F14-T- Development & News

[Majki2111]

So where is Ferrari better than others? Less drag? Better engine cover or sidepods?

[stefa]

So where is Ferrari better than others? Less drag? Better engine cover or sidepods?

Judging on results from races so far this season, I don't see where Ferrari is better than others...?!

[stefa]

Yes, same here. I mean yes of course it would be absolutely wonderful if all these big updates would be at Barcelona and giving us a huge boost, but unfortunately we have seen and heard such rumors before and they haven't always turned out to be true ...so it's best to try to keep our feet on the ground and wait at least till the FP1 is over and then see what new updates we have on and where we are compared to the others.

[Majki2111]

Judging on results from races so far this season, I don't see where Ferrari is better than others...?!

NA looking from behaving on the car... :)

[Hornet]

Judging on results from races so far this season, I don't see where Ferrari is better than others...?!

We can only guess what it is, but we surely have to have some advantages over most our rivals which allows us to perform better in certain tracks. We got completely beaten by all the Merc powered cars in Bahrain, but we did better in Sepang and China, this to me, shows that we have some strength that comes in to play at certain track. Could be aero downforce or something.

If we do not have anything better than others, we would have been miserable at all tracks.

[Gould]

I never thought I'd see a 2014 reg car look pretty but that looks awesome!!!

Attachment 5844

This looks nice

[Muhammad Ansib]

Why do you think that McLarens FW is better? It is not so long they had the simplest FW of all and it has not been anything special since then...
FW is evolution of last year but so is RedBull's or Mercedes'.

McLaren's wing has differing Cascading elements than us. Redbull and Mercedes have launched 2 new variants at bahrain and China. we have none!

[abbottcostello]

Sounds like we have same wing from last year, cut 75mm off the ends, stuck on some 'simple' endplates & voila...

Things I read on different sites tell me another story. Here from 24-Jan-14: http://www.racecar-engineering.com/cars/ferrari-f14-t/

We finished as 'best of the rest' in China, with the pressure mounting in Maranello to cut the internal gridlock & bring more updates, I'm hopeful to see the car steadily improving.

I just hate the wait, but that is time for them to develop , carry on Ferrari & give us a pleasant surprise for Catalunya!

[mark p]

Why do you think that McLarens FW is better? It is not so long they had the simplest FW of all and it has not been anything special since then...
FW is evolution of last year but so is RedBull's or Mercedes'.

Yeah. McLaren have huge issues at the front end. Their excuse last race was this at a front limited track. It may look nice but it does not work. They might as well attach pamela anderson in her prime to the nose pilons and use her as a front wing. Would look good but crap for car aero. Probably better than what they have got. To be good COPY NOTHING FROM MCLAREN if anything do the opposite.

[Winter]

We may need a new nosecone and a massive improvement on the front wing development cuz Look at the Mecedes, Redbull or even McLaren's Front wing..they are just so much more evolved than ours, ours is the one carried forward from last year with different endplates.

Front wing has to work with rest of the car too. Maybe our car doesn't need so complex front wing that Mercedes does.

[Marino]

Front wing has to work with rest of the car too. Maybe our car doesn't need so complex front wing that Mercedes does.

Complicated does not mean efficient or better.
Same for the Monkey seat. Maybe we just don't need it.

[Alonso14]

Complicated does not mean efficient or better.
Same for the Monkey seat. Maybe we just don't need it.

In Formula 1 it usually does.

And the monkey seat is not on the car because of our engine troubles so we are trying to shred every bit of drag we can.

[Nero Horse]

And the monkey seat is not on the car because of our engine troubles so we are trying to shred every bit of drag we can.

That's only a theory. No one, except Ferrari engineers and mechanics, really knows why our cars don't have the monkey seat on.

[Winter]

Complicated does not mean efficient or better.
Same for the Monkey seat. Maybe we just don't need it.

In Formula 1 it usually does.

And the monkey seat is not on the car because of our engine troubles so we are trying to shred every bit of drag we can.

Our car is way more complicated to drive than Mercedes, why aren't we winning!!?

[Alonso14]

Our car is way more complicated to drive than Mercedes, why aren't we winning!!?

I'll give you this one, your reply was too good

[NickEice]

Some on here may need to take Formula 1 101 again. Out car lacks rear end downforce. We cannot simply put a more complex front wing on it will make the car even more undriveable. The downforce front to back needs to be consistent for proper balance. Ferrari will develop the front wing once we get the floor and diffuser working again. When you see a crazy front wing we should be happy not because it's a new wing but that will mean we have improved the rear end downforce of the car. The airflow needs to work in harmony all over the car. It's not a matter of bolting something on here or there, the entire car needs to be upgraded evenly to maintain proper balance and feel for the driver.

[Ferris]

The problem we have is that we don't have a chance to get on equal terms with merc in terms of PU performance in 2014. The major mechanical solutions around the PU are simply not available to us until 2015. Aerodynamically we are also constrained as merc actually has better packaging and a lighter PU also so they will be better able to get more air to the rear of the car thus having greater down force potential than us.

These two area's are fundamental performance differentiators which we are hamstrung on because of the development restrictions around the PU for 2014.

If we can get to within 0.5 of a second to Merc this year with those restrictions we have it will position us well for 2015 where we should be able to make a step change on the PU side.

To be clear i am not being a pessimist i am just looking at the facts. The problem is not the engineers, the problem was Ferrari management not having the foresight to see the opportunity to invest heavily towards 2014 over 4 years ago as Merc did. Having said this merc spent some $500M on their engine project and have 1300 personnel in total; Ferrari nor RB could afford this investment (and have between 700-900 personnel) especially when both teams were at the pointy end of the championships so therefore it would have been hard to get approval for such an investment from senior management.

The good news thus far:
- We have a working wind tunnel with correlation being achieved
- We have hired some good personnel (Allison and Co)
- We know where the problems are and seem to be on a path to rectify them
- Aero seems good (although not the best)
- PU is better than Renault at least
- Shell is providing great gains for us also

What i am most interested in this year which will prepare us for 2015 and beyond:
- How quickly we can develop the car and bring aero updates successfully from wind tunnel to track without adjustment - Spain will be biggest test of this
- How close we can get to Merc in Spain and Canada (this is where big updates will occur and where aero and PU performance gains will be seen respectively)
- What additional staff we can bring on board - Hoping we can get Bell (Brawn has been rumoured but i think it is a long shot) and other Merc PU staff across to the Scuderia asap
- How well Marco integrates into the team and what adjustments he makes to the operation (he shouldn't be looking to cull team members but to strengthen first, prove the new team members and then cull the dead weight afterwards - This is what Merc did over the last 4 years - They are now "culling personnel".

We have one very large issue however - While we are getting more personnel and investing more dollars in the PU to catch up, Mercedes is doing the opposite because they have a good lead in this area already. They are investing more in aero and less in PU. The reason why this is a problem is because of the resource restriction agreement. It is coming at the wrong time for everyone except Mercedes. All other teams need to improve their PU understanding and development and at the same time invest money and people in aero and chassis development. What we will see in the coming months will be teams debating what area's of their operation should count towards the resource restriction agreement. Merc will say all area's should be included, but Ferrari will state that the PU should be a separate element. The risk the other teams will cite will be that Ferrari could say that aero personnel fall within the engine department and hence fall outside of the resource restriction... I am sure this will start to get very messy over the coming months as the resource restriction is debated.

Basically let's be realists, we have a very big deficit that won't be eliminated because of the 2014 regs around the PU. We can still develop other area's and look at bridging the gap to Merc in a respectful manner. We also need to focus on the aero department and grab as many RB engineers as we can as once the PU's are all settled over 2015 the big performance differentiator will again be on the aero side.

The problem we have is that we did not prepare for 2014 properly, let's not now place all our focus on the PU without also bolstering up our aero department as each year the balance of performance development will continue to move towards aero advancements over the PU as this continually gets more restricted in terms of development.

Boy scouts motto Ferrari - "Be Prepared!"

[Dino]

[pavenc]

Much Better!

[PadGeT]

Seriously?? This thread is becoming more like F14 T Development rumors!!!
By da way, watever u say, aero still is 70% of the competition.

[diesel08]

Some on here may need to take Formula 1 101 again. Out car lacks rear end downforce. We cannot simply put a more complex front wing on it will make the car even more undriveable. The downforce front to back needs to be consistent for proper balance. Ferrari will develop the front wing once we get the floor and diffuser working again. When you see a crazy front wing we should be happy not because it's a new wing but that will mean we have improved the rear end downforce of the car. The airflow needs to work in harmony all over the car. It's not a matter of bolting something on here or there, the entire car needs to be upgraded evenly to maintain proper balance and feel for the driver.

[sachin]

Seriously?? This thread is becoming more like F14 T Development rumors!!!
By da way, watever u say, aero still is 70% of the competition.

3 weeks break ought to lead to loads of rumor's.

[stefa]

3 weeks break ought to lead to loads of rumor's.

Right! This place will be sea of rumors till Spain GP

[Silent Bob]

Some on here may need to take Formula 1 101 again. Out car lacks rear end downforce. We cannot simply put a more complex front wing on it will make the car even more undriveable. The downforce front to back needs to be consistent for proper balance. Ferrari will develop the front wing once we get the floor and diffuser working again. When you see a crazy front wing we should be happy not because it's a new wing but that will mean we have improved the rear end downforce of the car. The airflow needs to work in harmony all over the car. It's not a matter of bolting something on here or there, the entire car needs to be upgraded evenly to maintain proper balance and feel for the driver.

The front wings are not complex because they need to only offer good downforce.. if it was only a matter of attaining downforce a simple wing would do. All the complexity comes from managing the air flow through the middle of the car and around the front wheels. Force India has vertical strakes on their front wing that adds no downforce but simply directs air flow. Saying that I don't believe complexity necessarily means better.

[DIEK]

The front wings are not complex because they need to only offer good downforce.. if it was only a matter of attaining downforce a simple wing would do. All the complexity comes from managing the air flow through the middle of the car and around the front wheels. Force India has vertical strakes on their front wing that adds no downforce but simply directs air flow. Saying that I don't believe complexity necessarily means better.

Agree.

[abbottcostello]

Nice blast from the past DIEK! Love the pair of wings growing out of the top of the nose in 2nd pic, they've sure had some different looking aero devices over the years!

[Rosso Corsa]

Forget the wing, what about that beautiful single keel

[AfterLife]

It will be interesting to see if the fat part of rear end of F14-T is gone or not in Spain.

[Tony]

Forget the wing, what about that beautiful single keel

I don't know, I think it's a twin keel

[Jose-Lorca Fan]

Whatever Ferrari brings in terms of aero, this is what Frank De Beer and James Allison have been working on since their arrival. Let's hope they work!