Hamster
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F1 2023
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Hamster
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I'd take Maldonado over Zhou, Tsunoda and Stroll.
Dave
Honorary Master
Just rename F1 to bloody IndyCar 2.0.
They're killing innovation. That rear wing never helped AMR one bit, and how many times was Merc overtaken by RBRs and Ferraris this season?
Naks
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Naks
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OPINION: What is wrong with Scuderia Ferrari? https://racedebrief.com/opinion-what-is-wrong-with-scuderia-ferrari/
" The TL;DR Version
I know most of you probably don't have the time or patience to read through the detailed review, so here's a quick summarization of the article:
The Good Things
Ferrari has faced a lot of criticism for their mistakes this year, and rightfully so. But we must also appreciate their effort that brought them close to title contention early in the year.
Engine Development: The turbo hybrid era was mostly dominated by Mercedes with their extremely powerful power unit, and everyone was left in the dust. After their engine scandal in 2019, Ferrari had the slowest PU in 2020, but they took that challenge well, and were 3rd in the Constructors' in 2021, and had the fastest PU in 2022.
A "no blame policy": Okay, maybe this one hurt them a bit. However, instead of there being no fix to a problem the team faced as blame was just tossed around, Ferrari did fix some things this year.
Aerodynamics: Ferrari had a great car in the corners this year, a long shot from the early turbo hybrid era cars which lacked cornering speed a lot of the time.
The Bad Things
It was a disastrous year, really, for a team that looked like it could end its sabbatical from the top of the world championship after a wait of 15 years for the WDC, and 14 for the WCC. But, those things were not meant to be.
Reliability: This is, perhaps, not entirely a bad thing if seen as a long term plan. The engine development freeze this year meant that teams could not work on performance anymore, just reliability improvements. Thus, Ferrari took the gamble on performance at the cost of reliability. Rumors (again, rumors, not facts) have been floated around that they ahead to run their car under their maximum performance for the latter part of the year in fear of reliability issues. However, this lost them and their customer teams a lot of points, as their engines blew up quite regularly.
A draggy car: The Ferrari, while a beast on slow corners, was left lacking on low downforce circuits, especially towards the end of the season. Belgium was particularly disastrous in this manner.
A qualifying car: The Ferrari was adept at getting its tyres into the right temperature window quicker than all other cars. As explained in this amazing article by Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola, the Ferrari's brake design meant that the tyres heated up quicker. However, this meant that they suffered from extreme tyre degradation on long stints. While track position would have been a massive advantage in most other years, the new regulations made following a lot more easier and thus, on most days, the Ferrari lost out in that regard to its competitors. This led to a pretty disappointing stat for Leclerc too. Max Verstappen is more likely to win from a Leclerc pole than he is.
Miscommunication: Communication is key within a team, and yet, this was perhaps Ferrari's most glaring weakness this year. From the Monaco pitstop confusion, to asking to pit while battling with Perez in France and the " ... question?" saga in Belgium, Ferrari's communication was all over the place.
Strategy: Ferrari using really bad strategies isn't new. It has probably been the biggest barrier to them winning championships in the last decade. And this year was no different. Wrong tyres, poor tyre management throughout the weekend, and pitstop issues lost the team a lot of points, only to be compounded by the aforementioned miscommunication. In this regard, however, Sainz did a better job by being assertive about his strategy than his teammate, Leclerc, who just followed the team's orders for the most part. The team's preference for pre-determined strategies was also mocked this year, with the infamous "Plan A", "Plan B" etc relayed between the drivers and the teams. Having a general plan is a great idea, but adaptability is key.
Driver Priority: We don't like team orders. They take away the fun of racing between teammates, which is especially fun because it's the same machinery for both. It is where driver skill makes the difference. But perhaps, when you are marred by other weaknesses, you sometimes have to make compromises, and Ferrari could push Leclerc into title contention. From race results to lap times, it was clear since the beginning that Charles Leclerc was a better driver, atleast with the F1-75. While Carlos seemed to get more comfortable with the car as the season progressed, he still couldn't entirely close the gap to his teammate. Sometimes, to win, you have to prioritise the better driver as well. I understand Ferrari has been marred by the memories of "Fernando is faster than you" in an era that was illegal, and perhaps doesn't want to live through those memories again. Sometimes, you just have to push to the limits to win in F1. Sometimes. Yes, what Ferrari did was the ethical thing to do, but it did not benefit them, and perhaps hurt their faster driver emotionally, who was held behind his slower teammate in many occasions, most notable Silverstone.
This was, perhaps, reflected in the development direction as well, as the car lost its oversteery characteristics that suited Charles, and moved towards a more understeery design which Carlos likes.
Ignorance: This is, perhaps, a more emotional criticism than an event-centric one or a fact-centric one. Throughout the year, both the team principal and the management constantly told the press that they weren't doing anything wrong and it was just bad luck, and that the press was over-criticizing them. That is not the right approach to have. They should look at Red Bull and Mercedes, two extremely efficient championship winning teams that are not afraid to admit fault.
Yes, a zero blame culture does mean you don't point a finger at any one, but it also means that you work on accepting a mistake and fixing it. Now, of course, we do not know anything that happened inside Ferrari, and they might have been working on solving their problems, which is good. However, denying the truth can sometimes create a wrong state of mind, a state of arrogance, which is unhealthy.
The Team Principal
As of writing this articles, rumors are afloat the Mattia Binotto, who was Ferrari's team principal this year, is likely to be replaced. However, it is my opinion that changing the team principal will not solve any of Ferrari's problems.
Ferrari's problems are probably deeper than just the team principal. They've changed team principals over the years, but to no avail. The culture around Ferrari is of pride, and rightfully so. However, the past doesn't win laurels for the present. A culture of "we can not do anything wrong" is probably not the best to have. Binotto's leadership has seen a significant improvement in the culture at Ferrari, and that is a good thing. I'm not defending him here, either, he is a man of many mistakes. But the blame for Ferrari's poor season does not lay entirely on him. The politics of Ferrari are a well known tale, and perhaps, he's just another scapegoat. ..."
" The TL;DR Version
I know most of you probably don't have the time or patience to read through the detailed review, so here's a quick summarization of the article:
The Good Things
Ferrari has faced a lot of criticism for their mistakes this year, and rightfully so. But we must also appreciate their effort that brought them close to title contention early in the year.
Engine Development: The turbo hybrid era was mostly dominated by Mercedes with their extremely powerful power unit, and everyone was left in the dust. After their engine scandal in 2019, Ferrari had the slowest PU in 2020, but they took that challenge well, and were 3rd in the Constructors' in 2021, and had the fastest PU in 2022.
A "no blame policy": Okay, maybe this one hurt them a bit. However, instead of there being no fix to a problem the team faced as blame was just tossed around, Ferrari did fix some things this year.
Aerodynamics: Ferrari had a great car in the corners this year, a long shot from the early turbo hybrid era cars which lacked cornering speed a lot of the time.
The Bad Things
It was a disastrous year, really, for a team that looked like it could end its sabbatical from the top of the world championship after a wait of 15 years for the WDC, and 14 for the WCC. But, those things were not meant to be.
Reliability: This is, perhaps, not entirely a bad thing if seen as a long term plan. The engine development freeze this year meant that teams could not work on performance anymore, just reliability improvements. Thus, Ferrari took the gamble on performance at the cost of reliability. Rumors (again, rumors, not facts) have been floated around that they ahead to run their car under their maximum performance for the latter part of the year in fear of reliability issues. However, this lost them and their customer teams a lot of points, as their engines blew up quite regularly.
A draggy car: The Ferrari, while a beast on slow corners, was left lacking on low downforce circuits, especially towards the end of the season. Belgium was particularly disastrous in this manner.
A qualifying car: The Ferrari was adept at getting its tyres into the right temperature window quicker than all other cars. As explained in this amazing article by Mark Hughes and Giorgio Piola, the Ferrari's brake design meant that the tyres heated up quicker. However, this meant that they suffered from extreme tyre degradation on long stints. While track position would have been a massive advantage in most other years, the new regulations made following a lot more easier and thus, on most days, the Ferrari lost out in that regard to its competitors. This led to a pretty disappointing stat for Leclerc too. Max Verstappen is more likely to win from a Leclerc pole than he is.
Miscommunication: Communication is key within a team, and yet, this was perhaps Ferrari's most glaring weakness this year. From the Monaco pitstop confusion, to asking to pit while battling with Perez in France and the " ... question?" saga in Belgium, Ferrari's communication was all over the place.
Strategy: Ferrari using really bad strategies isn't new. It has probably been the biggest barrier to them winning championships in the last decade. And this year was no different. Wrong tyres, poor tyre management throughout the weekend, and pitstop issues lost the team a lot of points, only to be compounded by the aforementioned miscommunication. In this regard, however, Sainz did a better job by being assertive about his strategy than his teammate, Leclerc, who just followed the team's orders for the most part. The team's preference for pre-determined strategies was also mocked this year, with the infamous "Plan A", "Plan B" etc relayed between the drivers and the teams. Having a general plan is a great idea, but adaptability is key.
Driver Priority: We don't like team orders. They take away the fun of racing between teammates, which is especially fun because it's the same machinery for both. It is where driver skill makes the difference. But perhaps, when you are marred by other weaknesses, you sometimes have to make compromises, and Ferrari could push Leclerc into title contention. From race results to lap times, it was clear since the beginning that Charles Leclerc was a better driver, atleast with the F1-75. While Carlos seemed to get more comfortable with the car as the season progressed, he still couldn't entirely close the gap to his teammate. Sometimes, to win, you have to prioritise the better driver as well. I understand Ferrari has been marred by the memories of "Fernando is faster than you" in an era that was illegal, and perhaps doesn't want to live through those memories again. Sometimes, you just have to push to the limits to win in F1. Sometimes. Yes, what Ferrari did was the ethical thing to do, but it did not benefit them, and perhaps hurt their faster driver emotionally, who was held behind his slower teammate in many occasions, most notable Silverstone.
This was, perhaps, reflected in the development direction as well, as the car lost its oversteery characteristics that suited Charles, and moved towards a more understeery design which Carlos likes.
Ignorance: This is, perhaps, a more emotional criticism than an event-centric one or a fact-centric one. Throughout the year, both the team principal and the management constantly told the press that they weren't doing anything wrong and it was just bad luck, and that the press was over-criticizing them. That is not the right approach to have. They should look at Red Bull and Mercedes, two extremely efficient championship winning teams that are not afraid to admit fault.
Yes, a zero blame culture does mean you don't point a finger at any one, but it also means that you work on accepting a mistake and fixing it. Now, of course, we do not know anything that happened inside Ferrari, and they might have been working on solving their problems, which is good. However, denying the truth can sometimes create a wrong state of mind, a state of arrogance, which is unhealthy.
The Team Principal
As of writing this articles, rumors are afloat the Mattia Binotto, who was Ferrari's team principal this year, is likely to be replaced. However, it is my opinion that changing the team principal will not solve any of Ferrari's problems.
Ferrari's problems are probably deeper than just the team principal. They've changed team principals over the years, but to no avail. The culture around Ferrari is of pride, and rightfully so. However, the past doesn't win laurels for the present. A culture of "we can not do anything wrong" is probably not the best to have. Binotto's leadership has seen a significant improvement in the culture at Ferrari, and that is a good thing. I'm not defending him here, either, he is a man of many mistakes. But the blame for Ferrari's poor season does not lay entirely on him. The politics of Ferrari are a well known tale, and perhaps, he's just another scapegoat. ..."
Naks
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quovadis
Honorary Master
This
Icemanbrfc
Honorary Master
Disagree... that team needs a refresh, a change of ideas, maybe even a change in culture. The biggest and best sports teams have all gone through changes like this during tough times. I will agree, that sometimes these changes dont work out, but you cant remain stagnant for years, and not take control of your team.
I like Mattia, but he was way too nice for way too long. He had plenty of opportunities to be ruthless, instead their idea of ruthless kept on being at the hands of the drivers, rather than those who made errors within the team
Speedster
Honorary Master
I agree. Everything rises and falls on leadership.
A new team principle might not solve everything, but at least it gives them a chance. It's clear Mattia wasn't the right man for the job and nothing was going to change with him remaining in the post.
Definitely agree on the culture aspect. It’s telling that they were the most successful when they had a multicultural leadership team (Todt, Brawn, Byrne, etc). Then di Montezemelo decided to bring back the Italian identity of the team and they’ve never really reached the same heights
quovadis
Honorary Master
Sure, but you do that when the team has zero momentum. The car is pretty much defined/set for 2023 by now and by all accounts they have come to understand the issues that led to the car-related DNFs and are very much on the charge. It's premature, as I said earlier imho, to get rid of Mattia.
Jean Claude Vaaldamme
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Well there are rumors they wanted to get rid of Mattia by the end of 2021 already but could not find a replacement.
Tinuva
The Magician
Actually, Ferarri found and fixed their engines blowing up issue. It boiled down to a new high performance piston that overheated. They worked with the manufacturer to improve the quality and they can run the engine full performance now.
They need to rework the aero to perform better under the new TD039 to compete again.
I do agree with you, Mattia helped design the perfect engine for the 2022-2025 years.
He also actually really built up the team in most aspects since taking over. The team was really in a dark place before he moved to TP.
Did Ferarri have mistakes this year? Yes sure.
Did they improve over previous years? Hells yeah.
They losing more with him leaving than they know. Whoever gets him next, is going to get a lot. I do think he should head up the engine dept somewhere else though, he would be a huge asset.
Icemanbrfc
Honorary Master
The car was set this season as well... it needed a real leader, to find ways to get that car challenging right through to the end, and not fall away so badly. That's a sign of a leader, who didn't know what to do next, or who else to turn to.. that's the culture that needs changing, because if Mattia couldn't go to Elkann and say listen, bring me a new strategy team, or I need to get rid of this person, then be ruthless there. He allowed far too many mistakes on strategy to happen, with very little if any, consequences to the strategists
Icemanbrfc
Honorary Master
Stop it man, Mattia isn't a TP
Tinuva
The Magician
You cant read can you.
Tinuva
The Magician
Anyways, mark my words, Ferarri's issues aint over. There a lot of rebuilding ahead with all the reshuffling thats going to happen now with a new TP.
quovadis
Honorary Master
It's the first year of new car rules and regulations and Ferrari performed better than the 8 time constructor's champions and only fell short to a team that admitted to cost cap regulatory infringements. You have no idea what Mattia may or may not have done behind closed doors however mistakes are better dealt with through understanding and correction than simply getting rid of people - strat calls, especially, aren't thumb sucks anymore - they're supported by data and they can get to the bottom and understanding of where they fell short. If anything, drivers questioning strategy without full context and engineers not handling the drivers concerns more clearly and sounding as if there isn't certainty is of greater concern.
Icemanbrfc
Honorary Master
I assume you have never followed any other sport, with any other big team with a big history right? Big money, big ambition, shareholders, owners who don't have time for ifs and maybes. You either bring results, or you resign or get sacked. That's the nature of the beast across all the top teams around the world.
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