is going to almost certainly destroy the tyres. The interesting part though is that the car does actually appear to have speed, what's required is for the team to understand how all the components interact with each other - unfortunately that takes time......which they don't have.

I desperately want Alonso to be competitive because without him the F1 championship is much poorer. Given time, I hope Ferrari can turn this around, however as we've seen before playing catch-up rarely ends with success in terms of titles. Your 'sandbagging' beliefs just cannot be backed up in any way shape or form, they don't understand the car and have openly admitted it. I still think they will easily qualify top 10 on a single lap race pace, however come Sunday the truth and reality of the situation may well appear.

John wrote:If you have watched testing and practice you can see clearly that the car is on the ragged edge. There is no consistancy with this car with a lack of rear downforce, resulting in continous sliding out of the corner as they put the power down early which is going to almost certainly destroy the tyres. The interesting part though is that the car does actually appear to have speed, what's required is for the team to understand how all the components interact with each other - unfortunately that takes time......which they don't have.

I desperately want Alonso to be competitive because without him the F1 championship is much poorer. Given time, I hope Ferrari can turn this around, however as we've seen before playing catch-up rarely ends with success in terms of titles. Your 'sandbagging' beliefs just cannot be backed up in any way shape or form, they don't understand the car and have openly admitted it. I still think they will easily qualify top 10 on a single lap race pace, however come Sunday the truth and reality of the situation may well appear.

From what i have picked up from the team, there is no concern with the car being ragged or inconsistent, as you are going to pick up on negatives in testing as normal.. and in practice today the weather was not really doing any team any favors.. Ferrari seem to be building it from the ground up and more focused on creating a car that can reach its full potential rather than clock up impressive lap times in testing and win the first race.. this is not to say that they are not confident in their package.. last year they had a good testing but a poor season... The last testing sessions where not bad for both Massa and Alonso and the car looked decent, just not quickest.

I think they are more confident than people think, but just feel the first race might have come a little too soon, I would not shy away from a bet on Alonso being on the podium though.

there is also a bit of PR going on with some rubbish about them not being about to talk to the media, when they have actually done so... which leads me to believe their are some mind games going on..

if they were really worried they would have done a few low fuel flying laps to look good, but they have done very little of that.

I've watched more F1 races than you've probably had hot dinners! Ferrari are in a difficult situation, I'm not picking up on the negatives. I'm focusing on the reality of the situation.......something you clearly don't want to. Your prediction of Alonso being on the podium just shows how out of touch you are with Ferrari's situation and that you clearly had not witnessed the problems and issues the team and drivers have experienced throughout testing and practice. Qualifying has also proved further evidence of Ferrari's dire early season predicament. If you think Ferrari have 'no concerns' then you clearly don't share the same same expectations and high standards that this great F1 team hold.

Don't worry john. I'm sure tunes will...er "change his tune" after he's watched the qualifying highlights.

Must admit I was shocked and disappointed. I didn't think they would be struggling to that extent. Looks like its going to take a Herculean effort on the part of the engineers to get them back into contention.

I will "change my tune" in a couple races time...

John wrote:I've watched more F1 races than you've probably had hot dinners! Ferrari are in a difficult situation, I'm not picking up on the negatives. I'm focusing on the reality of the situation.......something you clearly don't want to. Your prediction of Alonso being on the podium just shows how out of touch you are with Ferrari's situation and that you clearly had not witnessed the problems and issues the team and drivers have experienced throughout testing and practice. Qualifying has also proved further evidence of Ferrari's dire early season predicament. If you think Ferrari have 'no concerns' then you clearly don't share the same same expectations and high standards that this great F1 team hold.

I was not interested in having a who has watched the most F1 races competition, especially as you have no idea how many I have watched.

When you make out that me saying Alonso had a chance for the podium was a baseless prediction, that's complete Love sacks, in the last two tests on the final day he clocked up the second fastest lap where the car actually looked pretty good while other times being around 4th or 5th. And in practice one and two despite dodgy conditions he finished 4th. So for me to not right off a top three position is hardly fantasy as you make out.

I maintain that the Drivers were not facing as many problems and issues that you have insisted they have in testing, while they were clearly short of a bit of speed.

As for today you can gloat all you like but the drivers have said that the Car felt worse than it did in testing... which would indicate that in testing it was not so bad, as you have said..

So lets give it a couple races and see if the team are still in a crises as you have implied.

I will say that McLaren look very strong as I thought they would, and we will find out it Ferrari have got more potential to unlock.

I have simply pointed out that Ferrari have built a completely new car from the ground up and have made no secret to the fact that they need more time, while I had a feeling maybe they had a bit more up their sleeve than they were showing, this does not mean that they are lost at sea.

I think you would maybe like that to be the case so have been to eager to right them off

Slice of humble pie Tune?

Ferrari are in real trouble at the mo, BUT im sure as the season progresses they'll add new parts to the car that will improve it - you would hope so anyway. Though races are time and everyone where they perform badly means they'll fall further down the WDC and WCC rankings.

Actually I was quite happy with 5th, and how the car looked better in the race. Like I say, I will eat humble pie after the Spanish result

Admittedly I am disappointed that they have not hit the ground running for the reasons you have said...

Well Alonso did better than expected, but still looked vunerable. Massa - well he's a shambles.

Today just showed how superb Alonso is as a driver. He took that dog of a car to 5th place today and truth be told, that was the drive of the day.

LH was sensible today, bring the car home, get as many points as possible, there will be other opportunities for race victories.

A truly excellent drive today from Jenson, top performance

Ferrari were awful on it's tyres it has to be said even though it’s not a circuit that’s particularly hard on tyres. I think Ferrari were extremely lucky as they have severe issues with rear downforce and rear tyre wear. The front-left tyre is subjected to a lot of stress throughout the lap at Melbourne and it is the front's which are more prone to wear due to the circuit design. Another important area is the braking zone between turns 14 and 16, which loads the front of the car heavily leading into a chicane with tight right-angle corners before the main straight.

Ferrari performed relatively well in Australia due to the rear tyres not being punished to the extent it would at other races. From testing, practice, qualifying and throughout the race it was clear the Ferrari has aerodynamic problem's through a lack of downforce and also mechanically through lack of traction at the rear which results in tyre wear to extreme levels. On tracks which are notoriously much harder on the rear's then Ferrari are going to struggle even more in my opinion. Alonso is just class and clearly the most complete driver on the grid but that car is dreadful. To be hounded by a Williams said it all in the end regarding Ferrari's issues as a whole.

It seems that Ferrari handle better on higher full loads... which seemed to be the case last year and a little the year before..

Alonso had an ok car during the race, it just seems like straight line speed is a problem .. simply not fast enough..

Massas car was all over the place.. why always him?

Next race wont be much different apart from the characteristics of the track maybe making a differences..

In Spain the team will have some major up grades.. They need someone like Mercedes to have a good weekend of even Red bull, just so McLaren do not pull away to much..

Little harsh on Williams there John.

Even Bruno Senna managed a fastest lap that was on a par with Rosberg's and Raikkonen's, which shows the car has genuine pace.

I prefer to think that a relative rookie in a very decent Williams was able to take the fight to a superb driver in a below-average (by their standards) Ferrari. Maldonado actually managed a fastest lap that was fractionally quicker than Alonso's best.

tunes666 wrote:It seems that Ferrari handle better on higher full loads... which seemed to be the case last year and a little the year before..

Alonso had an ok car during the race, it just seems like straight line speed is a problem .. simply not fast enough..

Massas car was all over the place.. why always him?

Next race wont be much different apart from the characteristics of the track maybe making a differences..

In Spain the team will have some major up grades.. They need someone like Mercedes to have a good weekend of even Red bull, just so McLaren do not pull away to much..

Their straight line speed may have been affected by running more wing than they normally would, to compensate for their handling problems, trying to stop the car sliding around once the fuel stopped having an effect.

I think until Barcelona, its going to be another 2-horse race between Red Bull and McLaren. No-one else looked close to them.

In regard to Williams their very happy with their pace and expecting to continue to be up there at Malaysia and apparently aren't too far from Mclaren's and RB's optimal pace

Just a shame Pastor stuffed his car on the last lap. That one points finish would have topped Williams' total for last season.

Lets hope he learns to stay out of trouble and that Senna finds a touch of his uncle's genius. I'd love to see Williams in the top 10 on a regular basis and now it seems they have the car to do it.

Ok, so I will pass on that humble pie

Spanish Grand Prix is here, and Alonso finished 2nd with a notable improvement with the car as they seem to be getting to grips with it.

Joint top, not bad considering such a slow start.

Fingers crossed the Car continues to get better. Just a shame Massa is still there, sorry to say.

McLaren still have the quickest car I think but the gap is getting smaller, and with so many teams looking quick..

I dont think the car was as bad as they made out. Certainly from Malaysia onwards.