Development War 2019

Ruslan

Podium Finisher
Well, it is clear after the first three races of the season, that Ferrari is somehow or the other behind Mercedes. The reverse was the case in testing. The following article caught my attention:

Ferrari working on rear wing fix

I gather what this means is that Ferrari is going to hang on at Baku; and then Barcelona will be the first race of the development war. So, they will have a new rear wing at Barcelona and I gather a new front wing later. Probably a few other parts also. So, does Ferrari bounce back at Barcelona? Does Mercedes have any upgrades planned for Barcelona? Will Ferrari suddenly return to the top of the podium, or is there going to be an extended development war?

I also note this:

Mercedes beating Ferrari is nothing new says Briatore

To quote: "With Binotto, they run the risk of not having a fully dedicated boss and also becoming lost in the technical area."

While Briatore may not be the best choice for a swimsuit model, I do find he is a team manager worth listening to.
 
I find he's an egotistical manipulator with enough of a reputation in F1 to have not been given any position of note in many several years.
 
I suspect that all of this just shows that Mercedes still has the power advantage that they has had since the start of this formula. To me, that advantage appears so great that they are able to sandbag any time they wish, whether to make things appear closer in the pre-season, or to tighten things up in mid-season so viewership doesn't drop thru the floor.
 
I suspect that all of this just shows that Mercedes still has the power advantage that they has had since the start of this formula. To me, that advantage appears so great that they are able to sandbag any time they wish, whether to make things appear closer in the pre-season, or to tighten things up in mid-season so viewership doesn't drop thru the floor.
Do they? To quote Lewis Hamilton from that article "We know that Ferrari is over four tenths faster than us on the straights every lap, but they are losing time in the corners."

There was also a discussion of this at the last race by the Sky TV commentators. I think they were saying that Ferrari has figured out a way get a power boost out of elements of their power unit.

If the Ferrari's do have a power advantage, then is it just a matter of sorting out their rear and front wings....and they return to dominating like they did in testing?
 
When a team has a power advantage over all of its rivals, they can carry more wing while still being nearly as fast on the straights while being much faster in the corners.
 
When a team has a power advantage over all of its rivals, they can carry more wing while still being nearly as fast on the straights while being much faster in the corners.
If the Sky commentators are talking about it.....then I assume it has some basis. I suspect they understand wings.
 
I find he's an egotistical manipulator with enough of a reputation in F1 to have not been given any position of note in many several years.

OK....how about similar comments coming from Berger now: https://www.planetf1.com/news/ferrari-risk-overloading-binotto-says-berger/

"At Ferrari you see [only] Binotto. I don't know if this is enough."

"I think Binotto is a great technician. It's just [important] he doesn't use too much time for maybe political discussion or whatever, and then running out of time for the main [thing he's good at]."


P.S. Irrelevant quote: "Then you have the shark Helmut Marko"
 
The superiority of the mighty Mercedes W10 was made evident when inexperienced Formula 2 driver Nikita Mazepin climbed into the car for the first time and ended the session fastest of all on Wednesday.

The Russian driver did a solid job in the cockpit, racking up 128 laps – more than any other driver on the day -with a best lap time of 1:15.775 which compares to Valtteri Bottas’ best effort of 1:15.551 set a day earlier, in similar conditions.

This, of course, did not go unnoticed by sharp-tongued Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko who told Auto Bild, “The fact that a second-class Formula 2 driver can immediately fastest in the Mercedes show how more superior it is. More superior than ever.”

I would like to know on what basis people can claim that Ferrari is the best car on the grid.
 
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It wasn’t, we just thought it was. Took everyone a while to realise how much of a nonsense pre-season testing was in terms of the top order’s real pace. Clever Mercedes.

Anyway, there is no development war, there is a development game where others try their best to succeed but come up with mediocre, and Mercedes try to sound mediocre, and come up with the best and succeed.
 
What is not clear to me, why Ferrari was fine in pre-season, and now "we are slow in turns". Sounds like essential, and previously not available comparative analysis under race conditions with Mercedes wasn't available in February, but it is available today, and bottom line confirmed bad news for the red car. If memory serves me correctly, wasn't this a problem last year as well? This issue might be broader, than merely limited to optimization management of the new tire. It is going to be interesting if Mattia will be able to tame the dragon once for all.
 
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What is not clear to me, why Ferrari was fine in pre-season, and now "we are slow in turns". Sounds like essential, and previously not available comparative analysis under race conditions with Mercedes wasn't available in February, but it is available today, and bottom line confirmed bad news for the red car. If memory serves me correctly, wasn't this a problem last year as well? This issue might be broader, than merely limited to optimization management of the new tire. It is going to be interesting if Mattia will be able to tame the dragon once for all.
I to am mystified how they can go so well in testing and then consistently underperform in the first five races of the season. If it was a temporary problem, then I think we would seen something different at Barcelona. They were supposed to bring a new rear wing there. I don’t know if they did, but we certainly did not see a faster car.

I can only conclude that Ferrari muffed the aerodynamics and it will be at least halfway through the season before they get it sorted out.
 
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I can only conclude that Ferrari muffed the aerodynamics and it will be at least halfway through the season before they get it sorted out.

Even if they can sort it out by then, it's going to be way too late for this season AGAIN!
 
I to am mystified how they can go so well in testing and then consistently underperform in the first five races of the season. If it was a temporary problem, then I think we would seen something different at Barcelona. They were supposed to bring a new rear wing there. I don’t know if they did, but we certainly did not see a faster car.

I can only conclude that Ferrari muffed the aerodynamics and it will be at least halfway through the season before they get it sorted out.
I think in pre-season testing Ferrari look good to outsiders only because they did not know how much slower were against Mercedes in race conditions, despite being faster than rest of the pack. There was no real comparative analysis available, just theoretical calculations, and those must have yielded terrible forecast in Ferrari offices. I do suspect Ferrari management knew what will happen, but confirmation came about only when lights went out. There are only three questions left. Can they diagnose it, fix it, and how expediently? I do not expect much, otherwise we would see a better car by now. Since first race plenty water has flown under the bridge.

I was one of those who got fooled in February, just because I wanted to believe something which wasn't meant to be. Mercedes has strong foundation and they are continuing to improve it. Ferrari seems to fix a one problem and two new ones resurface elsewhere. That red car was bad in turns as long as I remember. Oversteer, understeer, unstable, now slow...did I forget something? I used to estimate that RBR Seb had was excellent on about 60% of tracks F1 raced. Ferrari is not that good.
 
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Even if they can sort it out by then, it's going to be way too late for this season AGAIN!

Well, last year they were in much better shape in the points after the 5th race of the season.

That is my conclusion. And will Ferrari be willing to spend a lot of money in the second half of 2019 for a lost cause, or will they save their money for future use? And then for 2020....as this is the last year under those regulations and the last year without a budget cap....if Ferrari going to spend a lot of money for one last time to compete with Mercedes, or are they going to focus on 2021 and wait until the playing field is more equal?
 
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I think in pre-season testing Ferrari look good to outsiders only because they did not know how much slower were against Mercedes in race conditions, despite being faster than rest of the pack. There was no real comparative analysis available, just theoretical calculations, and those must have yielded terrible forecast in Ferrari offices. I do suspect Ferrari management knew what will happen, but confirmation came about only when lights went out. There are only three questions left. Can they diagnose it, fix it, and how expediently? I do not expect much, otherwise we would see a better car by now. Since first race plenty water has flown under the bridge.

I was one of those who got fooled in February, just because I wanted to believe something which wasn't meant to be. Mercedes has strong foundation and they are continuing to improve it. Ferrari seems to fix a one problem and two new ones resurface elsewhere. That red car was bad in turns as long as I remember. Oversteer, understeer, unstable, now slow...did I forget something?

Well, I gather it was the opinion of most insiders also that Ferrari had the edge in pre-season testing and Mercedes was going to be in catch up mode.

I mean, I assume they can track and compare how each of the 20 cars does on each section of the track, how fast they are in each type of corner, what tires they are on, whether they are fully accelerating or not, etc. I mean if Mercedes was sandbagging, it would be pretty hard to hide it from Ferrari, unless Mercedes did not bring all their upgrades.

Oversteer, understeer, unstable, now slow...did I forget something?

Yea...unreliable.
 
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