Ferrari Identifies Downforce Issue On 2011 Car

[vcs316]

Ferrari is working hard after the 2011 season opener, where in Australia the team's car was notably less competitive than it had seemed during the recent winter period.

"I was not surprised that Red Bull were so good, but that we were so bad," admitted Fernando Alonso, according to Bild.

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said a problem of too little front downforce, which affected the balance of the car and its ability to preserve the Pirelli tires, has been identified.

"We need to understand why we did not see on the track what we could see on paper," he is quoted by La Stampa newspaper.

"But we must be realistic that if Red Bull confirm their pace, the gap cannot be recovered in Malaysia," added Domenicali.

Alonso, however, insists that his title is on track.

"To win the title you need 13.4 points per race," said the Spaniard. "I got 12 (in Australia) so that's almost average.

"Yes, I lost points to (Lewis) Hamilton and (Sebastian) Vettel, but I gained against two other rivals for the championship — (Mark) Webber and (Jenson) Button."

Commentators outside the famous team paint a different picture. Spanish engineer Joan Villadelprat says Ferrari is "nowhere near where they thought they would be.

"They have a lot less downforce than Red Bull because they built a car that is too conservative with no risk," he added. "However, Ferrari knows how to develop and the base is good and reliable."

Alonso thinks Melbourne might have been a one-off.

"We did something wrong, because all winter we were a second ahead of Toro Rosso, Sauber and Renault, and today we were fighting to beat them," he told La Sexta.

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...e-on-2011-car/

[REDARMYSOJA]

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said a problem of too little front downforce, which affected the balance of the car and its ability to preserve the Pirelli tires, has been identified.

A flexi-wing might just solve that Stefano.

[crewskas]

"Yes, I lost points to (Lewis) Hamilton and (Sebastian) Vettel, but I gained against two other rivals for the championship — (Mark) Webber and (Jenson) Button.

What about (Felipe) Massa?

[scuderiafan]

Sounds like chinese whispers to me...

[Tifoso]

What about (Felipe) Massa?

With all due respect to you, and to Felipe...he finished 50 seconds behind his team mate in the same car.

I love Felipe, but we have to be realistic.

[Greig]

So he never actually said anything had been discovered

[Ferrari_Fanatic]

Im an Alonso fan and i WANT Massa to kick a** lol

[Hornet]

So he never actually said anything had been discovered

From what I understood, Domenicali is just saying that he identified the problem which is lack of front downforce

But yeah, certainly no solution is discovered. I guess at least we took the first step

[crewskas]

With all due respect to you, and to Felipe...he finished 50 seconds behind his team mate in the same car.

I love Felipe, but we have to be realistic.

With all the respect, but I was kidding...

Even I, who like Massa a lot, already said in the race thread, that if this continues then we must move on separate ways

[Grillo]

Team boss Stefano Domenicali said a problem of too little front downforce, which affected the balance of the car and its ability to preserve the Pirelli tires, has been identified.

"We need to understand why we did not see on the track what we could see on paper," he is quoted by La Stampa newspaper.

I had hoped that kind of problem would have been solved during testing. Now it might be a nightmare catching up.

"But we must be realistic that if Red Bull confirm their pace, the gap cannot be recovered in Malaysia," added Domenicali.

I hope it's not as bad as it might be. A podium maybe?

"To win the title you need 13.4 points per race," said the Spaniard. "I got 12 (in Australia) so that's almost average.

This Alonso is a walking calculator sometimes.

Aim for the win you !!!

[Greig]

With all the respect, but I was kidding...

Even I, who like Massa a lot, already said in the race thread, that if this continues then we must move on separate ways

Let's start at the top, and that is the car, if that is working and Massa is not performing then let's talk about moving on, till then changing the driver will make no difference to us winning titles.

[Hornet]

I hope it's not as bad as it might be. A podium maybe?

What I still don't understand is why Webber and Button are both much slower than their team mates despite in a car that is supposed to be faster than the Ferrari's

Well, if their problem continues, which I hope it does , certainly a podium is very possible.

[RockyRaccoon]

I don't really understand how they can suddenly be having front downforce issues if they weren't having that problem in testing.

[crewskas]

Let's start at the top, and that is the car, if that is working and Massa is not performing then let's talk about moving on, till then changing the driver will make no difference to us winning titles.

True...
I didn't say anything else, than if Ferrari cannot make the car to heat it's tyres, no matter how good it will be in the hands of Fernando, unfortunately Felipe will have a problem.
I wish he stays for a lot more years with us. But this needs a help from the car to suit him...

I don't blame him, for his style of driving...

[ferrari4life]

I don't really understand how they can suddenly be having front downforce issues if they weren't having that problem in testing.

Yeah...what the heck were they testing in the winter? Isn't front downforce a requirement to go racing? and now he states that we are not going to catch up with the Bulls in Malysia...so then the car is just plain old slow at this point and it had nothing to do with circuit weather etc...

very dissapointing from Ferrari so far.

[scuderiafan]

lets get innovating. surely Stefano of all people would not say that Ferrari will probably be slower than RB in Malaysia.

Updates in Turkey better be good. now, lets get the balance working. keep the faith! Everyone said McLaren were dead and buried, but look where they are now.

[Rob]

Yeah...what the heck were they testing in the winter? Isn't front downforce a requirement to go racing? and now he states that we are not going to catch up with the Bulls in Malysia...so then the car is just plain old slow at this point and it had nothing to do with circuit weather etc...

very dissapointing from Ferrari so far.

In the race, we ran with the new front wing. I think in testing we were running last years wing. Would of done running in FFP sessions to colect data and set up work on the new wing. The drivers would look at the data and make the decision, to run the new wing. For reasons that felt better the numbers would of shown that. But for what ever reason, just didnt work out the way we had planned or, hoped for.

Now, everyone back at Maranello will be working 24/7 to sort this out and get the right front downforce and balance into the car. If that means, flexi wing, im sure it will rock up. We have a good base. But we shouldnt be playing catch, but we are (again) nothing is lost or won yet, long year and we can do it.

Forza Ferrari.

[ferrari4life]

Just wish for once we could come out of the gates screaming..We havent come up with a single inovation that other teams wants for a while.. where are our designers...

[hogo]

Several people in TSN identified this problem soon after watching qualifying. So TSN members are faster than Ferrari engineers? Not good, should be otherwise.

[ferrari4life]

Several people in TSN identified this problem soon after watching qualifying. So TSN members are faster than Ferrari engineers? Not good, should be otherwise.

maybe we should have an "OPEN SOURCE" car...hehehe
(developed by the community. aka LINUX)

[Rob]

Just wish for once we could come out of the gates screaming..We havent come up with a single inovation that other teams wants for a while.. where are our designers...

yeah that would be good, but for what ever reason we playing conservative. Playing the spirit of the rules to much. If we would of rocked up with flexi wing, and no KERS, there would of been a fuss from media and other teams saying we not playing to the spirit of the blah blah etc etc

[scuderiafan]

yeah that would be good, but for what ever reason we playing conservative. Playing the spirit of the rules to much. If we would of rocked up with flexi wing, and no KERS, there would of been a fuss from media and other teams saying we not playing to the spirit of the blah blah etc etc

I think our KERS is the best as the others are unreliable. Anyways, ever since 2008, we've not been innovating.

2008 was our last title.
2008 was the last year with those normal rules.

Now, ever since these big wing rules in 09, we have been playing catchup. Now, i hate to say it, but 2013 may be the next time we are innovative.

[aroutis]

Let's start at the top, and that is the car, if that is working and Massa is not performing then let's talk about moving on, till then changing the driver will make no difference to us winning titles.

If only you were thinking this way with Kimi ..

[ferrari4life]

If only you were thinking this way with Kimi ..

in 2008 Kimi was schooled by Massa for no apparent reason. Massa knows he is on the chopping block because of last season.. However if the car sucks this year then its not like we will be fighting for any titles so what does it matter. we will deal with it before the start of next year.

[Greig]

If only you were thinking this way with Kimi ..

Massa lost the title on the last lap, the car worked, maybe you conveniently missed that part

[scuderiafan]

Weren't we completely dire in the third sector? apparently that is where you need aero round the track, so we need more downforce or balance. Still positive. yesterday they didn't know why they didn't perform, but now they apparently do. that gives about a week and a half to get something ready to rectify the problem. when I think of
it this way, I don't want to hear a peep out of Aldo or anyone involved with designing the car. they should be hard at work, so please don't talk to the media.

[netlord]

Oh Stefano, we don't need an engineer to know that the car doesn't have enough front downforce. I just can't stand watching a Ferrari having less innovations than a Red bull or a mclaren...

[impactX]

This is an automatically generated press release of Stefano:

Obviously we need to stay positive and find out the real reason why the car did not perform blah blah blah.


The problem obviously lies with his lack of leadership abilities in the last few years. The lack of innovations since 08, slower pit stops than rivals since last year. We have more problems than just the car itself.

[Naeem]

This is an automatically generated press release of Stefano:

Obviously we need to stay positive and find out the real reason why the car did not perform blah blah blah.


The problem obviously lies with his lack of leadership abilities in the last few years. The lack of innovations since 08, slower pit stops than rivals since last year. We have more problems than just the car itself.

I completely agree, the team is doing a Ronaldo (brazilian one), i.e. lots of success then complacency made him fat and useless. We're doing a tiger woods, top of the game for ages then taking our eyes off the real prize, catch my drift?

We've become complacent! Furthermore we seem to do things in a very regiment conservative way, whilst this stops monumental face losing gaffs, it doesn't bode well for overnight success.

Look at McLaren for example, at barcelona they were nowwhere, they threw some stuff at the car without testing and it just worked. We have a flexiwing from last year and we clearly have the the ability to build a flexi nose in a heart beat but the ferrari way would involve testing it to the limits for several weeks so as to be absolutely sure it works, I say just throw some stuff at the cars, maybe throw massa out to compensate....

[ferrari1.8t]

So I understand that Ferrari have identified "front down-force" as a main issue with the F150 in Australia. What I don't understand is why did they change the front wing from the one used in testing. The wing we originally used in testing was from last year and had significant "flex". It also seemed to produce the best results with our car. Maybe this new wing doesn't offer as much flex and therefore, much less down-force. It seems to be very rigid along the thick sides. Last year we seemed to be the only team to flex our wing like RB's. Thus, why not keep it that way. Our new wing offers no flex.

Did they play with both wings during Friday and Saturday's practice sessions? I don't remember.