2023 Spanish Grand Prix - Race Thread

[Alonsomaniac]

Dutch media report Leclerc having a 15 place penalty in Canada? For changing parts today? That can't be possible??

[TTRSMAD]

What a let down after upgrades. What happened to the new rear suspension?

Red Bull untouchable and Mercedes are fighting back. Our car is only good in qualifying, as soon as you put 100kg of fuel, we are nowhere.

[nani_s23]

Well, Binotto is out now, so maybe next years car is a race car again, hope so.

Hmm Binotto is not the real problem. He’s a good TD but not as a TP.
Question comes from our technical department competency level. None seem to have an answer to our issues.

Imagine if it’s Merc or RB, they used to get on top of it in max situations.

[PURE PASSION]

That's the reality right now. Venting or abusing the team is not going to change our result. We need to accept it because as fans, we can't do anything about it.

No BUT we're dried from patience !!!!! For me personally i use to be very supposrive to the tesm. I was allmost believe every excuse they could make and "buy" their plans for the future.
BUT NO MORE !!!!! I dont believe them any more and the have NO EXCUSES !!!! This situation is simply just down from them being worthless and sour losers!!!! And the thing i can do is to take it out of my system because they have destroy me mentally!!!!!

[Riccardog]

So,we brought modifications that supposedly work,and end up over 40 seconds behind the winner. I'd hate to see changes that don't work.

[JacKy]

I'm not an aerodynamicist, but just by looking at this photo, I can tell that something is very wrong with the team. You don't need to be a professor to say that something like this has a negative impact on aerodynamics. You will never see such nonsense designs in a champion car.



0D6D00F8-03F2-4072-BA81-3EC57A6EF056.jpeg

[Aviamata]

I'm not an aerodynamicist, but just by looking at this photo, I can tell that something is very wrong with the team. You don't need to be a professor to say that something like this has a negative impact on aerodynamics. You will never see such nonsense designs in a champion car.

0D6D00F8-03F2-4072-BA81-3EC57A6EF056.jpeg

This one is the result of the stupid crash structure positioning lol

[Hornet]

Unfortunately Merc seem to have made better progress than Ferrari in development.
The outcome really caught me off guard though. I thought Carlos' podium was secured, but Merc were too fast.

Then again, i also didnt expect Charles and Alonso to struggle, so this is a strange race. But I am not keeping my hopes up that we are ahead of Merc, I think they have made real progress

[jgonzalesm6]

Charles did 25 laps on softs in the middle stint and had zero drop off. He overcame a 6 second deficit to Gasly in the last stint. The pace, as well as the degradation, was there. But his position masked it.

I understand that the upgrades(sidepods) worked to a certain degree for Ferrari.....but there is ALOT of work to do to get the race pace up quite alot and tire management and tire strategy. Ferrari is still way off.

Mercedes learned something today that sidepods do work while sidepodless doesn't work. They have really upped their game and will continue doing so in races to come in this season.

[JacKy]

This one is the result of the stupid crash structure positioning lol

I know. Agreed on stupid positioning

[PURE PASSION]

Charles did 25 laps on softs in the middle stint and had zero drop off. He overcame a 6 second deficit to Gasly in the last stint. The pace, as well as the degradation, was there. But his position masked it.

If you are happy to compete for 5th place and lower ,then yes the pace was there !!! For everything else it was pathetic !!! Ham destroyed Sainz. in 2/3 of race distance he passed him and pull away 20s . Rus also passed him from 12th place. And this is Merc ,who supposedly where slower then us. And they didnt just pass us on pace ,they humiliate us . And you are happy ???!!!!

[jgonzalesm6]

I'm not an aerodynamicist, but just by looking at this photo, I can tell that something is very wrong with the team. You don't need to be a professor to say that something like this has a negative impact on aerodynamics. You will never see such nonsense designs in a champion car.

https://i.ibb.co/RHsg2pr/C1278-C41-0...3839-D2-A9.jpg

0D6D00F8-03F2-4072-BA81-3EC57A6EF056.jpeg

I wouldn't put the whole blame on the aero. There's alot going on with this car that needs to be sorted out regarding possibly more aero, suspension geometry, tire degredation, and so on.

[WS6TransAm01]

That's the reality right now. Venting or abusing the team is not going to change our result. We need to accept it because as fans, we can't do anything about it.

I refuse to accept failure. Sorry not sorry. Failure deserves severe punishment but that never seem to happen at Ferrari. They don’t hate to lose. They embrace the loser mentality.

I used to think that it was a failure of leadership, it it may still be in part, but it appears that the rot inside Ferrari is pervasive and permeates the entire organization from top to bottom. The leadership is feckless, the engineers incompetent, and the strategists braindead.

A decade and a half of constant failure.

[nani_s23]

Unfortunately Merc seem to have made better progress than Ferrari in development.
The outcome really caught me off guard though. I thought Carlos' podium was secured, but Merc were too fast.

Then again, i also didnt expect Charles and Alonso to struggle, so this is a strange race. But I am not keeping my hopes up that we are ahead of Merc, I think they have made real progress

When you have fast car, it’s doesn’t matter where you start (Monaco track is an exception).
Most of the cases, you can climb up the field with good race pace/Strategy. That’s how Max used to do last year.
This year Mercs is doing it, ofcourse no to P1….. on the other hand Ferrari couldn’t able to get that because it’s 4th fastest car & this year midfield is very tight.

Imagine Merc in the same situation starting from Pit lane, they would have been atleast P6 or P7 at worst case.

[JacKy]

I wouldn't put the whole blame on the aero. There's alot going on with this car that needs to be sorted out regarding possibly more aero, suspension geometry, tire degredation, and so on.

This is enough evidence even for someone who has no deep understanding of aerodynamics to understand that there is no integrity in the car’s design.

[Aviamata]

I refuse to accept failure. Sorry not sorry. Failure deserves severe punishment but that never seem to happen at Ferrari. They don’t hate to lose. They embrace the loser mentality.

I used to think that it was a failure of leadership, it it may still be in part, but it appears that the rot inside Ferrari is pervasive and permeates the entire organization from top to bottom. The leadership is feckless, the engineers incompetent, and the strategists braindead.

A decade and a half of constant failure.

I don't have any hope left until there is a big change of the top leadership and the renovate of the team

[PURE PASSION]

I refuse to accept failure. Sorry not sorry. Failure deserves severe punishment but that never seem to happen at Ferrari. They don’t hate to lose. They embrace the loser mentality.

I used to think that it was a failure of leadership, it it may still be in part, but it appears that the rot inside Ferrari is pervasive and permeates the entire organization from top to bottom. The leadership is feckless, the engineers incompetent, and the strategists braindead.

A decade and a half of constant failure.

[nani_s23]

I understand that the upgrades(sidepods) worked to a certain degree for Ferrari.....but there is ALOT of work to do to get the race pace up quite alot and tire management and tire strategy. Ferrari is still way off.

Mercedes learned something today that sidepods do work while sidepodless doesn't work. They have really upped their game and will continue doing so in races to come in this season.

For Mercs this year it will be learning season, as they have started with new baseline now. I expect them to be strong next year. Whether they leapfrog RB who does have limited Wind Tunnel access, I’m not sure.

[tifosi1993]

Unfortunately Merc seem to have made better progress than Ferrari in development.
The outcome really caught me off guard though. I thought Carlos' podium was secured, but Merc were too fast.

Then again, i also didnt expect Charles and Alonso to struggle, so this is a strange race. But I am not keeping my hopes up that we are ahead of Merc, I think they have made real progress

Yup, the pace of the Merc was eye catching. If Ham started from P2, he would've kept Max honest.

I think Ferrari should follow Merc's practice program. Find a setup and build on it.

[Alonsomaniac]

Ferrari is getting near a dangerous point. If they continue like this, a day will come that Leclerc has had enough. And then we are really in trouble.

[jgonzalesm6]

This is enough evidence even for someone who has no deep understanding of aerodynamics to understand that there is no integrity in the car’s design.

Car design in F1 is multi-faceted and all fields of car design have to work harmoniously together. Just because you work on one facet of car design doesn't mean the other facets will fall into place.

[Aviamata]

Ferrari is getting near a dangerous point. If they continue like this, a day will come that Leclerc has had enough. And then we are really in trouble.

If the higher leadership still don't give a f then that day will come and we will become the second William .

[jgonzalesm6]

For Mercs this year it will be learning season, as they have started with new baseline now. I expect them to be strong next year. Whether they leapfrog RB who does have limited Wind Tunnel access, I’m not sure.

Totally agree. Mercedes will eventually catch up to RB possibly by the end of the season.........Perez really has to up his game and beat Lewis and Russell in quali and race.

[MicMac]

Maybe Leclerc has a performance clause in his contract and tries to be free to leave the team this season...

[Aviamata]

Feel bad for Enzo , his successor destroy all of his racing team's legacy . Maybe Ferrari is not the dream team of many driver anymore

[tifosi1993]

They clearly need to bring some outside talent. The current people are hit-and-miss, they may be able to build a fast car but don't know how to develop it and vice versa.

I still think Ferrari need to have their main Formula 1 base of operation outside of Italy and in the UK. They have the money and can attract the best technical minds of F1, by having their main F1 base in the UK.

[WS6TransAm01]

If the higher leadership still don't give a f then that day will come and we will become the second William .

Ferrari is already the second McLaren so it’s not unlikely.

[ferrari1.8t]

I refuse to accept failure. Sorry not sorry. Failure deserves severe punishment but that never seem to happen at Ferrari. They don’t hate to lose. They embrace the loser mentality.

I used to think that it was a failure of leadership, it it may still be in part, but it appears that the rot inside Ferrari is pervasive and permeates the entire organization from top to bottom. The leadership is feckless, the engineers incompetent, and the strategists braindead.

A decade and a half of constant failure.

As long as the car is covered in sponsors, bills are paid and share holders are making money it won’t change. Ferrari is content with mediocrity and will ride their history as long as they can.

You would expect them to get it right at least once every decade, but unfortunately that’s not the case. I said it last year and I’ll say it again; we won’t win anything during this rule cycle. We had a head start and still failed. Even without TD39, Ferrari would have lost the development race against its competitors. I don’t even have faith in 2026 even if we start now.

[Alonsomaniac]

Charles just commented: first stint on hards felt terrible, so that's why we pitted earlier. On softs the car felt a lot better, but still far from good. We have so much work to do, you can't imagine. Can it even get worse before getting better? I really don't hope so.........

[tifosi1993]

For Mercs this year it will be learning season, as they have started with new baseline now. I expect them to be strong next year. Whether they leapfrog RB who does have limited Wind Tunnel access, I’m not sure.

Mercedes will catch up to RB next season. If Charles (or Carlos) wants to be a WDC, they need to move away from Ferrari cause this team is not going to challenge for the championship in the near future.