Ferrari: Important to understand our mistakes
4 May, 2011
"Our car is rubbish, mate."
May.4 (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro & PVM) By their own admission Ferrari have performed way below their standard in the opening three rounds of the 2011 Formula 1 World Championship and the blame clearly lies with a car that has been no match for their pace setting rivals.
Nikolas Tombazis with Felipe Massa during testing in Barcelona earlier this year
Nikolas Tombazis, Ferrari’s chief designer does not pull his punches when describing the current mood within the squad, in a refreshingly honest and candid interview, on the eve of the Turkish Grand prix weekend.
“We are going through a difficult period and there is no point denying that our start to the season was a disappointing one,” was his first frank admission.
Ferrari have not been able to keep up with Red bull and McLaren, the team’s designer admits, “We hoped to be further forward, more competitive, but it was not the case,” said Tombazis. “The problem is linked mainly to the aerodynamics and can be divided into two parts. The first revolves around a lack of correlation between data from the wind tunnel and that seen at the track: we are reacting to correct this problem.”
Fernando Alonso in the cockpit of the Ferrari 150 Italia in China
dding, “Furthermore, we must admit that, even without this problem, we would not have been in a position to fight for the wins in the first three races. We have tried to see if our approach was too conservative and we realised that, for various reasons, we were neither reactive nor aggressive enough in the development stages.”
“We have made some adjustments to our working practices to try and focus much more on car performance: we have changed the working practice in the wind tunnel and in terms of the development of the aerodynamic design side. Based on this, I expect that the results of these changes should be seen in the upcoming races,” said Tombazis.
There will already be some new components in Istanbul, as he confirms, “The package was drawn up prior to the Chinese Grand Prix, therefore we have not been able to make significant changes to it in these past weeks. Definitely, we will have new wings, both front and rear and new brake ducts.”
Latest updates appear to be a step forward but the Tombazis down-played expectations, “Last week, we ran an aero test with Jules Bianchi at the wheel at Vairano. I can’t say if this step forward will be enough, but I do expect to see the consequences of this change in approach over the next few races, because clearly, if we want to close the gap, we have to do something over and above the norm.”
Fifth and sixth in Malaysia for Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso
Another criticism leveled at Maranello squad, in ever more strident terms, concerns lack innovation in the design of the Ferrari 150 Italia, compared to the bold steps taken by their rivals who have adventurously explored the cutting edge with their 2011 cars.
“Unfortunately, we cannot claim this accusation is entirely without foundation,” was Tombazis’ honest response. “At the moment, we don’t have a winning car and, on those of our competitors we can see innovative solutions introduced in a more aggressive fashion than we have done. Maybe we were a bit too passive in our approach: we did not push hard enough in some areas of development and unfortunately, the results can be seen on track.”
“Now we are reacting and we want to rediscover the spirit of innovation which maybe we have lost a bit over the past two years. Despite that, I am convinced that Ferrari will be competitive again. We have had a disappointing start to the season. In order to recover from it, I think it is important to understand what mistakes we made and we have analysed this with much honesty and open mindedness. I am therefore convinced that we can get back to winning again,” concluded Tombazis.
Related posts:
- Ferrari confident after Vairano test
- Sam Michael resigns from Williams
- Petrov: Pleased with my performance
- Alonso: Will to fight back by all at Maranello
- Massa: Nothing is one hundred percent clear
What I cannot understand is, plenty of times, they have said ‘We will be more innovative in the future’, and again and again… and AGAIN, they go conservative.
Old methods are good, but are limited. Innovation is the way to go in order to improve. If something fails at first, try again… if it doesn’t work, move onto something else.
just a little question: why did they realise to be less competitive than other teams after races have started? Maybe wind tunnel didn’t work propely? I’d like to say again: W Ferrari, but…