Australian Grand Prix 2012 - Albert Park - Race 1

[Curbs]

BS. do you expect him to be crying? Sacking everyone? If any of you work in management, I would hate to be your colleague.

I call it BS because for the last 4-5 yrs Ferrari pressrelease is a copy and paste from the last year.

For sure we are dissapointed. But we understand the problem. We will improve, bla bla bla...just wait for this pice and this part.
And the best one. Next year we will be at the front right from the beginning.

I stoped beliving these pressreleases years ago. And I can´t wait untill Ferrari prove me wrong.

[NanoTheQuickest]

Let's just pray for the updates to work out and bring balance to the force because it has turned to the dark side both on and off the track!

[Aussie]

Wow like 80% of u guys have given up. Saying sack massa sack this sack that. And then what if we sack massa now who will drive. And why not sack alonso then. Why blame massa

[Corey]

Popcorn anyone?

[marcom01]

É notte fonda .... a Vancouver ... Ho vissuto 5 anni a Toronto per lavoro....

[Suzie]

Wow like 80% of u guys have given up. Saying sack massa sack this sack that. And then what if we sack massa now who will drive. And why not sack alonso then. Why blame massa

Because apparently he's going to lose us the WCC. Which we can so clearly challenge for right now anyway.

[Suzie]

If I was Stefano I think I'd be screening my calls in case Luca rang. Can't help but feel sorry for him.

[marcom01]

I do not think anybody is against Massa.... I think ferrari fan.. people are just facing the truth.... I like Massa but the car, his self confidence and the accident in Budapest are not behind him yet... well thats my opinion and than we cant denied that in Ferrari there is a very big serious managment problem.... who knows lets see the race ..I hope to be wrong....

[Klutch]

TBH I think we are not so bad as it looks.
Fernando's GAP is 1.5 sec from pole, but he didn't even complete his final Q2 try. With 150th Italia things was not better. FA was fifth, but his GAP was the same.
And now we have some really fast teams those will be fight for the win tomorrow. There is a chance to win for Grosjean (I hope he can do it - I supported him back in 2009), who can be P1 after the first cornar.

So if we'll be 0,8-1.0 sec off pace for 3-4 races, and there will be different winners, we still will have a chance to fight for... at least WDC (Felipe, I still believe in you and hope you'll do the best tomorrow).

Forza Ferrari!

[Kyss4k]

Because apparently he's going to lose us the WCC. Which we can so clearly challenge for right now anyway.

Ok. I know you are his big fan, but look at year 2010. With driver like Button or Rosberg we would have had a chance for WCC. How many times was Felipe ahead of Fernando? It's not olny about this year. We can't stick with a driver who is clearly not delivering. We should be grateful, for what Felipe had done for us but at the same time, we have to admit, that he is no longer on the top of the game.

[OSS EL BOSS]

Wow like 80% of u guys have given up. Saying sack massa sack this sack that. And then what if we sack massa now who will drive. And why not sack alonso then. Why blame massa

Why not to sack Alonso?
Well, maybe because he is one second faster than massa and without him Ferrari would have looked much worse than it actually is.

[Corey]

OK fine, lets assume that Felipe DOES get sacked. Do you think Jules Bianchi would be better than him? Kubica might be, but who knows, maybe he'll have a drop in performance just like Felipe after sitting out for a while.

Webber, doubt that he'll end up at Ferrari if he decides to leave Red Bull.

[Imperatore]

É notte fonda .... a Vancouver ... Ho vissuto 5 anni a Toronto per lavoro....

Haha si sono stanco e devo dormire! Ah bravo, ma L'Italia è molto più bella.

[Red_Diamond]

I call it BS because for the last 4-5 yrs Ferrari pressrelease is a copy and paste from the last year.

For sure we are dissapointed. But we understand the problem. We will improve, bla bla bla...just wait for this pice and this part.
And the best one. Next year we will be at the front right from the beginning.

I stoped beliving these pressreleases years ago. And I can´t wait untill Ferrari prove me wrong.

Good for you. Some of us don't need reassurances/wins to continue supporting Ferrari.

[Stormsearcher]

I call it BS because for the last 4-5 yrs Ferrari pressrelease is a copy and paste from the last year.

For sure we are dissapointed. But we understand the problem. We will improve, bla bla bla...just wait for this pice and this part.
And the best one. Next year we will be at the front right from the beginning.

I stoped beliving these pressreleases years ago. And I can´t wait untill Ferrari prove me wrong.

What do you want him to say? What do you expect him to say??

"yeah, our car sucks. We are clueless why. Dont think we can do anything about it this year. Fans go home or start supporting another team"... yeah?

Dont be naive. He needs to put up a strong front in front of the media. A panic stricken response will only worsen the teams situation.
Ignore the PR statements, wait and watch. No one likes to lose and am sure the team are doing every thing possible to win.

[marcom01]

Well.... Massa .... Alonso..... Stefano Dominicali..... Its not up to the pilot.... they are both good they simply need a performace car.. thats all... there was a development mistake regarding the car so now they are paying the gap..... and now again we have to run after.. but we will sort it out ferrari is even this, and even if its painfull that is what is making the wcc even more challenging... i hope for the best.... forza ferrai always and forever....

[Red_Diamond]

If I was Stefano I think I'd be screening my calls in case Luca rang. Can't help but feel sorry for him.

I think "hissy fit Montezemolo" is an exaggeration. He's been in the game long enough to know how it works. Stefano is his man, I doubt he's gonna chew him and spit him out like some of the others are hoping.

[theforce]

Some Positives:

1. Alonso was last first lap in 2010, still managed 4th
2. It's Melbourne so weather will hopefully mix it up further
3. A lot of rookies so plenty of safety cars
4. Cars are bunched up so we shouldn't lose too much time until 'hopefully' we catch up.

Also, please remember Stefano's job is not building a car but the team, so please stop hammering him. It's the first Qualifying into a long season so plenty of time.

[Suzie]

Ok. I know you are his big fan, but look at year 2010. With driver like Button or Rosberg we would have had a chance for WCC. How many times was Felipe ahead of Fernando? It's not olny about this year. We can't stick with a driver who is clearly not delivering. We should be grateful, for what Felipe had done for us but at the same time, we have to admit, that he is no longer on the top of the game.

I think I'd prefer to look at our car first before starting to scream for his head (again). It's obvious he didn't deliver today, I am not one of these fanatics who think their favourite driver can't possibly ever do any wrong; however I do question who actually would be able to wrestle a performance out of the F2012 if you stuck them in the car right now given what we have seen today. Not all drivers are an Alonso and capable of sticking a bad car somewhere on the grid that it doesn't necessarily deserve to be.

[tifosi_kaka]

"COUGH" "COUGH"... square stepped nose "COUGH" "COUGH"

Well if true that would be a critical mistake by the team then, not being able to identify this problem after spending all three pre-season testing sessions 'to collect valuable data' of the car.

What about that exhaust pipe? Any experts here care to explain if they were fundamental to the car's design or if they were detrimental to the aero performance? I always thought a tighter and smaller rear-end is better, but the extension from the exhaust pipe just seem to make the rear-end of the car bulky. Will that create additional drag or disturb the air flow as well?

[hakanabi]

i believe we are going to hear something like this from STEFANO..
- Poor result during qually, we must look at the data and analyze it
- Our focus now is the race
- We must wait till Malaysia where we are on a real race track to see were we are..
- Big updates due in May, We have a clear development path.
- We must be optimistic, the season is not over

Heard these now for a long time..

+1000

[Corey]

Finally something from Massa

Felipe Massa says Ferrari's form worse than expected

Felipe Massa reckons Ferrari's plight may be even worse than the team feared after he could only qualify 16th for Formula 1's Australian Grand Prix season-opener in Melbourne.

The Brazilian's team-mate Fernando Alonso was a second faster, but only 12th on the grid having spun off in Q2.

"I am very disappointed: this is not the start to the season I was expecting or hoping for," said Massa.

"It was difficult right from the start of FP3: the balance of the car was never what I wanted and I never managed to get a clean lap. I was always lacking grip, both on the mediums and the softs and I suffered with oversteer on entry and understeer on exit.

"I don't know why, but the car seemed to be worse than in winter testing, maybe down to the characteristics of this circuit.

"Now we will try and do what we can in the race tomorrow. It will not be easy, because I will start from a long way back, but I will give it my all. I don't think we'll be able to do just a single stop, but will have to try and make up the ground lost today in qualifying."

Massa added that there could now be no doubt about the uphill struggle now in prospect.

"Clearly we are behind, maybe more than we had expected and there are other teams that have improved a lot compared to last year," he said.

Ferrari's technical boss Pat Fry admitted the team faced a tough task to get Massa more competitive for Sunday's race.

"Unfortunately, Felipe was struggling with the balance of his car for the whole day and we will have to do a lot of work to try and sort out the situation as much as possible for tomorrow's race," said Fry.

[Kyss4k]

I think I'd prefer to look at our car first before starting to scream for his head (again). It's obvious he didn't deliver today, I am not one of these fanatics who think their favourite driver can't possibly ever do any wrong; however I do question who actually would be able to wrestle a performance out of the F2012 if you stuck them in the car right now given what we have seen today. Not all drivers are an Alonso and capable of sticking a bad car somewhere on the grid that it doesn't necessarily deserve to be.

I wrote, that I am not talking about this year. Felipa sadly wasn't delivering in 2010 and 2011. That's the worst thing about it.

[Nathan]

Being able to wrestle a car and make it perform better in places where no one else could separates the good from the truly great drivers.

And don't count on rain

[OSS EL BOSS]

Ferris problems are in the people who design the car.
Maybe its time to look for good engineers in the paddock, it does not have to be Adrian Newy there are some good people at smaller teams like sauber lotus force india etc. that managed to build a good car with small ressources and with Ferraris ressources they would build much better cars.

Saubers budget as example is only 50 million euros while Ferri's is 200.

[sheikomatic]

Some Positives:

1. Alonso was last first lap in 2010, still managed 4th
2. It's Melbourne so weather will hopefully mix it up further
3. A lot of rookies so plenty of safety cars
4. Cars are bunched up so we shouldn't lose too much time until 'hopefully' we catch up.

Also, please remember Stefano's job is not building a car but the team, so please stop hammering him. It's the first Qualifying into a long season so plenty of time.

That F10 is already a contender, P2 and P3 at Bahrain and 1-2 in the race, after Vettel car failure. At Melbourne Alonso qualified 3rd and Massa 5th. This F2012 can't even reach Q3.

The cars are bunched up, that mean our next upgrades may result us at the same position.

[F1NAC]

"Mclaren now stripping the car down in front of the FIA. This doesn't look good."

[brembo man]

1. Lewis
2. Vettel
3.Alonso

[Curbs]

Good for you. Some of us don't need reassurances/wins to continue supporting Ferrari.

No one likes to lose and am sure the team are doing every thing possible to win.

Very nice guys. But how many chances should you be given?
If things don´t work. How long are you going to follow that path?
Should we wait for Stefano to get pension @ the age of 70?
Its good to have faith in people, absolutley, but not to try other ones, I guess you belive Ferrari have the best people around?

Regarding what we should say to the press. Well, I would prefer we said last year, that we next year will go on a aggressive approach to try and find our way back to the top. That explains what we did this year in a more humble way.
Not that WE ARE GOING to be at the top fighting. Then we just look stupid. We have a habbit of talking as we promise things. Keep it simple and tell it like it is.

[Kyss4k]

I acctually am affraid non of our drivers will finish the race. The car is so twitchy and easy to loose, that to push it the whole race on the limit can not be possible.