The F1 season 2006

Hi Michael,

"I wouldn't write Ferrari off for this season yet. Bahrain showed they have the potential "

I certainly wouldn't. They chose the wrong tyre. They have a car + driver that is faster than Toyota and so they will be back. Unfortunately for us this will most likely happen at Imola!!

Ian

 

Ian, what's the inside view of Ferrari's old front wing? Within the rules or not?

I'm sure Jenson won't let anything like the end of first SC period in Melbourne happen to him again. He seemed genuinely surprised and didn't have a strategy what to do when the SC went off. I would have thought that his engineer should have told him what to do, i.e. slow Alonso down through some manoeuvre in the last corner before the straight if he had a problem with his tyres.

And I agree with Michael that he could have forced Alonso into overtaking him before the finish line.

 

Hi Markus,

"what's the inside view of Ferrari's old front wing? Within the rules or not?"

The rule is very clear. The component must not be designed to deflect under load to offer an aerodynamic advantage.

Incidentally the new Ferrai front wing is very similar to the old front wing! It just has a shroud over the section that was pulling away from the nose to make it more difficult to see what is happening!

Ian

 

Well, your own Nick Fry seems to agree with Jenson! (link requires subscription).

Michael.

 

Hi Michael,

Well Nick is the CEO so he must be right!!

Whereas the group that I lead has the expertise and the mandate to sort the technical issues out.

So please believe Nick and then be impressed if we manage to sort it out....

Ian

 

Ah, well then, it would appear that the age old Dilbert principle of management has been followed:

"Move your least competent people to where they can do the least harm: promote them to management"

Michael.

 

I am still worrying about M Schumacher. I agree that it not Brown's strategy that made him win, it was sheer cunning and speed by Schumacher himself (I am not a Schumacher fan, mind you).

But:
- if we take Barrichello as an indicator, even if he is having problems with a car that does not suit him;
- if we consider that Matta beat Schumacher;
- if we consider he crashed while pushing hard;
- and perhaps if we consider he could not get the better of Alonso in the first race

does this not show he is struggling hard? In the early days he could make up for mechanic disadvantages. Now he just seems an ordinary driver.

I know this is quite a lowbrow question, but what do you think?

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/formula_one/4878554.stm

 

From Autosport:

"Briton Jenson Button is confident his Honda team are getting closer to solving their tyre problems following this week's test at Vallelunga."

Perhaps we have made some progress!!

Michael,

I wouldn't relate Nick and Dilbert!! Nick is dealing with public perception and under playing what we will do.

Putting the pressure on us to prove him wrong.

Ian

 

JB says Honda are getting closer to solving their problem (which is what I would certainly hope they do in testing, or the test would be a complete waste of time), not actually solving it. So the statement could mean that JB is frustrated that Honda still haven't solved the problem, but puts a brave face on it.

Sorry, Ian, but I'm not sure I see a coherent comms strategy here.

 

RdS, I think you're being a bit harsh on Schumacher. I think we'll see at Imola what Ferrari are really capable of and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Schumacher wins. I don't think it's meaningful to compare Barrichello's lacklustre performance at Honda with how he drove against Schumacher at Ferrari. Barrichello has always had trouble adapting his driving style, most notably with left-foot braking. Not only is he having to adapt to the TC system at Honda which is very different to Ferrari's but he also has to left-foot brake because it's there's not enough room in the Honda to lay out the pedal box for right foot braking.

IMHO any driver who can't adapt to the very obvious benefits of left-foot braking has a serious problem....

Michael.

 

Michael, I too hope Schumacher comes back. He seems unconcerned about the critics, and it is true he showed he is still there is Barain.

Regarding left foot braking, I can't understand it either. Im my late years I and a brother of mine bought a goKart (a competition one, very fast) and I had no trouble at all adjusting: it seemed completely natural. Of course Barrichello is a superlative drive (everyone who is in F1 is) and I am just a dabbler. But even so...

 

On recent form, who is most likely to eventually follow Bernie Ecclestone at the commercial helm of F1? My money would be on Briatore. He has been running Renault very efficinetly and seems to be the only one who is able to look to the commecial future.

Ron Dennis, who likes to see himself as Bernie's successor, has disqualified himself with the Paragon disaster IMO.

 

Is Paragon a disaster? I don't know much about it but I thought it was fine. I sometimes see it from the air on my flights into London - quite impressive.

Michael.

 

Unnecessary in the first place, late and way over budget. It was a major reason why Dennis had to sell off parts of McLaren.

Apparently, Dennis is still trying desperately to coax Merdedes into building a follow-up for the SLR (itself a disaster) but doesn't have much success with it.

 

I can see why nobody's posting about Imola. We would have to mention Honda, and it may be difficult not to hurt Ian's feelings in that context. My commiserations, Ian, and I can see the point of having a motivational meeting.

Anyway, a rather nice performance by MSC and a prudent one from ALO. But does anyone know why MOY finished ahead of RAI? Normally, RAI is faster, but he was dominated by MOY the whole weekend.

 

Thank God you did Markus.

Good day yesterday. Ferrari and West Ham won

P.S. I don't support WH but it's my local side. Good to see them in the FA Cup Final, even if it is against Liverpool.

 

"We would have to mention Honda, and it may be difficult not to hurt Ian's feelings in that context."

Thanks for trying to not make me feel even worse. For two races now we have made a mess of things and thrown away a lot of points.

We do have a fast car, fast enough to be close to the race winners when we get things right. When we get everything right there will be tracks that we are fast enough to win at.

I was not pleased to see Pat Symonds dig the knife in re some operational issues that he thinks we are having. But he then recovered it by throwing away a race win for ALO with bringing him in early!

Having said that I am very much aware that being in a glasshouse I should not be throwing any stones!!

Ian

 

(on autosport.com)

 

Does that mean that the writing was both on the wall and on Rubens?